It’s no secret that I enjoy exercise. For a couple of years, I trained for the Riverbank Run, so I would frequently be on the Lakeshore rec trail, putting one foot in front of the other. I cannot tell you how many times someone came up to Jess to say, “I saw Troy running again today.”
I also love reading. I sometimes “curl up” with a good book, as the saying goes. I also like counting things, so I keep track of every book I read. Last year I knocked out 61 books — thanks to our wonderful Loutit Library!
A couple of years ago I figured out that I can combine this love of exercise and reading, which is how I consume so many stories. You see, I figured out that I can read on my Kindle while I use the elliptical machine. It’s a discovery that has revolutionized my life, friends! I get the mind and body benefits of exercise and reading…at the same time! I get the endorphin rush of exercise and the distraction of a good book to calm my mind. It’s been so healthy for me; I can’t recommend it enough.
My favorite genre to read while on the run is mystery, which includes crime novels. I love how they unfold page after page. I enjoy guessing what might happen. These are literal page turners. Plus, the authors often write in series, so it makes it easier to choose the next book. I’ve turned to Harlan Coben’s Myron Bolitar stories and Michigan-based author Steve Hamilton’s Alex McKnight novels. Maryanne told me about Laurie King’s books about Mary Russell that build on the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I was delighted to find out that there are over a dozen of those. Lately, I’ve been enjoying Carl Hiaissen’s novels, as well as Mick Herron’s books that AppleTV has turned into the Slow Horses show.
Mysteries are all about how something hidden comes to light. The author knows the end they are working towards, and over time, they give clues to the reader, eventually revealing everything.
Likewise, God is the revealer of mystery, only these mysteries are not whodunits. They reveal the very plan God has been working at throughout time and continues to work at today.
Paul’s writings often use this word “mystery” as a way of describing how God is working in history to eternal ends. Here are just some of the places. In Colossians 1:25-26, Paul shares, “I became its minister according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” So, this mystery includes the welcome of outsider Gentiles and Christ’s presence in them.
Or in 1 Corinthians 15:51, “Look, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed.” In this great chapter on resurrection, Paul writes about the mystery of the end of time when some will not experience death but will be raised nonetheless.
Ephesians 3:5-6 follows a similar vein to Colossians, “In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
The gospel is mystery, but not in the way a good Agatha Christie book is one. Rather, a mystery in the Bible is an idea that is so mind-blowing that only God could have dreamed it up. It’s no human philosophy. It’s not the end result of rational thinking. It’s not even wishful thinking. No, it’s the revealed work of God that transforms lives. It’s that mystery that is on offer to all of us.
Today we heard Paul’s description of mystery from 1 Corinthians 2. We have to remember that Paul is writing to very real people in a very real place. Of all the places Paul encouraged churches, Corinth had a special hold on his heart, not simply because Corinth was an important city but also because the Corinthians seemed to make a hash of Christianity on the regular. As a city, perhaps we could compare Corinth to New York City today. It wasn’t the capital of the empire, but it was massively important for its economy. Corinth was a major port, which meant that people from all over the world passed through it. Athens may have been the heart of the Greek intellectual world, but Corinth held sway as the place where economics, politics, and ideas came together. And they not only met there, but they went from there to the rest of the empire via the ships passing through. What happened in Corinth didn’t stay in Corinth.
Prior to his first trip to Corinth, Paul had spent time in Athens. There, he was invited to share his ideas with the sharpest of intellects in the Roman Empire. You can read about it in Acts 17. He speaks at Mars Hill, using a statue dedicated to “an unknown god” as an opening to share with them about Jesus. We know Paul is incredibly intelligent, but notice how he approaches the Corinthians.
“I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” This is very different than his approach in Athens. He comes in weakness, fear, and trembling.
Could you imagine showing up in such a glorious, bustling city, and declaring that those who rule and their ideas and their wisdom pales in comparison to what God is doing in Jesus? Ken Bailey puts this so clearly, “What Paul has to say falls in the category of the wisdom of God that is anchored in saving events in history, that are permanent and do not pass away.” The ideas that made Corinth rich and important will pass away, but the work of God in Christ will stand forever. It takes faith to accept such a mystery, particularly when all around looks like it is richer, more powerful, and, frankly, visible.
The heart of the passage is the cross of Christ in verse 8, which the rulers of the age cannot comprehend. God’s power perfected in weakness? That’s laughable. The ruler of the universe hung with criminals? Foolishness. But orbiting around the cross shows how God chooses to unveil things. Bailey again, “God hides, decrees, prepares, and then reveals the mystery of the crucified Lord of glory. It is an eternal plan, not an accident of history….This is the movement of a lover who initially hides his intentions regarding his beloved. He then decides to win her. Next he must prepare what he is going to do to achieve his goal. Finally he reveals his intentions by proposing to her.”
I hope many of you were better at proposing to your spouse than I was, but I can still remember those steps. I hid my intentions by shopping for a ring without her knowing. I made a plan for how I was going to do it — at her aunt’s house in Tennessee over Thanksgiving. I prepared by packing the ring. I made a plan for how and when, and then I surprised her with the proposal…mostly because I had failed so badly to plan the last part of it. (That ATV ride through the woods that turned into a random and awkward walk for a few yards before I fell on one knee without any plan for what I’d say. Fortunately for me, she didn’t need me to wow her with the proposal. If she did, then I would have been in trouble!)
Just as Jess was open to my middling proposal, so Paul suggests that the message of Christ is so amazing that it doesn’t need preachers to sell you on it. Rather, it seems that it needs people aware of their own weaknesses and trusting God in those. One pastor even writes, “In fact, it’s as if Paul almost implies that God prefers to use ineloquent and weak proclaimers of the gospel in order to effectively point our hearers away from ourselves and toward God.”
Going back to Colossians, this is the mystery — Christ in you.
Today’s gospel reading carries on in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has just delivered the beatitudes. After offering these odd blessings to the mourners and peacemakers and meek, Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.” That phrase has seeped into our culture so much that we no longer pause to think about it.
What does it mean to be the “salt of the earth,” and how can salt lose its saltiness? I mean, I keep salt in my house, and never once have I used it and decided that it was no longer salty. But salt does lose its saltiness if it’s mixed with too many other things that overwhelm it. The salt is meant to serve a purpose — to preserve and to season — but if it does neither, what good is it?
You are the salt of the earth. You are meant to preserve and season the world around you. Are you? Or is your saltiness losing to competing interests that are not the way of Christ? In other words, does the mystery of Christ in you impact those around you for the gospel or does it disappear as you unthinkingly go with the flow?
Next, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” I find this one so interesting because elsewhere Jesus says this about himself — “I am the light of the world” (John 8). Jesus says, “I am…you are. What is true about me should be true about you.” This is the mystery of Christ in you.
Why would you light a lamp and then hide it under a basket? Jesus asks. You’ve bothered to have a lamp and fill it with oil. It cost you something to have this light. Why would you keep it from fully doing what it is supposed to do — light the world up around you?
God’s plan — the mysterious actions of God — were once hidden, but God has revealed them through Christ and his cross. It continues on from Jesus into everyone who receives this good news. It’s the mystery of Christ in you. As Jesus is, so we are. Apart from him, we do not have life. Apart from him, we are existing but not living. Apart from him, we will never fully realize the potential to transform our lives, those around us, and even the selfish, sin-sick culture around us.
We have light to shine, not because of anything we have done but because of what God in Christ through the Spirit is doing in us. We have salt to season because of Jesus — in all boldness and also in humility and kindness.
Will Rogers once quipped, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”
To put it another way, just because you’re in a garage does not make you a car. Just because you’re in a church does not make you a Christian.
People can see whether Christ is living in you. They can tell by the way you live and speak.
It may be mysterious how Jesus lives in us, but it’s also how God transforms the universe, one person at a time. You are part of God’s plan for saving the world.
Jesus is the Light of the World. Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” Is your light shining?