“Mystery” can be an overused word for theologians and preachers.
It is a good word but does need to be used sparingly. As part of my Dead Preachers Society project, I have been reading Augustine’s classic The Trinity.It is a volume that is full of dense argument and a few deviations.
It is good to read a hard book from time to time, because it stretches me. When I got to the end I was delighted, not only because of finishing the book, but because of how Augustine concludes it.
In a recent blog I said that that the first and last sentence of a sermon are the two most important things preachers utter in a sermon. Augustine ends with a brief epilogue and a prayer.
In the epilogue he admits that the doctrine of the Trinity is a few sizes too big for him:
“But you, O my soul, among whom all these things I have said about the supreme trinity — and dare not claim that any of them is worthy of this unimaginable mystery, but must rather confess that this knowledge is too wonderful for me and has been too mighty and I have not been capable of it.” (Augustine Trinity 15: 50 Epilogue)
Ah, there is that word “mystery”. When Augustine contemplates the Triune God he feels unworthy of this “unimaginable mystery.”
Paul in Ephesians 3 speaks of Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge and in Philippians 4 of a peace that surpasses, or transcends, understanding.
Such humility and wonder befit the preacher who explores the edges of mystery. This is so much more attractive than preachers who think they have got it all sussed.
After the epilogue Augustine turns to prayer. As readers of Augustine’s Confessions will know, for Augustine thinking, writing and preaching was never far away from prayer. He was like the Apostle Paul who frequently punctuates his thoughts with praise and prayer.
“Do you yourself give me the strength to seek, having caused yourself to be found and giving me the hope of finding you more and more … Before you lies my knowledge and my ignorance; where you have shut to me, open to me as I knock. Let me remember you, let me understand you, let me love you. Increase these things in me until you refashion me entirely.” (Augustine Trinity 15: 51: Prayer)
Such a prayer reminds me that Christianity is a gradual process of discovering more of the “already” and the “not yet”. Preachers must remember that there is still more light to break forth from God’s word and more to be discovered about our glorious God.
Augustine’s final words in his treatise on the Trinity are a great reminder that all of our preaching, thoughts, writings and service are “unfinished.” Augustine shows the humility that all preachers should display when speaking about the God who is never mastered by us:
“O Lord the one God, God the Trinity, whatsoever I have said in these books is of you, may those that are yours acknowledge; whatsoever of myself alone, do you and yours forgive.” (Augustine 15:51 Prayer)
Amen to that!
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