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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
2004
From the Pastor
“’Tis Mystery All”
So says the hymnwriter, “’Tis mystery all.” There is not much left in our life that expresses mystery. We are left underwhelmed, flat in our perceptions of the world. So little is left of the dramatic, the beautiful, the unexplained - not because it is unreasonable but because it is so deep and profound. Every culture has a word for the “sacred,” but in our culture it is a word without reference. There is so little in us that silences us and creates in us a sense of awe and wonder. Everything is commercialized. Everything is made to be utilitarian.
Yet our soul craves mystery. A part of this is the reason we still light candles on the communion table on Sunday morning and use real flowers and have a pipe organ. None of it on first glance makes any sense. Why have candles when the room is already lit by lightbulbs? Why use real flowers when artificial flowers look just as nice? Why have a pipe organ when a keyboard can duplicate all the sounds? The reason is it is not the same. There is something more genuine and authentic in a fallen pedal from a real rose than a dozen roses made of silk. The one looks real, the other is real. The one looks pretty, the other leads us to contemplate the mystery of life.
In the New York Times recently there was a front page article that profiles an emerging trend in what is being called “post modern churches.” These are generally smaller churches made up of worshippers in their 20’s and 30’s. Dr. Webber of Northern Seminary says of this trend, “Give it a few years, and it’s going to explode.” What distinguishes these churches? There is more focus on a sense of community. Their theology is fluid. And, in many of them there is a return to ancient liturgies, the use of candles and symbolism. The article says, “Some borrow Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox rituals that pre-date the Enlightenment,” yet they come from evangelical backgrounds.
They have names like “Spirit Garage,” “Solomon’s Porch,” and “Ecclesia.” In some ways they are a reaction to the mega-church movement and to a blandness in mainline worship. In a way it might be said they are looking for “mystery.”
As we enter this Lenten season may we allow ourselves access to the soulful realms where mystery is not a puzzle to be solved but an awesome awareness of the majesty, splendor and love of God for it is hear we will all sing, “‘tis mystery all.” When we give ourselves to such possibility every aspect of worship has the potential of parting that curtain and revealing the mystery of the Divine Presence. It can come watching the acolytes process down the aisle and when their taper touches the candle a flame is born. Or, we might discover as someone has written that the most sacred time of worship is in that silence where one has heard the Scripture read and the pastor walks to the pulpit to preach. Nothing is left out. Everything carries within it the possibility of revelation. “’Tis Mystery All.”
Dr. David W. Andersen
          
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