Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. - James 2:18bWhat is the role of mysticism--the direct experience of God--in the Christian faith? Through the centuries there have been writers and saints who have emphasized this, but not often within the evangelical or Reformed tradition. Even titles such as Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God or J.I. Packer's Knowing God seem to hold God at the distance of a dear friend-someone to be watched and emulated but not really experienced. The closest we've (Helen and I) found in our (admittedly scattered) readings comes from Tozer or Chambers, or further back from the Puritans John Owens and Jonathan Edwards.
Our tradition is skeptical of anything related to encountering God directly in any meaningful way because it is inherently subjective. Rather than relying on or seeking after the subjective, Reformed writers have preferred to stand firmly on revealed, propositional truth and suggest that the "experience" or "encounter" with God is as He is found in that truth. This skepticism can likewise be seen in the how the Spirit's role in the Christian life is treated. Scared by the potential anarchy of "new revelation" they confine the Christian experience of the Spirit to whispers in a small quasi-Scriptural box.
There are two things that came to mind as Helen and I discussed this the other day:
- Being/Doing. This is the being/doing, are/appear-to-be, faith/works tension that we all wrestle with. Some faith traditions may focus on who we are in Christ, the transformation happening internally and the trust relationship with God. Other faith traditions may focus on our changed lives, how we shine out our renewed life in Christ, and how God uses our lives to change the world. Bit, this is not a either/or, it is a both/and. But to what degree?
- Integrity. Integrity is the unity between who we are on the inside and who we appear to be on the outside; the faith that is on the inside and the matching works on the outside; the life-giving transformation by the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. James calls those who lack this integrity double-minded (James 1:8). Jesus termed it hypocrisy (cf. Matthew 6:5).
Does truth lead to closeness with God (the route familiar to me in my upbringing)? Or is it a closeness with God that brings us to the truth?
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. - 1 John 4:16bFundamentally, the Christian life is a trust relationship, not in a proposition ('Gravity won't let me down'), but in a person ('God will neither abandon nor forsake me.'). However, the moment we describe a person, propositions are attached. "God is love" is a good example. There is a person behind the proposition.
...that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. - John 17:21The Bible says there is potential for an incredibly close relationship between us and God. Mysticism seeks to describe what that connection looks like; what resonating with the heartbeat of God teaches us; what it feels like; where takes us. Some Christian mystics assert more: a connection with God separate from the thoughts and emotions. Seems tenuous to me.
