Mystery
Song Origin
Once or twice a month, a few of us from our little crew would walk from the office to a downtown Oklahoma City church, called St. Paul’s Episcopal, to take the afternoon communion. I have sincerely received some rich times with God in the remembering of Christ in that little chapel.
I guess if it comes down to it, the only part of this song I actually wrote lyrically was that Jesus is my sanity and clarity. The other two sections of the song came from The Book of Common Prayer. I remember one time in particular I came into communion praying for God to let me meet with Him, to sense His life and remember His presence in me. I was very commonly off kilter in those days and needed peace. It was in that time of communion that I jotted the rest of the song claiming Christ as the bread of heaven, the cup of salvation, dead, risen, and coming Lord. These thoughts are so mysterious, but the deepest truths of this life and my hope. Oh, how powerful to place these truths over my day-to-day feelings.
Thought
As I talk with my kids about God and listen to their questions about what I am saying, I realize we believe in a really bizarre scenario. Here it is: God existed and was not created. God created a beautiful world with human beings to live and learn to love the One that made them. We jack that up, but He still reaches to us in love. We didn’t respond, so He came to us as a human via a virgin teenager. This human was Jesus, but also God and lived a perfect, sinless life. He healed and performed countless miracles in people’s lives, yet they still crucified him. We believe He was dead for 3 days, but rose again. He then appeared to many and headed back to make His home in heaven, next to God. Eventually He will return to collect those who have chosen and followed Him.
My mind cannot comprehend these ideas as simple because they are deeply mysterious and outlandish. But my heart, and countless other hearts through the ages, have received this truth deeply into their lives to the point that it has people living this message and the message living His life through these people. Yes, the idea of Jesus is a mystery, but somehow our hearts still crave and want to know this Savior and renovator. The answer to the troubled human heart still rumbles mysteriously through the earth anxiously awaiting any who will receive the mystery of Jesus. We have found the hope of life is in these truths; Christ has died, is risen (present tense), and is coming back again. This can make a crazy person sane and an unclear mind clear. These truths wash us and change us. They are our sustenance. Christ is our life in an insane day. So I can’t explain it all the time, but I know its actuality.
Reference
Book of Common Prayer “ The Holy Eucharist: Rite Two”
The whole entire Bible
Luke 22:19-20 (The Message)
19Taking bread, he blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, given for you. Eat it in my memory." 20He did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you.
Prayer
Jesus, You are a mystery, but I embrace You today as You are. I am asking for the life and power of You, inside of me, to change the way I live and walk and change the world around me. Thank you for the cross and the raising. The power of Your truths washes my mind and heart today.