Tolerating Ambiguity in Christ

GASP!

Ambiguity in our theology?

DOUBLE GASP!

You must not be a Christian! Our theology has to be completely explained, all corners completed ironed out and tucked in, the dust gone and the mirror free of any smudges.

Except it cannot be.

Even Paul recognized this ... ponder 1 Corinthians 13:12 -

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

Here, let me translate ... there will be ambiguity in your theology. There will be parts of your belief system that you cannot explain.

Let me be more succinct.

Don't even try to pretend that you can explain every nuance of your theology because you can't. One day you can explain it all but by then you won't be on earth anymore.

Remember the movie, "Field of Dreams"? There was a line in the movie that 'if you build it, he will come'. It was referring to if Kevin Costner built a baseball field, he (Shoeless Joe) will come.

Often, theologians, teachers and preachers feel compelled to explain what clearly is unexplainable. So they start building a field (explaining), believing that he (the answer) will come.

Only often it doesn't.

But the power of Christ is not in explanations ... it is in his pervasively transcendent reality. The power of Christ lies not in a litany of details we give to clarify the kingdom ... it is in the overarching threads of himself woven deeply and broadly into our reality.

Can we tolerate ambiguity that the Word of God has assured us will be with us as long as we are on this earth?

I used to struggle with this.

Until one day, in business school, I was listening to an explanation about the causes of variability in the stock market. Here's the explanation:

A certain percentage of variability in the stock market can be traced to know-able events ... earnings, etc. Quite a large percentage of variability in the stock market cannot be traced to anything ... this is called 'systemic risk' ... what that means is that it simply cannot be explained.

And the professor did not feel compelled to invent an explanation for what was clearly unexplainable.

Hmmm ... so the unexplainable is woven even into our economic system.

Augustine, the father of theologians, was walking on the ocean shore and pondering over the truth, "three distinct persons, not separate, but distinct; and yet but one God;" and he came upon a little boy that was playing with a colored sea-shell, scooping a hole in the sand, and then going down to the waves and getting his shell full of water and putting it into the hole. Augustine said, "What are you doing, my little fellow? " The boy replied, "I am going to pour the sea into that hole." "Ah," said Augustine, "that is what I have been attempting. Standing at the ocean of infinity, I have attempted to grasp it with my finite mind."

Do not feel compelled to explain those parts of God's kingdom that are essentially unexplainable. Just let it go or take a risk and say those three words that will endear you to any seeker of truth.

Just say ... "I don't know".

You will have just aligned yourself with Scripture ... and ... you will find your credibility with an unbelieving world, zooming through the roof.