Always more to be discovered
1 Corinthians 4: 1-5
Matthew 11:2-10
Have you ever felt
pigeonholed? Like people had already
decided what you are really like before they have had a chance to get to know
you? I have had two major experiences
of being pigeonholed in my life. The
first was in China where Ruth and I lived for two years-we had a great time and
had enormous respect for our Chinese friends, but it is safe to say that for
those Chinese people who had never seen a Westerner before, their expectations
were of someone with a big nose, someone loaded with money and someone who led
a deliciously corrupt life. My other
experience of being pigeonholed happened as soon as I put a dog collar round my
neck. There was a time when I was
considered to be a normal person-unfortunately that doesn't always happen now!
I wonder if you have been similarly
pigeonholed by others? I wonder if you
have sometimes been guilty of stereotyping other people and therefore having
lower expectations of them?
Pigeonholing means that we think we have got people sussed. We have them sorted out. We know exactly what they will do, we know
exactly what our expectations are of them, and know that they will not do
anything to surprise us. There is
nothing more to be discovered. I
wonder-do we occasionally pigeonhole God?
But how much we miss when we
pigeonhole others, when we pigeonhole God.
Because there is always more to be discovered. Always more to find out.
When people went to see John the Baptist, Jesus said they expected to
find several things-some expected a weak man, some a rich man in luxurious
clothes, some even thought he might be a prophet. But what they didn't discover Jesus says was that this strange
looking individual was the Herald of the kingdom of heaven, the proclaimer, the
announcer of the Messiah who would change the course of history. People who pigeonholed John misunderstood
what was really happening. They
misunderstood that there was more to be discovered.
And what about John sitting in his
cell? What was his expectation? He sounds a little disappointed, a little
anxious, as if Jesus is not fulfilling the things he had been shouting in the
desert. Where is the axe lying at the
root of the trees ready to cut them down?
Where is the fire of judgement?
But Jesus replies that what is happening is so much more than that-the
physical world is being turned on its head-the lame are walking, the blind are
seeing, the poor are having good news.
Jesus is so much more than John had envisaged.
Paul calls us stewards of
mysteries. Those who look after
mysteries. Those who are responsible
before God for handling mysteries. But
a mystery is not something you can tie down or control. It is not something you can pigeonhole. A mystery by its nature always has more to
reveal, always has more to shown. We
can see that that is the case in a human being-the mystery of a living
person. How much more is it the case of
the God we strive to know?
I have one worry about
Christmas. It is this: that we lose the
sense of mystery, that we lose the sense that there is always more to be
discovered. The rituals become too
familiar, the message becomes too sanitised, the God becomes too
predictable. Is it a case of over
familiarity breeding boredom? If only
we could see how the life of eternity touches our frail existence in this
mysterious baby we might realise how there is always more to be discovered.
One of my favourite stories in the
Bible is when Elisha the old Testament prophet and his servant are surrounded
by enemy troops who want to capture him and kill him. The servant wakes up early in the morning and goes out to find a
huge army with horses and chariots all around the city where they are staying. The servant says “What shall we do
master?” Elisha replies “Don't be
afraid, for there are always more with us than with them. Then Elisha prays, “O Lord, please open his
eyes that he may see.” So the Lord
opens the eyes of the servant and he sees; the mountain is full of horses and
chariots of fire all around Elisha shut.
The life of heaven surrounds us
more than we can ever know. There is
always more to be discovered. In
Carlisle there is an old prison cell where centuries ago a borders tribal
chieftain was kept. There is a small
window in the cell which is too high up to look out of. But in the window ledge they are two
grooves, two hand marks where the chieftain would haul himself up to see the
view out of the window-the hills, the trees, the sky.
But sometimes we might prefer the
cell walls to the view out of the window.
We might prefer to keep our expectations of this mystery at a
minimum. My prayer would be today that
in 2002 each of us as individuals and as a church community would grow to
discover more of this mystery. I would
pray that we won't be the same this time next year in our understanding and
experience of God. That as stewards of
his mystery we would know that is always more to be discovered.