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<\/a><\/p>\nTHE SECRET<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hidden reality<\/p>\n
Like life in the womb<\/p>\n
Hidden reality<\/p>\n
Like death in the tomb<\/p>\n
Hidden away<\/p>\n
For the appropriate day<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wrapped in enigma, cloaked in secrecy,<\/p>\n
Awaiting a wake up call with urgency.<\/p>\n
But how shall such a song be sung?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A tale that\u2019s never told,<\/p>\n
A trail that\u2019s long gone cold,<\/p>\n
A mystery unrevealed,<\/p>\n
A truth that is concealed,<\/p>\n
Seems useless on first glance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Who said there was a secret,<\/p>\n
Who told us we must keep it<\/p>\n
Who set the search in motion<\/p>\n
And stirred up our devotion<\/p>\n
If \u2018clueless\u2019 was our stance?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Call forth the revelator,<\/p>\n
Who hinted something greater<\/p>\n
A light that has been hidden<\/p>\n
A thought that comes unbidden<\/p>\n
And is not mere romance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Go to the old gate keeper,<\/p>\n
And wake the guardian sleeper,<\/p>\n
Arouse the story teller<\/p>\n
Seek out the boundary dweller<\/p>\n
Lulled into tragic trance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
For sometimes revelation<\/p>\n
Awaits the new creation<\/p>\n
Propitious point in time<\/p>\n
When insight is sublime<\/p>\n
And we\u2019re prepared to dance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The time may fully come<\/p>\n
The race be fully run,<\/p>\n
The truth could then be heard,<\/p>\n
And taken at its word,<\/p>\n
As happy happenstance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thus mystery has a point<\/p>\n
When times are out of joint<\/p>\n
And no one wants to hear<\/p>\n
About the truth they fear<\/p>\n
Because of circumstance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In one sense all of history<\/p>\n
Apocalyptic mystery<\/p>\n
With secrets kept and told<\/p>\n
By prophets young or old<\/p>\n
Who speak, suggest, recant.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
For too much information<\/p>\n
Obscures the revelation<\/p>\n
Prevents a clear reception<\/p>\n
May even cause deception<\/p>\n
Instead of some advance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So let us treasure mystery<\/p>\n
And truths that unveil history<\/p>\n
Spoken in due season<\/p>\n
Reflecting divine reason,<\/p>\n
And never left to chance.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
THEOLOGICAL MUSINGS<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is a famous saying attributed to Alfred Lord Tennyson which stresses that there is a tide in the affairs of humankind which if taken at the flood leads on to great things. There can be no doubt that this is a Biblical idea.\u00a0 We see it for example in Gal. 4.4\u2014\u201cBut when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son\u2026\u201d\u00a0 There is a sense in which there are certain propitious moments in history which, when something happens it really matters.\u00a0 One way people express this concept is when they say\u00a0 \u201ctiming is everything\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 For example,\u00a0 the invention of the automobile would not have amounted to much if it had not been preceded by several other inventions, such as the internal combustion engine, and various sorts of technology first used with trains.<\/p>\n
In this Christmas season, one of the things most worth contemplating is why it was that Jesus came when he did.\u00a0 In what sense had the time fully come?\u00a0\u00a0 We might even ask\u2014 Why wouldn\u2019t God have waited until an era of mass communication if Jesus was to be the savior of the world in all generations?\u00a0 Several things come to mind.<\/p>\n
Firstly, it has been widely recognized that Jesus was borne at a time when there was something of a unified culture in the known world, with a language all could use, and roads and government that reach from far east of Israel to the western most part of Spain to Scotland in the north, and to Africa in the south.\u00a0 Thanks to the spread of Hellenism and Greek by Alexander the Great and his successors even Israelites could speak Greek and relate well in the Greco-Roman world.\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks to Roman engineering there were durable roads in all directions, and thanks to the Roman military might the seas had largely been swept clean of pirates and brigands. Even just a little before the birth of\u00a0 Jesus in the time of Julius Caesar, Rome was just a Republic, and there were many competing forces in\u00a0 the Mediterranean world.\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus could hardly have come at a time more propitious for starting a new world religion if we were to evaluate the previous 2,000 years before Jesus\u2019 birth. \u00a0\u00a0Then too he was borne in the land that was the land bridge between three continents\u2014Asia, Africa, and the regions in the north that led to what we call Europe.\u00a0\u00a0 Suppose, for example, Jesus had been borne while the Jews were in the Babylonian exile.\u00a0 It would have been far more difficult for a Jewish messianic movement to start then and in such a locale.<\/p>\n
Of course our author thinks as well that it isn\u2019t just natural factors we should consider, but also the divine plan, as promised and predicted in the OT.\u00a0\u00a0 When Paul says the time had fully come, he is thinking of the fulfillment of prophecy, and of the divine time table for things.\u00a0 He believes as well that God has a sense of timing, and that there is such a thing as a timely truth.\u00a0 Many things are kept secret until just the right moment when they need to be revealed.\u00a0 Sometimes God waits until we are prepared to receive a certain truth or message or revelation.<\/p>\n
We in our age of \u2018freedom of information\u2019 and all access passes to the Internet have difficulty with the concept of\u00a0 information being revealed on a need to know basis, or secrets needing to be kept, until the timing is right for their revelation.\u00a0 We simply assume that all information should be available to us at all times, because \u201cthe people have a right to know\u201d.\u00a0 This assumption is of course rather na\u00efve.\u00a0 It assumes a lot about our powers to comprehend most anything if we study it long enough.\u00a0 But in fact it is sometimes the case that \u201cwe can\u2019t handle the truth\u201d, and God knows this. \u00a0\u00a0God knows our weaknesses, and God also knows when the time is ripe and right to share new revelation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is another factor as well.<\/p>\n
T.S. Eliot famously asked where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge and where is the knowledge we have lost in the sea of information.\u00a0 One of the problems with living in the age of Google and the Internet, is that there is frankly too much information available and much of it unreliable or even untrue.\u00a0 I have this problem all the time with my students who take ideas or articles or information off the Internet assuming that it must be true since someone made it publicly available, but alas much of it is what the Rolling Stones once called \u201cuseless information supposed to fire my imagination\u201d.\u00a0 We may live in the information age, but it would surely be better to live in the revelation or even the wisdom age.\u00a0 It is not only possible to get lost in the forest looking for the right tree of knowledge, but it is also the case that we may well mistake pulp fiction for a cedar of Lebanon, so to speak.\u00a0 One needs some criteria, some guidance, some wisdom, some kind of road map to recognize the truth when we see it.\u00a0 And sometimes its not a matter of finding the right wise man or expert. Sometimes its just a matter of being patient and waiting until God chooses to make the truth known, and the light finally dawns on us.\u00a0 Some realities and truths need to be hidden away, like a baby in a womb, \u201cuntil the time had fully come\u201d.\u00a0 We must come to terms with the fact that some times we must wait until the truth \u201ccomes to full term\u201d and then is brought forth into the world.\u00a0 Patience is not a virtue much practiced in the information and Internet age.\u00a0 Sometimes a secret needs to be \u2018kept\u2019 until the appropriate time for it to be revealed.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite Christmas stories is O\u2019Henry\u2019s famous tale \u201cThe Gift of the Magi\u201d. O\u2019 Henry was one of my childhood favorites as he grew up in the town right next to my home town\u2014 High Point N.C.\u00a0 The story hangs on two things\u2014the great love a couple has for each other and their willingness to sacrifice much to get the other a precious\u00a0 Christmas gift, but it also hangs on the fact that the truth about the gifts must be kept secret until the appropriate day comes.\u00a0 Thus, unbeknownst to his girl, the young man pawns his precious heirloom pocket watch to buy beautiful combs for his beloved\u2019s beautiful long hair, and unbeknownst to the young man the girl has cut off and sold her hair so she could buy him a beautiful gold chain for the pocket watch.\u00a0 Imagine their surprise when Christmas comes and both unwrap gifts they cannot at the present moment use, but which demonstrate the great love they have for each other.\u00a0\u00a0 The Christmas story in our Gospels goes this story one better, as it not only reveals God\u2019s sacrificial love, but it offers a timely and timeless truth that is always helpful and useful to anyone from the very minute it is unveiled.\u00a0 Indeed, there is a tide in human affairs, and God has a perfect sense of timing when it comes to revealing and healing, saving and restoring, reconciling and justifying us all.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE SECRET \u00a0 Hidden reality Like life in the womb Hidden reality Like death in the tomb Hidden away For the appropriate day \u00a0 Wrapped in enigma, cloaked in secrecy, Awaiting a wake up call with urgency. But how shall such a song be sung? \u00a0 A tale that\u2019s never told, A trail that\u2019s long […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":68680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15100],"class_list":["post-68773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-the-one-who-keeps-his-secrets"],"yoast_head":"\n