Star-Gazing and Agnosticism (as explained by an orthodox rebel)

"...we look not at things that are seen, but at things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal." II Cor. 4:18

We must be heavenly-minded if we are to be any earthly good. If we are to accomplish anything of value in this world, then our view must exceed our circumstances and self and every fleeting fad of this age. If we desire to be agents of change, then our eyes must be fixed on the unchangeable God: His character, His kingdom, and His glory that we share with Him even now as we are being changed into His image (II Cor. 3:18). If in all our earthly doings we lose sight of the Empyrean Prime and the beauty of His holiness and His transcendent yet incarnational kingdom, then all of our work is in vain, pure in intention though it may be. If eternity and eternal things and the eternal God are not our prime reality while we walk upon this green earth under the white light of the sun, then our work (whatever it may be) has failed before it has even begun.

We must understand: this is not about some kind of dreamy-eyed abstractionism but rather the lost art of practical mysticism, for Christianity is practical mysticism. It contains all of these high, holy concepts of hidden realities (the trinitarian dance, the indwelling presence of the Spirit, wars in the heavenlies, etc.) and then says that we are to realize their reality in the midst of things, for that is right where they are. The Trinity is not a distant abstraction but is the very life that you are bound to at this very moment and every moment, whether you are at Bible study or the drive-thru at McDonald's (John 14:20; 17:23; Col. 3:3). The Spirit's indwelling presence is not an apparition but a possession, one that has actually already happened and has actual real-world consequences for your actual bodily life (I Cor. 6:19-20). The spiritual warfare around us is not a mere religious romanticism but is a part of Christ's reality and therefore is a part of ours: He is in the "heavenly places" (Eph. 1:20), we have been raised with Him to the "heavenly places" (Eph. 2:6), and it is in the "heavenly places" that the war against Christ rages (Eph. 6:12). These are but three examples; all of Christianity is full of more, for practical mysticism is the very heart of our religion, i.e., the Incarnation, the Word made flesh: that is the beginning and end of all orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

There has never been a more serious case of divorce in the Church than our constant attempts to divorce word and flesh. Either we are some form of starry-eyed abstractionist, too entranced in our own pious moralizing or dogmatism to be of any use; or we are practical agnostics to whom God is a non-present secondary issue and guru-Christ is merely a loudspeaker for our own private notions. Yet Christ was neither abstract or agnostic. He was neither merely mystical or merely practical, nor half-and-half. He was both all at once, one informing the other. He understood that the Father and His will were the Highest, and He loved the Father (as only the Trinity can love) because He understood that the Father and His will were the Highest, and out of that understanding and subsequent love He lived and moved and had His being. His abstract realities had practical results, and not in spite of each other. His mind was on heaven and the joy set before Him, and thus He did the earth the greatest good. How can we who are called by His name dare do any less?

-Jon Vowell (c) 2012