Enabled to Do All Things
What is a Mystic? From the Canadian Anglican Church Newsletter
The earliest documentary witness to Jesus Christ which we possess is the witness of mysticism; and it tells us, not about His earthly life, but about the intense and transfiguring experience of His continued presence, enjoyed by one who had never known Him in the flesh.
—Evelyn UnderhillSomething missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice so tender
My need for God absolutely clear. (Hafiz)Can you recall a time when you knew you needed God, and nobody else, nothing else, could fill that need? These are the words of Hafiz, a Mystic, describing the heart of every mystic.
How do you respond to this need? Do you push it back and try to ignore it, or do you spend some time trying to connect with the one who can fill that need? Do you try and clear space in your busy inner world and invite God to fill that need?
If you make the time to connect with God, you are a mystic. I define mystics as all who seek a deeper connection with God and live into that deeper connection. The church recognizes some people as mystics, for example, Hildegard of Bingen, and Julian of Norwich. Many others have not been officially identified as Mystics, just as the church recognizes some people as Saints. The number of saints is not limited to those formally recognized by the church. The Apostles Creed refers to the Communion of Saints: a large number.
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We can read the stories about Mystics, Theologians, and others in two ways. We can read to learn the details of their lives and to gain knowledge about their teaching. We become scholars. Or we can read their stories with the eyes of our hearts – asking: “What is God wanting me to hear, to see, to feel, through what I am reading?” As we ponder what God is saying to us, we are mystics.
Anglican mystic and author Evelyn Underhill (1875–1941) is convinced that the apostle Paul’s writings are often misunderstood because we weren’t taught that he is a mystic:
To obtain a true idea of St. Paul’s personality … we must correct the view which sees him mainly as a theologian and organizer by that which recognizes in him a great contemplative. For here we have not only a sense of vivid contact with the Risen Jesus, translated into visionary terms—“I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me” [Acts 22:17]—but an immediate apprehension of the Being of God….
We misunderstand St. Paul’s mysticism if we confuse it with its more sensational expressions. As his spiritual life matured his conviction of union with the Spirit of Christ became deeper and more stable. It disclosed itself … as a source of more than natural power. Its keynote is struck in the great saying of his last authentic letter: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). This statement has long ago been diluted to the pious level, and we have ceased to realize how startling it was and is. But St. Paul used it in the most practical sense, in a letter written from prison after twelve years of superhuman toil, privation, and ill-usage, accompanied by chronic ill-health; years which had included scourgings, stonings, shipwreck, imprisonments, “on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, … in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked” (2 Corinthians 11:26–27). [1]
These, and not his spiritual activities and successes alone, are among the memories which would be present in St. Paul’s consciousness when he declared his ability “to do all things.”
Underhill emphasizes Paul’s sense of himself as a mystic:
Much of the difficulty of St. Paul’s “doctrine” comes from the fact that he is not trying to invent a theology, but simply to find words which shall represent to others this vivid truth—“I live, yet not I … to live is Christ … Christ in me…” [Galatians 2:20].
[His] letter [to the Romans] is the work of a man who has fully emerged into a new sphere of consciousness, has been “made free by the Spirit of Life,” “a new creature,” and enjoys that sense of boundless possibility which he calls “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” He knows the mysterious truth, which only direct experience can bring home to us, that somehow even in this determined world “all things work together for good to them that love God” [Romans 8:2, 21, 28].
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| AUG 13, 2025 The Problem with Applying Scripture. (Skye Jethani) |
| Studying and applying scripture is difficult. As a result, some traditions discourage Christians from engaging the Bible, fearing its misapplication, and instead reserve the study of scripture for those trained to handle it correctly. Of course, this doesn’t guarantee the correct use of scripture either, as there is no shortage of bad biblical scholarship throughout church history. Other, more populist traditions do the opposite by encouraging everyone to read the Bible, interpret it, and apply it for themselves. While this may lead to some wackadoodle interpretations—and frequently does—the belief is that broad biblical engagement ultimately does far more good than harm. One of the interpretive challenges for both Bible scholars and Bible populists is determining which of Jesus’ statements are universally applicable and which are not. For example, I have heard many sermons in which Jesus’ call to Peter, James, and John to become “fishers of men” (Luke 5:10) has been broadly applied to all believers. On the other hand, I’ve yet to hear a sermon in which Jesus’ command to a rich man to “sell all that you have and give it to the poor” (Luke 18:22) is imposed on every Christian. Why do we universalize Peter’s specific calling and not the rich young ruler’s? Sometimes the application of Jesus’ commands has changed over time. For most of Christian history, for example, the Great Commission passage at the end of Matthew’s gospel was seen as a specific calling to the remaining eleven Apostles to whom Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:18). Only later, with the modern missionary movement, was this passage broadly reapplied as a commission given to the whole church. In my life, I’ve never heard it taught any other way but go back just a few hundred years and the interpretation assumed by nearly all modern evangelicals would have been unknown in most churches. This same interpretive challenge applies to many parts of Jesus’ farewell discourse. It’s clear from John’s gospel that Jesus was addressing his closest disciples concerning his death, resurrection, and return to the Father, but how do we know which of Jesus’ promises apply only to those gathered with him that night and which apply to us as well? For example, in John 14:26, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will “bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Some have taken this verse to mean the Spirit’s role in every believer’s life is to recall and illuminate Jesus’ words. Throughout history, some have even used this verse to claim they’ve received new revelations from God and new commands from Jesus himself.But what if Jesus intended this promise only for those with him in the upper room? Those affirming this view believe the Spirit, while promised to all believers, was also given to Jesus’ first disciples for a special purpose. Specifically, so they could remember all he said and did and record it for future generations. In other words, some believe John 14:26 anticipates the writing of the gospels and the rest of the New Testament. When understood this way, our job isn’t to seek the Spirit for new revelations from Christ, but to engage the words given by the Spirit to his Apostles as authoritative scripture (see 2 Timothy 3:16). In the context of the farewell discourse, I find this interpretation far more convincing.Still, the ambiguities of Bible interpretation remain real, and we should all be more self-aware of the biases and interpretive traditions we carry with us when we open the scriptures. Our tendency to universalize the promises and commands we like, while dismissing the ones we don’t as not applying to us, is very real. Minimizing this error requires learning from both the Bible scholars and the Bible populists. The scholars can teach us history, context, and language so we read the Bible as its authors intended, while the populists remind us that even with education and training, we still need the Spirit’s guidance to lead us into all truth. And I would beware of any Bible teacher who insists only one or the other is necessary. DAILY SCRIPTURE JOHN 14:25-31 2 TIMOTHY 3:10-17 WEEKLY PRAYER. From Robert Leighton (1611 – 1684) Grant, O Lord, that I may be so ravished in the wonder of your love that I may forget myself and all things; may feel neither prosperity nor adversity; may not fear to suffer all the pain in the world rather than be parted from you. O let me feel you more inwardly, and truly present with me than I am with myself, and make me most circumspect in your presence, my holy Lord. Amen. |
