Immortal, Invisible God

Lately I have been thinking about Acts 12. The Apostle Peter is in prison when suddenly an angel appears to him but is seen by no other. This angel leads Peter past three sets of guards through one rather large iron-gate and Peter remains invisible… no one sees him. It reminds me of a passage in Proverbs (1:20ff)…  Wisdom is depicted as a woman crying out in the street, on the busiest street corners. She is raising her voice in the squares but the busy people passing by don’t even notice. Wisdom remains dimly perceived… invisible.

Then there is the arrival of Jesus the Messiah. He appears unexpectedly, invisibly – in the guise of a peasant baby in a rural Jewish backwater. Even the people who are aware of his coming are invisible, beyond the awareness of the Roman Empire & the Jewish Religious Establishment. They are Magi from the East and shepherds, the elderly Simeon & Anna…

Later, as Jesus begins teaching in Galilee… He startles people by pointing to the invisible ones… ‘Blessed are you who are poor… blessed are you who are hungry now… blessed are you who weep now (Lk6:20ff)… I tell you, whoever doesn’t receive the Kingdom like a little child will never enter it…’  (Mk 10:15). Even the practice of Jesus’ teaching is to be mostly invisible,  ‘And when you pray… go into your room and shut the door & pray to your Father… in secret’ (Mt6:5f).

And Jesus is humiliated… condemned to death. He is crucified publically, very visibly. Yet only three days later the Risen Jesus begins appearing to individuals and to small groups of his closest followers. He is present and reassuring, recognisable but different. As quickly as Jesus appears, he disappears again from their presence.

 This is the tension of our faith. We live in a world perceived through the senses yet our faith is in, ‘the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’ (Heb11:1). ‘Day after day pours forth speech…’ all attesting to the glory of God in our world yet, ‘there is no speech, nor are there words, their voice is not heard’.

Our invisible God is more present & active in our world than we will ever know,  yet God mostly chooses to work below the radar and behind the scenes of human history. Amazingly God’s invitation is for us to participate with Him. We are His hands, His eyes, His ears and His feet…

I like what Abraham Heschel says. He says, “There are phenomena which appear irrelevant and accidental in the realm of nature but are of great meaning in the dimension of the holy.”  That means our mostly invisible, everyday actions, can be of great consequence in our world. And they are effective because they are mostly invisible !