I have always had an interest in magic…well, perhaps in trying to solve the magic of something…it comes of reading too many mystery novels.
They say magic is all illusions. Actually life is full of illusions. One of the greatest of these is lipstick. A tiny bit on the lips and a small smear on the cheek bones and there you have it…instant good health. Of course under the lipstick lies the real truth…you got little sleep last night, your arthritis is killing you and sunshine has not actually warmed your cheeks in weeks.
But there are “illusion-breakers” too. Put on your glasses and take a good look. Wrinkles you had never seen before, draw maps across your face and your grey hair has been replaced by a good deal of white strands.
I think the Bible is a great illusion-breaker. It calls a spade a spade. Certainly Christ didn’t hesitate to lay it on the Pharisees. Illusion was their second name.
Nowadays we have to be a little more careful about the illusions out there in the world. Of course there were cheats when I was young, but TV, cinema, radio and even your local merchant is sometimes not shy of being less than honest in the advertising his product. One has to be discerning. More and more the local authorities are warning us about all the scams that have invaded our world. Sometimes you feel like you’re walking over those jungle bridges that seem to hang in space.
And morally, there is the same problem. Things we took for granted long ago are now being questioned and sometimes torn apart. Of course there were traditional laws, local laws and moral laws in the Bible but one has to be very wise to sort out what God’s intentions were and believe me, I am not going to give a lesson on my beliefs…”Search the Scriptures,” God says and I do and I ask for illumination.
Martin Luther in his Defense of all the Articles said that “We are not “being” but “becoming”. We are not what we shall be but we are growing towards it,…this is not the end, but it is the road.”(page 51 Presbyterian Record February 2013.)
“Ask for wisdom,” the Lord instructs, and so we search, trying to sort out the illusion from the truth. It is not always easy for life is not always easy. But we are not overcome because our “illusion-breaker” is by our side guiding us.
