I've been rather busy with the dissertation lately (and with play rehearsal...and the bluegrass combo!), so I haven't posted. But I was just reminded of a most excellent hymn of Charles Wesley's: O the depth of love divine (from Hymns on the Lord's Supper [1745], no. 57).

O the depth of love divine,
th’unfathomable grace!
Who shall say how bread and wine
God into us conveys!
How the bread His flesh imparts,
how the wine transmits His blood,
Fills His faithful people’s hearts
with all the life of God!

Let the wisest mortals show
how we the grace receive;
Feeble elements bestow
a power not theirs to give.
Who explains the wondrous way,
how through these the virtue came?
These the virtue did convey,
yet still remain the same.

How can spirits heavenward rise,
by earthly matter fed,
Drink herewith divine supplies
and eat immortal bread?
Ask the Father’s wisdom how:
Christ Who did the means ordain;
Angels round our altars bow
to search it out, in vain.

Sure and real is the grace,
the manner be unknown;
Only meet us in thy ways
and perfect us in one.
Let us taste the heavenly powers,
Lord, we ask for nothing more.
Thine to bless,’ tis only ours
to wonder and adore.

This ties in perfectly with a series of conversations I had last week regarding respecting divine mystery in theology. While I learned in seminary that mystery was like a relief pitcher in baseball (only to be brought in once some effort has already been made at solving the problem), I have since modified my position considerably.

Mystery must rather be a presupposition, a starting point. Only after granting the mystery of God's work/activity/speech/incarnation, may one begin talking about God's work/activity/speech/incarnation.

And Charles Wesley appreciated this. Whatever physical and/or metaphysical and/or phenomenological and/or ontological changes occur in the sacramental elements, we must acknowledge first the mystery of their efficacy.

We may describe the sacramental effects in any number of ways: (according to the hymn) God is conveyed, His flesh is imparted, His blood is transmitted, people's hearts are filled, power is bestowed, virtue is conveyed, spirits rise heavenward, and/or we are perfected.

The point is that however one describes these effects, something happens, and it happens in a way that confounds.