Preaching the mystery

"The pastor, however, can only reveal as much about God as the Scriptures do. There is a part of the Holy One that will always remain a mysterious, untamable whirlwind. This means we pastors should spend more time with who than why. Revealing a mysterious, holy lover is hard work, and for that reason the pastor is always tempted to revert back to being a friend of Job with lots of explanations and arguments. If we can prove why some things happen in the lives of parishioners, the thinking goes, then we can get a leash around God. But whatever it is that we've leashed, it certainly isn't God."

-Craig Barnes, "Three Temptations of the Pastor," 17-18 in Best Advice: Wisdom on Ministry from 30 Leading Pastors and Preachers