What follows is from a letter to the Ephesian church from Ignatius the Bishop of Antioch in Syria while he was on his way to be tried and executed in Rome for his faith in Jesus. The voice, here, is of a leader of churches, probably mentored to some extent by the apostle John, speaking around 100 AD. As I read these words I honestly kept picturing the long night at the stone table in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where the death of Aslan (the Christ figure) undoes the magic of the White Witch with a deeper and older magic… but I'll stop there and just let you listen to an ancient and godly voice.
"Now Mary's virginity and her giving birth escaped the notice of the prince of this world as did the Lord's death -- those three secrets crying to be told but wrought in God's silence. How then were they revealed to the ages? A star shone in heaven brighter than all the stars. Its light was indescribable and its novelty caused amazement. The rest of the stars, along with the sun and the moon formed a ring around it; yet it outshone them all, and there was bewilderment where this unique novelty had arisen. As a result all magic lost its power and all witchcraft ceased, Ignorance was done away with, and the ancient kingdom [of evil] was utterly destroyed, for God was revealing himself as a man, to bring newness of eternal life. What God had prepared was now beginning. Hence everything was in confusion as the destruction of death was being taken into hand." (Cyril Richardson, "Early Christian Fathers", p. 93)
The editor of this collection of translations from the early church fathers, Cyril Richardson, notes that the early church fathers had a somewhat developed doctrine of the "silence of God." By this what is meant is a context for how to understand God's apparent inactivity in world affairs. Ignatius describes Jesus' incarnation and sacrifice as "wrought in God's silence" meaning that God had planned and was bringing about his earth-shaking program through activities that were largely unremarkable and unintelligible. This is a great comfort to me as we have been in process of becoming missionaries for several years now and it often feels like lost time, but I know that it is God's pattern to do important, meaningful work in the unremarkable and unintelligible.
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