Sunday, March 06, 2005
An Interesting Turn of Phrase
Milt at Transforming Sermons is a master at finding really good little pieces about Christian life, and extracting the best from those pieces. This post is a great example. Milt found a piece in The Christian Century by Barbara Brown Taylor that is pretty good. He also does a great job of pulling "money quotes" and makes a fantastic point.
However, when I fully read the Taylor piece, I was bothered a little. Her concluding paragraph is very poetic, and provides a good image of how it is that we really should approach the Savior.
The church has fallen victim in so many ways to pop psychology, and this is an example of one of those ways. Shame is not bad, it is not to be rejected. Shame is how God reminds us that we are supposed to be standing at the foot of the Cross. Shame drives us to confession and confession opens my channel of communication to the Almighty.
Am I ashamed? -- Often, and I thank God for it.
However, when I fully read the Taylor piece, I was bothered a little. Her concluding paragraph is very poetic, and provides a good image of how it is that we really should approach the Savior.
Jesus was not pretending while he was hanging there. He really did lose everything, buying up all the tears and loss that no one else wanted. Because he did, I can at least hold my own in my hand, trusting that when I am feeling my most hurt and futile, my most abandoned by God, I am not far from him but as close as I can get, poised to fail—spectacularly—in my own bid for true and lasting life.Now I realize an article like this is not written in a fashion to undergo deep exegesis, but this paragraph really stuck in my craw.
I go to church to remember this - not to hear about the victory of the cross but to be reminded that there is no shame in failure at the foot of the cross. Why is the word so hard to say? Failure brings me down to earth that is solid beneath my feet. Failure links my broken heart to others just like it. Failure delivers me into the everlasting arms, where I find the solace that eluded me in my success.Her point is right on, but her words are problematic. There is a lot of shame in failure at the foot of the Cross. It is the shame that puts her feet so solidly on the ground. It is the shame that delivers her into the everlasting arms.
The church has fallen victim in so many ways to pop psychology, and this is an example of one of those ways. Shame is not bad, it is not to be rejected. Shame is how God reminds us that we are supposed to be standing at the foot of the Cross. Shame drives us to confession and confession opens my channel of communication to the Almighty.
Am I ashamed? -- Often, and I thank God for it.
