At some time or another, all of us face deep disappointment –
even to the point of despair. Perhaps a trusted friend has let us down. Perhaps
a plan we believed to be secure has collapsed in ruins.
Our deepest disappointment, however, isn’t caused by the
failure of others or by circumstances beyond our control – it is our own
personal failures, exposing us to ourselves (perhaps also to others) as far
less than we want to believe ourselves to be.
Dick Keyes, in his book, True Heroism, notes the
difference between “guilt” and “shame”. “Shame” is what we feel when we don’t
come up to our “models”. “Guilt” is our failure to come up to our “morals”.
Sometimes, our main concern is with our “models” – our public
and private image. A great deal is said – and written – about the importance of
self-esteem. We all want others to think well of us. And we don’t function well
with low esteem. Yet I was struck to hear one speaker saying, “I used to think
I had an inferiority complex. Then one day I discovered I was inferior!” His
thinking had shifted from models to morals, from shame to guilt.
Of course, this isn’t to say that all that is said about
self-esteem is irrelevant. Our well-being and functioning as a human being are
adversely affected by a low self-image. The problem is that very often it isn’t
the basic or central issue. To put it in theological terms, it is a grossly
inadequate “gospel” that offers “affirmation” to those whose real need is
“salvation”.
From time to time we hear that some politician has had a
“make-over” – a professional grooming school has worked to improve his public
image. Perceptive members of the public observe that the underlying attitudes
haven’t really changed at all!
Psalm 130 is part of the collection of fifteen “songs of
ascents”. Luther listed it as a Pauline Psalm. The unnamed writer of Psalm 130
faced some insurmountable difficulty. We aren’t told directly what the problem
was. However, two references suggest both personal and national failure. “If
you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?” (v. 3) The Lord
“himself will redeem
From time to time television and other media will pursue some
public figure to expose their faults and failings. We may view this as a very
useful service to the community – we like to “have a go” at our “tall poppies”.
How embarrassing to be “exposed” – to have your public image tarnished or
destroyed! As a community it makes us “feel good”. Someone else has been shown
to be fallible after all. And the exposure of the other person gives us a
smoke-screen behind which we can hide our own faults.
It all seems a matter of models, images, perceptions… What we
call “dirty washing” or “skeletons in the cupboard” need to be kept carefully
hidden. Nobody must know about “that”!
But when the issue is morals… God knows all about us. He
needs no “private eye”, no snooping journalist. Paul wrote that “all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3.23) – what a devastating
analysis! And it’s the uncomfortable truth!
“If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could
stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared” (Ps.
130.3-4).
God knows all about us. He is the final judge – not public
opinion, not the TV presenters or the
newspapers, not the person next door… God could choose to deal with us on the
basis of just judgment of sin – none of us would have a leg to stand on. But
God deals with us on the basis of grace if we will only receive it. With him
there is forgiveness. We make forgiveness cheap. “To err is human, to forgive
divine” – so the old saying goes. But God’s forgiveness is costly. He has in
fact acted with true justice – his Son Jesus Christ has died for our sins.
The Psalmist, of course, lived long before the fulfilment of
all this in Jesus. But he believed in the Lord’s redemptive grace and
forgiveness. Even though he felt himself in “the depths”, he had a confident
hope that the Lord would bring him peace. He longed deeply – “waited for” – the
Lord “more than watchmen wait for the morning” (vv. 5-6).
The Psalmist’s confident trust in the merciful God becomes a
call to the whole nation to put their hope in the Lord, “for with the Lord is
unfailing love and with him is full redemption” (v. 7). Because of the Lord’s
unfailing love for them, he was offering them full restoration.
We come back to models and morals, our deep personal
disappointments and our deep yearning for God to set things right. Don’t hold
back from coming to him. And care for others in the knowledge that they needn’t
stay “in the depths” either. They can come “out of the depths” to know his
unfailing love, his forgiveness, his full redemption.
Now that’s the easy part. I shared that with the Blue Care
staff in the Burdekin a couple of years ago. We’re accustomed to applying that
to painful personal issues. It isn’t that we like to hear people’s pain, but we
do believe we have a few helpful things we can share with them.
But
how do we handle the Church’s pain? Not very well. Whichever way we look at
issues that are hurting the Church – the people of God – those issues haven’t
and aren’t just going away so we can get back to the basics, back to “business
as usual”. We talk so easily about creating a “safe place”, but we need a whole
hospital, a place of healing.
In
Jeremiah’s time
As Jesus prepared to send out the twelve on
their short “mission” of preparation, he encouraged them not to be afraid of
the fierce opposition they might encounter. They would “not finish going
through the cities of
Models? or morals? That is the core issue that is deeply troubling and dividing the church world-wide. Do we, as the people of God, live under his Word – his Word that defines sin and finds us out as sinners, his Word that has acted in history to bring redemption, forgiveness, restoration and new life?
With the Lord
there is forgiveness. With the Lord there is full redemption for all our sins.
Let’s come “out of the depths” and offer the rich life of God to a needy and
desperate world.
Roller-Coaster
The roller-coaster
draws a crowd,
and, as it races
up and down,
the air is
filled
with shouts
and screams,
and screams
and shouts!
Is there
some kind of
fun,
exhilaration,
in being scared
out of our wits?
In real life
there is no fun
in the
roller-coaster
of circumstance
and emotion –
when dark dread
falls on human
souls,
when
disappointment
and despair
hold us
in their vice,
pin us down
with no escape…
Yet not alone!
God knows –
he reaches down
to pluck us
from the depths
of our despair
into the depths
of his love
and care!
© Peter J. Blackburn, Pastoral Relations Committee,
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture
quotations are from the New International Version, © International Bible
Society, 1984.
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