conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

friday grumblings and pleas for forgiveness

The great obstacle is this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are dependent upon what is wrong. But that is the addict's excuse, and we know that it will not do.
- Wendell Berry

Today many of my friends are thinking about atonement...and forgiveness perhaps. How/when/why we ask for forgiveness and how we grant it is the core to the Christian faith. Confession, repentance, forgiveness...they are all part and parcel of the same dynamic of conversion, of seeking shalom, of being God's people.

Sometimes it takes a prophet or an innocent to help us see sin. Our eyes have become blind to sin in some way and we can no longer see it or we deem a sin as a "necessary evil." Thus it takes an honored place in our world view. We spend resources (emotional, physical, financial) upon maintaining this thing. Berry is right. This is just like addiction.

I have been made aware more and more of my own sins of late. Such knowledge is a good thing. If I cannot see my own sin, I hope that a sister will show me. I hope that God will move someone to lead me away from such things. I am not able to help myself sometimes.

Jorge has posted on a "call to repentance." This call as I understand it is a call from God. To follow the 12-step metaphor a little, we have to admit we are powerless. This is the first step in following the call. This simply means that we have to admit to ourselves that we are not God. We are not in complete control. We have perhaps fallen prey to the thinking that we are in control, but we are stepping away from that habit now.

Later in the 12 steps we will be asked to turn everything over to God (a Higher Power). This is wisdom to me. It is not a call to inaction. No, such a discipline of turning things over to God takes constant diligence. It is work. It is more than intellectual ascent. It is repentance.

I have been thinking about the sermon I have to preach on Sunday, about the discipline of simplicity and the clear physical expressions of that discipline. But what is also clear to me today is that such a discipline does not simply ask us to change our ways...though it certainly does that. It asks us to repent. It is incredible to me that has only occurred to me recently. Ah well.

May God give me the courage to be simple...and the grace to repent.

Posted by tripp at September 21, 2007 07:46 AM