Have you experienced that sudden conjunction when you realize that several disparate, apparently unrelated things are actually pointing in the same direction and whispering the same thing? Yesterday, I think while I was working in the vegetable garden, I had that experience.
There are two kinds of darkness in the world and in our hearts. They share aspects – both being dark, but they are different in important ways. And when we confuse them, we can harm ourselves and each other. Or, if we emphasize only one and neglect the other, again we can harm ourselves and each other.
I have been in correspondence across the Atlantic with someone, and they sent me a link to a lovely but painful song that they wrote me was on continuous play for them. It’s “Truth Be Told” by Matthew West https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4wYkS8Z3Io
It’s a catchy tune with the message that the Church needs to be authentic and honest: that we are all ‘broken’ no matter how well-curated our image.
Then, on a recent residential weekend in Winston-Salem for my Anglican Studies course in Sacramental Theology, a Dean who oversees church-planting was asked to help us understand the culture and society into which we are trying to start new Christian communities. He gave us a typology in two parts: the older Dialectical Imagination, which sees Christianity as primarily as a set of true doctrines, a story of a sinful humanity in need of grace. The second was called an Analogical Imagination, which sees Christianity as emphasizing the nearness of God; how humanity is in God’s image; and the possibility of experiencing the Divine nature.
Lastly, I was required to take a Sexual Abuse Awareness course online by our diocese. It was very helpful and painful in about equal parts. Especially awful was the episode on the effects of sexual abuse on child-victims – short term and much more lasting.
What do Matthew West, and the Dean’s cultural analysis, and the tragic consequences of abuse all point to? What are they whispering?
There are two kinds of darkness in our world and in our hearts.
There is ‘brokenness’ and there is ‘sinfulness.’ They are not the same and must not be confused for each other. And, though all of us have a preference for which to emphasize today, we must not neglect either.
We are broken. We are in God’s image, but things have happened to us that mar and damage us. There are things in our history, or in our bodies, or in our psyches that we suffer from and have not chosen. We wish them otherwise. This is the first darkness. My heart-failure is an example here.
But I am also sinful. I have used my consciousness to choose things that I knew were not God’s will for me, God’s good will. I am guilty of distrust and of disobedience. This is the second darkness.
I am not just sinful: I am also broken. But I am not just broken: I am also sinful.
At Benediction Farm we have Five Hopes for people visiting us. Two of them apply here. We hope for ‘healing’ and we hope for ‘forgiveness.’ The brokenness needs healing, and the guilt of sin needs forgiveness.
Although there are two darknesses, the one same light is our hope against both. Jesus is both the Healer of our brokenness, and He is the High Priest of our forgiveness.
The Church has in the past made the mistake of applying forgiveness where people were broken and in need of healing. This has sometimes had terrible consequences. But let’s be a bit understanding: the confusion makes sense. You see, even all the brokenness at its deepest root goes back to sin and the disbelief that God is good and understands us and means us well.
But in correcting this, the Church must not overlook the guilt of sin. People do need God’s forgiveness for their many willful transgressions against the law of love.
When you read the Gospels, please notice how Christ heals people and forgives people, sometimes in a different order, but aren’t we glad that we have a High Priest capable and discerning of both? There is much more in need of saying, but I try to keep these relatively brief. Come out to the Farm, and we can talk more. I promise I’ll listen.
