It
seems to me that there is a lot that is broken at the moment.
Our
world seems very broken, in terms of the environmental challenges and changes
we are witnessing, the endless terror and violence, the asylum seekers and
refugees, the hunger and homelessness, our messed up politics, our strained
international and intra-national relations and so on and on.
These are worrying times.
And not just the world; the church seems to me to be very
broken. There have always been fault lines between denominations and within
denominations, but now these fault lines seem to be lying in different places
than before; they cut across the traditional denominational distinctions and
increasingly seem also to be deviating from the theological tensions which once
seemed to be a major cause of division.
It is very natural that when things are broken we want to
fix them. But sometimes our attempts to ‘fix’ things ends up worse than what we
consider to be broken. (I invite you to think of examples in contemporary
international affairs, politics and church matters!)
Of course, part of the problem is that humans are all broken
too. Traditionally Christians have agreed on that and called it ‘sin’ (or
‘original sin’). The whole of the world is broken (‘fallen’ to use traditional
language).
Now it is not my intention to get into a sterile theological
discussion over terms and concepts related to ‘sin’, ‘The Fall’, ‘original
sin’, ‘redemption’ and so on. Personally I can affirm the significance of all
of these concepts without any difficulty and – for that matter – without
resorting to fundamentalism to describe my thinking on these matters.
Nor do I want any of that to stand in opposition to an
affirmation of ‘original blessing’ and the essential goodness and beauty of
humanity and human beings. I very much believe that we are made in the image of
God, although we far from perfectly reflect that image.
I could go on to discuss what I think redemption and
salvation mean. But I am not going to do that.
I want to be a little more personal.
I am simply going to say that I have once again become
acutely aware of how broken I am, in so many ways.
I am grateful that my health is nothing like as bad as it
has sometimes been, but neither is it great at the moment. I am going through a
bit of a rough patch in terms of my MS, with energy reserves very low and one
or two slightly worrying wee physical symptoms.
And I am going through a spiritually tough patch too,
inasmuch as it feels like I have been in a dry desert for a long, long time.
And (perhaps because of the above, at least to some extent)
I also feel very flawed and inadequate in so many areas of my life...too many
to mention. (now, don’t get me wrong... I am not in any ‘slough of despond’ nor
am I denying the good things I may have achieved...). So, don’t panic and don’t
rush round to comfort me. It is not a crisis! (And if it ever happens that a
crisis comes then I will seek out help and support if required).
My thought is simply that I (we?) seem to always want to fix
things when they seem broken... especially if I feel I have broken them!
But I do not think I can ‘fix’ many of the things that feel
broken for me at the moment.
And so, once more, I am pushed back onto the grace of God...
grace alone.
And perhaps that is no bad thing.
