repentance

The Youth Director at my field education site is the bomb. A computer guru by day, the man is a brilliant theologian able to speak the language of the busy, hyperstressed teenagers of the Washington Metropolitan area. He synthesizes things in a way that brings things to life for these kids (and for me and my wife) in really neat ways. Last night, another such moment happened as his lenten small group talked about sin.

"The simple definition of sin is anything that takes us away from God." CLICK! For my wife, 26 years of living as a Christian finally made sense. The man made definitions of sin we so often use; lying, cheating, playing cards, drinking, dancing, whatever, are a false construction - sin is anything that takes us away from God. Jesus is he who brings us back into right relationship with God.

We talked about this a lot last night and came up with an image for Jesus. Jesus calls us to repent of our sins (see Lent 3c). The literal translation of the Hebrew word for repent is "to turn around". So we imagined Jesus standing behind us tapping us on the shoulder. In order to speak with him we must turn around. Having done so, Jesus can so easily ask us to join him in a different way. "I know you want to go about this in your own way, but what if we tried this way, I promise it will prove beneficial."

I'm excited that Cassie finally had it all click. It proves the benefit of having a great diversity in the body of Christ. No one previously, myself included, had articulated the act of repentance in a way that Cassie was comfortable with. She could understand what they were saying, but it never really spoke to her. Pastors, parents, friends, family, husbands, fellow church-goers; no one spoke her language, until last night.

did moses need a shtick?

This passage from Exodus 34 is very interesting to me. Moses is up on the mountain speaking with God, receiving the Law, the Torah, for God's chosen people. As he returns Aaron and the others notice that his face is shining and are afraid. Moses calls the leaders back, and they come. Moses then covers his face with a veil. What is so interesting to me is not the he removes the veil when he approaches God, but that he keeps it off until he reports back to the people on the Word he has received.

By this time, Moses, I have to assume, is a pretty well known figure. He was, after all, the guy who led the people of Israel out of Egypt. He was, after all, the guy who parted the Red Sea, who brought water from the rock, who showed them Manna. He was THE guy in this rag tag group of refugees. So why then does Moses need a shtick? Does he gain credibility because his face is shining? Does he need to gain credibility? Why?


Generally speaking I have a hard time with shticks in religious life. Whether its Bishop Minns holy tambourine or the lavish manual actions of a high church service or even those dresses and sashes and stuff clergy have to wear because we once stood next to kings; I think they are unnecessary. Like Moses, we have an authentic message from God, "God loves you, Jesus saves you, the Holy Spirit restores right relationship." That message should be able to stand on its own. That message shouldn't need inauthentic showiness for the sake of our own comfort (or our own tradition which has, in time, lost the meaning of its symbols in ritualism).

I don't know why Moses reported back to the people with his face shining. I don't know why clergy insist on looking different than everybody else. I do know that the Word of God doesn't need a shtick and we shouldn't cheese it up for our sake, but are called to be authentic bearers of the gospel for the glory of God.