Short article. Brilliant. Read.
Category: gospel
The Power of Vulnerability – TED Talk
[ted id=1042]
What Brene Brown says:
Connection is why we're here
But shame = fear of disconnection
Everyone has shame. The only people without shame have no capacity for empathy
No one wants to talk about shame but the less you talk about it, the more you have it
For connection to happen you have to be allowed to be seen
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Those who are connected have a sense of worthiness, a strong sense of love and belonging
They exhibit these factors
Courage (wholeheartedness) to be imperfect
Compassion to be kind to themselves first and then to others
Connection as a result of authenticity. They let go of who they *should* be to be who they are.
Fully embraced vulnerability - what made them vulnerable made them beautiful
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We numb vulnerability
We are the most in debt, obese, addicted and medicated cohort in US history
So we numb it
Trouble is, you cannot selectively numb emotion
We make the uncertain certain
This is what religion and politics have become
We perfect
We pretend - that what we do doesn't have an effect on people
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What we need is to...
Let ourselves be seen
Love with our whole hearts
Practice gratitude, lean into joy
Believe I am enough
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Inspiring stuff. Some apt observations. But let's think for a second. Isn't this an empirical researcher urging us to have metaphysical convictions. We need to believe certain things. And we need to believe them because they seem to work.
Isn't this basically "the power of positive thinking" dressed up a bit?
We want connection, we feel shame, but we need to open up nonetheless because that's what the wholehearted do, and we do so on the basis of the belief that we're worthy of love and belonging.
That last bit seems key for this whole thing to work. But where does it come from?
If I had 5 minutes to talk about vulnerability I think I'd want to take three looks at the cross:
Look 1: Here is the LORD of Glory crucified. Is vulnerability a fundamental value? You bet. Our God was dissected on full view of the world. His vulnerability is glorious. Our vulnerability is God-like.
Look 2: Here is where our sin takes us. And yes I said sin not just shame. We aren't just held back by 'fear of connection' but by dark hearts full of lust and murder. We do not deserve connection but cutting off. Without looking at things through this lens we dress the wound lightly. "Embracing mess and authenticity" sounds like a meaningful Saturday afternoon with college friends around Lattes. Not the diagnosis that can handle, for instance, the addictions Brown mentions.
Look 3: Here is the Lord's love for the dark-hearted. Unconditional, counter-conditional grace for the disconnected. Brown hopes we'll value ourselves first and then others. But deserved love is not the sort of love we're inclined to pass on. "I'm worth it" terminates on me. It's only grace that really spreads.
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Tempted?
Imagine if Satan tried Luke 4:1-13 on me:
Temptation 1:
Curse you devil! You know I've been suppressing my powers of food alchemy.
Temptation 2:
Thou diabolical tempter! You know how I crave the world's government on my shoulders!
Temptation 3:
Damn and blast! You know how I love to abandon my life to the care of my Father!
Hmm.
Magical bakery, world domination and celestial bunjee jumping...
Preachers have to work pretty hard to make this passage a model for our own spiritual battles. But they manage it. The great majority of sermons I've heard on this have seen the episode as basically exemplary.
But the preacher's WWJD goggles have to be welded on pretty tight and their seminary-taught zeal for "personal application" must be turned to red-hot to make it work.
Here's one excellent exception:
For God's Sake Don't Grow Up For God's Sake
For God's Sake Grow Up For Your Neighbour's Sake
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This is just a reflection on that saying of Luther's: "God doesn't need your good works. Your neighbour does."
And Dave K's observation that, post-resurrection, no-one summarizes the law with "love God and love neighbour" but only with "love neighbour".
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A friend recently told me of some "higher life" Christians he met who would chant together:
I refuse, I refuse, I refuse to come down from heaven to deal with earthly realities.
They were horrible people to be around. Their marriages were a mess. And it was impossible to get at their sins because they were supposedly "hidden" from it all at God's right hand.
Well you do have to admire their sense of unbreakable union with Christ. I will give them that.
But you've also got to question the kind of Christ they feel united to.
Isn't the true Jesus exactly the kind of Person who does come down from heaven to deal with earthly realities? Isn't that His eternal glory? And therefore, doesn't Paul constantly take us from that secure union and then into those battles with the flesh?
Never for the sake of our union. But always from that union and in the power of it. How can union with this Christ mean anything else?
Jesus said: "For their sake I sanctify myself." (John 17:19).
Our response should not be "And likewise, Lord, for your sake I sanctify myself." No.
But there is a response to Christ's work. And it does involve our sanctification. We pass it on in costly ways - just as Jesus passed it on to us in the most costly way.
We do engage with the mess, not for God's sake but for our neighbour's. Jesus doesn't need my sanctification, but my wife does. Desperately. And the way I glorify the other-centred Christ is not to pay Him back with godliness but to pass it on in sacrificial love. "Hidden in Christ" does not mean hidden from the battle. Christ leads me into the battle because He's adopted me into His kind of other-centred life.
So, for God's sake, don't grow up for God's sake
But, for God's sake, do grow up for your neighbour's sake.
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For God’s Sake Don’t Grow Up For God’s Sake
For God's Sake Grow Up For Your Neighbour's Sake
.
This is just a reflection on that saying of Luther's: "God doesn't need your good works. Your neighbour does."
And Dave K's observation that, post-resurrection, no-one summarizes the law with "love God and love neighbour" but only with "love neighbour".
.
A friend recently told me of some "higher life" Christians he met who would chant together:
I refuse, I refuse, I refuse to come down from heaven to deal with earthly realities.
They were horrible people to be around. Their marriages were a mess. And it was impossible to get at their sins because they were supposedly "hidden" from it all at God's right hand.
Well you do have to admire their sense of unbreakable union with Christ. I will give them that.
But you've also got to question the kind of Christ they feel united to.
Isn't the true Jesus exactly the kind of Person who does come down from heaven to deal with earthly realities? Isn't that His eternal glory? And therefore, doesn't Paul constantly take us from that secure union and then into those battles with the flesh?
Never for the sake of our union. But always from that union and in the power of it. How can union with this Christ mean anything else?
Jesus said: "For their sake I sanctify myself." (John 17:19).
Our response should not be "And likewise, Lord, for your sake I sanctify myself." No.
But there is a response to Christ's work. And it does involve our sanctification. We pass it on in costly ways - just as Jesus passed it on to us in the most costly way.
We do engage with the mess, not for God's sake but for our neighbour's. Jesus doesn't need my sanctification, but my wife does. Desperately. And the way I glorify the other-centred Christ is not to pay Him back with godliness but to pass it on in sacrificial love. "Hidden in Christ" does not mean hidden from the battle. Christ leads me into the battle because He's adopted me into His kind of other-centred life.
So, for God's sake, don't grow up for God's sake
But, for God's sake, do grow up for your neighbour's sake.
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What every Christian can pray…
You have looked on me as though I were the Most Exalted of Men, O LORD God. (1 Chronicles 17:17)
Resolved…
[slideshow]
...to present us spotless before the Father. Whatever the cost.
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You'll have to view this one on the blogpage
Cheek Turning – a repost
when you are struck...
don't strike back, take the blow
don't protect yourself, expose yourself
don't lead with justice, lead with mercy
don't retreat into safety, advance into danger
don't retaliate with strength, retaliate with weakness
don't shrink into self-pity, move out into self-giving
don't insist on your rights, open yourself to wrong
don't cower in defeat, hold fast in meekness
don't stand on your dignity, stand on your shame
don't harden into bitterness, soften into tenderness
be defiantly peaceable
be immovably vulnerable
be steafastly gracious
be victoriously wounded
be like Jesus.
Who, when we lashed out at Him...
did not come in violence. nor remain in indifference
did not strike back. nor shrink back
did not retaliate. nor harden
He absorbed the blow
And He turned again to us.
He upheld His offer.
Arms outstretched, even to His killers.
Especially them
Only them
You, even.
There is strength in this weakness.
Strength to redeem the world.
It begins with surrender.
Laying down your arms.
Receiving His peace.
It continues with service.
Following His way.
Absorbing your own blows.
Today. Every day. Turning your cheek.
To this you are called.
To be lower than a door-mat. Far lower.
A door-mat is passive
But you thow yourself under the feet of your enemies.
To be lower than a slave. Far lower.
A slave walks his alotted mile grumbling in his heart.
You walk two miles with a glint in your eyes.
For you know the power of this weakness.
It reconciles the world.
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See also Turning the Other Cheek in the OT and Cheek Turning 101
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My Favourite Christmas Image – Happy Christmas
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Happy Christmas!
Santa is anti-Christ
From my sermon this morning (Isaiah 9:2-7).
Don't have the spirit of Scrooge.
Don't have the spirit of Winterfest.
Don't have the spirit of Santa.
Look again to the manger.
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