Willing
to Limp
“We must
never underestimate our power to be wrong when talking about God,
when thinking about God, when imagining God, whether in prose or in
poetry. A generous orthodoxy, in contrast to the tense, narrow, or
controlling orthodoxies of so much of Christian history, doesn't take
itself too seriously. It is humble. It doesn't claim too much. It
admits it walks with a limp.”
Brian D.
McLaren
If it weren't so
dangerous, we might have a good laugh about it. The way that various
people of all religions announce God's intentions and requirements, as
though any human being or any religion can define the Mystery.
Remember the Old Testament story of Jacob on the shores of the of the
Jabbok? He was on the journey home, having lived as an exile “in a
foreign land” for many years as punishment for stealing his twin
brother's birthright. After sending his wives, and children, and all
his possessions across the stream, he spent the night wrestling with
“an angel.” That angel was the terrible understanding of just how
wrong he had been, and what he truly deserved from his brother. In
other words, Jacob wrestled with his own dark angel. In the morning,
the angel agreed to bless him, “you have struggled with God and
with humans and have overcome,” but the angel also injured
Jacob's hip. Jacob entered his homeland with a pronounced limp, which
he carried for the rest of his life. When he met his brother, Esau,
he knelt before him and begged for forgiveness—humbled as he was by
the weight of his own wrong-doing. (Gen. 32:22-32)
The reason parables such
as this are recorded in the Bible, the reason that whenever Jesus was
asked to describe God or the Kingdom of God, he resorted to parables,
is that he realized that even he could not describe the Mystery. It
was like a mustard seed, or like a farmer planting grain, or like a
woman searching for a lost coin. No one holds the answer to the aims
and intentions of the Creator. Wrestling is the very best we can
do—and being willing to be injured by our own shortcomings and
mistakes. Humility is a badge of courage.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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