A “Mess” In Montreat
Greetings from one of the two national retreat centers of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. On March 3 Montreat College featured William Young, author of The Shack. This book has been on the New York Times best seller list for weeks.
William Young’s own words:
I’m not a real author.
I’m an accidental author.
I am a “mess.”
I very much appreciate this kind of vulnerable honesty for there are many times when I feel like a “mess.” Authors, preachers (or anyone else) who always speak from a position of strength as if they always have it together are not much help to me. For me they are not relevant. Perhaps this leads us to one of the reasons the words of someone such as the Apostle Paul are and will always be relevant. Paul never attempted to hide his inner strife – his weaknesses – his “thorn in the flesh” – the “messiness” of his life.
The Apostle Paul’s own words:
I don’t understand why I act the way I do. I don’t do what I know is right, I do the things I hate…. Instead of doing what I know is right, I do wrong. (Romans 7:15 Contemporary English Version)
And so each day after finishing my reading and study in the Montreat College library I leave the building via the front door and turn right and there it is directly in front of me…
The Chapel of the Prodigal
It is a beautiful building with a steeple and a cross and within a magnificent fresco by artist Ben Long depicting that story told by Jesus, dear to so many believers over the centuries.
If a parable is, as someone said, “a picture window into the heart of God,” then what we see is absolute Good News (Gospel) to all folk who know they are a “mess.” The great I Am, Yahweh, the Creator, God Almighty is shown to us (revealed) as a God prodigal / extravagant in His love for this entire world which is in a “mess” and has been since the Garden.
So… a personal word to the folk at ARPC:
Before I left on sabbatical – I was a “mess.”
I am a “mess” now.
When I return I’ll still be a “mess.”
And you, dear folk at ARPC, are a “mess.”
But hey! This is Good News (Gospel) for there is no doubt whatsoever (biblically speaking) that God takes “messes” of men and women and repeatedly displays His Glory through the weakest of vessels.
In our weakness (messiness) God is strong!
One young Montreat College student shared it this way…
God is moving our small (messy) worlds to unveil an expansive sky; God is shoveling up the dirt in our souls, raking it over, and bringing Heaven down to kiss our weary mouths…
God’s Joy is our strength.
God is strong in us so we don’t have to be.
Expansive Sky – Each evening when the light of the moon and stars allow I fall to sleep seeing the mountains of the Blue Ridge through bare branches against that expanse of sky. I awake and they are there, those mountains that beckon you to look upward. What a privilege – what a gift – what a joy!
Hope you are having a Holy Lent,
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Ron
P.S.
I do miss all of you at ARPC and being geographically distant from you is not easy. This will be the first Easter after a twenty-year span that I have not spent with you. Distance from those you love can be a cause of sadness. At this point in my life I am distant from many sisters and brothers in Christ that I’ve shared the journey of faith with. For many of these beloved the distance is the unfathomable reach to heaven. In my reading I came across a beautiful solution to this sadness….
PRAYER
“Remember that when you pray you are not kneeling or standing there alone… all devout Christians are there with you…” (Martin Luther)
“Whether we are in the presence of others or physically alone, when we pray we are united with all those who through faith in Jesus Christ have become the adopted children of God.” (William Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas in Lord, Teach Us to Pray)
When I close my eyes in prayer I am with you – and those across the world who are in Christ – what comfort!
