Hi Guys.
I've pulled down that song post thing from earlier. Don't think it was the wisest thing to have put up in the first place. Andrew (in his cluey-ness) worked out exactly who wrote on that page I linked to in the first place, and from what we know of the situation, the theological issues that she raises are probably not the underlying issues.
However, as Joanna (my wise and wonderful sister-in-law) pointed out, the theological issues are worth discussing. So lets do it.
There are many people in our churches, who through abuse or life experience or whatever, have a distorted picture of themselves and God - that they are unusually unworthy or hopeless or polluted. How do we talk about sin and God's perception of us in a way that is true but that doesn't add fuel to their unhealthy cycle of despair?
To get us thinking...
Here is a song that I wrote ages ago. I like it and am hoping that it will make it to a cd soon. I've had feedback that the second verse paints things a bit black. What do you think? Not thinking about yourself, but for the despairing brother or sister in the pew behind you. How would they hear the words? Do I need to change them?
As surely as the dawn will come
As surely as the dawn will come
As certain as the day
There's mercy for the weary heart
And hope for all who stray.
The Father holds his arms out wide
And bids the sinner come
So come and rest your soul in him
Find shelter in his love.
My sin is nails within his hands
His crown of thorns, my pride
My loveless anger, selfishness
The sword within his side.
And though I'm blackened, scarred by sin
Corrupted through and through
As surely as the dawn will come
There's mercy ever new.
As surely as the dawn will come
Death is consumed by life,
For God has made a way through wrath
His anger satisfied.
Now all is mercy, every breath
Is goodness, undeserved
So I will give my life to praise
The kindness of my Lord.
sar 2007
Could it be that it may actually help to a certain extent to paint a black picture of sin in so far as those depressed are searching for something real? They know sin is real. I guess the problem could be that if you don't make it clear that you also see sin as real that they will dismiss the answer of Jesus as equally "easy and breezy" as your doctrine of sin.
ReplyDeleteOr to put it in other words, people in despair may believe that they are beyond forgiveness. If you are too gentle in your criticism of sin in their presence they are going to think that you haven't experienced sin in the same way as they have - and therefore they can't experience forgiveness in the same way that you have.
Of course, you don't emphasize sin to those who already acknowledge it and are frightened and hurting - you emphasize mercy and more mercy in Jesus. It's just...it may help them to know that you know what they're talking about.
I really like it.
ReplyDeleteIt captures my brokenness:
'though I'm blackened, scarred by sin corrupted through and through'
And somewhat of my helplessness and despair:
'There's mercy for the weary heart
And hope for all who stray.'
Yet also the hope found in Him alone:
'The Father holds his arms out wide
And bids the sinner come
So come and rest your soul in him'
Now just to live as I should:
'So I will give my life to praise
The kindness of my Lord.'
To ignore your request and stand back in judgment upon the whole matter; my perception of the issue at hand is the problem of sensitivity.
ReplyDeleteI love my wife and I love boasting about her. What a gift God has given to me to care for. But every time I mention my wife, someone with a marriage breakdown or desire to be married could be upset by my comments. So should I not say these things? If I am doing it deliberately to harangue a person then I shouldn't. But there's a difference between being insensitive and saying something that will upset those who are sensitive. Talking about death, sin, judgment, marriage, church - just about any topic you wish to name will be sensitive for some people without being insensitive. You dig?
Izaac - I dig, but we're not all going to sing a song at church about how great your wife is, or about the joys of marital bliss. Singing is a corporate thing - people have to buy into it. It's a little different from praising your wife (though do it too much and I'll throw a brick at you or her). We just have to be careful that what we're teaching is what we actually want to be teaching. If it means tweaking a word here or there, I can handle it.
ReplyDeleteAnika - I think you're on the money
Anon - ta.
Surely though there comes a point when we are too aware of the possible objections to what we say. Do we really need such balance? Your lyrics are great. it is a song about mercy, which is only truly understood against the backdrop of sin. Make the bleakness of our sin as bleak and black as you can - it will highlight the kindness of the Lord. If we continually need to clarify and answer possible objections and place disclaimers on what we say, we'll never make a definitive statement.
ReplyDeleteI understand congregational singing is a different beast as you must have lyrics that people buy into. And once it's out there, it's gone and you've lost control. But honestly, aren't we asking the question the wrong way? Not 'is this too black?' but rather 'understanding the blackness of sin, is the mercy shown clearly?'
Perhaps I'm just expressing some of my pent up fury at the nitpickers of the world. Or maybe I'm just an insensitive twerp.
However, given your original question. People with clinical depression use the helpful analogy of the "black dog" to describe their down periods. So to use the language of blackness (blackened) could bring negative associations. To turn it to the positive my first thought was changing blackened to 'guilty'. But there's the ambiguity then of the subjective guilt felt by a person with depression rather than the intended objective guilt before God. So my second thought was changing blackened with 'helpless'. For those who are sensitive to negative lyrics, rather than condemning them, they might identify more with the feeling of helplessness which I hope would then further push them towards seeing the mercy amidst despair.
Thanks Simone - right back at you :)
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of thoughts on this. My first is that as churches we should provide a safe and supportive forum for people who come from abusive backgrounds to talk about what they find helpful/unhelpful in this regard. From my own conversations, I would suggest that many of the issues are not specifically theological, but also have to do with things like church style (autocratic leadership and a very structured service may be an issue, for example, as may a culture where there are very strict assumptions about what is 'godly' and 'ungodly' on all sorts of minor issues). I think we need to be careful not to suggest that these concerns are a result of self-indulgence or over-sensitivity. I have the privilege of knowing godly people who live lives of great faithfulness who nonetheless find church very difficult for the reasons that we're discussing. Let's not make their lives harder by belittling their struggles! Surely those of us who have had relatively easy lives should be doing all we can to support those whose lives have been full of suffering, rather than becoming impatient or unloving. We will undoubtedly simply lose people to outright liberalism because we have failed to communicate grace effectively.
My second thought is that we need to understand that one of the key issues for people from abusive backgrounds is that the issue of sin has been enormously complicated by their experience. I do not presume to speak on behalf of abuse survivors, but most survivors of childhood abuse have internalised feelings of shame and guilt that are not actually accurate - ie. they feel responsible for things that they are not responsible for and they feel that they are worthless/polluted/inferior in a way that other people are not. This can be deeply rooted in people's hearts and minds - talking about how polluted or worthless we are and then simply reiterating that God forgives us for our sin may not tackle this deeper issue. (I would just point out in this regard that I think this kind of language about filthiness, pollution, worthlessness, is used quite sparingly in Scripture and perhaps we need to follow this example.)
I'll continue this in a second post...
Other than individually pastoring people and providing support for people to get good psychological help (and I think Philip Jensen once said that he thought it was particularly important to provide individual pastoral care and Bible study to people who have survived abuse, because of this very issue of how it can be so easily mislead) - there are a couple of theological themes that I think we could helpfully emphasise further. The first is the theme of the goodness of creation. Those who have been treated like crap as children usually believe that their created self is worthless or evil - their bodies are polluted, their minds are stupid, their talents are non-existent. We need to teach and model a respect for God's good creation in each other and make sure that we emphasise that this applies to ALL people.
ReplyDeleteA second theme I think we need to emphasise is justice. Evangelicals often like to emphasise that we are all sinful by saying - there is no difference between you (middle-class respectable type) and a murderer/adulterer/thief. There is truth to this, of course, but it seems to me that Jesus aims this kind of teaching precisely at the self-righteous. But many of those who have been abused as children have been encouraged to think that what happened to them was their fault and this kind of teaching can be really confusing. I notice that when Scripture speaks to the poor and persecuted (see OT, James, Revelation) it says that God sees the evil done to them and that he will judge those who have done this evil. I think we need to find ways to talk about this in our congregations - that some among us may have been the victims of true oppression and injustice, and they can be confident that God is on their side in this. I wonder if songs such as yours above (which I actually think is quite beautiful, Simone!) could include lines for those who are struggling with evil done to them as well as evil they have done.
A long post - I could say a lot more, but I'll stop. Thanks for raising this!
Sorry, that should be, in relation to individual pastoral support, how easily the Bible can be 'misread'.
ReplyDelete