A wise spiritual proverb goes, "It is solved by walking." There is something cathartic about walking. Sending that mixture of stress and anger that is coursing through my body down to my toes and out onto the sidewalk. The sidewalk doesn't seem to mind too much.
Isaiah talks about walking in the vineyard (which remember from previous posts was an image for the People of God) and smashing grapes so that the juice stains the feet and robes. Which reminds me of the "I Love Lucy" picture above. Of course, Isaiah 63 is not nearly as humorous as the Lucy episode. You sort of shrink down in chair as you read, weighted down with guilt.
It is a thin line between shining a light on our brokenness and crossing over to being consumed by our guilt. That was a thin line that our Protestant ancestor, Martin Luther tried to tight rope walk his whole life. One story about Luther, when he was a Catholic monk, goes that he spend hours...hours... in the confessional trying to confess every single sin. Luther was so consumed by it, until finally the words of Romans 5 (Therefore since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God) saturated his soul.
Trying to walk the tightrope of talking about brokenness but not being consumed by it continues to be a challenge for the church today. Most of us would prefer to NOT talk about the mistakes we made this week. Most of us just want to hear we are love unconditionally. But if we never bring our brokenness out into the Easter dawn light, the message of love can start to sound as believable as the telemarketers telling us we have been chosen to "win" a totally free vacation to Hawaii. Yeah right, we think. God loves me...if only God knew what I said to my kids, my partner, about my co-worker behind her back. Yeah right.
Only, deep down, God does know. God knows our brokenness...and blessedness. Our baptism does not guarantee us a life free of brokenness, our baptism is not a conditional acceptance that if we act the right way we earn God's love. God's love is unconditionally...calling us back to the image of God in which we are all created.
When the father welcomes the Prodigal Son home with an embrace the anger sizzles in us because we wonder if God would welcome us home in such a way? The Prodigal had a long walk home (he was living in a foreign land). I wonder what he solved by walking?
I invite you sometime this week as the temps warm up to go for a walk. What sits in your soul unresolved from this long winter? What tension, brokenness, hurt can you offer to God as you walk? It is solved by walking. May that invitation offer you a trace of God's grace this week.
Blessings!
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