Thoughts from Rev. Casy

I have John Steinbeck to blame for making me think about the really important things in life again.

The Grapes of Wrath is a story about a family that moves West (about 350 miles from my hometown/the land of milk and honey) from Oklahoma in the Dust Bowl/Great Depression era. The main character is an ex-killer named Tom Joad. My favorite character is an ex-preacher named Jim Casy (I know, he totally misspells his name, right?) who has basically become overwhelmed by his own two-faced living and resigned to a life of fear and shame.

Well, Rev. Casy's words cut me at one particular point. Another character named "Uncle John" was struggling with the shame of his past. It too was crippling him. He continued to turn to the whiskey to drown his sorrows but that only brought temporary relief. He would find a woman and try to numb his pain through sex. He would also overeat to unhealthy excess. Shame was driving his life. Uncle John reached out to Rev. Casy to see what the once-man of God would say about his sin.

Casy said gently, 'Sure I got sins. Ever'body got sins. A sin is somepin you ain't sure about. Them people that's sure about ever'thing an' ain't got no sin- well, with that kin a son-of-a-bitch, if I was God I'd kick their ass right outa heaven! I couldn't stand 'em!'

Does that statement not ring with truth? How often do we think that God needs help up there? How often do we think that we could add a bit of greatness on to God by doing a few things better?

The fact is that we are totally opposed to God because we are all born into sin. We can't scrape up enough goodness between the 6 billion people who live on the earth to make a drop in the bucket of God's greatness. And the good news of the gospel that we claim is that God did not leave us there. He went after us sinners and pursued us all the way to the point of becoming a man. In becoming a man, Jesus lived the life we should have lived. He died the death we should have died. In raising from the dead to new life, he has purchased new and full life for all his people.

But we have to die if we want to live. We have to die to our own knowledge. The more sure we are of the way things should be, the further we are from really getting it. That is crazy. That is a paradox. That is something that I know is true but I cannot begin to explain it. My God is much bigger than my comprehension. That may be a difficult thought but it is oh-so-comforting.

My pastor Tal likes to say that God did not save you because he has good taste. He does not need our help being God. We need his help being human.

Bewilderment is true comprehension. Not to know where you are going is true knowledge- Martin Luther