“In the end everything will be all right, nothing can harm you permanently; no loss is lasting, no defeat more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death will be part of your journey, but the kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.” (Brennan Manning: "The Ragamuffin Gospel)
If you were to search for that quote, or portions of it, in the past couple of days, you would have found it in many places. The most notable of these would have been Brennan Manning's obituary (http://brennanmanning.com/). It is true, the ragamuffin who taught many of us that we are nothing more than tattered, disreputable, messes until we are overwhelmed by God's grace is now, as the obituary says, "Resting safely in the arms of his Abba." I love that. If, when I join the band of ragamuffins in glory, someone should choose to mark the memory of my existence on a piece of granite....and I really don't give a rip either way....but, if someone should, those would be wonderful words to chisel on the stone.
I first read The Ragamuffin Gospel more than two decades ago when I had taken a pretty serious fall from self deluded images of me flying at spiritual heights. In the years leading up to that time, if I were to be brutally honest, although I would never have dared speak it or really even to think it, a small part of me was convinced that Christ was pretty fortunate that I had made the choice to follow him. Successful ministries. People becoming Christians. Words of praise from believers and nonbelievers alike. I understood the necessity of grace, and could preach on it convincingly, but there was always my ability, my pride, my ego running like varicose veins through the beauty of the abundant grace the Father had poured into my life.
But, as the Message paraphrases Proverbs 16:18, "First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall." Well, there was a fall, and Brennan's book was there to begin to explain to me that everything is grace. Through the years, with some successes and many failures, I have grown to realize the depth of this truth and have plunged head long into the infinite pool of grace poured out on Calvary, and I am staggered by it's magnitude every day. I have grown to appreciate Brennan's words:
“The deeper we grow in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the poorer we become - the more we realize that everything in life is a gift. The tenor of our lives becomes one of humble and joyful thanksgiving. Awareness of our poverty and ineptitude causes us to rejoice in the gift of being called out of darkness into wondrous light and translated into the kingdom of God's beloved Son.”
I call Brennan by his first name, not because I knew him personally or ever met the man, but because his life parallels mine in some respects, and I have always felt a certain kinship with him. Ragamuffins, I suppose. Since both of us have had our battles with alcohol, two quotes from The Ragamuffin Gospel have always stuck with me. The first is: "When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer." The other is: "Through no merit of mine, I have been given a bona fide invitation to drink new wine forever in the Kingdom of God. (Incidentally, for a recovering alcoholic, that's heaven.)" Not that I make light of anyone's struggle with alcohol...but I did like the quotes.
I paged through my copy of The Ragamuffin Gospel again this morning, reading the portions I had marked all those years ago. So many wonderful thoughts.
"Whatever past achievements might bring us honor, whatever past disgraces might make us blush, all have been crucified with Christ and exist no more except in the deep recesses of eternity, where "good is enhanced into glory and evil miraculously established as part of the greater good." As a side note, I would refer the reader to Augustine's paraphrase of Paul: "That for those who love God everything works unto good, even sin."
Or, "The saved sinner is prostrate in adoration , lost in wonder and praise. He knows repentance is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven. Thus the sequence of forgiveness then repentance, rather than repentance and then forgiveness, is crucial for understanding the gospel of grace."
Or this, "The Christian with depth is the person who has failed and learned to live with it."
Another, “The ragamuffin who sees his life as a voyage of discovery and runs the risk of failure has a better feel for faithfulness than the timid man who hides behind the law and never finds out who he is at all.”
There are so many, but I will leave you with this one: “The confessing church of American Ragamuffins needs to join Magdalene and Peter in witnessing that Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists but receiving a gift with open hands.”
I have not read Brennan Manning's last book, but it is next on my list. It is appropriately entitled, "All is Grace," and I absolutely love the one quote I've seen from it:
My life is a witness to vulgar grace — a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief’s request — “Please, remember me” — and assures him, “You bet!”…This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us. It’s not cheap. It’s free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough… ~ Brennan Manning (All is Grace)
Amen, brother Brennan....Amen!
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