The Humiliation of Acceptance

Posted on by Makala Doulos
Accepted by Jesus

What a weak comfort is the praise of men. Upon such a frail ledge do we mortals build our happiness. 
~ Francis Frangipane 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Ephesians 1

Oh beloved, it is true. Somewhere along the way of coming to know The Way, we come up on something that is just too humiliating for us to accept. We come to understand that we are a sinner and really really need a Saviour. Some of us can even reckon true the death we died along with Him on the cross. And a few can begin to believe the panoply of promises He has laid out for us.  Except for one.

G_d likes you. G_d is happy to know you. G_d is blessed: by you.

For we, beloved, are truly beloved by The Beloved. This El Olam, this eternal One in Three in One has torn down anything that would stop our friendship with Him. And in truth, we see that he has actively pursued a relationship that could be called none other than a passionate pursuit of us.

We are not just embraced, we are accepted.
We are not just accepted, we are chosen.
We are not just chosen, we are legally justified.
We are not just justified, we are holy and blameless before Him.
We are not just holy, we are His brother.
We are not just His brother, we have been made part of the family of G_d.
We are not just in His family, we are full inheritors of His Kingdom.
We are not just inheritors, we are united with G_d in Christ.

“No, its too much. I am so broken and ugly.”

My Beloved speaks and says to me: 
“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; 
for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. 
The flowers appear on the earth, 
the time of singing has come, 
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 
The fig tree puts forth its figs, 
and the vines are in blossom; they give forth fragrance. 
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
~ from Song of Songs 2
 
Its humiliating. It seems that it would be so much easier to live in the pain of distance from our Creator. For there, in the dry bitter bed of the pain of separation, we at least know how to hurt and search for scraps of comfort among the nails upon which we lie.
 
You are altogether beautiful, my love;
there is no flaw in you.
Come with me from Lebanon, my bride;
come with me from Lebanon.
Depart from the peak of Amana,
from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
from the dens of lions,

 

from the mountains of leopards.
~ from Song of Songs 4


“But why? Why me?”

And He answers, “I AM Love. There is no reason. This is simply who I AM. Yet neither am I compelled by my nature. I AM Who I AM. And Love sees you for what I have made you to be through My Son’s death and your new creation wrought by His resurrection. You are alive in Him. You are astoundingly attractive and wonderful and completely the object of My delight.”

So, are you humiliated by the acceptance lavished upon you by G_d? Perhaps this is a good thing. Let this humiliation become a more simple humility – a proper accounting – of who you are in His sight. For it is only in this brokenness that we can see that we are whole and real and alive and… Beautiful.

Tonight is the night beloved. Let yourself be who you are. Accepted.

God’s “otherness” and ineffability are too much of an obstacle to many theologians. We have been heavily criticized by otherwise orthodox theologians for our “craving of immediacy,” an expression of their insistence on limiting our aspirations to encountering only highly mediated—and necessarily so—liturgical and sacramental forms of God’s presence. But we are overwhelmed and astounded unspeakably by the degree to which God does in fact reveal and share Himself with us, and we should not set a ceiling on what is possible. Let God do that! 

 

~Rolland Baker

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