This was on All Things Considered last night (original story here.)

We rarely get a glimpse of the profound effects of sin like this: human beings placing their most private, gnawing shames on display. Not that the effects of sin on are hidden from us. Creation groans with devastating, shuddering sobs. Depravity becomes clearly recognizable when silhouetted against blood stains on school floors, adulterous husbands starving inconvenient spouses, or governments starving inconvenient populations. But the sin, guilt and shame of the soul remains safely locked away. Invisible.

I admit that I routinely dismiss the spiritual needs of the wealthy. Their shiny new autos sport fine leather interiors and seat warmers. Their healthcare may be a bureaucratic maze, but there is no gripping dread when they hear their little child come running into the house crying. They need not pray for their daily bread.

Yet look at those postcards and remember how such comforts provide no buffer against the ravages of depravity. Our chrome-plated accoutrements are this century’s magic amulets worn for protection against the inner plagues. Still the conscience remains disfigured by buboes, clear harbingers of impending spiritual convulsions and inevitable death.

Here is where the power of God’s grace proves most miraculous and effective, lest we forget. Does the Gospel of Christ change wicked social and economic structures? Is it true that there is not a single thumb’s width of the universe over which Christ does not say, “Mine”? Yes. Without doubt. But the power of the Gospel begins with God’s reaching out to the souls of these postcards, those consciences which stand condemned, knowing the weight of guilt and shame. This Gospel is no simple prayer for God’s wonderful plan for your life: it is the genuine washing of the soul, the imputation of every node of guilt onto the innocent, holy Son. Wealthy humans may have difficulty responding to such grace, despising their comforts for the sake of their salvation, but our need remains as our gasping breaths grow ever more shallow and frantic. Jesus Christ is our true water, our light, our salvation from such a mire.

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• Posted by Adeodatus on Thursday, March 31, 2005 at 9:00:53 am PST
• Category: Religion
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