How a confrontation with God strips alibis and disguises
Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church
We spend a lifetime creating ourselves. We develop skills. Climb the ladder. Make a name. Band together for good or not. We can be so caught up in this, we forget underneath it all, it’s just us.
Peter Berger (in The Precarious Vision) writes: “As little men put on their terrifying masks and headgears and war rattles, and march into the arena with solemn chants, there is always some old lady who smiles at them, not unkindly, and suggests that the boys go play elsewhere where they cannot hurt anybody.”
He admits even unimpressed grandmothers can be killed in these war games, but suggests these “boys” may discover their own humanity if they listen to her. These grandmothers recognise something these little men don’t dare think.
What if we looked beyond titles, positions and status; and ethnicity, creed and cultural differences? What if we recognised our equality despite our differences?
We’re human. This is our commonality.
We all come into the world with nothing and leave with nothing. This is our common nakedness (see Job 1:21). We’re born without a name, without a role, without position. These come later and then we clothe ourselves with them to give ourselves identity.
This clothing has some value (grandmothers will still see the child beneath), but the shrug of death shakes them off. In the end, the length of your obituary, the size of the funeral crowd, the magnificence of your tomb makes no difference to you.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t aim for greatness, or plan to make a difference or to leave a legacy. It’s merely a reminder of our common nakedness—as humans.
So, how do you find the real you? Berger suggests a “confrontation with the living God of the Christian faith strips men [and women] of their alibis and disguises.”
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