It’s easy to get distracted from what the purpose of this publication is; namely the advancement of unity in love, faith and hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are plenty of offshoot conversations to have, like church polity and inclusion which have taken place over the last 2 months in the life of this relatively new publication but I think it’s time to get back to the type of introspective and theological work that produces love, faith and hope in the gospel.
Christians of Walmart
Practicing Low Theology
It’s tempting, when writing theology, to give hard and fast answers to the things we are supposed to be doing or being or believing as the people of God1, but recently I have been challenged in my thinking to write about what it means to belong and have a sense of place among the people of God; a sense of blasé belonging brought about by knowing and being known; caring and being cared for, loving and being loved. This kind of kinship can be found between spouses and children or brothers at arms who have endured the complex big T traumas of war—bound eternally by their common need for mercy. There is no judgement in belonging, though deep care and concern abound. In this sense of belonging no one belongs more than anyone else. No one is in control of belonging because what or rather who we belong to and with is one another and God.
Do you remember those People of Walmart posts that were all the rage on Facebook? They were the shame posts that were popular before people started posting their pets with placards. It was around 2019/2020 because what started as people coming to the shops at 3AM in their PJs turned to pot lid masks to avoid The Corona. It was a difficult time and we needed a laugh so we chose to lambast the poor, un-shapely and uneducated like the Victorian circus goers we are. It was funny. We laughed because of our own shame which we masked as the power to keep our desperation locked inside like civilised people. We don’t need mercy, because at least we’re not walking around the shops at 3AM blowing the rent money on food in nothing but our leopard prints! Like the good Victorians we are, we present as the Queens Good People, but inside we rot with syphilis, sweat in high collars and burn in mercury poisoning to save face in front of everyone else whose internal suffering is in check. Our mimesis can’t bear to look on or acknowledge true suffering too closely or else we too will dissolve into our true form and join those who are mocked by the smile presenting public. Any sign of weakness is an opportunity to pounce and lambast someone’s argument or behaviour as nothing more than walking around Walmart in our collective Fruit of the Looms.
Shame, like a naked body, is meant to be covered but our naked bodies are not shame itself but vulnerability which has been acquired and rebranded with the trademark of shame. We cover ourselves with the fig leaves of pride to hide our shame; to sweep it under the rug and pretend nothing is wrong, but God covers our shame by covering it with grace and adorning it with mercy. What we see is what we get; love in its fullest form which lays down its life for the purpose of another carrying on to clothe others in grace and mercy by such behaviour. Jesus endured the shame of the cross taking on our nakedness and defilement by men to show us that though our bodies are uncovered and our names dragged through the mud, we are clothed with mercy and grace and should therefore go on clothing others in this same way.
3 Suggested Applications
Recognise when we are covering our shame at the expense of being dragged into the limelight of ridicule by those who are doing the same thing.
Repent of our fig leaf coverings and accept the coverings of mercy and grace which are the only true remedy for our shame.
Walk in mercy with others like our God who rains on the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous may well only be righteous because it is in vouge for their demographic and shame has not yet been brought upon them. True righteousness comes from what we do with our shame and the shame of others. Do we push them out of the sight of women and children or do we clothe them with the grace and mercy off our own backs?
Subjects often found in the realms of High Theology
This quote hit me hard. “Our mimesis can’t bear to look on or acknowledge true suffering too closely or else we too will dissolve into our true form and join those who are mocked by the smile presenting public.”
We cast shame as a way of exclusion without realizing it will point back to ourselves.