Oscar Grace

A moment of grace can change everything.

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I remember watching the Academy Awards in 2004. Bill Murray—one of my favorite actors—had been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar that year for his movie Lost in Translation.

At the Oscars, the camera lingers on the faces of each of the losing nominees after the winner has been announced. (We like to see the pain and disappointment of others, I suppose.) I remember Bill Murray looking particularly crushed when Sean Penn was announced as the winner. He had to have known that he’d never get back there again, particularly as he has made a career as a comic actor and not as someone who takes on the sorts of dramatic roles that are like catnip to the Academy.

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I was reminded of that moment when I saw the award given for Best Director at last night’s 2020 Academy Awards. The Korean director Bong Joon-Ho was announced as the winner, and then the camera lingered on the faces of the four losing directors: Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarentino, Sam Mendes, and Todd Phillips. (I thought Mr. Phillips looked particularly disappointed.) Seeing the real-time disappointment of men who have been working their entire lives to win something made me uncomfortable; I felt sorry for them.

And then Bong Joon-Ho made his speech, and the entire feel of the moment changed. The whole thing is worth watching.

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Watch Bong Joon Ho's Oscar 2020 acceptance speech for Directing for PARASITE. Watch more highlights from Oscars 2020 on Oscar.com and in the ABC app!

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Mr. Bong first deftly recognizes Martin Scorsese in such a pure and heartfelt way that the entire audience gives Martin Scorsese a standing ovation. Then, he credits Quentin Tarentino with generously promoting his films in American when no one had heard of him, and then he tells Todd Phillips and Sam Mendes that he wishes he could cut the Oscar statuette in pieces and share it with them. Todd Phillips grins. It’s as if grace has been poured out on the entire theater, with everyone just grateful to be there and experience it.

It’s such a beautiful moment.

Grace changes everything.

Harvey Weinstein, Lori Loughlin, and the Grace of God

I got an email at 12:45 AM Christmas morning from someone who was very angry with my Christmas Eve sermon. (You can watch that sermon here.) In my sermon, I wondered aloud if we are becoming a culture without mercy--once people have sinned, can they ever find redemption?

I cited the extreme example of Harvey Weinstein and asked if even he can receive mercy. The person who sent me the angry email felt that I was excusing Mr. Weinstein's many sins that have caused harm to so many people. It shouldn't have to be said, but let me say it anyway: but I do not excuse, condone, or approve of any of the things Mr. Weinstein is said to have done. In fact, the very reason I used him as an example is precisely because his sins seem so particularly ugly.

Which brings me back to the question I was asking: Can Harvey Weinstein receive mercy? Can he receive redemption?

Our actions have consequences, and justice requires that people face those consequences. I don't think mercy and consequences are mutually exclusive; Mr. Weinstein should be prosecuted for his crimes and if he is found guilty, he should be sentenced accordingly. And, there should be boundaries in place that make it very difficult for him to hurt anyone ever again.

But what happens after that? If he repents, can he be redeemed?

I've been asking that same question recently with regard to Lori Loughlin and the other celebrities caught up in the college admissions cheating scandal.

What they did was wrong and they need to face the consequences.

But what happens after that?

It strikes me that it's when people are guilty and ashamed and despised--that that is exactly the time when they need to be welcomed at church. I have no idea if Lori Loughlin and her family have a church family, but I'd guess that they don't. Is there any church near them who will reach out? If they were to show up at a church, would they be gawked at? Would folks pull out their phones and post pics to social media?

It strikes me that it's when people are guilty and ashamed and despised--that that is exactly the time when they need to be welcomed at church. I have no idea if Lori Loughlin and her family have a church family, but I'd guess that they don't. Is there any church near them who will reach out? If they were to show up at a church, would they be gawked at? Would folks pull out their phones and post pics to social media?

Most of us are able to hide our sins or explain them away. We maintain plausible deniability and pretend.

But sometimes there is no hiding. Sometimes we are totally exposed. Sometimes the whole world knows.

It shouldn't need to be said, but let me say it anyway:

Jesus died for sinners. Not the respectable sinners only, but also the shameful, wicked, public ones. Jesus died for Harvey Weinstein. Jesus died for Lori Loughlin.

Is there anyone around them who will tell them?

Is there a church family who can teach them?

Is there a place they can go on Easter Sunday to hear the Good News?

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Ananias and Sapphira

Two people (a husband and a wife) lie in church--about how much money they are putting in the offering plate(!)--and the Holy Spirit strikes them dead?! Pretty much. That's the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5.If you are a normal person this story strikes you as (a) really strange and hard to believe and (b) extremely troubling. Is the Lord really this capricious?Some quick thoughts:

• I think The Bible Project video does a good job of connecting the Ananias and Sapphira episode with the story of the stricken priests in Leviticus.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQhkWmFJKnA&feature=youtu.be&t=188[/embed]

• The presence of the Lord is not something to dishonor or mock: God's Spirit is a Holy Spirit, and he doesn't work for us. He is, to paraphrase Lewis, "not a tame God."
• It is dangerous, the Bible tells us, to think that God can be manipulated for our own purposes.
• I think Luke also wants us to understand that the one thing that will kill the church is the pretense that we are better than we are. Note that Peter makes it clear that the capital sin of Ananias and Sapphira was not withholding back part of the proceeds of the real estate sale--it was theirs to do with as they pleased--but that they lied and pretended that they were giving all of their profit.
• It's okay that the Bible stories trouble us. If the Bible were merely a human document, then we might expect to immediately understand and agree with all of it. Because, however, the Bible comes from God, we should expect it to confront, convict, and trouble us. It's at the places where we are most troubled that we should pay the most attention.
• The Lord is gracious, but grace is not cheap and grace is not guaranteed. To presume that we can do whatever we want and?not face consequences is to not understand grace.

So, some questions for reflection:

• What is it that most troubles about this story? Why?
• Are there places in your life in which you are trying to manipulate God?
• Where are you putting up a false front? Where in your life are you trying to pretend to be better than you are? (One thinks of social media....)

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Broward County Tightrope

How should we treat that school cop from Florida? I'm going to tell you at the outset that I don't know how to answer the question that I'm going to raise in this post, but I think it's important to raise it anyway. No doubt you've heard that the school resource officer assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida remained outside during the massacre on February 14. No one knows what might have happened if the school cop had entered the building and confronted the killer in the midst of his rampage, but we do know what did?happen: the killer walked out of the school unharmed, leaving 17 corpses behind him.I don't know what I would have done if I were the school cop that day, and neither do you: it was literally a life-and-death moment, and we should judge not lest we be judged. On the other hand, it was that officer's job to protect the school, and he clearly failed in his duty. As a result, this man is internationally notorious as a failure, and that judgment will stalk him the rest of his life. All of this raises a question I've thought a lot about:How do we maintain clear moral standards while at the same time offering grace to the people who violate those standards? Put another way, How do we hate the sin and love the sinner?Almost always, when we think about the above question, we're talking about sexual ethics. But this case shows that the question is much broader than that.

Option A--Be Lax With the Standards

Let's say we decide that it's too high a standard to expect our cops to risk their own lives on behalf of the public. The inevitable result of that decision would be fewer cops who risk their lives on behalf of the public. The expectations we set matter. If we relax our standards, behavior would follow.Take marriage and divorce: when a culture frowns upon divorce, there are fewer divorces. (I'm not saying that the marriages that persist are good marriages, or even if social condemnation of divorce is a good thing--I'm just making the obvious point that our standards matter.) Today, divorce has much less social stigma than it did in previous generations, and it shouldn't surprise anyone that we have more divorces than in previous generations.A culture's standards and expectations affect the behavior of the people in that culture.

Option B--Be Rigid With the Standards

Instead of relaxing our standards, we could choose to vigilantly maintain them. We could decide, for example, that we?do expect our cops to risk their own lives on behalf of the public, no matter what. Anyone who refused to do so, we would socially shame and professionally reprimand. When it comes to marriage, we could decide that our culture values fidelity highly, and we could have the cultural guardrails and legal safeguards in place to make divorce undesirable and difficult.

The Problem

Each option poses a problem, however:Option A will mean that we'll get more of the behaviors that we don't want;but, human nature being what it is...Option B will mean that those who violate the standards will be marked forever as violators.But again, if we say to the sinners in Option B--"It's really okay. Don't feel bad about it."--we are in danger of making Option A a reality.I confront this problem all the time. If I don't preach strongly in favor of marriage and against divorce, for example, it might seem as if marital fidelity doesn't matter that much. But, if I do hit that topic hard, it might be the case that I am heaping shame on people who are already covered in it.Imagine if the school cop from Parkland were in your church: if you immediately said to him, "It's fine" you'd be saying something that isn't true: it's NOT fine. But, on the other hand, if you didn't extend grace to him, you'd be lying, too, since Jesus forgives sinners.It's a tightrope.I think sometimes that this tightrope--balancing between hating the sin and loving the sinner--is actually impossible for us. Fortunately, it is possible for God, who both hates sin and loves sinners at the same time. What's difficult to know is how we practically live out the mysterious grace of God in the world.So,?how do we maintain clear moral standards while at the same time offering grace to the people who violate those standards?I don't think there is a quick and easy formula. I think this requires wisdom and prayer.(And, I think we should add the school resource officer from Parkland to the prayers we are already praying for the grieving families.) 

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