From Thornton Wilder’s The Angel That Troubled the Waters:
The Newcomer: Oh, in such an hour was I born, and doubly fearful to me is the flaw in my heart. Must I drag my shame, prince and singer, all the days more bowed than my neighbor?
The Angel (Stands a moment in silence): Without your wound, where would your power be? It is your very remorse that makes your low voice tremble in the hearts of men. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In love’s service only the wounded soldiers can serve. Draw back.
[PZ throws his paper off the pulpit]
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6 comments
Joshua Corrigan says:
Mar 29, 2009
Ha! What a moment of pure abreaction! So glad to have been there.
Jeff Hual says:
Mar 29, 2009
I read this for the first time at JFK while waiting for my flight and ended up abreacting in the middle of a crowded resturant.
The funny thing is, I can’t read this without being deeply effected by it, even now. It seems literally to be a dogwhistle for me. When I tried to read it to my wife a little while ago, it effected me as if I were reading it for the first time.
Thank you all for an outstanding conference.
Jeff Hual says:
Mar 29, 2009
Meant to say it affected me, not effected me…sorry, got home after midnight last night and am running on pure coffee at this point, but the conference was certainly worth it…much thanks to all of you.
sbrbaby says:
Mar 30, 2009
I love the painting reminding me that Jesus was wounded too… I hadn’t thought about it until now. What hope there is in that!
Colton says:
Mar 30, 2009
INCREDIBLE words. thanks for sharing. hate that i had to miss what was, by all accounts, a sublime weekend in NYC.
John Stamper says:
Mar 31, 2009
Hey Drake. Thanks for drawing everybody to this moment of the conference.
I think this will come up time and again for us at Mbird, in our lives and ministry, and so is especially worth us thinking about.
It’s just such a shocking idea — that a person’s affliction, perhaps even a moral affliction, may be essential to how God uses him in love and service to others.
One thinks of course of St. Paul begging to be delivered from his own “messenger of Satan” in his flesh, but also when he writes in 1 Cor:
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are”
PS. As an aside, my own personal take on THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and especially on all the love that Tolkien showers on Gollum, the special pity and belovedness he has for this most wretched of his characters — my take is that the whole of LOTR is basically one gigantic symphonic riff on this passage from 1 Cor 1.