Falling Down

You ever here the rhyme, “Ashes to Ashes, we all fall down”? I remember playing this game and when we did our " Ashes, ashes, we all fell down.” we collapsed giggling, on the ground. We all fell down.

One explanation of this little nursery game is that it refers to the plague that hit London with such ferocity in the 17th Century. Perhaps it refers to the fact that the disease was so contagious that if you were in a group where someone sneezed, likely before long all in the group would fall down and die. I don’t know about that; but I do know that there is a contagion more powerful than the plague. There is a sickness that infects us all, and from which all will die. It’s called sin. As in all have sinned. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

Yet, last week, I didn’t want anybody to know I sin; that I’m not perfect; that Paul has a weakness (or two) nobody wants to hear that and nobody wants to acknowledge how deep that goes? We do not want to see the all-ness of sin. All have sinned; ashes, ashes, we all fall down.

Look at King David; he had every reason to push his sin under the royal carpets, because the confidence of his people would be shaken if the truth were to come out. David had every reason to deny his sinful style of life, for there was already rebellion brewing in the heart of at least one of his sons. David needed to cover up this sin.

But he could not. He could not because Nathan the prophet saw through the sham and the shame and pronounced, "You are the man." You are the one who stole and plundered and killed. And David, once caught, issued no press releases, hid behind no attorneys, put out no excuses. David fell on his face and cried out, from the depths of his being, "Have mercy on me, O God. Have mercy on me."

This past week, I fell down. Instead of falling on my knees and confessing my sin, I ran away! I quickly shut the world out and blamed the world for my sin. That’s how we are sometimes though, we prefer to look for someone or something else to blame and hide our shame. This didn’t start with us though, I blame Adam!

The Lord said to Adam, "Why did you eat this forbidden fruit?" and Adam said, "The woman" gave it to me, and then went even farther … "the woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit." It’s not really my fault, it’s her fault, and beyond that, it’s your fault, Lord, because you should not have put her there in the first place! So do we attempt to escape our singular responsibility for our actions?

Sin is not just breaking rules; sin is not just violating laws or bending commandments. Sin is that posture of pride that puts self on the pedestal and preens and prances (by the way, I gave up preening and prancing). Sin is a denial of who God is.

What we do is no private matter; it is not even just an interpersonal matter. It has a divine dimension. What we do and who we are is of concern to the one who made us. He knows and he cares, and more than that, He is hurt when we try to dislodge His place. It not only hurts God but it also hurts your friends. I hurt God and my friends this week when I ran.

I’m sure some of us think of ourselves as very small fish in a tiny little pond, and that what we are about has very little consequence. But I tell you that in the economy of God there are no small fish, there are only His sons and daughters of infinite worth. And therefore His heart is broken when we let malice or hatred, prejudice or shame, or any such thing, takes us over.

Ashes to Ashes… and yes, we all fall down.

But out of the ashes of shame Christ rose. Out of the falling into sin He brings us.

Thank you Jesus!