What's Tony Thinking

A Treat for Your Weekend

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On Tuesday of this week, Bishop Mariann Budde entreated newly inaugurated President Trump to “have mercy.” (I kind of wish that she had said, “God is merciful, what’s your problem?,” but whatever.)

Anyhow, on the theory that most all of us are in need of mercy and grace at this point in time (as at all points in time) I want to share with you a video of a recent talk by Dave Zahl on “Refreshing Our Vocabulary of Grace.” 

It was given at one of Mockingbird’s regional conferences, last fall in Tyler, Texas. It’s terrific. Watch it, you’ll be glad you did.

All words — especially the important ones — become, over time, shop-worn, smoothed out, in danger of losing any real power or meaning. “Grace” is hardly exempt from this fate. Dave does a great job of re-vivifying the word that is at the very center of the Christian faith.

Dave Zahl is the lead person of Mockingbird Ministries which I mentioned here recently. I will be speaking at the annual conference of Mockingbird in New York City, to be held May 1 – 3. The link here will take you to more information about the conference. Early bird registration rates end February 1.

My talk is titled, “Isn’t Christianity Really Just About Being Good?” I’ll open the morning plenary session on May 2 at Calvary Episcopal Church on New York’s lower east side, near Union Square.

Watching this talk by Dave will give you a feel for what Mockingbird is all about. Even more importantly, it will — after this past week — give you some moments of humor, truth and, well, grace. Something, in addition to mercy, that we all need.

One of Dave’s illustrations comes from the years when Betty Crocker cake mixes first debuted, in the 50’s I imagine. Initially, Betty Crocker cake mixes were a big hit and very popular. But before long sales went into the toilet. The company hired a Freudian psychologist to try to figure out what had gone wrong.

He told them the problem was “guilt.” (Stock-in-trade for a Freudian analyst!) The problem was that women fixing a Betty Crocker cake for their family felt that hadn’t really done anything. As all you had to do was “add water.”

Solution? The instructions were changed. “Add an egg.” This made people feel that they had done something. It assuaged their guilt for the whole thing being too easy. They could say, “I made you a cake.” Sales rebounded.

Just so, we like to think it’s up to us, that we have done something, that we can do something to save ourselves. Which is why grace is, among other things, disquieting and offensive. Anyhow, listen to/ watch Dave unpack it for a weekend treat and breather.

Enjoy!

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