My Sunday Sermon

I was watching Oprah: Behind the Scenes and the episode was about Oprah’s James Fey interview. In case you do not remember, James Frey wrote a book called it A Million Little Pieces. A few years back Oprah had selected it for her book group and had James Frey on the show. The book examined addiction and recovery and was advertised as an autobiography when it in fact was later discovered to be both fact mixed in with fiction. When Oprah discovered that the book was not truly an autobiography, she re-interviewed him, and unlike her usual compassionate self, allowed her voice to be consumed from the perspective of “how dare you do that to me”.

It was not one of Oprah’s finest television moments. But before the Oprah show ended this year for good, Oprah and James Frey met again and this time clearer heads prevailed. Oprah put aside her ego and allowed contrition and absolution to direct the interview. And the viewers understood that people are not perfect, ego is a poor governess of reason, and compassion filters grace. And grace is what it is all about.

My cousin’s daughter died an untimely death at age 21. Her death was the result of bad circumstance and an undiscovered medical condition. And the church was filled with a lot of “why did this happen to a girl so young?” “She didn’t deserve it” “Why would God do this to her/us/them?” In times of tragedy, the ego loves to step in and rule. And the ego cultivates self-pity which impedes healing and forgiveness.      

The priest simply said this: life is not a contract you sign with God. There is no “if I do this then God will do that”or “if I fulfill the required X, Y, and Z my reward will be D, E, and F.” The priest said there is no “why me-s? or I didn’t deserve that-s” with God. That egocentric line of thought is unproductive.  If you are faithful, you accept that God has reason that humans cannot understand (Pascal) -- and as the faithful, our job is to believe that God knows what he is doing. We don’t have to agree with God’s decisions; we just have to go with it—humans need to agree to disagree with God. Our job is to figure out how events fit into our destiny—every event, good or bad is a life lesson. Since God doesn’t sign contracts, the only thing we may expect is the unexpected. God is not bound by man’s rules.

And when the priest was finished speaking, everyone felt better. Everyone was still sad, and the wounds were still raw, but we all had new possibility. This priest had really nailed it.

I loved the book A Million Little Pieces. It allowed me to understand addiction in a way that I had not previously understood. And while the fictional parts may not have been true for James Frey, I have no doubt that for someone out there, the fiction was true for them. The book didn’t need to be James Frey’s autobiography for me to understand the carnage of addiction, and the path to redemption. And I did not have to be Oprah interviewing James Frey to learn that ego directs you down a slippery slope---I could learn that lesson from the other side of the television screen. The second you think How dare you do this or I didn’t deserve that, you eliminate the possibility of grace, and you believe God has broken his contract. And like that priest said: God does not make contracts.