Shame and Embarrassment - October 16
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 119:1-24; PM Psalm 12, 13, 14; Jonah 1:17-2:10; Acts 27:9-26; Luke 9:1-17
How do we journey where we don’t want to go but God wants us to go anyway?
I recently discovered a fascinating story about a Japanese sergeant from World War II, Shoichi Yokoi. Yokoi fled to Guam to evade capture in August of 1944. Yokoi was one of 5,000 soldiers who refused to surrender after the Battle of Guam. He spent 27 years in the jungles of Guam until two local fishermen overpowered him in January of 1972. Historians have used his story to show the power of the Japanese philosophy of Bushido which emphasizes honor and self-sacrifice. When he returned to his home country, his initial words were “It is with much embarrassment that I return.”
Shame and ego can have a tremendous effect on our lives. Imagine hiding in the woods for 27 years because of embarrassment and shame. When Nicholas D. Kristof wrote for the New York Times in 1997, after Yokoi died of a heart attack at age 82, he stated that upon his return to Japan, “he stirred widespread soul-searching … about whether he represented the best impulses of the national spirit or the silliest.” Shame and embarrassment don’t lead us to make the best decisions. I’d even argue it’s why we see grace and love as the most powerful forces in this world, the ability to transform shame into life.
In today’s Old Testament lesson, the Lord provides a large fish to swallow up Jonah. Jonah is refusing to go to Ninevah. As soon as he hears the message to go to Nineva, he flees to Tarsish. In today’s reading, he is in the body of the fish for three days. Some say it is a rebirth and when the fish spews Jonah on the ground, he heads to Ninevah, although you get the impression he still doesn’t want to go. When God saves the Ninevites, Jonah is quite upset (that’s a funny story in its own right).
God calls us into tough places: a tough conversation with a loved one, an honest disclosure with a medical professional, or some confrontation with our own selves. It can be hard to face who we are, who we are becoming, and the people we have entrusted as partners in this life. To be faithful means life won’t always be easy. God doesn’t promise simplicity or ease, but to be with us in the midst of life. Sometimes we have to go to Nineva whether we want to or not. And sometimes God won’t let us run away.
What is the role of shame or embarrassment in your own life? How can grace and love help you step into an uncomfortable place? I’m trying to imagine what Yokoi missed out on hiding for 27 years and how grace might have given him a different life. Grace can help us go where we don’t want to go.
John+