Tag: Secrets in the Dark

The other side of a red line

Post author By dw
Post date September 22, 2018
1 Comment on The other side of a red line

What is the truth? It is not the answer to any question that we know how to ask. Can there be a truth that saves, can there be salvation, for those who have learned of life not to believe in salvation? Only on the other side of pain…the pained embarrassment at the words Jesus Saves, which at its heart is a pained embarrassment at our own nakedness and incompleteness…pain that brought tears to the eyes…of hope betrayed…the pain of the good thief, which is the pain of surrender, the pain of acknowledging finally our utter helplessness to save ourselves.”

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “The Sign by the Highway”

Tags embarrassment, Frederick Buechner, Jesus saves, red line, salvation, Secrets in the Dark, sermon, truth

Other Writings

Neon-lit pain

Post author By dw
Post date July 22, 2018
1 Comment on Neon-lit pain

We draw near to him by following him even on clumsy and reluctant feet and without knowing more than two cents’ worth at first about what is involved in following him — into the seventy-five-mile-an-hour, neon-lit pain of our world.

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “The Sign by the Highway”

Tags doubt, drawing near to God, following Jesus, Frederick Buechner, neon, pain, Secrets in the Dark, sermon, Thomas the doubter

the real self

The empty place

Post author By dw
Post date July 3, 2018
1 Comment on The empty place

I think…there is…hope that, if not tomorrow or the next day, then some fine day, somehow, life will finally give us the present that, when we open it, will turn out to be the one we have waited for so long, the one that will fill the empty place, which is the peace that passeth all understanding, which is the truth, salvation, whatever we want to call it. But one by one, as we open the presents, no matter how rich and wondrous they are, we discover that not one of them by itself, nor even all of them taken together, is the one of our deepest desiring — that ultimately, although her face is beautiful and draws us to her, life by herself does not have that final present to give.

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “The Sign by the Highway”

Tags emptiness, Frederick Buechner, life, peace, salvation, Secrets in the Dark, sermon, truth

love

Never safe from us

homeless man with sign saying "seeking human kindness"

God himself is never safe from us…He comes in such a way that we can always turn him down…in the hungry people we do not have to feed…in the lonely people we do not have to comfort…in all the desperate human need of people everywhere that we are always free to turn our backs upon.

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “The Face in the Sky”

Tags Frederick Buechner, human need, hungry, lonely, never safe, Secrets in the Dark, sermon

Other Writings

No safe place

Post author By dw
Post date May 30, 2018
2 Comments on No safe place

sliver of light falling on hair of woman in the dark

Those who believe in God can never in a way be sure of him again. Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure where he will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of humankind…this means that we are never safe, that there is no place where we can hide from God, no place where we are safe from his power to break in two and recreate the human heart.

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “The Face in the Sky”