Life is full of events which remind us how far we are, at times, from the peaceful kingdom promised to us by Jesus. For the last week, so many of us have been saddened by the bombing of the Boston Marathon by domestic terrorists as well as the explosion of a fertilizer manufacturing plant in West, Texas. We have cried for those lost, for their families and over the trauma that will be experienced by the survivors for years to come.
This same week, I too have cried over the loss of one who I know would have been the first to speak comforting words of grace and peace over these horrific days. Brennan Manning, author of many popular Christian books, including The Ragamuffin Gospel, passed away Friday, April 12. If Manning had lived only a few days longer, he certainly would have soothing words to offer in the fiery aftermath of the previous week.
Alex Gallimore
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Although I never had the pleasure of meeting Manning, I have always considered him to be one of my spiritual teachers. One of my closest mentors had the honor of learning from Manning and was a student of his many writings, teachings and retreats, and I quickly became the beneficiary of that learning. A man of reckless confidence in the unconditional love and compassion of Almighty God to all people, Manning spent his life encouraging men and women everywhere to accept and embrace such love as the Good News. Although Manning will be remembered by many for a plethora of reasons, I will always remember how he lived, understood and articulated the vastness of God’s grace made known to us through Jesus.
And Manning understood that grace on a very deep and personal level, because he both ran from it and surrendered to it almost daily. Manning, for most of his life, was what we would call an alcoholic. It is said that early in his travels he would be somewhere teaching on the grace of God and encouraging others to surrender to that grace and let God lead them, and he would then go back to his hotel room, unplug the phone and drink himself into a stupor until his next preaching engagement.
Manning once said this about his up and down spiritual journey: “When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.”
Brennan Manning
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Manning’s own experience led him to this understanding of God’s grace: “Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement and death will be part of your journey, but the Kingdom of God will conquer all these horrors. No evil can resist grace forever.”
Many would judge Manning and call him a hypocrite, but I don’t. Because in Brennan Manning I see the truth of our world and ourselves. We all have our struggles and we all have our demons. All of us, good and bad, have what The Apostle Paul calls thorns in our flesh that we must continually cast upon the everlasting grace of God where the blood of his son Jesus can wash us clean and set us free. We all carry with us deep wounds that must be healed.
Manning’s own journey, from priest to alcoholic to grace-filled teacher removes the judgmental facade of perfection so many Christians attempt to claim over their own lives whenever they put on their Sunday best or stand in our culture’s many public spaces. Manning’s life is proof that Christians, from inactive church-goers to burnt-out church leaders are just as broken as those they seek to reach. The courageous humility of Brennan’s life and ministry found strength from such brokenness and inspired thousands to embrace, as their true identity, that they are the ragamuffins of God, “the dirty, bedraggled, and beat up.” Manning taught that only by accepting who we truly are and our need for God’s grace can we truly rest in the truth that we are already deeply loved by God.
When I first learned of Manning’s death I became uncontrollably emotional. I cried not because I was suffering loss, but because I knew Brennan was finally experiencing that which he had preached all those years. Brennan, the ragamuffin, has now made it home, and he continues to live in the everlasting love of his loving Abba who is right now reminding Brennan, as the title of his memoir declares, all is grace.
Alex Gallimore ([email protected]) is pastor of Hester Baptist Church in Oxford, N.C.