M*A*S*H

There are many thoughts bouncing around in my head this Memorial Day, but one of the top is the last episode of M*A*S*H. 

Watching M*A*S*H was as consistent of a family ritual in our home as saying "God is great, God is good" as fast as humanly possible before meals. Does prayer count when it is a race with your brother?

I will admit something now that I never could have then - I was disappointed and confused. Mind you, I was in middle school, but today that episode clicked.

I remember Hawkeye telling the shrink Sidney Freedman about how he was on a bus and they were in danger, but a woman couldn't get her chicken to shut up so he hollered at her to silence it and she killed it. He tells this story several times and it is only in the final telling when he can confess that it was a child not a chicken. Sorry if I spoiled the ending for you, but it has been 37 years. 

It was unbelievable and confusing to me as child that he couldn't just tell the truth to begin with and get on with the tearful goodbyes. After twenty years as a pastor, in the midst of so many competing truth narratives, I have some understanding.

There are times we can only handle so much truth. There are some ugly places in our lives where we twist our stories so we don't have to admit how destructive we have been. 

I long for private confession and forgiveness to be a regular part of the church; I'd even really like the little booths with the sliding door. I used to be slightly envious of Catholic churches, but most Catholics don't even do that anymore. 

People need places where they can tell true stories even when they are brutal and ugly. Therapists definitely fulfill part of this role, but the gift of confession and forgiveness is you begin and end the story of truth with the eyes of love and grace upon you. It might not always feel like that in the church, but that is the goal. 

There are stories that must be told in all of their ugliness so we don't have to be in bondage to their secrets any longer. We can speak the worst thing we've done without blame or justifying it and then hear the promise that we are not defined by our sin, but by the love and mercy of God. 

I think that's some of what the cross and resurrection are all about. We cannot escape looking upon how cruelly we treat boundless love in this world and we cannot escape looking upon God's continued faithfulness to mercy. That's the story that frees us to tell the truth.