The Babylon Bee has recently published a very funny Beach Boys parody video that has been making the rounds – “I Wish We All Could Leave California Now.”  It barely scratches the surface of why California has become so intolerable.  It also reminded me of Gavin Newson’s “French Market Incident,” wherein he had the state all masked up and locked down but attended a very high-end birthday party unmasked.  You know, the kind of stuff that has gotten Boris Johnson booted out. (sorta)  Yet Newsom has carried on shamelessly, up to and including running ads in places like Florida and Texas chastising them for their stances on abortion after Dobbs.

“Shamelessly….”  Too often I have stood in church and sung some praise chorus or the other wherein the lyrics tell me God takes away my shame.  Whenever I do I wonder if that is really what God does.  The word “shame” appears consistently throughout the Bible.  It seems shame is an indicator of being outside of what God wants.  I especially like Psalm 119:78:

May the arrogant be put to shame, because they lead me astray with a lie;
But I shall meditate on Your precepts.

Shame is not necessarily a bad thing.  It tells us when we are in the wrong.  Yes, it feels awful to feel shame, but the response should not be to eliminate the feeling, rather it should be to change the behavior that is producing the feeling.  God does not take away our shame directly.  Rather He uses it to alter our behavior until it is no longer necessary.

But we live in a very different world – a world that defies shame; that declares shame illegitimate and carries on with the shameful behavior.  This is an untenable situation, like building up too much water behind a dam – something is eventually going to give.

I think the first step in avoiding that might be for our churches to stop talking about taking shame away and talk about becoming people that do not need to feel shame.  That is my prayer for this Sunday morning.