by Rev Roger Scholtz
About three weeks ago allegations surfaced about the world’s greatest golfer – Tiger Woods – having numerous extra-marital affairs. He has since confirmed that the allegations are true, has expressed his profound regret for the pain and disappointment that he has caused, and has announced his indefinite withdrawal from competitive golf.
Tiger Woods’ story is another tragic example of the wreckage that sinful choices inevitably produce. Because of his iconic status as a sports celebrity, his story has made the headlines, but it’s by no means unique. His story mirrors that of many, and is a sobering reminder to us all of the debris of broken relationships and shattered dreams that we can leave in our wake when we overstep the boundary lines of our own commitments. This is true not just of marital infidelity, but of any commitment that we violate.
So what does the Christmas story have to say to the likes of Tiger Woods (which incidentally includes the likes of you and me)?
1. The underlying point of Christmas is the recognition by God of our fundamental inability as people to deal with the destructive impulses within us that seem hell-bent on wrecking our lives. Christmas is God’s decisive response to humanity’s desperate need to be rescued from ourselves.
2. The poverty, humility and scandal surrounding the birth of Christ suggest that when God chose to enter the world in human form, God did so from the very bottom. Accordingly, there are no depths to the human condition that are lower than where God in Christ is willing to go. Not even our greatest shortcomings and most spectacular moral failures are greater than the compassionate reach of an endlessly gracious God.
3. While many people have described Tiger Woods’ demise as a “fall from grace”, the Christmas story reminds us that this is in fact a contradiction in terms. We cannot fall from grace, for when we fall we find out that it is into God’s grace that we fall. Christmas declares that humanity’s fall and God’s grace are inextricably bound together. This is the hope for Tiger and for us all – that it is precisely in our greatest humiliations and most crushing failures that we find an invitation for something truly transformative and authentically new.
This is “the good news of great joy that shall be for all people” (Lk 2:10).
SCRIPTURE
The Lord said, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Corinthians 12:9)
PRAYER
Thank you Lord that there is nothing that can separate us from your love and your grace, which are greater and stronger than even the very worst things that we can do. Amen
COMMENT
What do you think are the necessary steps that must be taken by those who seek healing and restoration after a significant moral failure?
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