I was promenading through the King of Prussia Mall a couple weeks ago – you know, like I do … You may wonder what I do with all my free time when it’s not Sunday morning? Well, I mostly fill those empty hours spending quality time with my credit card at the mall buying things I don’t need with money I don’t have…

Anyhow, I was actually at the King of Prussia Mall – for the first time, in fact! It dazzled me, to be honest. And I got kind of disoriented. I was casting around those vast and glittering chambers on my search for the thing I came to buy to fulfill the need that had compelled me into those hallowed halls.

As my dear long-suffering partner will attest, when it comes to shopping, especially in a high-glitz environment, there is a time-limit on my emotional fortitude.

At some point, in my first foray into the King of Prussia Mall, that time-limit came due. And it was just as my mood was beginning to get moody when, suddenly, something stopped me in my tracks.

There, stretched out before me, towering floor to ceiling, as wide as a semi-truck is long, was a pink wall, and on that pink wall were big letters that said:

“good vibes only”

“Uh oh,” I thought. “I don’t think I qualify at the moment.”

I quick looked around to make sure there weren’t any bouncers coming to subject me to some kind of vibe check. Or maybe they use undercover positivity police? I don’t know.

Anyhow, I made it out okay. And I did find what I was looking for, by the way. (But did I, really?)

So, it turns out this “good vibes only” thing is a whole lifestyle brand slogan. You’ll see it on t-shirts and social media posts and branding for cheerful things we can buy to display to the world that we are happy and we have got it all together.

Now, I just thank God that this is not the slogan at the front of our church. And it’s not the mantra we repeat before we pray.

And it’s not anywhere to be found in our scriptures.

What would that be like?! “Jesus taught them saying, ‘Blessed are those who radiate only positivity, for that positivity is the reality they will manifest”!? Or what if Micah said, “What does the Lord require of you but to keep that messy moodiness of yours locked away”!?

Or I can’t even imagine what the Psalms would sound like, or Ecclesiastes, or Job, or Jeremiah, or Lamentations. I mean, talk about a bunch of Debbie downers.

Our scriptures are full of raw expressions of harsh vibes – real people keeping it real before the God of ultimate reality.

And you know what else our scriptures are full of?

Hope. Courage. Compassion. Grace. Joy. Resurrected Life.

Through it all, the stories of our faith testify, through alland everything, we can discover the Presence of our Holy Creator who embraces us as we are … yet who does not leave us unchanged. A God who meets us where we are and journeys with us through hell and high water, to the mountaintop and back.

But the more of ourselves we push into the shadows – to keep it all “good vibes only” – the more of ourselves we deny the embrace of God’s grace, the more we give space for monsters to grow. The parts of ourselves that we refuse to admit are still there, they just now get to do their thing without us being aware. This is dangerous, like trying to drive a semi-truck without mirrors and pretending you don’t have giant blind-spots.

When we forbid and deny the parts of ourselves that we wish weren’t there, we also are denying ourselves the “hidden wholeness” of our souls, to use the words of Palmer Palmer, who is a Quaker teacher and writer. “Wholeness does not mean perfection,” Palmer writes, “it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.” (from Hidden Wholeness, by Parker Palmer).

This is why Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas taught, “If you bring forth what is within you, that will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, that will destroy you.” This is why the Psalms model for us a way of prayer where one pours out one’s heart before God. Agony, anger, sorrow, doubt, astonishment, rapture, reverence, gratitude, joy, jubilation, quietude – the heights and the depths of the soul, the nooks and the crannies of the psyche are all opened to the light and the ventilation of God’s Mercy.

The “good vibes only” mindset is very common within American Christianity – maybe not with the hippy language, but with misquotes from Paul. And it’s just everywhere through so many parts of our secular culture, in one form or another. It’s in the water we drink.

I for one have had to admit how this is true for me, personally; and I’ve had enough experience within new agey communities, where it’s “let’s keep it all light and love!”, and Christian communities, where it’s “we’re all very, very nice and tidy.” There can be incredible unconscious viciousness and lashing judgment, and denial of sadness and grief, and the things that make us sad or mad.

How many of us have been made to feel at some point that we shouldn’t be feeling what we are in fact feeling? That we need to hide it away and not be honest about it with anyone, maybe not even ourselves?

How many of us have felt that in church? Church is for your Sunday best, after all. Keep your mess at home.

How many of us have felt that in our prayer lives? That we don’t dare be honest to God, for fear of judgment or of losing control, for fear of being honest with ourselves, let alone with God?

How many of us have been raised to be uncomfortable when someone shares with us their grief, their anger, their despair, their fear, their vulnerability, their mess? We want to just ignore it, because we don’t know what to say. Or try to fix it, to make it go away.

The consequences are shame, guilt, fear, secrecy, isolation, unconscious viciousness, and unspoken despair.

This all is part of one’s brokenness that one can bring before God.  

Many of us have opportunities for growth here.

And I believe that church, and this church specifically, can be a place for that growth. Because Holy Mercy can be our guide to recovering our hidden wholeness and caring for the hidden wholeness of one another. All our practices of prayer and our sacraments of Grace are ways for us to learn to receive God’s embrace of our messiness and our brokenness as integral parts of our whole selves.

This helps us to grow in compassion and in courage in how we can show up to care for each other, to simply be present, with a heart of mercy, for whatever our neighbor is going through.

And I thank you all for the ways that you are doing all that, the ways that you’ve helped to cultivate this community as a place where we all can be embraced simply as we are.

In conclusion: For the love of God, bring whatever vibes you’ve got!

May God bless our glorious mess.

“Good Vibes Only” by drewtarvin is licensed under CC BY 2.0.