SHAME WALKS AMONG US
Who let you out of the pit and clothed you as real,
No longer a concept or figment of imagination
but a thing empowered, dressed to kill?
I’ve met you before, but where?
Barging through the front door,
Reclining and heckling, boots on the table
Flicking butts to the carpet, blowing smoke in my face.
Is Shame your only name?
Or have I met you through another?
Perhaps a father, a mother, a sister, or brother?
Or through teachers or preachers who seek to reduce us
With lies which diminish, deform and distort us?
Sharing glory in heaven was never enough
Rebellion rose in your throat
The taste of blood on your tongue
Always a glutton and grasping for more
You sprang for the jugular
Enticed by lust and your ego
Underestimating the power of the One
Who defeated and cast you below
Stripped of power and pride of place
Skulking and naked among us
Too ashamed to reveal a form or your face
You masquerade as majestic beings
In creatures, a snake and a lion, and also in humans,
In ideas, institutions, in culture, in nations,
Luring the weak to the pit whence you came
Devouring, accusing, annihilating forever.
Oh, but your defeat is nigh!
One stronger than Shame has arrived
And stripped you bare, silencing your
pretensions, recriminations, and hidden intentions.
The Incarnated One, clothed in glory is here
Redeeming, reconciling, dwelling among us
He’s bathing and clothing our shivering bodies
with healing, forgiveness, restoration, and blessing
Tenderly unbinding the filthy memories of shame
which long permeated our psyche and deformed our frame
One layer after another, sparing further humiliation
‘Til shame is no more and we are made whole.