Reflections on the passing of Brennan Manning

 The news that Brennan Manning had died filled me with a mix of sadness and joy - sadness, because such a wonderful light has gone out of this world, joy because if Brennan Manning is right, then there is reason to hope that I will meet him again.

I met Brennan once years ago, briefly, when he came to speak at a church that I attended. He was gracious, kind, and very patient with me as I fumbled for words, trying not to gush like a giddy teenager meeting a rock star. There was a photo taken of us, but it's lost in the confusion of the years in between.

I came across this quote, which sums up the core of Brennan's teaching quite well:

Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me that she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last ‘trick’, whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school.
"But how?" we ask.
Then the voice says, ‘They have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’
There they are. There we are – the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life’s tribulations, but through it all clung to faith.
My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.

Brennan told a story once of being invited to dinner at a rabbi's house. After the meal, the rabbi's young son climbed into his father's lap while he and Brennan were talking. The young boy proceeded to tug playfully on his father's beard while the discussion went on; the father tolerated the boy, and never said a word against him, while continuing his conversation.

If faith is worth anything, if belief means anything, then Brennan Manning is sitting in God's lap, tugging God's beard at this moment. I hope that one day I can join him there, and see if the two of us can distract our Father for a moment. I bet we can't.