What Destroys Superman
but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God 2 Corinthians 4:2
Hidden – Why does the mythology of Superman endure? From time immemorial, men and women have all wanted to be super people. Invulnerable. Powerful. Rescuers of others. What makes the Superman myth so appealing? Isn’t it the fact that each of us experiences our own frailty and finitude? Isn’t it the result of recognizing how perilously temporal we really are? That mortality even affects Superman. There is one thing that brings him to his knees. One thing that can destroy him. Do you remember what it is? It’s kryptonite, of course. The secret weapon against the Man of Steel. It’s this part of the mythology that really demands our attention. We may not be men and women of steel, but we certainly share one thing with Superman. We have our own kryptonite.
Paul calls it the “hidden” things of shame. The Greek word is kryptos. What is our kryptos? It is those secrets about us that would shame us if anyone ever really knew. Just like the radiant green rock for Superman, the kryptos in our lives wields deadly power. Whenever it surfaces, we are shattered, shaken and stricken. We come close to death, perhaps not of our bodies but certainly of our reputations and our identities. The power of kryptos is the secret of shameful things. It lurks in the background of our lives. We never know when someone will uncover these terrible secrets and unmask us. And so we fear the truth – the truth that will confirm our bondage, not our freedom.
Are you afraid to look at kryptos? Do you deliberately avoid any mention of those secrets that might reveal a different “you”? Are there moments when you feel the adrenaline rush of exposure? Then you should know that you are not alone. The secret of every one of us is that shame lies beneath. Under the surface, we are alike. That’s why Paul can say, “we have renounced”. That’s why Paul can make a public declaration of his shame and destroy its secret power. But, oh, how frightening it is to think of such renouncing. So much easier to confess it privately to God, where no one else will hear. When Protestant Christianity gave up the confessional, it threw out the baby with the bathwater. We, all of us, need confession. It is the only way to get rid of the threat of kryptonite.
A private, fearless moral inventory is a useless exercise. Until you tell it to someone else, and to God, the green rock glows. Confession really is good for the soul.
