The Gig that Wasn't
Happy 2nd Birthday to Our Trespasses
On Monday morning, just a couple of days ago, I got the nicest email. It was from a reader in New York City who had been deeply moved by Our Trespasses. She wanted me to join her book club by Zoom for a discussion of my inspiration, my process, and the outcomes of the work.
A message like that is catnip for an author. You want me to talk about my obsessions, which you think are interesting? You don’t have to ask twice. Sign me up.
So, I replied quickly. How grateful I am. How exciting it was to receive this email. What an excellent start to the week she had provided me. I wonder if I could get to NYC soon and perhaps make a trip overlap with one of their meetings. I’m so excited to meet your people.
Then I emailed my editor at Fortress Press: it’s been two years since the book was published; I’m really thankful for the assistance you and Fortress provided; I’m feeling good this morning because it’s been two years and the book is still circulating well and getting responses like the one I got this morning!
The next reply from the NYC book club was obviously a form email telling me about all the benefits I would get from being a featured author with them. And then:
“We do require a $100 registration fee for your participation in our book club.”
A scam.
A quick Google search confirmed that these emails claiming to be from Silent Book Club chapter leaders were a common scam. A look back at the first email made me realize it was AI-generated by some soul-destroying machine scraping online book reviews.
Anyways, I’m out an NYC gig, in case you’re looking to hire a desperate, needy author hungry for validation for your next keynote.
But…I did participate in a real author discussion at a real bookstore recently. Troubadour Booksellers is a new bookshop on the east side of Charlotte. Proprietor Scott Tynes-Miller recently invited me out for a discussion facilitated by my new friend Nathan Rouse of Fear of God podcast.
The room was packed and the discussion was fascinating. Nathan wrote a really kind and insightful introduction for the night. It is not AI-generated. I think you might appreciate it also.
Nathan’s Introduction: You’re not here to listen to me. But it feels important to share my experience of this book, because maybe it echoes yours.
I’d never met Greg Jarrell before tonight. To my knowledge, had never ever heard his name before about 2 weeks ago. I picked up his book from this store, Troubadour Booksellers, just a few days before tonight’s event.
In various sectors of my life, I have to read a lot. I read a lot for a master’s class I’m taking … don’t be too impressed, I’m just auditing. I read a lot for author interviews I do with my cohost, Reed Lackey, on our podcast, The Fear of God. I host a monthly book club for troubadour and have to read for that. I’ve recently, in the face of all these books that need digesting, well, I’ve taught myself a few methods of speed reading. It’s not something I like doing and am in no way proud of it. But with three kids and both my wife and I working full time, there truly is only so much time to hand out.
When I picked up Greg’s book on Friday, I immediately noted its density and thought, “oh boy.” I was worried I’d have to employ some of my aforementioned speed-reading tactics. But I started reading … and I couldn’t stop… I couldn’t skip … I couldn’t ignore a single God-breathed word. This story, this city’s history, this country’s failures, our trespasses … wouldn’t let me ignore a single keystroke.
I read it all.
And it read me.
For all the research and narrative the book holds, what I want to focus on as a lead-in is the title: Our Trespasses. Everyone in this room, if you’ve ever stepped one foot in a church in your life, your brain will automatically fill in the surrounding phrasing the book’s title conjures. … “forgive us our trespasses … as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
But like all good prophetic voices, whether intended or providential, the choice to reduce the title to simply “Our Trespasses” is a powerful one; but, honestly, how hard would it have been to add two more words in front? … “forgive us”. It would’ve been so easy. It would’ve made the book appear earlier in alphabetical searches by title. It’s just two words.
And yet, in lopping off those two words, what we are left with is ‘our trespasses’. What we are affronted by is a forced confrontation with our own complicity in our neighbors’ harm.
In our modern climate, we rush to damage control and call that ‘forgiveness’. Harm is papered over with smiles, a curt half-apology, a plugging of our ears, and a hasty retreat to creature comforts.
Our Trespasses.
Individually.
Collectively.
They are ours, these trespasses. They belong to us.
Ethicist David Gushee says “there is no love of God without love of neighbor… even our neighbors in time.” Even our neighbors in time.
In this work - which I just finished this morning after reading every word of every chapter - Greg Jarrell has done the brave and painstaking work of teaching us, of confronting us, himself included, with Our Trespasses. Forgiveness can come… in time…in the fullness of time…but that fullness cannot arrive before our trespasses must be named, must be confronted and must be repented of.
As a final note - in more familiar pop culture waters for me…
Greg’s book uses a fantastic motif of ghosts and spirits, of haunted spaces and times. For this reader, it’s an effective frame that only furthers and deepens the power of the book’s message.
In the movie The Sixth Sense - don’t worry I won’t spoil its biggest mystery, even if it’s been out for nearly 30 years - the young boy Cole Sear is plagued by visions and hauntings of ghosts, of spirits. These spirits were tormented in their own lives - deprived of safety, of health, of home - and now they seem only too bent on tormenting Cole, this meek but brave little boy. Cole’s mother is desperate to protect her son from these terrors. But late in the movie, his deeply invested and just as deeply concerned therapist, played by Bruce Willis, offers a nugget of wisdom that revolutionizes Cole’s vision, that alters his life … he suggests to Cole, paraphrased by me, “what if these ghosts that terrify you are actually trying to speak to you … what if you listen to them … what if you help them”. What if you help them.
What if we help them.
In this book, Greg has set the example.
For me.
For you.
For this city.
For our churches.
The spirits that haunt this land must be confronted, they *needn’t* be feared, because helping them have a voice, helping us repent for the harm we’ve dealt them, is the only thing that will finally enable us to say “forgive us” …. our trespasses.
Fear of God Podcast: Nathan and I hit it off quickly and decided to do a podcast conversation. I found it immensely enjoyable. Find it here.
One More Bit of Book News: This review of the book from Dwight A. Moody delighted me. The first sentence of it is becoming a refrain around my house. Thanks, Dwight!
One Last Note: I got to play a few tunes with my beloved friend Lovell Bradford last night. We started with the Coltrane song “Dear Lord,” which is always a balm for the soul.