Taking up the cross, again
I was planning to write about loving our enemies as the highest form of radical
hospitality. It’s not working because I am haunted by a prayer which concluded a
pastoral message from the Anglican bishops of the Church of the Province of
Central Africa (Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) on the violence in
Zimbabwe.
My home base, Durham, North Carolina, the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina,
and I have connections with the Province of Central Africa. The congregation of
Carr United Methodist Church in Durham has given its physical plant to
Shepherd’s House UMC which has been meeting in the basement. The new
congregation comes from Zimbabwe. The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina has a
new companion diocese relationship with the Diocese of Botswana. A good friend
is finishing up five months of consulting on children’s education in Zambia. She
gets back home to the UK a couple of days before the Anglican Pacifist
Fellowship meets to begin its peace pilgrimage and witness to the bishops of the
Anglican Communion at the every-ten-year Lambeth Conference. I’ll be joining
that pilgrimage and witness.
The prayer haunts me because it took me back to conversations about Dietrich
Bonhoeffer’s ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ and Shane Claiborne’s ‘Irresistible
Revolution.’ “He sets the standard so high I just don’t think I can meet it,”
some commented in response to the books.
It haunts me because when I am away from Hebron and here in Durham I feel I
haven’t yet figured out how to do the work here.
Oh well.
After the pilgrimage and witness at the Lambeth conference and time for rest and
refreshment, I’ll help staff the Peace Zone at Greenbelt, the Christian arts
festival held over the August bank holiday weekend. Afterwards, I head to Hebron
for my annual rotation with Christian Peacemaker Teams.
The bishops end their message this way: “We offer this prayer for sanity and
resolve to bring all people in Zimbabwe to the realization that we are all God’s
children, created in His image to love one another. As bishops we commend all
God’s children in Zimbabwe to His mercy that they may live in love, justice and
peace.”
That’s not a bad offering for the rest of this troubled world, either.
Here’s the prayer:
Lord, you asked for my hands that you might use them for your purpose.
I gave them for a moment then withdrew them for the work was hard.
You asked for my mouth to speak out against injustice.
I gave you a whisper that I might not be accused.
You asked for my eyes to see the pain of poverty.
I closed them for I did not want to see.
You asked for my life that you might work through me.
I gave a small part that I might not get too involved.
Lord, forgive my calculated efforts to serve you
Only when it is convenient for me to do so,
Only in those places where it is safe to do so,
And only with those who make it easy to do so.
Father, forgive me, renew me
Send me out as a usable instrument
That I might take seriously the meaning of your cross.
Yes, the standard is high.
Remember what Julian of Norwich tells us about Jesus: “He said not ‘Thou shalt
not be tempted; thou shalt not be troubled; thou shalt not be distressed,’ but
He said, ‘Thou shalt not be overcome.’”
May we give our hands for longer, cry out instead of whispering, open our eyes
to see, and offer more of our lives. May we be inconvenienced in dodgy places,
and challenged by those who do not make it easy to serve God. May we be forgiven
and renewed. May we each be God’s usable instrument in our troubled world.
4 July 2008
Durham NC
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