It is a constant
meditation of my heart to contemplate the role of the church in Christianity.
This extract from
Archbishop shows one side of what we are called to!!
This morning I was
Challenged by 1 Peter 2:9 - (go read it)…. Yes we need to reflect more on what
God sees his Church as - and what we are called to be and do...
An Extract from the
Archbishops Ad Laos (to the people)
Dear
People of God
‘Cry
aloud to the Lord!’ writes Jeremiah in his Lamentations, ‘Let tears stream down
like a torrent day and night … Arise, cry in the night, at the beginning of the
watches. Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord!’ (Lam
2:18,19).
South
Africa has been rocked by the tragedy at Marikana mine – the death of 34 miners
at the hands of the police, after a further 10 deaths, including of police, in
the preceding week. But this is only part of a greater tragedy: the tragedy
that the situation could be allowed to deteriorate so far; the tragedy of
appalling working and living conditions; the tragedy of such a breakdown in
relations between employers and unions and employees and government; and the
tragedy that across our country similarly dreadful situations are festering.
They are like smouldering logs that, if left unattended, are ready to ignite.
What should be the church’s response to this?
First,
we should know how to lament – how to cry out to God, in our pain, our
frustration, our anger, our distress, our deep, deep hurt. We should not hold
back in speaking the truth of what we see, what we feel, what we fear. We bring
before the throne of grace all that is broken, all that is awry, all that ought
to be better but is not. And in opening our hearts to God, we call on God to
step in, to act, to respond to the great need in which we find ourselves. ‘Weep
with those who weep’ wrote St Paul to the Romans (Rom 12:15), and so we must.
Now is a time to weep. We mourn for all who have died; and we mourn for all
else that grieves us. We bring it all before God with a purpose – we come to
ask him to take it all, and redeem it, to change it, and to change us, and give
us a fresh start, so we may make a good and godly difference.
And so
we are not left helpless in our weeping, and we must not despair. St Paul also
writes ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’ (Rom 12:21).
Though I have been twice to Marikana since those terrible shootings, and found
conditions that shocked me, nonetheless I am optimistic, for ours is a God who
shines light in every darkness. Though I felt the very ground crying out to my
soul that ‘All is not well’, and though it felt that the whole area is on a
knife edge, still I am hopeful. For this can be to us not a prophecy of doom,
but a wake-up call.
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