What have we become?
I was asked to join the 2008 Equality Riders in Baltimore before they hit the road for some video training, song singing with Micah, and general passing of the torch. They shared much with me. As I follow some of them through blogs and Facebook, removed from the immediacy by a computer screen, observing from a safe distance; my heart aches.
This is Lauren Parke.
She was attempting to enter chapel with students who invited her, to worship with them, and to continue in conversation. When did the Christian faith become mediated by handcuffs instead of prayer, when did the fence replace the communion table?
When did Christians arresting each other become acceptable? And how much longer will it last? It is more heart-breaking every time.
1 comment:
Thank you, Brian. It is such an important image. My church's sermon last night was on Ephesians 2: 10-22... how Christ is our peace, and the work of the cross destroyed the walls of separation and hostility between jew and gentile - or should have, if we would only let it.
The pastor went on to talk about how these walls between Christians are sins that must be confronted and confessed, how they are barriers to our relationship with God - you are no Christian if you hate your brother. It was a good talk to hear - and hard, in some ways. I was convicted again of the anger and distance I carry between myself and much of the church - it doesn't matter that it goes both ways.
Thank God for the ER - for the way Riders confront the sin of division and isolation with love, and for the way it makes so clear the nature of the sin that has Christians arresting Christians for trying to worship together. That is not what the cross was for.
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