"What makes God cry?"This is one of Dave Daubert's questions he asks churches as they prepare to look at mission and what God is calling us to do in this time and place.
Eight years ago around this time, I sat at a dinner table for a Lenten soup supper prior to the worship service. I was feeling melancholy because our president indicated that we were going to engage in a preemptive war with Iraq. This made no sense to me.
We were Christians sitting around the table, sharing a meal before worship. A confirmation teacher was one of them. She was agitated and in the course of our conversation, she became very animated and she rose to her feet (I'm not kidding) and shouted, "I HOPE WE BOMB THE SHIT OUT OF THEM!"
That still haunts me today - and every Lent. I remember my tears in worship that night. I remember the "shock and awe" I felt.
"What makes God cry?"
.... maybe the fact that a senator took pride in blocking a bill that would have provided a short-term extension for unemployment benefits that expired March 1 without, apparently, thinking of what this would mean to families counting on this to survive....
....maybe that one of our senators had the audacity to say, "continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work....." when I know people who have been trying, TRYING to find work in this difficult economic climate to no avail...
....maybe that people would follow the rantings of a radio host that strictly focuses on his own self interests and who, just the other day, compared the Speaker of the House to mullahs and imams that encourage suicide bombers - when she merely suggested that lawmakers think about what's in the best interest of the people as opposed to what might happen to their own political careers....
....maybe that some carry around signs comparing our president to Hitler or make him look like a monkey or use racial slurs....
....maybe the fact that we are all so quick to name call, demonize the other, and make things more difficult for those who are poor....
....maybe the fact that many who do this call themselves, "Christian...."
"What makes God cry?"
We are all guilty.
May it be so.
- demonizing the other without realizing our own demons -
- name calling -
- perpetuating untruths to further your own personal gain -
- misleading others -
- using Christianity as a sword -
- fear mongering -
- fear mongering -
- idolatry -
We are all guilty.
Most merciful God, we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves...May it be so.
...have mercy on on...
...forgive us...
...renew us...
...lead us...
...so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways...(Evangelical Lutheran Worship)
May it be so.
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