“Because acting out of divisiveness comes so quickly to us, it is all the more worthwhile to say as often as we can that our separateness is not the will of God … It was not God’s will in the garden of Eden for humankind to be separated from God through sin. It was the sinfulness of the apartheid system that separated people from each other by race in South Africa. It is sinful for this separation by race, class, gender, and other dividing lines to continue.”
Elaine Dreeben
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar
God makes us for each other.
God makes us to love,
to love God,
to love one another.
Where I fall short,
where I benefit from systems that drive us apart,
God forgive,
God inspire action.
This Lenten season I am using a new resource to explore the Belhar Confession: Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar, edited by Kerri N. Allen and Donald K. McKim. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in which I serve as a teaching elder (pastor), added the Confession of Belhar to our Book of Confessions in 2016. This confession came from the Dutch Reformed Mission Church during its historic struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
See you along the Trail.
“We deliberately and intentionally practice giving ourselves to one another because we realize we belong to each other. We need each other. We are inextricably tied together. We pursue this unity like a brutal physical regimen. It is not something we come by perfectly, all at once. It is terribly messy, awkward, and fully human. In many ways, it brings out our deepest insecurities and vulnerabilities if we are doing it faithfully and hopefully.”
“We are blessed saints by God. Bound in God’s grace, we live within God’s mercy. In God’s mercy, we need to build up instead of tear down. We show God’s mercy to each other through forgiveness. Lent reminds us of the important role forgiveness plays in unity. To forgive others is crucial in situations of conflict, as is accepting forgiveness offered to us. Mercy and forgiveness are essential.”
“I love that we Presbyterians have embraced the Belhar Confession. With it we confess the global evil which is also our particularly American evil. We claim our hope that in the church, Jesus Christ’s reconciling work has reconciled us with God and and with one another.”
“After his resurrection, Jesus commissioned the creation of a family originating not from a common human ancestor, but a divine calling. This family transcends national borders, cultures, and languages. Jesus called for disciples to be made of all nations–indeed, as Belhar says, the ‘entire human family.’ That does not mean that we reject or erase our differences, for a family made from all nations will necessarily have variety. We can, however, reject the lie that such variety cancels out unity. The vision, after all, has always been that this family would be different.”
“Belhar constrains us to say out loud to God and the faithful how we have been complicit through our unwillingness to speak and act, even as we witness injustice in the public square.”
Along the Graybeard Trail 