“Brokenness, disunity, and hatred are evident all over the planet. The world needs the witness Belhar calls the church to live out in the world. The church’s primary responsibility is to love God so fully that God’s saving presence shines through her like light in the midst of darkness. The church then becomes a beacon of hope, a lighthouse on the shore of a storm-tossed sea. By confessing, internalizing, and living out the principles of Belhar in her own experience, the church positions herself to become what Henri Nouwen calls, ‘a wounded healer.'”
Mark Lomax
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar
Christ is risen! Christ’s proclamation that God loves us and Christ’s call to love God and one another provide words of hope in this broken and fearful world.
This Lenten season have used 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. I am grateful to Kerri and Donald and all the authors.
See you along the Trail.
“It is not difficult to know where the Lord stands. The witness of Scripture is clear, consistent, and compelling. Psalm 82 says what Torah, prophets, Gospels, and epistles say: The Lord stands with the weak and the orphan, the lowly and the destitute, the week and the needy. Those are not the only ones the Lord stands with, but they are the ones most likely to be ignored and exploited, the ones least likely to possess the power to withstand mistreatment and manipulation. It is not difficult to know where the Lord stands, but it is often difficult to know where the church stands.”
“Like hurricanes and floods, God’s justice should uproot systems of oppression established by our political, religious, and economic prejudice. It should cleanse the world of all its racial, xenophobic, and gender-based violence. God’s justice should wash through our hearts and minds, like the waters of baptism, reforming us into new creations dedicated to fulfilling the law of love and justice for all people.”
“… we usually retreat into judgement instead of mercy, and indifference instead of justice. We are happy to prescribe Micah’s prophecy to others rather than learn it and act accordingly. God created us for connectional living; and those connections cannot thrive when we stay silent in the face of evil and injustice. God wishes to teach the church to do what is good and right–and to do it now.”
On Saturday, April 1, 2017, I had the privilege to lead a retreat for the candidates and inquirers for ministry of the Presbytery of New York City. Committee members also attended the retreat which was held at Broadway Presbyterian Church.
“Though we observe injustice in too many corners of the world, we, as a church, do not always give voice for those who are suffering. We excuse the injustice or blatantly or boldly ignore the injustice. This is because we forget we belong to God, not that God belongs to us. When we forget that an undefiled faith is a faith of justice, we live as if God belongs to us and God stands on our side, rather than figuring out where God stands and being there with God.”