“The casual and self-justified divisions existing across so many lines of difference within the body of Christ around the world wreak havoc and destruction to God’s witness through the church. Belhar underscores our need to confess both the reality of this brokenness and the call to live differently–to embody the demonstration of unity for which Jesus lived, prayed, suffered, died, and rose to make possible. Such restored, re-created communion is God’s model and mission in the world.”
Mark Labberton
Lenten Reflections on the Confession of Belhar
I’m not sure the divisions are always that casual. They may be carefully calculated. Divisions may go unnoticed by the people who benefit from them, and who have created them. Casual, calculated, self-justified, unnoticed, the divisions are real. They wreak havoc and destruction in the church and in its witness. May I have the grace to notice when I create divisions as well as long-standing divisions that benefit me. May I have the courage to work to disrupt and overcome divisions.
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 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.”
“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 