Christians come in under the Kingship of Christ. Despite the busy to and fro of politics, He remains Lord; God’s elected One, the same yesterday, today and forever. Rest in that as Christ did, and walk [scroll], calmly past the smugness of the self-satisfied and the mockery of the thief.
Image credit: Ben Davis
©Rod Lampard, 2020
Jaded.
Silence and emergency,
In bludgeoning contrast, clang in discordant unity.
The murderous, winsome sin of vain words
Like a hammer into a child’s birthday cake,
Crushes the crisp dew.
Fresh condensation from heaven
Poluted by shattering humiliation,
Breathes hopelessness.
The abyss yawns;
And with the crushing of this child,
its monstrous smile,
Gets ready to feed off of this child’s broken heart.
Silenced, yet emerging,
God responds,
Hope breathes, and pain retreats,
At light breaking through broken glass.
Inner screams, through sigh and powerless frustration,
Answered by prayer and Spirit-filled consolation.
Though there,
I was unaware,
That the shadows of angels were always obscured by the dark.
©RL2018
Politicising tragedy for political leverage seems to be the going thing these days.
By the tone on social media, one would not be wrong in assuming that the victims of the shooting which occurred on Sunday at a Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, were atheists, and those from the Left side of the political spectrum.
Some decided to use this tragic event to ridicule prayer. Throwing their contempt at anyone who took a second to share their sympathy with those actually caught up in the shooting.
The response from the Left on social media was far from their alleged tolerant embrace of diversity. It was far from the “love” activism the Left say they stand for. Instead of showing solidarity, charity, or real care, in a selfless act of lament and sympathy, they used the real victims of yesterday’s tragedy for selfish gain.
Instead of promoting support for the community involved, the Leftist social media complex decided to add insult to injury. Then sat back to watch their social media stock value rise, as like-minded sycophants padded their stats with like, share, meme, retweet and opportunist comment.
Though prayer bashing has increased in recent years, this isn’t a new phenomenon. What stands out here is the magnified incongruence between a group of people who claim to speak from a platform of diversity and their active prejudice against Christian practice. The question has to be asked, if this were a Mosque and not a Church, would the response have been the same?
One on hand I can understand the suspicion. Saying that you’re praying for someone doesn’t always translate into the act of praying for someone. Christians have from time to time dropped the ball by giving lip service to prayer, rather than actually doing it. Instead of standing with people, prayer has been used as a cop-out.
On the other hand, not every Christian does this. No real Church advocates lazy discipleship or mechanised stoic detachment. Prayer unifies, it brings different people together. It doesn’t divide or distinguish between whether you are holy or not. It’s an invitation to participate with God, and Jesus Christ is the seal on that invitation. Come as you are.
Immediately after the news broke, social media lit up. Instead of offering sympathy and support to the victims, many on the Left attacked Republicans, using America’s cruel obsession with high-powered guns as a moral platform to build support for higher levels of gun control.
This is where the unintentional hilarity XYZ writers talk a lot about, hits the ground running.
The second that tragedies of the same ilk are attributed to Islamic Terrorism, the Left rushes to defend Islam. Attempts are made to suppress the real cause under a thick layer of denial, identity politics and false accusations. Whereby anyone who speaks out against the act in the context of its ideological origins, is accused of being an Islamophobe. All of which are tactics employed to control the narrative, telling you what to think, what to feel, and how you should respond.
The message is clear. Leftists have no problem with condemning an act and its ideological cause, as long as it serves up some form of political gain. In the case of the Texas Church shooting massacre, this means that Republicans and the NRA are legitimate, politically correct targets. Just don’t apply the same rule, the next time there is an “incident attributed to” Islamists and their faithful following of the Quran.
Measuring reactions to the Texas shooting from people on both sides of the political spectrum, it would also seem that offering those suffering sympathy, is now a crime against humanity.
Those who share sympathy through thoughts and prayers with another community is intolerable, making your sympathy useless, antiquated and pointless.
This is a tragedy within a tragedy. People believe that ridiculing sympathy forces people to act. The reality is that sympathy precedes support. It motivates us to care and act on that care. Without sympathy we cannot show support. It’s that part of our humanity which moves us towards empathy, towards the solidarity of suffering.
Sympathy is a valid emotional connection that leads to empathy. It motivates us to move from sentiment to action. Only sociopaths are devoid of sympathy. Only psychopaths are devoid of both sympathy and empathy, and would ridicule both as worthless.
Sharing grief with those who are grieving is not a worthless act. It reminds us that we are human because sharing grief acknowledges the vulnerable, and through the vulnerable we are reminded of our own humanity. One worthwhile and traditional element of that sharing is to stand in prayer with those who are suffering or have suffered.
Genuinely offering to pray for someone may be politically incorrect, and loaded with suspicion, but it’s never a useless act.
Christian prayer, is not stoic detachment [i]. Honest prayer requires humility, it precedes responsible action. Prayer is only useless when it’s used to serve self-righteousness; lip service.
It’s ignorant to quickly condemn as Islamophobia, any link made between Islamic terrorist attacks and Islamic ideology. It’s hypocritical to then turn around and quickly condemn Republicans and the NRA, when the tragic event involves guns and not Islamic Terrorism. It’s ignorant for those same people to condemn others for offering sympathy and moral support to the victims.
Only sociopaths and the ‘malignantly narcissistic’ [ii] would think that offering sympathy and support to the victims of a horrendous crime is useless.
Johann Goethe was right, ‘nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.’ ( Maxims & Reflections, 231)
As anti-Nazi theologian, Karl Barth, rightly said, ‘prayer is the beginning of an uprising, [a revolt] against the disorder of the world.’ [iii]
#prayfor #ourworld #prayfor #SoutherlandSprings
References:
[i] Niebuhr, R. 1945, Discerning the Signs of The Times
[ii] George K. Simon Ph.D. In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People (p. 51)
[ii] Barth, K. CD Fragments IV:4 See also the whole John 14. Verse 13 in particular: ‘Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.’ – Jesus.
Image: The Deserter, Boardman Robinson Wikipedia.
This is the closest I might come to writing an old-school, blues influenced, straight-up, Gospel song. It was written in 2013 and still holds an element of relevance.
“Everlasting Father[i], Son and Holy Spirit, divine
You are ‘I am’…Yahweh…pure breath…pure life.
Help me to hear your encouragement and receive
the whispers…that silence my pain
Help me to be set free
From the words that have hurt me
From the wounds and rage that won’t let me go
Help me to see your version of me, not the version I see reflected by others.
Striking healer; mighty God, accept my response
I confess that I have shown you contempt
I confess the pretence of my “worship”, and the self-absorbed pretence that enters my prayers.
Holy One of Israel you are great in our midst,
I acknowledge your complete presence.
“Show me how to kneel” …I surrender my brokenness.
I know you have not abandoned us
I know I need to be more vulnerable. Help me speak precisely from your heart.
Father God; creator; redeemer; sanctifier
You ‘do not grow weary’ (Is 40:28)
Thank you for ‘good news’ (Is 61:1)
Thank you for ‘uniting the pieces of my broken-heart’ (Is 61:1)
Accept my brokenness and tears
For this, Lord, ‘you do not despise’ (Psalm 52:17, NLT)
Let your blessings that shine through provision bring us to say:
With you, I rise and speak to the calamity in Jesus name ‘peace, be still’ (Psalm 107:29)
With you, I rise and speak to the conflict in Jesus name ‘peace, be still’
With you, I rise and speak to the suffering caused by misunderstanding, in Jesus name ‘peace , be still’ (Matt.8:23/Mk. 4:39/Lk 8:24)
……worthy is the lamb….‘may the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering‘.
Amen.”
[Isaiah and the Gospels speak into our lives. They suggest that rescue will only come from the ‘serenity that results from Jesus’ intervention’ (Green 1997, p. 331).
This is ‘Jesus acting as God acts’…it is Jesus looking for my ‘faith to show itself in those circumstances’ (ibid 1997, p. 333), by gifting me with the patience and ability to forgive.
A faith that looks to His resurrection, as a signal fire that points me to Isaiah’s Yahweh, as the ‘wounding healer’ (Baer 2010). The one who dynamically responds in grace to my inconsistent gratitude.
‘God gives himself to sinners and sinners cannot escape that gracious decision…the sinner who refuses this election of grace resists that grace and is resisted by it…Humanity is not sheltered from God but exposed to him and bound to him as never before in a bond of forgiveness and reconciliation’
(Torrance, ‘Incarnation’ 2008 pp.110 &113)
References:
[i] ‘He predestined us for adoption as sons & daughters through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace’ (Eph.1:5-7 ESV)
[ii] Green, Joel 1997 NICNT: The Gospel of Luke Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, Michigan
[iii] Baer David, ‘Praying through Isaiah’ lecture notes October 2010, Tabor Adelaide
.
Find this level of emptiness.
Forgive my heart’s forgetfulness.
Engulf my worship of sadness.
Embrace this prayer, despite my often awkward reach.
Tear these broken words apart.
Reorder each, so that I may hear,
. You, my adopted Father speak.
Then accept these groans as prayers without speech.
Grip grace like a vice around our fears
. and take these shivering hands,
. that for so many years,
. were so often drenched in tears.
Enter our darkness, breach the brokenness,
Holy Spirit, teach.
Be the fight, deploy Your word
With one firm sound, crack the violence;
that each stand may be under Your standard.
That all focus will be brought to hear
. the noise of battle cease.
Seize upon the ashes.
Rejoice at the sight of
minds drawn to fellowship from desolate lands;
. hearts of substance,
. because every broken ounce and splinter
. has been gathered,
. and placed gently into Your hands.
Walk through the garden of faithlessness,
. that Your light will pierce the dark, choices and the consequence.
Then mend the overgrown path,
. tend to the request for forgiveness.
And as all actions of wounding significance
. are humbly brought before Your grace.
Knight the wounded,
Raise up the contrite,
Breathe Your life into this place.
(RL2017)
‘Where the grace of God encounters us, where we are led, pulled and made to grow, there, the Bible becomes clear […] He is the redeemer of that sighing creature within us.’
– (Karl Barth, 1917. The New World In The Bible)
With the start of the new school year we’ve been engineering the tone of homeschool for the rest of the year. So, my focus has been elsewhere. Which means, as far as blog content goes, posts are short and sweet.
Recently, I came across Franklin Roosevelt’s address to the nation on D-Day. One of THE defining military campaigns of the Second World War. (link to full text)
D-Day did more than symbolise a united stand against totalitarianism, it was a just act against blatant evil.
Hence the value of this document: it is both a humble prayer and political speech. Speculation is a cardinal sin for theologians, (or so I was taught), therefore I find myself holding back (with some difficulty) from thinking about how things would have gone if this act of contrition by the then American President had not happened. Looking at the paradigm of today’s political world, it is hard to imagine a prayer like this being deemed permissible.
For this reason: here is one the most powerful leaders in the free world submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There is no sentimentalism in it that I can see.This is not cultural Christianity parading the veneer of vaguely remembered Sunday School lessons in order to appeal to popular applause.
Underpinning this prayer is the understanding that the human judgement which rightly involved taking action against Nazi aggression and ideology, is itself under divine judgement.
Excluding the word ‘crusade’, Roosevelt is inadvertently preempting the same considerations made by American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, in 1945:
‘Out of the humility of prayer grows the charity for comrade and foe. The recognition that we all stand under a more ultimate bar of judgement mitigates the fury of our self-righteousness and partly dissolves the wickedness of our dishonest pretensions…
We will therefore not be swollen by pride because others think well of us. We will remember that they do not know the secret of our hearts. Neither will we take their disapproval too seriously. The sense of a more ultimate judgement arms us with the courage to defy the false judgements of the community’ [i]
Both are impressive. Each make a unique contribution to how Jesus Christ, just judgement, Christian love and responsibility are valuable to an evangelical ethic that supports life and reaches out in truth. With the understanding that sometimes “no” is given in order to say “yes”; an ethical framework that every responsible parent knows well and practices daily.
Official & original:
With music and a video montage:
Repost: Originally posted 5th Feb, 2015
I’m in agreement with putting an end to sentimentalism and empty gestures like lightshows and hashtags. Prayer, however, shouldn’t be linked in with this.
There’s nothing wrong with prayer. At the end of the day, it all depends on who they’re directed towards and the motivation behind it. True prayer is preparation for action, not a substitute for it. Prayer is an act of true freedom.
When genuine, it rallies people in shared solidarity against arrogance, towards humility. It is a revolt against complacency, appeasement, disorder and gestures filled only with empty sentiment.
Underpinning F.D.R’s D-Day prayer is the understanding that the human judgement which rightly involved taking action against Nazi aggression and ideology, is itself under divine judgement.
Ditch the sentimentalism and empty gestures, such as hashtags and lightshows. Don’t ditch prayer. For, ‘out of the humility of prayer..we will not be swollen by pride’ [ii] in right response to aggression.
‘Even the ”devils believe and tremble,” and I really believe they are more afraid of the Americans’ prayers than of their swords’
(Abigail Adams, 1775, Letters #55)
References:
[i] Niebuhr, R. 1945 Discerning The Signs of The Times, Niebuhr Press Kindle. Ed.
[ii] ibid, 1945
Image: Mine. I cropped it using the first and last page of the transcript in order to draw attention to it.
.
Unlike greed, lies, abuse and false claims,
. rain falls and doesn’t stain.
Lord, through grace,
as we call upon you in repentance,
teach us to grasp tenderness;
To build upon it a reflection
. of your love and just benevolence.
.
(RL2017)
