Lord, do something about your Church.
It is so awful, it is hard not to feel ashamed of belonging to it.
Most of the time it seems to be all the things you condemned:
hierarchical, conventional, judgmental, hypocritical,
respectable, comfortable, moralising, compromising,
clinging to its privileges and worldly securities,
and when not positively objectionable, merely absurd.
Lord, we need your whip of cords.
Judge us and cleanse us,
challenge and change us,
break and remake us.
Help us to be what you called us to be.
Help us to embody you on earth.
Help us to make you real down here,
and to feed your people bread instead of stones.
And start with me.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
A Lenten Prayer
Hat tip to Sarah Dylan Breuer for this poem, by the Very Reverend Dr. Jeffrey John:
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3 comments:
Wow. What a sad view of the Church in which I find such delight and comfort and inspiration.
I suppose the only problem with the Church is that it's comprised of human beings - it is not perfect, as God is perfect.
Perhaps, however, if we come to the church to seek and worship God - we just might find God, who is not described here as you describe God's Bride.
Well, I'm sure everyone's mileage can vary, but off the top of my head, without even thinking very hard, I can name at least a half dozen issues in the institutional Church that would make me reread some of the fine print on the Bride's ketubah.
There's also a difference between the institutional Church and the Church Universal, which your post would seem to be alluding to.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's by (the estimable, if not "Right Reverend") Jeffrey John: I think it goes back farther. Regardless of authorship, it's great though. Spot on! (unfortunately)
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