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.
--authored by the Very Rev'd Dr. Jeffrey John
found this on Dylan's lectionary blog - right on.
3 comments:
All of the things that the prayer you posted named about church (in the organized sense)--it's hierarchy, conventionalism, judgmentalism, and primarily, its hypocrisy--ultimately made involvement no longer worth the effort.
Despite al of this and being burned a number of times, what ultimately pushed me out was the lack of any prophetic opposition to U.S. military policy in Afghanistan and then, Iraq.
So often, what passes for xianity in our country, is a perverted civil religion, masquerading as followers of Christ.
Just because it didn't make the news, does not mean the prophetic voices were not out there. The progressive church just doesn't get the coverage. How do I know, I was and am always trying to be one of those voices and here at Eden Theological Seminary, I am surrounded by those prophetic voices crying out.
The Church is not lost, because God continues to use women and men of faith to help the Commonwealth of God break into this world a little at a time.
Kristofer K. Avise-Rouse
i guess it is somewhat of the "do you work for change from within" or "do you work for change from without" question. sometimes staying within the system is too painful, for a variety of reasons. but sometimes we work from within to make change. i hope by staying within the organized church i can continue to work for the gospel i believe jesus christ taught and lived.
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