At the present time, the small Episcopal church I attend has an interim priest, so I'm off the hook preparing Sunday homilies for awhile. During this interim period, I thought it would be interesting to continue this series as a way of keeping in shape.
I'm continuing with one of my favorite prayers in the "Book of Common Prayer," the prayer "For the Human Family:"
"O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. "
("The Book of Common Prayer,"The Church Hymnal Corporation, New York. Pg. 815)
RECLAIMING THE IMAGE OF GOD
This prayer cuts to the chase in identifying the dysfunction evident in the whole human family, but it does so by first declaring that we are made in God's image and that this image has been reclaimed and proclaimed in the person of Jesus Christ. We need to spend some time with this declaration.
While this prefatory declaration addresses God, its main purpose is to remind us of the one thing that makes us a family; our shared spiritual DNA; being made in God's image and our reclamation of that truth through Jesus Christ. God needs no reminders about who we are. We do. It is this recognition that permits us to ask God to look upon the whole of us with compassion which God already does.
So why are we petitioning God as if God forgets to be compassionate?
As mentioned when I began this series, there are many forms and types of prayers. Prayers are not meant to be benign acts, as having no effect or no impact on the person or people praying it. In part, this prayer is didactic; telling us something about ourselves and reminding us about God's caring love for us. As a corporate prayer, it is also confessional; forcing us to admit an uncomfortable truth about our collective selves. It directs our attention to the symptoms of our family dysfunction; our proclivity towards arrogance and hatred that is apparent in our building walls to keep the other out and distancing ourselves from those we perceive to be different from us and our own.
You might be thinking at this point, "What? Me being arrogant?" "I don't hate anyone?" "How presumptuous to lump us all together like this. I'm not arrogant and hateful. That's just not me."
Hmmm... . If that (or something like it) has crossed your mind even for a second, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you are part of that lump, as we all are. We are lumped together whether we like it or not, whether we want to admit it or not, and whether we engage in such behaviors actively or passively. In the cosmic scheme of things, we are responsible to each other, responsible for each other, and culpable for wrongs done on our behalf. There's no escaping this collective sense of responsibility and culpability in the eyes of the universe we inhabit. God sees it all, and if we're honest, we see enough to know it's true.
In the corporate confession of sins said in some Episcopal churches is the confession of sins "done on our behalf;" the sins of nations, corporations, church bodies, religions, and any collective body that one belongs to or identifies with. Hermits are not exempt. No one is. Everyone is infected with and affected by arrogance and hatred. Left untreated, it can blind us to our own nature and the nature of God.
So God chose one of our lot, Jesus, to be God's son, to demonstrate God's parental link to us, to show that amidst and through our struggles and confusion God (always the Creator who is creating) creates a purpose that we cannot comprehend. This is demonstrated in the most poignant way possible through the calculated murder of God's chosen son by the collective us (not God) and the subsequent resurrection (reclamation) of Jesus (by God), the first-fruits of a new creation, as Paul defines him in his first letter to the Corinthians. Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph is recreated by God as God's son, who, in that re-creative act, becomes the Christ of God and the Christ of us. All of this is packed into the opening lines of this prayer.
HATRED AND ARROGANCE
The result of our hatred and arrogance is to struggle with and be confused about life. Hatred and arrogance are not randomly selected terms. They are closely related conditions which are deeply embedded in us ("which infect our hearts"). As such, we may not be consciously aware of them. We may not see our arrogance and hatred played out personally, but it's there and one does not have to go far to find it. Arrogance is hatred's sophisticated and twisted twin, whose infectious demeanor will cut one off, cut one out, or cut one down. Arrogance is hatred delivered with a smirk.
Arrogance and hatred are symptoms of a deeper condition I mentioned many times in my earlier blogs as fear of the different; especially, the differences we perceive in our own kind, in our fellow humans. Early on, I referred to it as the differentiating paradigm of religion - the differences that cause us to lump together into groups and build walls, real or ideological. I do not say this to be judgmental of religion, but rather as an observation of human nature.
Humans, after all, are religious animals. We group together physically, mentally, and spiritually or any combination of these three for a multitude of reasons. As the poet John Donne reminds us, "No man is an island."
This prayer addresses not only the overt actions we identify arrogance and hatred but also their deeper infestation of the heart as the underlying cause of our struggles and confusion. We see this condition dramatically demonstrated in today's world, especially, here in the United States where we have become so politically polarized. Fearmongering and overt acts of hatred and arrogance abound. It is so tempting to blame one side more than the other as being more hateful and arrogant, but this prayer reminds us we're all in this together.
THE BONDS OF LOVE
There is only one solution to the confusion and strife we experience, and that is the bonds of love which I have described as the Impulse of Religion, the fact that we need each other. It is hard to imagine the need we have of people we totally disagree with or fear. It is even harder to think of them in terms of love.
The only way I know of doing this is to step back, sometimes way back, and to consider that the Love that loves me also loves the person and people I totally disagree with or fear. Only then can I disarm myself of the hatred I feel and the arrogance that infects my heart - only then can I awaken to the deep compassion of God. Even then, I realize how difficult such rare moments are to maintain, and that is where this prayer proves helpful.
This prayer teaches me that the struggle and confusion I am experiencing isn't about me, it's about the whole of us. In a sense, this prayer directs us to let go of our personal attachment to the struggle and confusion we feel and rely on the life-giving compassion of God who raises the dead and dying to life.
We are responsible for the strife and confusion we cause, but only the creative power of God can and will create a purpose from the chaos we are engaged in. God knows how to make goodness from the dirt we live with. We're living proof of that.
COPING WITH THE PRESENT
The key teaching of this prayer is the petition in which we ask God to work through our struggles and confusion to accomplish God's purpose on earth.
The concept of God's purpose is easily misunderstood as God planning bad things to happen; as in the misguided belief that when tragedy occurs, it's all part of God's plan. As I have stated before, God does not need a plan because God is the plan; in that, God is a spontaneous creator. God works with whatever and whoever is available. God works through our struggles and confusion, creatively. God does not cause struggle and confusion. We do. Only God can take our struggles and confusion and work with them so that they don't become a dead end in themselves but rather that they serve a purpose on earth.
That thought comforts me immeasurably as I continue to struggle and experience confusion with things I can't make sense of; like sending pipe bombs to perceived political foes or killing black people in a church or Jewish people in a synagogue simply because they're black and Jewish.
These hateful acts, committed by people immersed in fear and the arrogant response by some in leadership positions are difficult to see as having any potential for good. By themselves, they are nothing more than the dirt and grime of our humaness. What good we see is in the immediate aftermath of such events; the outpouring of love to the victims' families and their community by those who know love's healing balm.
God certainly did not intend these tragedies, nor did the vast majority of us who witness them, but it is easy for us to succumb to hate and to act from fear rather than love. This is where God steps in (metaphorically speaking). As we step in to comfort the broken-hearted, God is there with us; as close as our collective breaths, healing all of us. God works along side us when our actions proceed from faith, are delivered in hope, and performed with love in our hearts. It is God who can take the muck of our tragedies and create that which is good and purposeful. It is God who ensures that a life taken by hate is not a life taken in vain, as the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus illustrates.
* * * * * * * * * * *
This prayer does not call upon God to act in our stead, but rather for God to work God's purpose through our actions. Regardless of our intentions, we cannot predict or see the ultimate outcome of our struggles and confusion we encounter. We must continue to cope with struggle and confusion, just as we must deal with the hatred and arrogance that infects our heartsIt is through the bonds of love that connect us one to the other and to the source of our lives that we occasionally see, on this side of life, the clouds of confusion part to catch a glimpse of the whole human family gathered around the heavenly throne in our midst. Occasionally, on this side of life, the struggle eases just enough to let us know we're not alone in it; that God has faith in us, hopes with us, and loves us with a love that will not let us go.
Until next time, stay faithful.
