By Archbishop Fred Hiltz
Christ Crucified (c 1632) by Diego Velazquez
Reflecting on the Gospel appointed for today, I found myself reaching for a book titled I Have Called You Friends, Reflections on Reconciliation in honour of Frank Griswold, 25th Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. Among the contributors was Archbishop Desmond Tutu who spoke passionately about “The Magnanimity of Reconciliation”. Other contributors quoted Tutu, one concluding her reflection with a quote from his book No Future Without Reconciliation.
“There is” he wrote, “a movement, not easily discernible, at the heart of things to reverse the awful centrifugal force of alienation, brokenness, division, hostility and disharmony. God has set in motion a centripetal process, a moving toward the Centre, towards unity, harmony, goodness, peace and justice; one that removes barriers. Jesus says, ‘And when I am lifted up from the earth I shall draw everyone to myself,’ as he hangs from his Cross with out-flung arms, thrown open to clasp all, everyone and everything, in cosmic embrace, so that all, everyone, everything, belongs. None is an outsider, all are insiders, all belong. There are no aliens; all belong in one family, God’s family, and the human family.”
I am quite taken by Tutu’s images – centrifugal and centripetal.
- In the one people are cast out. In the other people are drawn in.
- In the one people are bullied and alienated. In the other people are valued and respected.
- In the one people’s basic human rights are flagrantly over-ridden. In the other they are upheld and protected
- In the one relationships are strained to the point of breaking. In the other relationships are restored and strengthened.
- In the one chaos prevails. In the other communion prevails.
- In the one people live with anxiety about the future. In the other they can embrace a future with hope.
- One set of movements is “awful” as Tutu puts it. The other is “holy”.
It goes without saying that we are living in a time of a terrible political chaos driven by Executive Orders from Donald Trump (I find it difficult to ascribe to him the title of President) impacting the lives of millions of people throughout the United States, here at home in Canada, and around the world. One never knows from day to day, from hour to hour, what he will spew in alienating and dividing people; in threatening tariffs intent in crippling the economies of neighbouring nations; in pulling the United States out of the most notable of Global Organizations established for the wellbeing of humanity, including the World Health Organization.
His style of leadership bears all the character of the “awful” centrifugal forces of which Tutu speaks: forces that discriminate, alienate, divide, and breed hostility and disharmony.
The world desperately needs political leaders whose stay of leadership bears all the character of the lovely centripetal movement of which Tutu speaks, movements that gather and unite peoples, that breed harmony and goodness, that labor for peace and justice, that uphold the long-established UN Charters of Rights and Freedoms.
This Lent I find myself mindful as I ought of my own sinfulness and need for repentance and renewal in Christ. That is a given if I am keeping a Holy Lent. I am also especially mindful of the political sins that create such immense suffering for so many people in our world.
The sins of exclusion based in gender and sexual orientation; the sins of discrimination rooted in racism; the sins of oppression that accompanied colonial expansion; the suppression of First Peoples throughout the world; the policies of assimilation designed to obliterate their ancestral identity, language, culture and spirituality; the sins of horrific war crimes and the calculated attempts at genocide; the sins of such utter destruction of the homelands of countless peoples that they are nothing now but wastelands, utterly inhabitable.
A serious keeping of Lent takes on the character of lament for so much political sin that inflicts so much suffering. It takes on the character of The Song of Mary. I speak, as we all know, of the mighty and powerful being cast down from the thrones of their own self-aggrandizing, of their being scattered in their conceit. It speaks of proud hearts and wills stubborn to the will of God being put to flight. The hungry are fed and the humble are lifted high.
A serious keeping of Lent may find us re-reading a 2013 World Council of Churches Document, “The Church Towards a Common Vision”. Chapter IV is titled “The Church In and For the World”. “The Church was intended by God to serve the divine plan for the transformation of the world…the world God loves is so scarred with problems and tragedies that cry out for the compassionate engagement of Christians. The source of their passion lies in their communion with God in Jesus Christ….the explicit call of Jesus that his disciples be the salt of the earth and the light of the world has led Christians through the ages to engage political and economic authorities to promote the values of the reign of God and to oppose policies which contradict them…in these ways Christians stand in the traditions of the prophets who proclaimed God’s judgement on all injustice.”
They moved a Bishop at the National Cathedral in Washington to implore a President “to show mercy”. They move a Church to stand with her in refusing to apologize for her plea, to refuting his call for her deportation.
Keeping Lent this year I am mindful of how Archbishop Rowan Willians spoke of The Church at the 2008 Lambeth Conference, that in its life and work the world should see “the Christ who gathers”, and that in its bishops the Church should see “the Christ who gathers”.
So my friends these are my ruminations on a Sunday when we hear the story of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and it’s terrible history of killing the prophets and stoning those sent by God, this story of Jesus’ lament and deep yearning.
“How often I desired to gather your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…and you were not willing”. (Luke 13: 34) I find in Jesus’ deep yearning an invitation to be willing, eager and committed to be part of that magnificent centripetal movement of which Archbishop Tutu spoke, and that faithful witness of which Archbishop Rowan speaks.
With Rowan let us pray, “O Lord God, hold us close to yourself and give us the strength to hold on to you, to you that that have taken hold of us in Jesus Christ; to you, the love that will not let us go; to you, bound to the world as if by nails driven into wood; to you the promise, the future, the beginning and the end. Amen.”
