1997 NCC General Assembly, Nov. 11-14, 1997, Washington, D.C.
1997 NCC General Assembly, Nov. 11-14, 1997, Washington, D.C.
I Will Turn Their Mourning into Joy:
A Witness to God's Presence Among Those
Who Suffer for Their Faith
Scripture reading
Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock." For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. Jeremiah 31:10-13 (NRSV)
Reflections
Voice 1:
The life of Oscar Romero was taken as he presided at the Lord's Table. Here his words, spoken shortly before his death:
"I have been threatened with death. Nevertheless, as a Christian,
I do not believe in death without resurrection.
If they kill me, I shall arise in the people.
Martyrdom is a grace of God that I do not deserve.
But if God accepts the sacrifice of my life,
let my blood be the sign that hope will soon be reality.
Would that they might be convinced that they will waste their time.
I will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish."
Voice 2:
Hear the words of Presbyterian mission worker Ben Weir, held captive in Lebanon in the
1980s, as he recalls his experience of the Lord's Supper:
"Sunday morning in captivity I awoke.
In my mind's eye I could see Christians all waking and proceeding to places of worship.
There they gathered at the Lord's Table.
My mind moved westward with the sun.
I envisioned people of various cultural backgrounds gathering.
I was part of this far-flung family, the very body of Christ.
I unwrapped my piece of bread held back from my previous meager meal
and began the Presbyterian order of worship.
"When it came to sharing the cup I had no visible wine,
but this didn't seem to matter.
I knew that others were taking the cup for me elsewhere at this universal table.
As others prayed for me, so I prayed for them."
Voice 3
A Chinese pastor and his wife were imprisoned in China. After a passage of years
he learned that his wife had died in prison. Hear his reflection:
"To evaluate the life of a dead person
Some people
As a yardstick use social effect
(i.e., what and how much that person
contributed to society)
Some people
To evaluate the life of a dead person
As a yardstick use the beauty of a garland
(i.e., the magnificent but spurious things
associated with the dead person)...
She alone used her own blood
Explained without words that
To evaluate the life of a dead person
As a yardstick use the dead person's blood...
Her body was abandoned at an unmarked burial ground
Her corpse bore witness to the Lord...
She followed the Lord
Left her family and home...
To spread the message of the Cross and the Lord who died for us
She went to that ancient city..."
Bidding prayer
O God, as we look on our world, we cry in lamentation.
Like Rachel, we weep when we see the slaughter of innocents,
and we feel helpless.
We weep for those struggling to live faithful lives in places where freedom is wanting...
Nothing can separate them from the love of God.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We weep for those who for the sake of their faith are willing to risk
loss of family, security, freedom, and life itself...
Nothing can separate them from the love of God.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We weep for Christians from around the world who,
on every continent, encourage and stand by those who give costly witness...
Nothing can separate them from the love of God.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We weep, Lord, for those whose hearts are broken--
families who have lost loved ones and churches who have lost pastors and leaders.
We weep for congregations in this country whose buildings have been intentionally burned
and for others whose freedom in faith has been curtailed...
Nothing can separate them from the love of God.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
May their mourning turn into joy,
and may they know the comfort of your presence.
Nothing in life or in death
can separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In the deserts of our wanderings, he sustains us,
giving us his body as manna for our weariness.
The cup of suffering which Jesus drank
has become for us the cup of salvation.
In his death, he ransomed us from death's dominion;
in his resurrection, he opened the way to eternal life.
Truly our mourning has turned to joy.
Credits:
Quotations, in the order of use, taken from the following with minor revisions:
James R. Brockman, The World Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero, Orbis, 1982.
Benjamin and Carol Weir, Hostage Bound, Hostage Free, Westminster, 1987.
Simon Zhao, "Explanation without Words," in Kim-Kwong Chan & Alan Hunter,
Prayers and Thoughts of Chinese Christians, Cowley Publications, 1991. Used by permission.
Prayers revised from an order for worship on January 4, 1998 prepared for use in
congregations of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) by the PC(USA) General Assembly Council.
Background
The church reads in the biblical story, at its start and finish, tales reflecting persecution and violence related to religion. At the beginning, Cain kills Abel in anger when Abel is deemed more pleasing before God. And at the end the Bible uses dramatic pictorial language (in the book of Revelation) to speak about the persecution unto death suffered by followers of the Christ. Yet human violence is met by God's caring. At the beginning, Cain, the killer, is marked by God and--though left to wander-is protected by God. And at the end of the Bible's story, Christians fearing martyrdom are given a vision of a place where there will be no death and no pain, where all will acknowledge God's reign.
We, who read the biblical story today, live in an age characterized by massive deaths, injuries, and displacements of people who are targeted in varying degrees and ways because of their religious identity. Not infrequently, martyrdom or loss of human comforts in one place is known in far corners of the globe because of mass communication. And, as the church hears the contemporary stories of wasted human lives, it recalls God's question to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "What did you do to your brother?" This verse has to do with our common humanity, since Adam and Eve are the parents of all. It is a reminder of God's expectation that human beings bear responsibility for all other human beings-that God cares when people persecute, maim, and kill one another in the name of comparing their acceptability before God.
The Christian church in our time has also recovered a sense of the special importance of Christian persecution. The New Testament Greek word, "martyros," the church recalls, refers both to a witness and to a martyr who has died for the faith. In using this double meaning for a single word, the church simultaneously deplores the loss of human potential and physical life that persecution brings and recognizes the power of God to bring good out of evil. Beyond death, the church testifies, God gives resurrection. Christians of the Reformed tradition do not understand martyrdom to bestow any special redemptive grace. Nevertheless, they rejoice in the martyrs at the same time they fight to prevent martyrdom for any followers of Christ.
Liturgically, these themes come together at Epiphany. The lectionary reading about the Wise Men recounts the deaths of innocent children surrounding Jesus' birth. In Matthew's quotation of the Old Testament (Matt. 2:18) we are reminded of Rachel crying for her children, who are no more--of human shouts against violent death. But the story also recounts human effort to foil the worst that the governing powerful have planned. Jesus' family is led to flee and thereby escape the harm intended by the king. They become refugees who, in God's providence and grace, lose home but maintain security. Other lectionary readings for Epiphany center on the baptism of Jesus and upon the biblical theme of light. God provides a light for the nations that brings God's presence into those places where there is darkness, secrecy, destruction, and death. The message of these several biblical stories and images provides a vision for the church in our time. We can act and pray in the face of the powers of our day that would harm, even in the very name of religion.
209th General Assembly (1997), Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 35.0926-35.0929