95 Theses for Christian Racial & Ethnic Unity: #92

The first language of the church in a deeply broken world is not strategy, but prayer. The journey of reconciliation is grounded in a call to see and encounter the rupture of this world so truthfully that we are literally slowed down. We are called to a space where any explanation or action is too easy, too fast, too shallow—a space where the right response can only be a desperate cry directed to God. We are called to learn the anguished cry of lament. . . Lament is not despair. It is not whining. It is not a cry into a void. Lament is a cry directed to God. It is the cry of those who see the truth of the world’s deep wounds and the cost of seeking peace. It is the prayer of those who are deeply disturbed by the way things are. We are enjoined to learn to see and feel what the psalmists see and feel and to join our prayers with theirs. The journey of reconciliation is grounded in the practice of lament. 


Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice, Reconciling all Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 77-78.

 

[Read the Introduction to 95 Theses for Christian Racial & Ethnic Unity here.]