March Madness started today (NYCUP style-- not the basketball type). College students from James Madison University arrived in East Harlem, ready to run our kids camp in the South Bronx starting tomorrow!
Tonight we had an all-too-stark reminder of the need for God's gospel to penetrate these neighborhoods. When the students were walking around and praying for the neighborhood, a group of them encountered a man viciously beating his wife. Cops came and arrested him, but (understandably!) it shook the students up quite a bit to see this kind of violence and injustice firsthand.
NYCUP has certain prayers that they pray together through every session they do. This benediction has been one of my favorites since the first time I heard it, but tonight it struck me in a new way.
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who
Suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war.
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain to joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what other claim cannot be done,
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
When Jonathan prayed this over us at the end of the time tonight, I really appreciated the reminder that God was angry tonight, too. And he cried tonight, too. When that man was beating his wife, God wept because that's not justice. That's not the way he intended his world to be. He sent his Son into this world to redeem situations like that-- to see his kingdom come on this earth. So when we encounter those who are oppressed or suffering, it's okay to be angry and sad. God is too. But it's also okay to be hopeful-- what the world might call foolish-- that change can come. That justice and kindness can come, because that's the way he taught us to pray, isn't it?
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done-- on earth as it is in heaven."
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