Prayers, Thoughts, and Faithful Presence
Upon encountering the distraught sisters of his best friend Lazarus, the Apostle John records profound theological guidance for responding to horrific tragedies,
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
What John wants us to know is that when confronted with the grief, confusion, and despair of his friend’s family, some of which was directed at him,
“[Jesus] was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept.
Over the past week, our nation has faced tragedy after tragedy,
- Last week, a heavily armed 18-year-old entered the Topps Grocery store in Buffalo, NY, and executed 11 individuals in a racially motivated killing spree that he live-streamed on social media.
- On Monday, Guidepost Solutions released a 288-page report detailing extensive criminal sexual abuse, child grooming, rape, and domestic violence that was ignored and covered up within the Southern Baptist Convention for decades.
- Yesterday, 19 elementary school children and two adult teachers were barricaded in a classroom by a heavily armed 18-year-old in body armor who then murdered everyone in the room.
All of this produces an emotional response. It is called outrage.
It also produces a verbal response, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”
Both are appropriate. Both are incomplete.
With good reason, in the coming days, many cultural commentators and pundits will bemoan the phrase, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.” That is because the followers of Jesus, especially those serving and leading in Washington, are called to something more.
When chronic issues persist and acute crises occur, it can lead to outrage. We are seeing that now. There is the outrage over senseless murder and gun violence. There is the outrage over the women and children who were assaulted by wolves instead of being protected by shepherds. There is outrage around the Supreme Court’s pending decision on abortion. There is the outrage about issues related to the environment. There is outrage over the senseless war in Ukraine. There is the outrage over a complex web of racial issues. And, quite understandably, there is outrage that we seem to be caught in a playback loop on racism, violence, oppression, and apathy.
As Christians and as humans, we are supposed to be outraged at sin and injustice. We are swimming in a tsunami of outrage. And there are times outrage is appropriate and needed.
In fact, outrage at the damage done by sin and injustice is what Jesus experienced upon seeing Mary and Martha and the crowds upon arriving in Bethphage.
The problem, as we see play out on streets and cities around the country, is that we are unable to deal with our outrage in a manner that leads to what outrage is supposed to do – to bring justice and mercy. Instead, our outrage seems only to produce violent overreaction, societal discord, or exhaustion that leads to apathy.
Yuval Levin writes in “A Time to Build,” that the institutions that are supposed to develop the virtue in us that lead us to properly direct our outrage; have instead become platforms for vocalizing our outrage in order to build a following. The problem, he writes, “involves institutions that fail to form men and women of integrity because they fail even to see such formation as their purpose. Rather than contain and shape individual.”
The church has fallen victim to this as well, promoting names over disciple-making. We have promoted performance over formation, and as a result, we have disciples who do not understand how to live in a posture of Faithful Presence. Our failure as Christians and the Church to respond with Faithful Presence to the difficulties of our present age is having a terrible consequence on our nation. The failure needs correction!
After his resurrection, Jesus commissioned his disciples saying,
19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” John 20:19-21
This commissioning of his followers begs the question, how did the Father send the Son. Luke gives us needed insight into this question,
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. Luke 4:14-22
The mission of Jesus was to bring foretastes of the final redemption and restoration of all things. For three and a half years, the Son of God, often with supernatural power, encouraged what was good, restored what was broken, created what was missing, and opposed evil.
The Incarnation of Emmanuel was, in effect, the Faithful Presence of God with us. Through the life of Christ, we learn how to respond in times of trouble and tragedy.
First, we must respond with outrage and tears.
Second, we must pray. Prayer was one of the first things Jesus taught his followers to do. Because we are creatures, prayer is always the most we can do. It is, however, rarely all we should do.
Third, we must think. When we say, “Our thoughts and prayers are with them,” we need to mean thoughts of justice and mercy, not just thoughts of those impacted by the tragedy. Those thoughts do not produce justice and mercy, which are desperately needed.
As followers of Jesus, we must think about how we can bring justice and mercy into these situations. Our discipleship must lead us to ask the Four Questions of Faithful Presence,
- What is good that requires nurture and protection?
- What is broken that requires restoration?
- What is missing that requires creation?
- What is evil that requires opposition and elimination?
These are the questions that Jesus came to identify and to address.
True, we are not Jesus! We cannot respond to these questions with supernatural power or override the laws of physics and nature. Nonetheless, for those serving and leading in Washington, these questions and their answers can produce foretastes of the coming kingdom to those suffering through hardships and horror.
The answers are not easy, but they are certainly not found by a deeper dive into political platforms or cultural virtue signaling. The answers to these questions require a deep understanding of the Law and ethics of God, the call to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.
God created us to live in a flourishing and virtuous community with each other, rather than everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. Pursuing this path requires whole-Life disciple for the whole of life in the whole of Washington.
As Christians serving and leading in Washington, living in a posture of Faithful Presence means becoming equipped to participate in the mission of Christ to make all things new. In doing so, we must come together on these challenging topics to pursue the welfare, flourishing, and peace of everyone. In the first century, it was the Christians who scoured the waste piles of Israel and Asia Minor looking for infant children discarded by the Romans. The Christians raised them not a slaves, but as their own adopted children. This societal action came from an understanding of the adoption that we have in Christ as God’s children. This was whole-life discipleship applied!
Faithful Presence is not standing around contemplating and pontificating on gun violence and sexual abuse; it is actively seeking the welfare of those who were gunned down and assaulted, as well as everyone impacted by those horrors.
And so, our prayers, thoughts, and Faithful Presence are with those who are reeling today.
Come Quickly, Lord Jesus.
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By Rev. Michael Langer, Founder & President