Thursday 30 July 2009

Here's an opening piece from a section called "All" in "Who Will Be Saved?" by William Willimon.

On a late September Sunday in 1957, the great theologian Karl Barth once again preached to the prisoners in the Basel jail. The title for his sermon was simply, "All!" His one verse text: "For God has imprisoned all inn disobedience so that he may be merciful to all" (Romans 11:32). Barth told the prisoners that here was a lofty mountain "which we cannot climb, in our thoughts or in a sermon," a mountain "from which we can only climb down." Barth focuses first on the second phrase of the text - "God has mercy on us. He says 'yes' to us, he wills to be on our side, to be our God against all odds.
...Then Barth notes that this "all" is without qualification - Gentiles, atheists, believers, nonbelievers, those who have been formally incarcerated, and those who sit in judgment upon them - "all." Barth confesses that sometimes he is guilty of wishing that this "all" did not include, "this fellow-creature beside me, in front of me or behind, whom I don't like. Then he admits to the intention of his sermon: "The one great sin from which we shall try to escape this morning is to exclude anyone from the 'yes' of God's mercy." All are prisoners; all are shown mercy.

This may be a digression but I often hear people say that there are many ways that lead to God. It is often described as a journey up the mountain. This piece by Barth made me look at all that talk in a very different way. Yes, there may be many ways up the mountain...but our God comes down to us. Our journey is not to God. Our journey is with this God who is "with us" and "for us" no matter who we may be. The journey is one in which we are already set free - from the start. "All" is without qualification. That is a powerful word...not simply for each of us who hears it...but for how we then are opened up to a new way of viewing all others. When all are shown mercy, the day can become something quite unexpected for everyone because we do not need to be stuck within the way we evaluate others and the world. Instead, we come to the realization that we are all prisoners and when God is the liberator...God liberates all - without condition and without judging degrees of goodness and badness. All is all.

Connection: Is it really all?! The answer to that can change within moments. It is so based on how I see myself and how I am able to see others. One minute it is all....right. Next minute it is definitely not him or her or them...or me. It is really all....try that on.

Without qualification you embrace us and promise to never let us go. Then, O God, you gather in all of us...so that we will not be able to say it is just for me or my own. You gather up all...all and then you invite us to live there in your Reign. We give you thanks. Amen.