Dear Friends,
Last week, the common lectionary for Ash Wednesday liturgies
reminded us “ we are ambassadors for Christ as if God were appealing through
us. (2Cor.5.20)” Ambassadors, in this sense, are sent to befriend with the Word of God people who live by other
rules in other places, to speak the truth incarnated in the Word Made Flesh courageously, and to be conduits for fruitful,
respectful two way interchange. Standing at the head of the Lenten season, this
call to be ambassadors for Christ adds another dimension to our Lenten
practices as we move together toward Easter. Be ambassadors, not bystanders.
Bystanders is a word
that is only found in the Synoptic Gospels, Mark, Matthew and Luke. In a piece written earlier in his career, the 2014
Poet Laureate Charles Wright, describes as bystanders the crowds of people who
watched Jesus but did nothing more.
Always they sit
At the center of things,
Circles of conversation,
Camps of opinion,
Themselves so long
Housed in the outskirts
Of their own emotions they
Occupy there
Merely such neutral ground
As keeps the peace
Or honor.
They leave
No fingerprints
On what their hands touch,
Their story is how they
Sidestep involvement, how
They stay of two minds
And now, finding
Themselves at last
Out in the open,
Maneuverings unsuccessful,
They answer only
What they don’t feel,
What they don’t know,
What they are not.
What will our
personal choice be this Lent? Shall we be ambassadors for the Holy One in the
world around us, or bystanders only?
~Sister Joan Sobala, SSJ
