The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2018 - 22
PreachIng aBouT Peace
Clothing Ourselves with Friendship:
A Meditation & Two Spiritual Exercises
by Orestes Roca Santana
Editor's note: Orestes Roca preached this sermon during the 2017 BPFNA
~ Bautistas por la Paz Summer Conference in Mexico. The theme for
that meeting was "when Did we See you naked? Clothing each Other
with Hope."
g
race, mercy, and peace to all of you, my sisters and brothers.
I bring a greeting in christ Jesus from your sisters and
brothers of the Brotherhood of cuban Baptist churches. It is
a pleasure and an immense honor to be at this event and to be
able to share this reflection with you. Believe me, I do it with
much joy for everything this means for me and the churches I
represent, but also with fear and trembling for the responsibility
that this carries with it.
I wanted to share with you the reading from the Word
of God in the book of Exodus chapter 33 verses 12-14. The
Word of God says:
Moses said to the Lord, "I know that you have told me to lead
these people to the land you promised them. But you have not
told me who my assistant will be. you have said that you are my
friend and that you are pleased with me. If this is true, let me
know what your plans are, then I can obey and continue to please
you. And don't forget that you have chosen this nation to be your
own." The Lord said, "I will go with you and give you peace."
let us pray:
Our God, send your holy Spirit upon us so that your word can
take root in the secret places of our hearts and produce much fruit
for your glory. Amen.
did you know that Adam and eve were cuban? Why?
They didn't have clothes to wear, they only had fruit to eat,
they couldn't leave the garden, and they called that paradise!
We cubans make these kinds of jokes all the time. A north
American friend who visited Cuba asked me, a little puzzled,
how was it possible that cubans could laugh in the middle
of all their suffering. And that is the question. We Cubans
make jokes about everything-especially about problems and
challenges we face daily. That helps us have the faith to go on
living, to live our reality and to confront our vulnerabilities.
It's for that reason that I want to share with you today, if
you let me, a brief meditation with two spiritual exercises.
When I found out the theme of this event: "When did We
See you naked? clothing each other with hope," right away
22
Baptist Peacemaker
JAN-MAR 2018
a cradlesong came to mind, a lullaby that we sing in cuba and
surely in other places as well, to girls and boys to sing them to
sleep. The lullaby says:
Lullaby, my child, lullaby, my love
Lullaby, piece of my heart.
Maybe that song came to mind because it is what I sing to
my little lucas to put him to sleep, but it was what my mom
used to sing to me when I was a baby, and I never felt more
protected, more wrapped up, in my whole life than in the arms
of my mother while she sang to me.
The motto of this meeting, inevitably, evokes the passage
"In light of Moses' question,
God answers with one of the
most beautiful phrases in all the
Scripture: 'I will go with you and
give you peace.'"
from Matthew 25 where Jesus, among other things says, "I was
naked and you did not clothe me (Matthew 25:44), provoking
the question of the people, "When did we see you naked...?
(Matthew 25:44). of course, all of this passage is talking about
vulnerability. nudity is a vulnerability, to be naked is to be
vulnerable, to be exposed to the elements, to the dangers of
the world. Being clothed is to be secure and protected.
The passage we just read tells us of a vulnerable situation.
The people of Israel had left egypt, from the land of slavery.
Guided by Moses, they had arrived at Sinai, where Moses
received the laws from God.
In the middle of all that, the incident of the golden calf
occurs, where the people construct an idol in whom to place
their trust since they didn't know what had happened with
God and Moses. That act provokes God's anger and now the
people find themselves in total uncertainty. They don't know
what is going to happen to them. They are in the middle of
the desert, in a clear situation of vulnerability. They are naked,
exposed, tired.
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2018
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The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2018 - 31
The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America January-March 2018 - 32
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/38-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/37-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/36-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/35-4
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/peacemaker/35-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/35-2
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/35-1
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-4
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-3
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-2
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/peacemaker/34-1
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com