Tutu om kva Kyrkja verkeleg er

Eg les ei bok om Desmond Tutu sin teologi for tida, og fann dette utsegnet om kva Kyrkja er i boka. Det set fokus på Kyrkja sitt grunnleggjande liturgiske vesen. Forfattaren av boka, Michael Battle skriv vidare ei utdjuping av kva Tutu meiner: «The miracle of the church is that everyone - the poor, the rich, the free, the slave, male, female, black, white - can find one identity in Christ.» Dette er ein god oppsummering, og den viser kor viktig det er at ein er medvite kva Kyrkja faktisk er, og kva ho ikkje er. Vert Kyrkja ein klubb for dei som tenkjer likt eller for dei som bruker all fritida si der, er det ikkje ein stad for alle.

Desmond Tutu sa dette i si innsetjingstale då han vart innsatt som biskop i Johannesburg 3. februar 1985, og det er framleis like aktuelt.

Is [the church] a cosy club for like-minded persons who can be persuaded once a week to disturb their normal routine to have their Christian prejudices confirmed whilst they are insulated against the harsh realities of life out there without being shaken out of a complacency as they are assured that God has sanctified their sacrosanct way of life? Or does it exist to be a kind of mystical ivory tower of some spiritual ghetto unconcerned about what goes on under the noses of its members whilst they claim to offer worship to God in the meantime as excuse for that neglect? Or does it exist to become involved in a mad rush of good works agitating its members into a frazzle as they rush from one good work to another leaving behind the so-called beneficiaries of all this wearing the haggard and woebegone expressions of those who have been done godd by at all costs? ... The Church is the fellowship whence adoration, worship and praise ascend to the heavenly throne.

Sitert frå Reconciliation. The Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu Revised and updated, Michael Battle, The Pilgrim Press, 2009. Side 91.
Biletet er henta frå Wikimedia Commons.