A Prayer For Friday
William Sloan Coffin
§ “Prophets from Amos and Isaiah to Gandhi and King have shown how frequently compassion demands confrontation. Love without criticism is a kind of betrayal. Lying is done with silence as well as with words.”
§ “There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good. The bad are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots carry on a lover's quarrel with their country.”
§ “Because our value is a gift, we don’t have to prove ourselves, only to express ourselves.”
§ “God is love, as Scripture says, and that means the revelation is in the relationship. ‘God is love’ means God is known devotionally, not dogmatically. ‘God is love’ does not clear up old mysteries; it discloses new mystery. ‘God is love’ is not a truth we can master; it is only one to which we can surrender. Faith is being grasped by the power of love.”
§ “No reflection on love can fail to mention love's most difficult problem in our time--how to find effective ways to alleviate the massive suffering of humanity at home and abroad. What we need to realize is that to love effectively we must act collectively...”
§ “To love is surely to support and to encourage—but not necessarily to approve. Quite the contrary! If we love one another we will help one another fight against our evil dreams.”
§ “If you’re on the edge of an abyss the only progressive step is backward.”
§ “Jesus is both a mirror to our humanity and a window to divinity, a window revealing as much of God as is given mortal eyes to see. When Christians see Christ empowering the weak, scorning the powerful, healing the wounded, and judging their tormentors, we are seeing transparently the power of God at work.”
§ “And if we are not yet one in live at least we are one in sin, which is no mean bond because it preludes the possibility of separation through judgment.”
§ “As all of us who strive to be good parents know, love is self-restricting when it comes to power... Likewise God has left God’s servants freedom of choice.”
§ “‘They who love father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.’ That's not really cruel. Loving Christ more than our fathers and mothers simply saves the love we have for our parents from idolatry... God, as the source of love, is the proper head of every loving household.”
§ “The joy that is of God is not opposed to earthly pleasures. Rather it infuses them with a foundation of meaning.”
§ “Love is to make us more human, and that demands that we care so much for each other that we have not to be nice but to be honest. We have to be honest, for most real faults are hidden and therefore demand an outside revealer.”
§ “The banality of guilt is that it is such a convenient substitute for responsibility. It's so much easier to beat your breast than to stick your neck out.”
§ “Love, and you are a success whether or not the world thinks so. The highest purpose of Christianity—which is primarily a way of life, not a system of belief—is to love one another.”
§ “Remember also that scars of all sorts are all right. Scars are wounds that have healed, not without a trace, but have healed nonetheless. Think of all the scar tissue around Christ's heart, Jesus our wounded healer.”
