“Je suis Charlie” – until a few weeks ago, it was a phrase that people would have struggled to understand, yet the recent attacks in Paris and the world’s response to them have turned it into a global expression of solidarity. For people of faith, it is a phrase we may well have mixed feelings about- being uncomfortable with the degree of satire that publications like Charlie Hebdo level against certain religious beliefs, but nonetheless wanting to stand with those who would defend liberty.
Je suis simply means I am, and has come to express a welter of human responses:
I am with those who have lost loved ones and express my condolences and dismay at the circumstances in which their lives were taken.
I am one with those who abhor violence and murder, particularly when it is pursued in the name of religion
I am part of the struggle to know how to defend freedom and yet also live alongside and with respect for those whose beliefs and sensibilities are not the same as mine.
I am a free citizen, yet recognise that this cannot be preserved without respecting the freedom of those with whom I may not agree.
There are no easy answers to the questions that recent events raise, or indeed the underlying tensions and issues that give rise to them. Many Christians have not been slow in pointing out that while the world was rightly outraged by the events that took place on the streets of Paris, at the same time, the massacre of significant numbers of civilians in northern Nigeria went almost unnoticed. This is a further sign of our fractured and troubled world.
Yet as the world repeated and re-tweeted the phrase “I am”, Christian believers were quietly reminded that this is the name by which God first described himself when calling Moses to become the leader of his people (Exodus 3:14). Albeit largely unintended, this name has been re-stated again and again. “Je suis” expresses both our human inadequacy and God’s all-encompassing response – in the midst of our dismay and concern he simply, yet profoundly declares “I AM”.
Prayer
Ever present God
Sustain us with the reality of that truth,
Write it deep within our being
That we might view every situation in its light
When we struggle to make sense,
Of the circumstances that prevail,
You are there.
When it feels that life is dominated,
By the demands and expectations of others,
You are there.
When we prefer to forget,
And act as if it were not so,
You are there.
And when we turn again to the ways of your Kingdom
And cast ourselves afresh on your mercy.
You are there.
God with us
Born among us
Always there
Amen
God of every situation and circumstance
We hold before you the needs and struggles
Of our hurting and fractured world
Be with us in the anger, the pain and confusion
Of our responses to what is happening around us
And help us to hear you speaking even in its midst
Pour out your peace
Pour out your healing
Pour out your wisdom
Restrain those who are intent on evil
Give resolve to those who must bear its brunt
And help us to seek your Kingdom
Above every human interest
Through Christ our Lord
Amen