• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • News
  • Column
  • Into the Mystic
  • The Baptism of our Tears

The Baptism of our Tears

by John Dorhauer | published on May 20, 2022

Listen to the podcast

Read the transcript

“After our baptism, an even greater baptism – if I may make so bold as to put it that way – is the baptism provided by our tears.”

So wrote the 7th century monastic John Climacus.

He would write that this baptism cleanses us anew by the gift of compassion.

It is about those tears, and that compassion, that I wish to speak this week.

Compassion at times seems to be in short supply these days.

I awoke this morning to the story of high school students who had labeled water fountains in their school with “whites only” and “blacks only” signs, taking pictures of them and posting them on their social media pages. Earlier this week a mass shooting in Buffalo by a white supremacist left Black bodies lying dead in their neighborhood grocery store. In Cleveland two weeks ago, a high school athlete competed on the field of play with a swastika painted on his leg.

By contrast, the week before I spent three days in Montgomery, Ala., visiting the Peace Memorial and the Legacy Museum. While there, tears of compassion were shed as I bore witness to the pain and injustice of 400 years of race hate writ large across the landscape of U.S. history.

It is not lost on me that so much of white hate and racial animus originates inside my Christian faith. I am appalled at how easily some white Christians can let loose of their compassion and replace it with both a false sense of superiority that numbs them to the pain of others and a misplaced arrogance that empowers them to claim the favor of God.

They are clearly in need of that second baptism of which John Climacus speaks – that baptism of tears born of compassion and rising from the empty grave of the one who, like so many of America’s Black bodies, was hung to death in innocence by a mob who claimed a power that justice abhorred, and that God would resist.

Where is the Christianity that engenders compassion?

Where is the Christianity that issues forth tears in the face of unjust suffering?

Where is the Christianity that sees not equality with God something to be grasped, but humbles itself and sees all others as one’s equal?

Tears of compassion are a kind of baptism, washing away hate and arrogance, cleansing us of a desire to be proven better than.

Though at times in short supply, they are nonetheless much in need these days.

When Black bodies lie dead in a Buffalo-area grocery store, slain by a white supremacist;

When white children are taught to believe that restoring the symbols of white pride from a past we worked for generations to rid ourselves of;

When white parents shout at school officials because they think that teaching children about the enslaved tarnishes the purity of their white race;

When white legislators blow the dog-whistles of racial superiority, espouse the doctrine of replacement theory while decrying critical race theory;

Then a second baptism of tears borne of compassion for our suffering siblings is in order. May the gift of compassion be found anew in every trembling heart, and may the tears required in the face of untold and unjust suffering never cease to roll on this, our journey Into the Mystic.

Categories: Column Into the Mystic

Sign Up For Our Newsletter








Privacy Policy






Related News

The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog

Successful Movements

Not that many years ago both churches and social movements dived into figuring out how to make...

Read More
Witness for Justice
Witness for Justice

Tug of War

Over the past month, our nation has been anxiously watching the “debt ceiling” tug of war...

Read More
Justice & Peace Action Network Monthly Newsletter

JPANet June 2023 Newsletter

Each month we ask UCC advocates to help us unpack the complex justice issues that we’re...

Read More
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
    • How can I find local churches near me? Click here!
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative