“Reconciliation occurs between equals.”
Curtiss
Paul DeYoung,
“To reconcile ourselves with one another, we must release
our judgments and make peace with the fact that we are one. This country was
founded on the ideal that we are all created equal. If we truly believe in the
equality of all humankind, how can we put down and belittle one another? How
can we disrespect and prejudge one another? How can we come to the point where
we malign and hate one another?”
John
Lewis, Across That Bridge:
…these are God’s words: ‘Therefore if your enemy hungers,
feed him; if he thirsts, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals
of fire on his head’. Don’t allow yourself to be overpowered with evil. Take
the offensive—overpower evil by good!
Paul
(Romans 12, JB Phillips
So open your hearts to one another, as Christ has opened
his heart to you, and God will be glorified
Paul
(Romans 15, JB Phillips)
_____________________________________________
it is a fundamental choice we must make
will we walk the easy downhill path of retribution
that takes us so quickly
so easily
into the abyss
or will we climb that difficult and rock strewn
path or reconciliation
that winds its way up Golgotha to
the foot of the cross
we have been warned
it is so obviously clear,
in the light of flaming dumpsters
that if we keep biting and devouring each other
we will destroy each other
but still we persist in anger
still we want vengeance
still we face off, across streets
across sanctuaries
across kitchen tables
estranged
what we need are some eruptions of grace
when captured by love
transformed by love
empowered by love
we seek to be reconciled
one to another
As Abraham Lincoln, with the shadow of the Civil Warm
looming reminded
a divided nation,
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies”
We must not be enemies
but how on earth can we be friends?
We are so far apart
we are so easily enflamed
and so profoundly manipulated by those who would feed
the flames of division
where do we start?
this morning the journey begins with grace
not with the offering of grace
but with the receiving of grace
this morning I must move from that place
where I smugly say “… but I might be wrong”
to that place where I say, “I have been wrong….”
to that place where I start with my own hate, and anger
my own fears, my own greed
my own need to control
reconciliation begins with humility
I cannot open my heart to another if
at the most basic level, I do not see them as equal
I cannot begin the process of reconciliation
if that person, from whom I am estranged
is not inherently as valuable as I
I cannot begin to rebuild the bonds of affection
if I do not profoundly embrace my own failures
I cannot stand above, I can only stand beside
reconciliation occurs between equal
if I would be reconciled to those whom I believe
to have accepted and embraced hate
I must start from the place where I recognize my own hate
It’s complicated, of course
how do we deal with those who persistently wound and
harm?
how do we deal with those fused to an alternative
reality?
but even as I write those words
I must return to my own proclivity to wound
and my own tendency “to see what I want to see”
Alas!
So perhaps I can only pray
Open my heart O Sacred One
You have opened your heart to me
You have forgiven me
Embraced me with love
Comforted me
Listened to me
Understood me
You have walked with me through my own failure
My own moments, where I have exchanged the “truth for a
lie”
So as you have opened your heart to me
may I open my heart to those around me
not so that I might ‘fix’ them
or “correct” them
or even change them
(since I need fixing, correcting and changing myself)
but so that I might hurt with them
cry with them
rejoice with them
hope with them
embrace them
so that I might be their friend
and with them
stumble, however haltingly
toward the Kingdom
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