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Reconciling Sunday, May 17, 2009 “A Ministry of Reconciliation”
Reverend Michael D. Powell Matthew 22:34-40 |
The ideal of reconciliation is at
the heart of our ministry here at Morningside.
We begin our worship by affirming that we are all God’s people and that
Christ has called us to ministries of love, justice and reconciliation. What the world needs is more examples of
reconciliation incarnated, of people whose lives embody reconciliation
and serve to inspire and empower others to live lives of reconciliation.
The human experience is, for the
most part, one of feeling separate from both God and one another. When Jesus is
asked what the most important commandment is he replies by reciting the ancient
Jewish Shema: “You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This
is the first and great commandment. A
second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What Jesus is
saying is that the human experience of alienation and the feeling of
separateness from others is rooted in feeling distant from
God. Who strives to remember God, to love God with all their heart and soul and
mind and strength?
The tragic state of the world, the
wars between peoples and the abuse of our God given creation, is rooted in the
feeling of separation, of otherness. But
we are at a point in our evolutionary history when we cannot afford separation
and alienation. We desperately need reconciliation if our planet and our global
community are to survive. True
reconciliation with other people begins with loving
God, and recognizing that none of us are really separate from God, nor are we
separate from one another. We are all
God’s people. We are One. What the world needs is
more people whose lives incarnate this realization of reconciliation.
Many of you know that I was on the
Ecumenical Ministries of
One of our team members met him at
the airport, where a crowd had gathered.
She told of a young pregnant mother who shyly asked if the bishop could
bless her unborn baby. With one hand
Tutu laid two fingers on the woman’s head, and with the other laid two fingers
on her belly. He prayed a blessing in
his native Bantu and then, laughingly, said: “Your baby has been blessed in the language of heaven.” Another of our team members brought her
23 year old daughter, who claims to be an atheist, to the lecture. With tears in her eyes, she talked about how
deeply touched her daughter had been. I
asked what it was that touched her and she said, “It was just the spirit of love that she experienced that night.”
Tutu’s life incarnates the gentle spirit
of reconciliation. We received hundreds of emails in response to his
visit. We began by reading one from
Archbishop himself, thanking us for the warmth of the hospitality he
experienced during his visit. It was signed, “Arch.” There were emails
from Muslims, thanking us for the prominent place they
had been invited to share in the World Music concert that preceded the lecture.
I wrote down the exact words of
another email: “I confess that I had expected the bishop’s comments to be more
philosophically or theologically based but, the more I thought about it, I
realized that the simplicity of his message was the great appeal. Reconciliation requires no profound
preparation, simply the fullness of heart as exemplified by Christ.”
In fact, I learned a new word at the
meeting. One of our team members used
the word “Neoteny” to describe
Tutu. Loosely defined, neoteny means an
adult’s ability to be childlike. Tutu’s childlike glee and even mischievousness
is disarming, and perhaps that’s another important ingredient in the ministry
of reconciliation.
Here’s a sampling of the profoundly
simple teachings he shares on the art of reconciliation: (1)
“Differences are not intended to separate, to
alienate. We are different precisely in
order to realize our need of one another.”
“It is unity we are talking about, not
uniformity. What is needed is to respect
one another’s points of view and not to impute unworthy motives to one another
or to seek to impugn the integrity of the other. Our maturity will be judged by how well we
are able to agree to disagree and yet continue to love one another and to
cherish one another and seek the greater good of the other.”
“Forgiveness gives us the capacity to make a new
start . . . And forgiveness is the grace by which you enable the other person
to get up, and get up with dignity, to begin anew . . . In the act of
forgiveness we are declaring our faith in the future of a relationship and in
the capacity of the wrongdoer to change.”
“Utter only the words of which we won’t be ashamed
afterwards, which we won’t regret saying.
It is easy to discourage, it is far too easy, all too easy to criticize,
to complain, to rebuke. Let us try instead to be more
quick to see even a small amount of good in a person and concentrate on
that. Let us be more
quick to praise than to find fault.
Let us be more quick to thank others than to complain – ‘thank you’ and ‘please’
are small words, but they are oh, so powerful.”
“We should be generous in our judgments of others,
for we can never really know all there is to know about another.”
The Reconciling Movement in United
Methodism seeks to welcome all into the fellowship of our church. We recognize that it is the illusion of
differences that separates us. Some of
us saw a powerful movie last week, “The Music Within,” about two disabled men
whose lives embodied the ideal of reconciliation. The fruits of their labors were manifested in
the American Disabilities Act, and I highly recommend the film. Anni and I were
personal friends with Art Honeyman, a paraplegic, and one of the most poignant
lines comes at the end of the film, when he says that disabled persons are not
so much ignored as they are rendered invisible.
Reconciliation begins with affirming the sacred humanity of another and
acknowledging the unique gift and opportunity for growth that their presence in
our lives offers us. As Tutu says, we
are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another. As Jesus says, Love God and love one
another. They are the same thing. That is reconciliation. On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets.
And, finally, I want to close by briefly
sharing the story of two women whose ministry of reconciliation was a powerful
turning point in my, and in many people’s lives. These two women loved God, they loved their
church, and they loved one another.
Roxie was a tall, thin, sophisticated introvert who was on the Board of
Trustees. Her partner, Michelle, was
short, extroverted and playful, the perfect chair for the Outreach and
Evangelism team. The first time I met
Michelle she gave me a big hug and said, “Hi,
I’m your token lesbian.” We quickly
became friends. We were new in
town. Our daughter, Chalice, was just
entering Jr. Hi, a difficult period of transition, and Michelle befriended her
as well.
Both Roxy and Michelle had been
politically active, speaking out against the discriminatory Oregon Citizens
Alliance ballot initiatives. They were well known in our community, much loved
in our church. Their lives were a
witness to the transformative power of reconciliation. The first week in
November of ’95, Michelle and I served the sacrament of Holy Communion
together. The last week in November Roxy
and I were in a small group together, sitting knee to knee, sharing intimately
before closing with prayer. A week later,
on December 4th, 1995, they were brutally murdered in a hate
crime. When caught, the killer jokingly
referred to them as “lesbo grandmas.”
I was quoted in the paper, saying
that they were wonderful Christian women, and I received numerous replies. Some of it was hate mail, but the
overwhelming response was affirmative, offering prayers of condolence and
thanking our church for affirming the lives of these two wonderful women. The gentle, loving witness of their lives
transformed the lives of many others.
I thank God for Roxy and Michelle,
for Art Honeyman, and for Desmond Tutu.
Each of them, in their own unique way, has incarnated the ideal of
reconciliation and brought us a little closer to the recognition that we are
all God’s people, called by Christ to ministries of love, justice and
reconciliation. Thanks be to God. Amen.
(1)
From Believe: The Words and Wisdom of
Desmond Tutu