Justice, Reconciliation & Unity

PCUSA has a book of confessions. Not to be confused with a confession of sin - a church’s confession – is a confession of faith. Every one of our confessions – from the Scots to the Westminster, to our Brief Statement of Faith – tells the world what we do and do not believe. The writers of the Belhar Confession of faith tell the world three things they believe. They believe in Justice, reconciliation, and unity. Now Christians and church’s have given a whole lot of lip service to justice, reconciliation and unity for close to 2000 years, so these things aren’t anything new….but they are new when we consider why this confession was written in the first place. And the reason was Apartheid – which means Apart-hood – kind of like the opposite of brotherhood – Apart hood –Apartheid- is the total and complete separateness of two groups of people. Apartheid became the law of the land in South Africa in 1948. The minority white population – who arrived in South Africa in the late 1700’s -made sure that they were totally separate and segregated from those who had always lived there - the black African population. The government – led by the minority whites then forced 3.5 million Africans to leave their ancestral homes and the property their families had owned for generations and relocated them in areas far removed from the whites. And with that the military became very active, making sure that everything the blacks did was either limited, stopped, or monitored. All political representation for the black Africans was removed – leaving them without a voice; their citizenship was revoked, and any kind of services – from housing, to education, to medical care was either inferior - or completely non-existent. Blacks suffered malnutrition, lived with no public sanitation services; which resulted in astronomically high mortality rates. In 1970 the government began to control and limit black Africans’ ability to marry or have children. Anyone who had nerve enough to speak out –was either silenced, eliminated or imprisoned – think Nelson Mandela. And it was out of these circumstances that the Belhar -which confesses justice, reconciliation and unity was written in 1986 by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church. Interestingly enough this was the same church who for 40 years were staunch believers, defenders, and fervent advocates of apartheid. Who can say what changed their mind – what motivated this group of whites to speak out against what they had always believed, speak out against the government, and against their own culture and society – risking their lives and the life of that denomination to publicly profess this statement of faith – is truly – nothing short of the miraculous movement of the Holy Spirit active in the world and changing the hearts and minds of the members of that church. Officially Apartheid finally came to an end in 1994 – a church, a people, a country who believed that the native population of Africans were inferior on all levels and deserved to be treated as less than human – believed -- blacks to be nothing short of the enemy – now came to a place where they spoke of justice for all people, reconciliation and unity. The Assyrians were ruthless in war – they took no prisoners – their kings bragged about every –and there we many - military victories – ancient ancient writings speak of streets running with blood, bodies of the defeated piled high and from one end of a town to another – Assyria was feared, and hated, and for generation after generation Assyria was the enemy of Israel. And too bad for Jonah – Assyria’s capital was Ninevah. If you have ever wondered why Jonah refused to go to Ninevah – to the point of losing his own life by being thrown overboard and into the sea – now you know why. Who in their right mind wants to preach a word of grace; a word of hope; a word of possibility to the people you hate? Who in their right mind want to preach justice, reconciliation and unity to your worst enemy? It would be like God telling you to Go and preach to Isis, go and preach to Boko Haram, the drug cartels, the bully. Go and speak justice reconciliation and unity to the political party you hate the most. Thing is that when the Ninevites heard Jonah and God’s word – they listened! They fasted and prayed and put on sackcloth – and the Lord saved them from destruction – and THAT made Jonah really mad! Why? Because as far as Jonah was concerned – those miserable Ninevites didn’t deserve a second glance or a second chance from God – The pouting Jonah was mad because God didn’t do what Jonah wanted; mad because God’s wasn’t operating the way Jonah thought he should. “This is what I said when I was safe and comfortable in my own house, Lord – I knew you were gonna change your mind which is why I got out of town and signed up for the ship what was headed to Tarshish – I know you relent from punishing and that you are gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love – but those people don’t deserve any of those things. I’m mad because you think it’s OK to extend this kind of grace and forgiveness to people I hate. And because it looks like maybe more than your chosen people are included in your plan Lord – I am going to fuss and complain and sit in the beating-down sun and wish for death because I can’t bear the thought that grace abounds – can’t stand the thought of justice, reconciliation or unity for those people – it is totally out of the question – So – if this is where believing in you is gonna take me – if this is your plan for this thing you call the kingdom of God – well Lord, I just can’t go – so Kill me now Lord because I can’t take it anymore." I asked Andrew to tell me some things he didn’t like. That was a child’s question. The adult question is – who don’t you like – who are you afraid of, mad at, who do you think isn’t good enough or right enough to be covered by God’s persistent and all embracing grace – who are you going to throw off the boat? Name the ones who you call enemy. Who is on your Apartheid list –who do you consider to be them, who for you is the other, the untouchable….and then remember that the hated, the leper, the unclean, and the outcast were the very ones –– for whom Jesus came and who Jesus served. Remember it was Israel’s enemy Assyria who God pursued; it was to Israel’s enemy that God offered hope, and a the possibility of a future. Like Jonah, the Jonahs of the world will probably continue to pout and get aggravated at God for being a god of mercy and grace …sadly, the Jonahs of then and now continue to insist on living in an us and them world. Is this who Jesus calls us to be? Or has Jesus taught us and shown us a more excellent way? If the church is to be a true reflection of heaven on earth; and if we profess that all are invited to sit and feast at the Lord’s table; and if we like to call ourselves family and say things like our congregation is warm and welcoming…then perhaps…going the way of the Belhar is where we want to go – not by offering one more day of lip-service, but by actually being the repairers of the breach, by actually being the ones who not only confess, but live out justice, reconciliation and unity.