Committed to Reconciliation

Someday we'll all grow and buy our food in dignity and sufficiency

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here! 18. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19. that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

“And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

I led an adult study yesterday morning on the word reconciliation. The theme is ubiquitous in Paul who would, no doubt, concur with Merriam-Webster’s definition: "Reconciliation is the act of getting two things to be compatible with one another." It’s about getting from incompatible to compatible, from broken to whole, from messy to orderly, from conflict to peace. It’s being able to live together amicably “in the same house” once again.

We’ve passed the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I’m intrigued by the phrase itself and its implication: before there can be reconciliation, there must be truth. For argument’s sake, I’ve composed a list of steps necessary when we set out to mend a broken relationship:

1. Listening and Learning
2. Acknowledgment of our part – confession and penitence - apology
3. Dialogue – the round table
4. Planning and action
5. Getting used to walking on a new path

I’m not satisfied with the list and would welcome suggestions of things that should be in it. Or out.

 

What seems clear to me, however, is that if whole congregations, whole conferences are ever to get going on the reconciliation part of the equation, some plan of action has to be developed; I don’t see it happening . . . yet. At least not where I live.

 

Let me muse on a possible scenario:

1. Peaknuckle Gospel Church (PGC)is located near the Drybed Reserve, (DR) but people of the two communities only see each other in passing in town.
2. PGC decides that they ought to follow up on the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) somehow.
3. PGC writes a letter to the DR chief and council admitting its part in a culture of forced assimilation and broken promises . . . and apologizes. It takes a long time to agree on the wording and they don’t all believe they have anything to apologize for, but they do it anyway.
4. They initiate a Friday-night PGC series of information sessions including presentations by both settler and Indigenous historians. They’re well attended and the most often-heard response is, “we never knew.”
5. They organize visits to the reserve and along with reserve leadership, plan circles of dialogue regarding faith, culture and local history. Finding times for this is a problem but they soldier on and people begin to know each other on a first-name basis.
6. They invite reserve people to a feast at Thanksgiving. The reserve promises to invite them to a similar feast the following year. Attendance is disappointing among visitors at both events, but PGC people begin to understand that reconciliation is not on a light switch, that it's a long, sustained matter of growth. Small steps. Patience.
7. They organize a student swap; a class from the Peaknuckle Elementary School attends in Drybed for a week and the other way ‘round.
8. They begin to advocate politically for the reserve on questions of education, social services, infrastructure, etc. and look for ways to cooperate with DR on local action to improve DR living conditions. A member donates an acre of land and DR people are invited to participate in a community garden, for example.
   
   
   This half-baked scenario isn’t meant to be appropriated as a model as much as it’s meant to demonstrate that we often talk the good talk, but fail to walk a corresponding walk.

‘And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.’