After living in the inner city for almost a year, God has taught me many lessons through new experiences and people. One way God has been growing me is through giving me a broadened understanding of the ministry of reconciliation. Previous to living here, I understood that Christ gave me the ministry of leading others to be reconciliation with God through Christ as he has reconciled me to God through His blood. I have also understood that He has called me to be a reconciler in the sense of being a peacemaker between people. Today I believe that these are very important things that I am called to do, but in addition, I now understand that I should be working to reconcile people to each other. More specifically, I should be working to fight the pain and disconnect between races and social economic classes.
Even though I grew up in a pretty homogenous suburb of Chicago and went to a private college in Holland, Michigan, I have been blessed with good friendships of people of different races and have had rich cross-cultural experiences. However, with a new awareness and understanding of racism and class divides I realize that I don’t really know much and that no longer can I claim innocence and ignore the realities of the seriousness of these issues in our society. I believe that it is very easy for people of all races and classes to live segregated lives if they choose, but especially easy for white, upper and middle classes to do so. Interestingly, even though I live in Binghampton where race related hatred is very prevalent and sometimes acted out in violence, being a displaced white person in the community, I could still choose to ignore a lot of the deep race issues happening around me if I wanted to.
I think that the Bible has a lot to say about reconciliation between people and about loving people who are different from you. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is a great overview of things close to His heart and shows the way people should live. In it Jesus says that He doesn’t want people’s offerings unless they have been reconciled to their brother. Therefore, the reconciliation of mankind to one another must happen in addition to reconciliation between God and mankind. Jesus commands us to love one another and says that the world will recognize that we are His disciples by the love we have for one another. Jesus also always seems to break the racial and social divides that exist between people, as He does in telling of the Good Samaritan.
I don’t believe that the racial tensions I see in Binghampton and the clashes between social economic groups are a result of any personal fault of mine. However, I still have a personal need for reconciling these things and it is also right for me to intentionally embrace Binghampton’s problems as my own. Jesus wasn’t responsible for my sin yet He chose to get involved personally by dying on the cross so that I could be reconciled through Him. Therefore, like Christ, I must work for reconciliation. I must no longer live for myself and live for others by embracing the opportunity that God has given me to do His work of fighting for justice.
Understanding conflicts in Binghamton requires understanding racial, social, and economic issues that exist between the many different cultures. The divides are much more complicated than black and white, nor are the problems solely limited to blacks and whites. The tensions that exist here have deep histories rooted not only in the United States but abroad as well because there are people from many nations in our community. Choosing to live here in the middle of messy prejudices and multi-culturalism, I become a part of the history and, therefore, become able to join the messy task of reconciliation. It is a personal sacrifice to get involved with the mess but it is a great joy to be able to sacrifice in this way, as reconciling people to each other is a Kingdom task.
Practically, I think that understanding is a vital key to the beginning of reconciliation. Thus, it is important for me to learn about the cultures around me in the hope of learning as much as I can about how different people think and why they think the way they do. I personally know from my experiences of studying Spanish and Spanish culture that many misunderstandings can be eliminated before they happen if you are culturally aware, especially if you know the language. Another practical thing for me to do is to make friends with people that have different backgrounds than my own. Friendship offers a way to learn about each other especially through vulnerability and commitment that non-friends typically do not share.
Once Again, I believe that Christ’s lives serves as a model for us and that the Prince of Peace seemed to constantly break barriers that led to disunity. Working at reconciliation is a hard thing because it is difficult to love people and live in community with people who might not want to love you back or share your views but “if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” (Matthew 5:46-47)
April, 2009