I’ve promised to keep you updated on my Doctor of Ministry program as I take courses. This time I’m telling you about the course before I even take it (I’m writing this mid-January, and the course will be January 30-February 3 in Chicago), as I’m reflecting on the reading I’ve been doing in preparation for it. This is my 4th course, and it’s called “Culturally Attentive Leadership”. I’ve decided the best way I can summarize all the extensive and challenging reading I have done, is to refer to the Word with the Children that I shared in worship on January 22 – here’s what I said:
I’m so glad to see you this morning, children! I’ve asked Pastor Jill to help me as I talk to you today, so she’s going to sit here by me. You may be hearing in church that we call this the “Season of Reconciliation” – that’s a big word, RECONCILIATION! Does anyone know what that means? No?! Well, reconciliation is about making better things that are wrong. So I’m going to show you with some examples what reconciliation looks like – and I need my special Reconciliation Bag to do that.
In my Reconciliation Bag I have 2 apples. I’m going to start by showing you that I have 1 apple and Pastor Jill has 1 apple. But then watch what happens (I take away Jill’s apple!). Hmm, Pastor Jill seems upset about that. So here’s what I’ll do: “I’m sorry Pastor Jill” (I keep the apple). Is that reconciliation, just saying sorry? No! If I really want to make things better then I will give back the apple! “Here you go, Pastor Jill, I’m sorry I took your apple and I’m giving it back to you.” That’s what reconciliation looks like.
Now we’re going to start with me having 2 apples and Pastor Jill has 0 apples. Uh-oh, Pastor Jill looks sad and hungry. I know what I’ll do! “Pastor Jill, God loves you!” (I keep my 2 apples). Is that reconciliation, just saying God loves her? No! If I really care about Pastor Jill, then I will share my apple with her, right? Here you go, Pastor Jill (I give Jill an apple). That’s what reconciliation looks like.
Those are pretty good ways to understand reconciliation. But there’s one more way, and it’s the most difficult and most beautiful and most powerful way of all. Because when I have 2 apples, and I give 1 apple to Pastor Jill, that’s good, but I need to ask: “why is it in the first place that I have 2 apples and Pastor Jill has 0?” That’s not how God made the world to be, for some with too much and others not enough. So I need to talk about that with Pastor Jill and find a better way for things to be. It’s no good if I keep having all the apples and Pastor Jill has none. Because in my Reconciliation Bag there is a whole bag of apples (I take a bag of apples out of my bag). What Pastor Jill and I have to figure out together is how we can both have enough apples, because God has made this world with enough for all, and that’s how God wants us to live together. That’s what reconciliation looks like most of all.
I’ve read many books and articles in preparation for this class, but my simple apple examples get to the heart of it all. Earlier in my life, I might not have included that last part in my Word with the Children. That’s because as a white, middle-class, Protestant, American, Christian, I tend to focus on forgiveness and charity as the ingredients of reconciliation. But the voices of my sisters and brothers of color speak the need to start with an honest history – a history that includes the complicity of white Christians in injustice; and the need to focus on justice – a structural justice that addresses issues of historic and chronic contemporary inequity. This challenges me to rethink the paradigm of reconciliation in a fundamental way. Reconciliation cannot be a word that glosses over problems that are entrenched in our nation and world. Rather, reconciliation is only possible when we start with justice.
Thank you for supporting me in my Doctor of Ministry!
Peace,
Pastor Gordon