Called For Reconciliation
Mat 5:23-25, Gen 3:4-11
The gospel of church growth should go together with the gospel of reconciliation. The church is full of Christians, growing but wounded, flourishing yet with festering wounds. This is the contradiction in many churches today. People are bitter, but still preaching the gospel. Many have anger within themselves. Problems are not being tackled by our preaching. Children abandoned by their parents are still living in mystery. We can not succeed in church growth if we are not serious on reconciliation. It is true that in a country like Rwanda, where 90% are said to be Christians, a million people died in 100 days. This is an anatomy of failure.
If we can forsake this gospel of reconciliation and preach some selected gospel then we are not preaching the full gospel. We are here to preach the gospel fully. Most of our preaching has been through intellectualism, not experiential. Memorizing bible verses does not mean that we know the real meaning of the bible. We have taught about love while within us we have sowed seeds of divisions. The missionaries came hand in hand with colonialism. The church is coming again with politics. The marriage has become adulterous.
Many people were killed in church buildings because the church became butchers. May the church raise up and support the governments in reconciliation! May the church understand its failure and lead the efforts of reconciling between people! Muslims are helping their mosques to grow, why should the Christians not help one another? Churches are the funders of many governments, and we pray that they will start helping one another.
Sin alienates people from God and leads to spiritual problems. Alienation from self: psychological problem. Alienation from each other: social problem. Alienation from nature: this is what we call ecological problem.
However, Christ is our pain bearer, ( Isaiah 53:4) and Christ is our reconciler (Eph 2:5). He cried “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” They did not need to be hated. There is no reason for us to hate one another, whether white or black.
We need to look to a new perspective of the Church’s mission as reconciliation. We need not forgive people because they are good, but because our God and Father is a good God. When we fail to reconcile people then we have failed as a church. Let us be people whom God can use to transform this situation.
Let us have a new perspective on social relationships ( i.e. the holy nation of God), the perspective of power in unity. In this perspective, people will know that we are His disciples and will accept Him as their Savior. If we want to see a change, then let us remain in unity, for our God commands his blessing to such.
Racism, tribalism, and nepotism should not exist in the church when true reconciliation enters. Where true reconciliation enters then you find people going together, and not the other way. When true reconciliation enters, it removes fear. When true reconciliation comes in, people start feeling relevant. People stop hating themselves, their color, or their language. These things will stop disturbing them. When reconciliation comes in, people leave their comfort zones and start interacting with one another. The black and the white will go together, stay together, and worship together. Calling people by their tribe or color means that we segregate them. It is good that we call them men and women of God.
Jesus should not be seen as weak because of our disunity. Our God should not be blamed because of our hatred toward one another. The church will not be hated when reconciliation enters. It will be seen as a place of peace, a place of support and a place of blessings. The color of people will not matter.
Reconciliation means the offender goes to the offended and asks for forgiveness. Repentance is a process in between people crying. Most of the time when go to people we tell them that God loves them, but we never remember to tell them that we love them too.
Segregation is more harmful than AIDS. The anger towards one another will not come again. No black will hate the white and no white will hate the black, for the reconciliation of God rests on them all. God is healing people from the inside the church; growth is now including in itself true reconciliation. Wounds are being healed in Jesus’ name. People are beginning to believe one another. There is a happy face that is coming again to the church in Jesus’ name. People are being allowed to leave together. No Jew nor gentile; no man nor woman. The forgiveness of God is sweeping over the world again in Jesus’ name.
The true gospel will reconcile the people of God together. Let us look at Calvary and see the suffering of Jesus in order to reconcile people back to God and to one another.
Reconciliation values all God’s creation while capitalism values a certain number of people. Writing the bible into local languages, giving people hope, the role of music, making theology ecumenical, Pentecostalism, primal speech, signs and wonders all make a church grow, but unless they include reconciliation it shall come down.
It is reconciliation that will finish rebellion, ignorance, exploitation, poverty and corruption. We are not here by mistake. Let us all unite and reconcile the upcoming generation, training them to listen to one another. Let us train them in understanding one another, knowing the dream of one another. Let us give them strategies, priorities and teaching on how to move forward from where they are.
Leadership should not leave behind the reconciliation ministry. It should go together with church growth, and divisions and conflicts will be no more. All believers being led to maturity must be shown more than bookwork.
Dualistic theology, sexism, disunity, individualism and pride will cease when true reconciliation comes into the church and the world. Competitions and adapting a number of people to be a measure will be no more. Denominations will not be able to work together if each church sees itself as the only one making impact in the kingdom. We need to know that we all belong to one large body. May the fruit of justice love and compassion be full in all messages that we preach.
There can be no reconciliation unless sin is named and judged. That is why God did not only forgive the sinner but a penalty was paid at Calvary. May God give us power to speak against the evil done. We the church should start with ourselves. Justice plays a very big role in reconciliation.
If we as the church fail to play our role of reconciling, then the world will be doomed. In reconciliation, conflicting parties need to come together and understand on another.
