A message by Antoine Rutayisire, of , at Amahoro Gathering in

 

People think that reconciliation is something that only countries that have faced disasters, like , , , .  But it is not so.  We all have something that we need to be reconciled to. 

Reconciliation is not an event, it is a lifestyle.

Part of the problem:  The African contradiction is that the very same people who have hatred in their hearts towards others, especially ethnic hatred, still go to church.  This includes pastors.  When the fighting is over, there is no reconciliation, and the festering wounds are not healed.  The anger is still there. 

There are many wounds in Africa.  These wounds lead to anger, bitterness and hatred in people.  But these people are often in our churches – even leaders and ministers.

In in the early 1990s, about 90% of the population were Christian (68% Catholic).  But then came the genocide.  In 100 days, over 1 million people were wiped out.  How did this happen in a country that was so Christianised?

 What Went Wrong?

The Content of the Message:  Partial and Selective Gospel

The full Gospel would deal with the wounds of the past.  In , when the killings of the late 1950s occurred, a full Gospel would have dealt with the issues that caused it, and would have worked for reconciliation.  They did not.  And the same problem was experienced again in the 1990s.

The Methods of Presentation: Intellectual vs Experiential

The Western Gospel is an intellectual Gospel.  It is something to put into your mind.  You memorise it, go for a test, and pass, and then you are baptised.  They even changed the name of God – the name that Rwandans had for God was changed, and they were told that the god they had believed in was a demon.   

But Africans are experiential, and the spiritual is interlinked with everything in life.  The Christian God, who could send you to hell, was to be appeased, and his “rules” (don’t drink, be monogamous, dress in a suit) must be followed simply to ensure you don’t go to hell (something they did not know about before the missionaries came).  But, for advice on who to marry, or for help with your illness, or to put a curse on your enemy, you go to the traditional spiritual leaders.

The Problem of the Messengers:  Talking Love, Sowing Divisions

The missionaries and pastors supported the problems.

The Church and Politics:  An Adulterous Marriage

When the missionaries came, they brought the colonisers with them.  In , where many pastors supported the genocide, it is incredibly difficult to be church today. 

What the church in is learning
 

A New Perspective on Sin and Alienation

Sin is, at its heart, alienation.  Firstly, it is alienation from God – a spiritual problem.  Secondly, alienation from self – psychological problems.  Thirdly, alienation from others – social problems (right from the start, Adam said, “it was that woman who made me do it”).  Fourthly, alienation from nature – ecological problems.

Reconciliation is at the heart of the Gospel, because alienation is the cause of our problems.

 

A New Perspective on The Cross

Christ is not only our SIN bearer, he is also our PAIN bearer. 

PAIN:  Isaiah 53:4:  Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…

SIN:  Isaiah 53:5:  But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 

Christ is our reconciler.  As he hung on the cross, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  We cannot hold onto anger or hatred.
 

Ephesians 2:11-22
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men) -- remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

We do not reconcile and love others because of who they are, but because of who God is. 

A New Perspective on the Mission of the Church

We are meant to be ambassadors of reconciliation.

A New Perspective on our Social relationships

We must be the holy nation of God.  We are a colony of heaven on earth.

God is looking for people he can use.

 

A New Perspective on the Power of Our Unity

The world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples because of our love for each other.
 

John 13:34-35
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
 

John 17:20-21
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

It is where the believers are gathered together in love that God commands a blessing.

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