Ministry of reconciliation is very close to my theological training and experiences as an ordained minister in the United Church of Canada for the past three decades.

The doctrine of three-fold office of Christ (Munus Triplex) reminds us of the 3-divinely appointed vocations / offices of Prophet (Who proclaims God’s Word), Priest (Who offers redeeming sacrifice to God) and King (Who rules in God’s name and honor). John Calvin was the first European theologian to introduce this doctrine to the Western Church, although it was preserved in our ancient Eastern Christian traditions for over a thousand years before Calvin ever heard of it. I strongly believe that both the early church fathers and their European interpreter Calvin unbelievably overlooked a fourth office of Jesus, namely the office of ‘The sent’, the Messiah who God sent, or the office of mission, apostolic office (John 17:8, 18). We now know that apostolic vision of the Good News of Jesus was not on the priority list of theological agenda of the European reformers. Therefore, the fourth office of Christ is the One who was sent, who in turn sends (apostolos) his apostles into the world.

Here we have gathered from Europe, the US and Canada. In our new home away from our ancestral roots, occasionally we might, like the people of Israel, attempt to sing songs of thanksgiving and praise. Certainly we face challenges and uphill battles for survival and success. Most of us are well connected, we do well and thrive while others fall through, flounder and wilt away in defeat and despair. Two weeks ago, I was at the Annual Conference of Princeton’s Pastor-Theologians, where some theologians were praising the virtues of globalization; I returned home and read an article by C.T. Kurien, an internationally outstanding Indian economist; he states in no uncertain terms that ‘globalization is not necessarily the perfect panacea . "A high growth-rate without inclusive measures generates not only millionaires, but also beggars," Solomon was right as he said ‘there is nothing new under the sun!

Perceptions of apology, forgiveness and reconciliation are as old as our human condition. Mahatma Gandhi once described the sins of our human condition:

In my idealist existence, when I was a young and foolish those words meant almost nothing! But today, at my vintage in my older mode, it is a reliable art for survival. The mission statements like those of the Greeting card businesses: “It is all about touching lives, building bridges, creating bonds and healing rifts or broken relationships”!

V.K. Krishna Menon, a brilliantly shrewd politician once said that ‘the foreign policy of a nation is not foreign; it is a domestic / homemade vision of other nations – how to deal them as friends or foes’. Forgiveness and reconciliation are not words for others – they are about us. We hear people say, “I will never forgive myself for being so dumb or stupid! ”

First of all, at the very beginning of one’s healing journey, our experiences of being violated emotionally, physically, etc. short-changed, always forced to get stuck with the short-end of the stick need to explored, acknowledged, understood, and examined in order to capture the big picture. Such an investigation should take us to the next step of our response. When you are depressed and put down, there is no energy left in you to respond. Hopefully the third and final stage is moving towards healing. With these three steps in mind, let us move on.

The very first reference to reconciliation – replacement, reinstatement, restoration of an enjoyable, pleasant, satisfying, gratifying relationship, rapport, connection, bond between two parties - (Matthew 5:23-24) is in the context of anger in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says: before you place your gift on the altar and remember that someone is angry with you, leave your gift there (not on the altar!) in front of the altar and make peace with that person, return and offer your gift to God. Reconciliation, the process of squaring off, creation of a resolution to move on, is not concocted or cooked up elsewhere, it has to come from within. In the grace of God, reconciliation is genuine, and promising.

At the first International Religious Human Rights Conference held at Emory University where I met Archbishop Desmond Tutu, we focused on this very theme in the early 1990s. We are told that all those men and women who served on the Truth & Reconciliation Committee are fighting their own personal battles with cancer today. So, it’s not that all peaches and cream to speak about reconciliation whether the context is my home, my workplace, my church, my community, my nation and my world as reconciliation presupposes angst, conflict, fear, incompatibility, nervousness, mistrust, suspicion and crushing defeats – whether a spouse, an employee, a duly elected officer in the church, an ordained person, etc. and it is equally true of the world out there, when our society or nation is in a state of confusion, anarchy, disorder and dysfunction.

Theme:
Saint Paul writes to the faithful at Corinth: God has done it all! God sent Jesus to make peace between God and us and God has given us the work of making peace between God and others. [2 Corinthians 5:18] He adds: What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And God has given us the work of sharing the message of peace…[Verse 19] Ministers of reconciliation? It is then a calling where everyone is invited to a ministry of reconciliation.

Interfaith initiatives at all levels have been one of the hobbyhorses in the past several years; Let me highlight an observation as we don’t need to claim to have done it all by ourselves.

Peter Singer writes on The Good Life in his book “Writings on an Ethical Life” ( p.264 Harper-Collins, 2000) “Human beings lack the strength of the gorilla, the sharp teeth of the lion, the speed of the cheetah. Brainpower is our specialty. The brain is a tool for reasoning, and a capacity to reason helps us to survive, to feed ourselves, and to safeguard our children. With it we have developed machines that can lift more than many gorillas, knives that are sharper than any lion’s teeth and ways of traveling that make a cheetah’s pace tediously slow. But the ability to reason is a peculiar ability. Unlike strong arms, sharp teeth or flashing legs, it can take us to conclusions that we have no desire to reach.”

20th century has been described as the most violent century in recorded history. The worst human tragedy before most of us showed up on this planet; here I am referring to the Shoah of the 6 million European Jews in Nazi Germany, which is mistakenly known as Holocaust (holos or olon =completely, kaustos / kauston = burnt ) , as it refers to a willing sacrifice offered to a god – trust me, the Jewish folk were not willing – they were forcefully dragged to the gas chambers in Auschwitz, Treblinka etc. , part of a xenophobic Hitler’s plan to exterminate the outsiders, which also included the Roma, Soviet POWs, disabled people, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Polish Roman Catholics, political prisoners such as Dietrich Bonheoffer, the theologian who taught us about ‘cheap grace’ – the Nazis called this genocide as the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question….9 - 11 million were perished. Then the Armenian genocide, Rwandan genocide, mass killings of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, then the slave trade of Africans by folks like John Henry Newton who wrote the syrupy hymn, Amazing Grace! ELIE WIESEL commented: In a world of absurdity, we must invent reason; we must create beauty out of nothingness.

Discord raises its ugly head everywhere - wherever people live and move and have their being – that’s basically our human condition.If I am sorry for something I have done or left undone, what we call the sins of omission and commission, I need to have the imagination to admit, acknowledge what is done/undone.

My three points for whatever its worth:

1. Justice : Acknowledge our complicity (not ‘just us’ but justice)

2. Integrity: Address the issue (honesty goes a long way)

3. Humility: Attempt to make amends (nothing to lose but everything to gain)

John Wesley’s (1703-1791) prayer is helpful.

[Abstract of the speech delivered at the 25th Mar Thoma Church’s Family Conference-2007 held in Toronto]