Wednesday 15 October 2008

The characteristic that comes with forgiveness in God's Reign - Stanley Hauerwas.



This love that is characteristic of God's kingdom is possible only for forgiven people - a people who have learned not to fear one another. For love is the nonviolent apprehension of the other as other. But to see the other as other is frightening, because to the extent others are the other they challenge my way of being. Only when my self - my character - has been formed by God's love, do I know I have no reason to fear the other.



Even though there are many reasons as to why we should fear one another, we are taught that this love of God for us - that is also the love in which we live - is the power to overcome our fears. When

those fears are overcome because we are people who are drenched in the reality of forgiveness, we are then able to enter into conversations and take the risk to initiate a dialogical process - even with those who are called our enemies. It is within this risk taking that we live as forgiven people who bring into the world the opportunities for peace making. This is so contrary to what we hear on the world stage. In the past few years we have heard people say that we must not and cannot open up conversations with those who we have call our enemies. What that says to me is that we have lost our ability to really think like peace makers. Instead we are willing to risk war rather than risk what may come from a conversation in which both sides are invited to dive into the differences that keep us apart. We cannot be at peace until we as forgiven people - forgive. For in that moment, their are others who experience the openness of seeing beyond our stereotypes that keep us in the trenches of our past.



Connection: It is not easy to enter into conversations that are open and free. We have too much history of warfare on so many levels of our lives. And yet, the Reign of God comes as we take the risk to trust what God has and will say about us...beloved of God.



As we face our fears, O God, we often pull back and remain in the places of our lives that are filled with terror and anxiety. Liberate us and set us free to dance within your space of peace and wholeness. Amen.