Wednesday 13 January 2010

Today Ubuntu comes into the realm of everyday politics - again Michael Battle.

Governments around the world spend obscene amounts of money on the arms race when a tine fraction of that same amount would ensure that God's children had clean water and adequate housing. A theological understanding of Ubuntu would not allow government justifications to uproot black people from their ancestral homes and then dump them in the least desirable pieces of property. Tutu explains, "You don't dump people, you dump rubbish. You dump things."

Maybe we don't - for the most part - want to have anything to do with providing what is needed to those who are in need. That's a sad thought. And yet, we are more concerned with securing things than we are of securing people who help us become more of ourselves. This is one of those places when I laugh out loud when people call the U.S or any other nation Christian. If we were followers of Jesus, we would turn our backs to the race for arms and turn our faces toward those who are in need because we would know, like Jesus, the value of even the least among us. It is within that crossing over into the domain of the other that we enter the domain of the Reign of God. As nice as that sounds, it is a radical notion and one that is not greatly appreciated. The land of forgiveness and mercy and kindness and justice is not a place to be involved in nation or empire building. It is a land in which we are able to experience the blowing wind of the Spirit turning things over and presenting life in new and dynamic ways. That can frighten us - but it is also the saving life of all of us.

Connection: Do not be dismayed at small steps that are headed toward God's peaceable Reign. Just the glimpse of that Reign is enough to encourage more movement and more life.

You who call us all beloved and precious, O God, create for us life that is to be abundant and full. Though we may be called many names, inspire us to hear your call everyday so the day will be shaped again by your Word. Amen.