Let's end the week with this sturdy piece.
Tutu's model of Ubuntu seeks to be a conduit of this holiness in the midst of a society's unholy alliance with apartheid. In this context, Ubuntu is a vital concept by which Tutu aims to move his society toward reconciliation in which racial and cultural differences are no longer placed in hierarchical forms of power. Tutu's theological model exposes the fragility of human identity through the means of God's kenotic (uniting) entry into creation.... "As the image of God, as mirror, we must learn to know that our kenosis (think union with Christ/God) is our potency." Like God, and in God's image, human beings are to be persons who no longer claim power of hegemonic identities as they move toward being born anew into a society capable of containing difference without such difference destroying itself.
We are not stuck with the way things have been and the way the powers have handed us life. We are the beloved of God who reveal that love by being just who we are - people in union with God. Don't be afraid of the language. Rather, be the words...made flesh...reconciliation alive...mercy on display. In the face of the brutalities of our world, we come with another face - that of our God who will not call others unholy or despised or dirty or less. This is the disarming aspect of the beloved community - it longs to love enemy as though enemy is beloved and therefore part of the unfolding of God's liberating power that is meant to be as real as our presence.
Connection: We need not destroy that which is different. I may be in that difference we are handed a gift that turns our world upside down and offers life as we never anticipated it.
In your image, O God, we move out into this day. We are not always sure of how your way will become our way because we are so pulled by the ways of this world. So pull us with you and show us - again - your life that is light for the world. Amen.
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