Langley Presbyterian Church

Prayer for Illumination:

Prepare our hearts, O God, to receive Your Word. Silence in us any voices but Your own, so that we may hear and use Your Word; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The killing began on a Thursday. On April 7, 1994, Rwanda turned into a terror and bloody field. The Rwanda genocide, a planned campaign of mass murder, occurred over the course of some 100 days in April–July 1994.

The genocide was conceived by the extremist Hutu tribes of Rwanda who planned to kill the minority Tutsi population and anyone who opposed those genocidal intentions. It is estimated that some 200,000 Hutu, spurred on by propaganda from various media outlets, participated in the genocide. About 1,000,000 Rwandans, making up as much as 70% of the Tutsi tribe and 20% of Rwanda’s total population were raped, tortured, and killed during the campaign.

During those 100 days, neighbors turned against neighbors, family members killed their own, and school teachers expelled their students.

Several calls to action for national reconciliation have been used over the years. One of them is a criminal justice system called “Gacaca Courts.” The term ‘Gacaca’ can be translated as ‘short grass’ referring to the public space where neighborhood male elders used to meet to solve local problems.

The Gacaca (gachacha) trials served to promote reconciliation by providing a means for victims to learn the truth about the death of their family members and relatives. They also allowed perpetrators to confess their crimes, show remorse, and ask for forgiveness in front of their community.

Two decades after the country’s genocide, the photographer Pieter Hugo went to southern Rwanda and captured a series of unlikely, almost unthinkable tableaus. In one, a woman, Viviane Nyiramana, a survivor, rests her hand on the shoulder of the man, Jean Pierre Karenzi – the perpetrator who killed her father and brothers. In another, a woman emotionlessly poses with a man who looted her property and whose father helped murder her husband and children.

KARENZI the Perpetrator said: “My conscience was not quiet, and when I would see her I was very ashamed. After being trained about unity and reconciliation, I went to her house and asked for forgiveness. Then I shook her hand. So far, we are on good terms.”

NYIRAMANA the Survivor said: “He killed my father and three brothers. He did these killings with other people, but he came alone to me and asked for pardon. He and a group of other offenders who had been in prison helped me build a house with a covered roof. I was afraid of him — now I have granted him pardon, things have become normal, and in my mind, I feel clear.”

In many of these photos, there is little evident warmth between the pairs, yet, they are together. In each situation, the perpetrator was a Hutu, who the Tutsi survivor of his crime granted a pardon. These photographs are amazing portraits of reconciliation in progress. Even some 20 years later.

In today’s text, Paul calls us to the Ministry of Reconciliation. What does that mean and what does “ministry of reconciliation’ entail?

We’re continuing the book of 2 Corinthians. As you may remember, the false apostles who came to Corinth accused Paul and his co-workers of their integrity and credibility. V 11, Paul says that he and his co-workers know what it is to fear the Lord. The “fear” here is used in the sense of respectful awareness, and reverence of God, not scare or worry for God’s judgment.

Paul claims that God knows what they are, their mission, their motivation, and the fruit that has come from that. Paul adds that he hopes the Corinthian believers and his readers know, in their conscience, what he and his co-workers are, as well.

Further, he hopes that they are not only fully convinced about the genuineness of the work Paul and those with him have done among them, but also that they take pride in Paul for his truthfulness in Christ.

The accusers may have been suggesting he and his co-workers were out of their minds. It’s to be expected that a non-believer would think it insane for Paul to keep doing the very thing that brought him pain and suffering.

Even the Roman governor of Judea, Festus shouted in Acts 26, “You are out of your mind, Paul. Your great learning is driving you insane.” Now Paul answers firmly that he is not crazy. Instead, he is compelled to act by the “love of Christ.”

Meaning, that Christ’s love for him and others is so motivating that Paul cannot bring himself to respond to it in any other way. Christ’s love has essentially taken Paul captive to do Christ’s work on earth, no matter what Paul may have considered doing otherwise. Because of Christ’s love for him and the world Paul must continue. He can’t NOT do what he is doing.

So then, what was he doing? The ministry of reconciliation.

Sin made us God’s enemies. God is holy and righteous, and our sin separates us from Him. We need reconciliation with God because our relationship with Him was broken.

Christ died in our place to atone for our sins. His death on the cross makes it possible for us to be forgiven for our sins by God’s grace through our faith in Christ. Through faith in Christ, anyone can be reconciled to God. Forgiven for all their sins, they can become fully welcomed into a relationship with God.

Through reconciliation, those “in Christ” have become something they were not before. Their identity has changed from being the fallen version – the children of darkness – to a new creation – the children of Light and God. The old has gone, the new is here!

Once God had done that for them, Paul adds, He immediately commissioned Paul and his co-workers to the “ministry of reconciliation.” God gave them the mission of carrying the gospel, the message of this reconciliation with God, to as many people as possible.

Paul understood his mission in life was to deliver this message to everyone he could. This simple message has not changed since Paul wrote these words. Paul’s ministry becomes a ministry that we are all called to do.

This ministry of reconciliation is a big responsibility. Jesus paid the price for our reconciliation, so we must share this message of reconciliation in love and humility as ambassadors for Christ, and our lives need to reflect our message.

Just as a political ambassador lives in a foreign land, representing the interests of his or her homeland, so, too, as Christians represent Jesus and His message to the world. That’s who we are now – the ambassadors of Christ.

Have you been reconciled to God, or are you still living in rebellion against Him? If you have been reconciled to God, are you living as a new creature in Christ Jesus? Are you serving Him as His ambassador,  His representative to the world?

As Christ-followers, we are called to be and live as ambassadors. We are to proclaim the message of reconciliation with words and with our lives.

He also wants all human beings to live in peace and unity. God wants you to be reconciled with God and with other people. As Christ’s ambassadors of Reconciliation, wherever we go, whatever we do and say, and whenever we can, we are to bring peace and healing.

The stories of the Rwandan people are just so overwhelming. For those who have suffered such horrors – For the Rwanda people to even begin to think about forgiveness or reconciliation with each other has to be a miracle in and of itself; it’s beyond comprehension, just like the fact that we can be reconciled to our Heavenly Father.

These people here in the pictures, those who have suffered so much are encouraged to forgive and be reconciled so that they can move forward, so that their lives can be different, and can be transformed from the pain and misery, not to forget, but to be able to live a life fully. Otherwise, they have to live in bitterness, hurt, and anger, and all these things keep them chained up in a world that was not intended for them.

The Presbyterian Church in Canada originally made a Confession in 1994 for our role in operating residential schools and colonization but we have realized the inadequacy of that Confession.

Two weeks ago at the General Assembly, the departing Moderator, Rev. Mary Fontaine offered the Apology of the Presbyterian Church in Canada for its Complicity in Colonization and the Residential School System to the Indigenous peoples. We don’t know if our apology is granted but we believe it is one more step toward reconciliation.

What part of your life needs the message of reconciliation?

Do you need to forgive your father or your friend?

Do you want to ask your brother or long-time business partner for forgiveness?

Do you need healing in your family?

Perhaps, for many of us, there is reconciliation in progress… still in the slow healing process.

Reconciliation is not an easy process. It takes time and courage to forgive and be forgiven. But it is possible by the grace and mercy of Christ.

If there was ever a time to think about reconciliation it is perhaps now. For ourselves, our families, our communities, our countries, and for the world.

Friends, be reconciled with God and the people around you.

Let us not give up proclaiming the message of reconciliation.

Let us not keep the message of such amazing truth to ourselves!

Let us be compelled to share what we know!

Let us pray.

God of Peace, Thank You for making us a new creation and drawing us near to You through Jesus Christ, Your Son.

Thank You for the privilege of being ambassadors of Christ.

Help us be and live as Your ambassadors of reconciliation and peace in the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Reconciler, we pray. Amen.