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FOR
THE HEALING OF THE WORLD (Text: Mark 2:1-12) "A
few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people
heard that he had come home. So many gathered that there was
no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the
word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried
by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because
of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and,
after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man
was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
‘Son, your sins are forgiven.' Dear
Sisters and Brothers in Christ gathered here in Indonesia for
the Lutheran World Federation Pre-Assembly - The New Testament story I have read is an appropriate text because it corresponds with the theme of the LWF Assembly, "For the Healing of the World." The story about the paralyzed man and his encounter with Jesus gives us a wholistic picture of how Jesus healed people in body, mind and spirit. It is clear from the story that the paralyzed man and his friends knew perfectly well that any healing would have to come from outside themselves. It had to come from Christ himself. They were helpless in the situation, probably feeling quite desperate and hopeless. And then - word came to the people in the villages about Jesus of Nazareth who taught about God's Kingdom and was healing people. The friends planned their project and transported their friend to Jesus, the one who could heal paralyzed muscles. We can imagine how they must have looked down through the hole on the roof, watching Jesus and their friend, hoping and praying for the miracle to occur.
What is healing? How do we define the word healing? Perhaps
for most of us it means an individual physical cure of a disease
or injury. We all have experienced healing of this nature -
perhaps the healing of a broken bone or a case of bronchitis;
perhaps healing surgery for an infected appendix or the healing
administration of an antibiotic. We are thankful to God for
doctors and nurses, pharmacists and researchers who use their
special gifts to bring healing to the human body. We know God
is acting through them to bring wholeness to our physical bodies.
We also pray that God will continue to use these doctors and
scientists to find remedies for the pandemic HIV and AIDS virus,
for cancer and other diseases. I think of Nelson Mandela as an example of this kind of healing. He was in prison in South Africa for so many years. When he was finally released he asked to meet the prison warden. Why? Because Mr. Mandela wanted to shake the man's hand, leaving the prison and the staff with grace and forgiveness. He was transparent, filled with God's love and grace. Yes, Nelson Mandela had been in prison but he was not bitter and sick. He was healed of his hatred and bitterness. He had been imprisoned by apartheid but his spirit was healed. His captors thought he was paralyzed, but he was free to walk with his sins forgiven, ready to lead his nation. Sisters and brothers, here is an important fact about our Savior. Jesus viewed the individual as an essential unity of body and mind. This wholistic approach to human life was far removed from the Greek concept of the body as a prison house for the soul. It was also far removed from a later philosophy of Descartes, which divided the person into physical and mental categories, stating that only the mental or spiritual category was the proper sphere in which the church could work. Jesus Christ, the human incarnation of God on this earth, could see and understand very clearly the influence of body and mind upon each other. While he was always concerned to heal the sick in body, he invariably paid close attention to the mind and spirit of the suffering person. For Jesus, the human being was a unity of body and mind. When Jesus healed a man who could not speak, he was accused of driving out demons by the power of Beelzebub. Jesus spoke directly to his accusers, pointing out that if he was using the power of Satan to heal people, then Satan was divided. "But," Jesus said, "if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come to you." (Luke 11:20) My friends, when healing is taking place in our world, we are experiencing the Kingdom of God among us. Some Christian groups emphasize spirituality through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments, but forget that the gospel also means moving the pulpit into the streets and ministering to people's physical and societal suffering. Other Christian groups emphasize diaconia- ministering to ill and forgotten people. But it is not enough only to administer balm to people's wounds - the gospel must also deal with the root causes of the wounds, confronting sin in society. I am talking here about the sins of injustice, abuse, exclusivity, colonialism, xenophobia, selfishness, materialism, violence, war, land grabbing, deceit and inhumanity. Too often the church is silent, or the church backs away when criticized by society and even by church leaders when a position is publicly taken against economic oppression or against domestic abuse, for example. The Christian church MUST be prophetic - the church MUST speak out on all issues involving brokenness in God's creation, finding ways and means to heal the world with God's grace. To speak out is part and parcel of preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments. It is clear that Jesus wanted to get to the root cause of human suffering, not only healing the surface. This is the reason Jesus first forgave the sins of the paralyzed man. The church is people - it is the congregation, the grassroots. It is this church which must be the voice of the voiceless. We cannot be quiet when people are oppressed and suffering. If we only sing glorious Hallelujahs and say that the world problems are not the business of the church, we are living in hypocrisy and doing nothing to repair people's lives. We are not healed ourselves and we are not healing the world. Instead we look to Jesus who did not remain hidden on the Mount of Transfiguration but returned to the valley where people were suffering. There Jesus continued his wholistic healing ministry. We, too, are called to bring healing to the places of human suffering and oppression. We do so by proclaiming the gospel in both word and deed. We do so when we follow in the footsteps of Christ and deal with the root cause of suffering: "Your sins are forgiven," Jesus told the paralyzed man. Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. . . For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Matt. 9:12-13) Certainly we as Lutherans, with our gracious and life-giving doctrine of JUSTIFICATION, can confidently name and diagnose the sin itself and then speak clearly about God's grace for the healing of the world. Planet Earth is boiling with many undiagnosed and unresolved problems. Today I am going to touch on four areas that the church needs to address for the healing of the world.
1. Justice Heals the World The New Testament perspective of justice is rooted in the proclamation and inauguration of the reign of God in the person of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus sets out His program, His purpose and His message of salvation. It included the mission of justice. "The Spirit has sent me to let the oppressed go free." (Luke 4:18) In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Jesus reminds the religious leaders that they had given too much attention to ritual purity and neglected the weightier matter of justice. (Matt. 23:23) Dr. Ishmael Noko, the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, explains the relationship between justice and justification. It is a call to all those who are baptized into Christ to take part in building community across the barriers that exist between nations, ethnic groups, genders and generations. Because we are justified by God and not by our own qualities or actions, we should all receive each other as God receives us. The gift of justification that we are given in Christ is an affirmation that we are all made in God's image, that we are each of value as individuals. Being justified by grace through faith returns us to the real meaning of biblical justice. It describes the ambiguity in which we human beings find ourselves. We are at the same time sinners and saints, always in need of justice and liberation, which God graciously gives us. It means being simultaneously judged and being freed. Those of us experiencing injustice in this world have the promise of the wonderful hope of justice from the cross and resurrection of Christ. Yes, we are victims of injustice, but as we are saved by God's grace, the God of justice will never allow injustice to have the final word. As long as human beings are far from God, then true justice is far from the world. As long as justice is deeply rooted in self-interest, economy and power, then God's justification has no value for true justice. As long as justice has double or triple standards, then it contradicts the power of the cross. This is true justice, that God has redeemed all humanity equally, regardless of gender, ethnicity or race, whether powerful or weak, rich or poor, from the North or South, East or West. The justice of our modern world is dividing the world's people and countries into an "axis of evil" in contrast to an "axis of good." This division is a challenge to religious communities and to our understanding of humanity. We need to analyze it, to discuss it in a constructive way. When people and nations are said to be a part of the "axis of evil," we must ask ourselves, "What is behind such language? Is the Northern world trying to create religious, ethnic and theological polarizations that threaten to divide the world's people into a number of warring camps, each possessed by the need to dominate through fear?" The editor of the ELCA Lutheran Magazine, Rev. David L. Miller, writes in his editorial: "(The rhetoric) we are hearing simplistically defines nations in terms of our (American) needs, fear and anger. It fixes the identity of entire peoples as essentially opposed to us, ignoring their needs, legitimate aspirations and groups within their societies with whom we share values and interests." The rhetoric of the "axis of evil" fans war fever to convince many people that military options against the bad group are the only way of dealing with destructive leaders and governments. It also depersonalizes entire peoples so we no longer see them, lest we notice the destruction that our national policies wreak on nations that are being demonized. Unfortunately, the rhetoric of "axis of evil" blinds the world to justice and to the reality that life is interconnected. No person or nation is an island. Our Creator fashions a unity in which each element is connected with the others. For these reasons, justification by grace through faith proclaims that the compassion of God has no respect for the world's judgment of purity, acceptability or net worth. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are now justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 3:23-24) God's mercy is for sinners, both in the "axis of evil" and the "axis of good", rich as Zacchaeus and poor as Lazarus at the gate. The justice of God is seen in Jesus who died on the cross for all peoples equally and freely. Where politicians are seeing barriers, the Christian Church finds companions with whom it can join to oppose the barbarism of death, destruction and demonization. United in its opposition, the Church becomes the "axis of hope" created by the Spirit, sharing in God's loving dream for all peoples and the whole creation, as Bishop Christian Krause said to the LWF Council in Wittenburg, Germany. Wherever the Church finds people truly affirming the sacredness of life, there we find the Spirit of Life at work, creating an "axis of hope." The mercy of God's future appears, creating a spiral - not of violence, but of life - working for justice that alone holds the promise of peace in our world. By saying this, I believe that justification by grace through faith calls the Church to be prophetic and even to swim against the waves of injustice in our world. Professor Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it this way: "It is part of the Church's office of guardianship that it shall call sin by its name and that it will warn men and women against sin; for righteousness exalteth a nation, both in time and in eternity." If the church does not do this, it would be incurring part of the guilt "for the blood of the wicked." (Ezek. 3:17ff) Only justice will save the world and humanity from wars, calamities and bloodshed. Justice with peace heals our broken world. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has written a social statement, "For Peace in God's World." The statement says, "When the Church fulfills the mandates of its divine calling, it helps in word and deed to create an environment conducive to peace. When the Church forsakes these mandates, it also fails to serve earthly peace. Through faithfulness in its life and activities as a community for peace, the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit becomes a presence for peace that disturbs, reconciles, serves and deliberates." The statement goes on to say, "The Church is a disturbing presence when it refuses to be silent and instead speaks the truth in times when people shout out, ‘Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. The Church is this presence when it names and resists idols that lead to false security, injustice, and war, and calls for repentance." The Palestinian Church is also called to be an "axis of hope" and to be prophetic. It is called to condemn injustice but at the same time to bring hope, work for justice and prepare a generation of hope and peace. We do this by treating people justly at home and at work, raising our children to trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, living just and peaceful lives. We do this by teaching justice and peace in our Lutheran and Christian schools, and practicing justice, peace and reconciliation in our congregations. It is the call of the Church to condemn oppression, occupation and violence in our country, but at the same time to call for just peace for both Israel and Palestine according to the international legitimacy. The Christian Church needs to be prophetic in order to break the vicious cycle of hatred and revenge. Justification by grace through faith calls the Palestinian Church not only to work for justice but also to be ministers of reconciliation in our homes, our congregations and in this land. We are to educate the grassroots of both nations to see God not only in oneself but also in the other, whom we consider to be an enemy. Once we see God in the other, then we can accept the humanity of the other and even the otherness of the other. Once the humanity of the other is rediscovered, then we can mutually recognize each other's human, civil, religious, national and political rights. Only then will our country, Palestine and Israel, become a promised land of milk and honey for both Palestinians and Israelis.
2. Globalization: Blessing or curse? Or both? The first story is found in Acts 2. Jesus' disciples had been waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus had instructed them. When the day of Pentecost came the disciples were empowered by God's Holy Spirit and, as it says in Acts 2, "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them." Beginning in verse 8 we hear about all the countries that were represented in Jerusalem at Pentecost, and how all of the people heard the disciples declaring the wonders of God in their own language. Later in Acts 2 we hear about many people who were baptized and about the close, loving fellowship of believers. Everything is now connected in our modern world through technology. We can benefit greatly from worldwide knowledge, skills and products. We are able to communicate quickly and efficiently. If our modern day globalization can be like Pentecost, providing opportunities for people to understand other cultures and races, to come closer to one another, to enhance the idea of pluralism, then globalization is a great blessing to us. There is another story in Genesis 11, however, which speaks of globalization in an entirely different way. There were people who decided to build a high tower that would reach into the heavens. The purpose of such a tower is noted in verse 4, " … so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Because of their arrogance and their political and national self-interest, the tower of Babel was doomed to failure. The story says that God confused their language so they could not understand one another. The people were scattered over the earth. Modern globalization is too often used in the same way - for personal and national self-interest. People seek power for the sake of power. This kind of globalization is a sin against humanity instead of seeking the humanity of the human being. I believe that the world is losing its humanity to globalization and technology, trusting far more in money and power, bits and bytes, in world trade, cyberspace and outer space than in our loving and compassionate God. Ironically, in an age that connects people and nations by the Internet, we are actually becoming further apart from one another as persons, as children of God. We seem to believe that we ourselves are all-powerful, self-sufficient, which is the original sin in the Garden of Eden. Many people see no need for God because of our impressive advances in various fields of human enterprise. Human beings seem to matter less than numbers or symbols or technology or power or money. It is obvious that our economically globalized world is making the rich richer and the poor poorer. A major area of our growing inhumanity is in the large gap between North and South, between East and West on this earth. The painful truth is that people in the North live well at the expense of human beings in the South. Some people in the North may be insensitive to traditions in the South. Some people in the South and East may be angry and bitter toward those in the North and West. These gaps are continually widened by fear, economic greed, materialism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia, selfishness and intolerance. In its calling as the axis of hope, the Christian church must be prophetic, continually reminding the world through its words and deeds that all people are equally created and saved by God and have the right to enjoy life on this earth. Yes, inhumanity and economic greed exist, but the church must not let people be deprived of their God-given rights to an abundant life. Everyone needs to have equal opportunities and there needs to be an equal sharing of resources. The mission of the church is to call for and practice the redistribution of wealth, not as charity or relief work but in a spirit of true generosity in an economically globalized world of wrongs. Generosity means sharing the best of what we have, not merely distributing our leftovers, or what we no longer want or need. Generosity demands equal human and civil rights for all the nations in assisting them to live in dignity and to construct a healthy infrastructure. This is what the church as a global communion is called to do - we are moved to act in responsive and proactive ways that are consistent with who we are as the Christian communion in this world, with the many interrelationships we have around the globe. We are to use our gifts of bridge building between North and South, East and West in order to heal the rifts that now exist. God came to this world in Jesus Christ. We call this gracious, life-giving act the Incarnation. Considering the pain and struggle of Jesus' life, it would have been easier for God NOT to incarnate. God could have saved everyone from the comfort of heaven, perhaps over the Internet. But God in Christ became one of us to return humanity to a world that had lost its humanity. Jesus Christ returned the imago dei, the image of God, to human beings. The mission of the church today is to allow Christ to re-incarnate himself in the midst of this world, once again returning humanity to Planet Earth that tragically has lost its humanity. We ask God to empower us to rise up as the church and pursue the practical, theological and spiritual challenges posed by economic globalization. It is the call of the church in this globalized world to care for God's children so there will be a new Pentecost instead of a new tower of Babel.
3. Ecumenism as a Process of Healing among Churches In the early church there were many large and heated theological discussions and yet the Christian church was known for its love. "See how they love one another," said people outside the church. Now in the 21st century it is very important that we discuss our different theologies and clearly show our love for each other. The dialogues between Lutherans and Catholics are now discussing the apostolicity of the church. The healing of old wounds lets us see the apostolicity of every church that preaches the gospel and administers the sacraments. Such recognition enlarges and enhances the mission of the church. The healing within the divided church means that we can address the healing so desperately needed in our broken and fallen world. A. Why does ecumenism heal? The history of the Christian church includes schism and disagreement. And yet through this history of human weakness and frailty the church still exists. I am reminded of Paul's words in the Second Letter to the Corinthians: "But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us." (II Cor. 4:7) In the High Priestly Prayer in John 17 Jesus said: "Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me - so that they may be one as we are one." Such oneness does not mean that we lose the pluralistic nature of the church, but it truly is a challenge to a divided church to be sure the plurality is about doctrine and not about the desire for power. We must ask ourselves with a clear conscience: Do we see Christ in the other church or only in our own church and confession? As Christians we need to confess that we have not seen Christ in other churches and we are guilty of seeing Christ exclusively in our own church. When we can acknowledge this guilt and repent of it, the process of healing among churches takes place. Then the church can faithfully ask: "What is the call of the one Christ to the one church in the world?" B. What is God's mission in this world? One day a Muslim shopkeeper in the Old City of Jerusalem stopped me as I was walking to my office at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. "Look at that woman over there," he said. "I can tell she is a Christian." I asked the man, "How do you know that?" And he replied, "Because she is carrying that handicapped child, and she takes care of handicapped children that are not her own. You Christians are better than we are." I told him that we Christians are not better than Muslims, but we practice sacrificial love because our Lord Jesus gave himself for us on the cross. This sacrificial love is the only way to heal our world when we serve the needy regardless of gender, race, religion or political affiliation.
When theologians discuss their understanding of mission, the
focus quite often is on the tension between the proclamation
of the Word, and the opinion that mission is dialogue. Here
the minority churches in the South can offer a third concept: The ecumenical movement is not an end in itself. Our strength is that the ecumenical movement will guide us to have a unified strategy for mission, evangelism and diaconia. It will also lead us into our life of communion with each other. God's mission in this world through the church is much more than dialogue among Lutherans, Catholics and Orthodox. There is one mission: How can the love of God penetrate into our world through grace? How can we be enabled to heal our brokenness, our different doctrines and our theological disagreements? The church is called for one and the same mission - to carry the love of God into this world and to our churches. C. How can we carry out God's mission together? Like Christ, the church must teach with authority, with truth, and with passion for liberation, forgiveness and healing. This authority we use is not one of blind obedience. It is rather the authority of Jesus. The preaching and living of the Word of God are done in a way that touches the hearts of people and opens their lives to God and to God's priorities. We in Asia are all churches that are the outcome of mission. Sometimes we have problems because of this, but we must recognize that God commissions us to preach the gospel and teach it with authority in the context where God has placed us. The church is the church whether as a sending church or a mission church. Now all churches are both sending and mission churches. Sometimes we have problems with our relationships between North and South churches because we live in two different worlds. Usually it is a matter of the churches in the North being financially rich and the churches in the South being financially poor. A ruthless fact that we face over and over is that financial resources mean power. Even though the financial power is in the North, the fact is that world Christianity now has its point of gravity in the South. These days the vitality and growth in membership are more evident in the churches in the South than in those in the North. In spite of this, the rich churches in the North have the financial means that lead churches in the South to a certain dependency. Allow me to take my own church, the ELCJ, as an example of a church in the South. If our generous partners were to stop providing their financial support, our work would come to a halt. The tight financial situation and shortage of resources limit our mission work, both among our people in our own context, and even more in our ability to send missionaries to work in other churches. We find ourselves living in a box, having no room to move. Furthermore, we often have to move in a certain direction in line with the constraints of financial support. There is also tension in the fact that some of these agencies get most of their funding from government sources and there are restrictions on how the funds may be used. While we realize that churches in the South need to be challenged by the Northern churches and development agencies, we would also like to challenge them with these questions: "What does it mean to be together in God's mission? What does it mean to have a common strategy for mission and development? Are we really speaking about one mission of Christ, or different missions?" It often seems that the North, South, East and West have particular missions that do not correspond to each other. My friends, we must have one mission of Christ to face one globalized world. I believe there is a way to be together in God's mission. In fact, I know that this particular way of doing mission results in partnerships that are equal and very effective. This is the theology of accompaniment. In this theology there is no rich or poor, no strong or weak, no large or small, no majority or minority. Instead we walk together, as Christ walked with the disciples on the way to Emmaus. Accompaniment assumes a process: churches accompany each other on the way, sharing with each other as equals, bringing healing to each other, learning from each other. We in the South can share our fresh witness to the gospel. We can learn from the North how to be strong missionary churches. Mission, my friends, is South, North, East and West. We allow our Lord to break bread with us, erasing all barriers. We are equals - we are transparent with one another in our accompaniment - we are all empowered to do God's mission. In accompaniment there is no minority church, no majority church, no East, West, South or North church, but one church with one mission. I believe the theology of accompaniment brings healing to the world. Together the churches are walking with the Lord and with each other, being transparent with one another in regard to witness in word and deed, ecumenism and dialogue, communication and finance, decision making and contextualization, racial diversity and gender equity. Again the message of salvation by God's grace through faith is all-important. As mission boards, churches and denominations in the North, South, East and West, we confess our own sins of arrogance, selfishness and blindness. Then we can turn to the world and together in accompaniment bring the life-giving news of God's love in Jesus Christ to ourselves and to others so that we may hear, "Look how much they love each other and witness together." 4.
Interfaith Relationships as a Process of Healing the World
First of all, religion can be a problem when it uses
the Holy Writings of the respective religions to justify injustice,
violence and war in our world. Let me elaborate in two examples: Secondly, narrow religion can be a source and a tool to create religious extremism. This extremism, in turn, adopts intolerant positions or biased attitudes with exclusive claims on the truth. These groups easily succeed where poverty and injustice prevail. We are challenged and obstructed by religious fanaticism and extremism because these groups think they are the sole defenders of God and God's true religion. They forget that God does not need defenders of religion. These groups can easily be a threat to world justice and peace, creating intolerance and turmoil instead. Cardinal Arinze is right when he says that extremism is often characterized by an intransigent attitude toward co-religionists and others who hold different views, or who live in a different concept of society. This frequently leads to violence. Some extremists even go further and deny the right of religious freedom to those whose religious convictions differ from their own. For me as a man of dialogue for the healing of the world, there is no religion which monopolizes the existence of tolerant and intolerant groups in its midst. We find both tolerance and intolerance existing in Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religions. But we can never allow intolerant groups to hijack God or religion. We need to ask, in our 21st century: "How can religion through interfaith dialogue contribute to tolerance among religions; justice, peace and reconciliation; and the healing of our world?" Interfaith dialogue must be prophetic. It must not create more bitterness and injustice but must be able to heal. First: Interfaith dialogue ought to regard the theology of creation in a serious way. Why did God create us differently? Why do we differ in our various religious beliefs? It can be that there is no immediate answer except that all people of all religions are created in God's image. Yes, there are serious differences, doctrines, traditions and norms. Interfaith dialogue does not change these things nor does it erase them. Rather, interfaith dialogue helps us to see God's presence in the other person. When we see that, then we can admit that the Creator granted every one of us equal human rights and equal values. We Christians are called in our interfaith dialogue to challenge our world with a strong theology of creation and redemption. God created all human beings and nations equally. Through his Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross, God saved all the world equally. This is the basic theology that drives us to heal the world and combat any kind of racism, extremism, superiority, anti-Semitism, Islamaphobia and xenophobia in our modern world. Second: Interfaith dialogue must be courageous to seek common values from the respective religions. It sometimes seems that the globalized consumerism, materialism and secularism leave our world stripped of values and instead impose the principles of self-interest. Thus, relationships are dependent only on the self-interests of both parties. For this reason I call on all religions to seek for the common values that promote family, equality, justice, peace, tolerance and reconciliation. A world without values is a world of chaos. A world with values is a world that promotes pluralism, equality, democracy and respect for other religions and traditions even those that are strange to us. Third: Together with people of other religions, we must work together to bring justice and healing to the world. We are not to please politicians who seek war. Rather, religious people can be prophetic if they offer the longstanding, peaceful means of religion to solve world problems. Interfaith dialogue can challenge the world with authority. Stop war! Stop the militarization in our world that is threatening to kill humanity! Stop the proliferation of conventional and non-conventional weapons that can burn our world hundreds of times. How much money is spent on armaments, weapons, military operations and occupation, on killing people? It is the prophetic role of world religions to call for the disarmament of the whole world, not only one country or some countries we don't like. The world religions can assume their prophetic role if they stand against militarism and call for non-violent means to solve world problems. We are to tell the world: "The money you spend on power and militarization should be spent on eradicating poverty in the world, in providing education, in bringing justice and equality, in conquering the HIV and AIDS virus, cancer and other diseases." Fourth: Interfaith dialogue must promote peace education. We truly need to learn about the other religions as they want to be perceived and not as we want them to be. Peace education must be high on the agenda. Peace education helps the adherents of one religion to have a positive picture of the adherents of different religions and avoid any kind of stigmatization, demonization or dehumanization. Such understanding helps everyone to co-exist with tolerance, love and hope. I believe all religious people must repent for the ways in which we have distorted God image in the other.
The mission of healing the world will be stronger if it works
with other religions . . . Our world will be safer, richer and stronger if dialogue with other religions will guide us to build a just, new world order of security, freedom and tolerance, a modern civil society and culture of peace.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: "Love is the most durable power in the world. This creative force, so beautifully exemplified in the life of our Christ, is the most potent instrument available in humankind's quest for peace and security." Bishop Desmond Tutu has said, "Forgiveness is not just some nebulous vague idea that one can easily dismiss. It has to do with uniting people through practical politics. Without forgiveness there is no future." Bishop Tutu knows whereof he speaks and he expresses what everyone living under oppression experiences. For him the power of forgiveness was a central force in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. People's lives were healed in South Africa because forgiveness was offered to them. For the healing of the world - this was Jesus' mission in his lifetime on this earth. And Jesus gave that program and privilege to the church. We find the description of Jesus' mission in Luke 4, as he read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Then Jesus rolled up the scroll, handed it to the attendant
and sat down to teach the people. "Today," Jesus
said, "this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  |
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