A time to unite

Taken at Elmina Fortress in Ghana. Also a place of human suffering, a room that needed to be closed.

I guess healing is good anytime, but not every time is the time for healing.  With the risk of making too much of Bin Laden’s death, the event is an invitation to us all to at least move toward healing.   My first reaction to the news was to reign in the celebration I saw on the TV and on Facebook.   As a matter of principle, enjoying someone’s demise, no matter who it is,  isn’t cool.    “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.” Proverbs 24:17.   (Thanks Brian.)  And though closure isn’t as simple as closing a door, perhaps the best consequence of this will be that those who were hurt because of Bin Laden’s rhetoric and plotting can now step out of the room where the wallpaper and furniture were all branded with the politics of his capture.    The reason not to be over elated is that there are still two very different narratives in conflict, and the world has not seen the end of this battle for the right to write history.

My second reaction came when I saw partisan comments on Facebook.   Also not cool.  Obama’s administration has completed a mission that the Bush administration began and one that even the Clinton administration had committed itself to after the bombings in Kenya  and Tanzania in 1998 that killed more than 200 Kenyans, 12 Americans and injured 4,000 people.   Whether you agreed or disagreed, see this partnership of sequential administrations as a partnership in crime against international law or a partnership for justice, this was a an event in American history that Democrats and Republicans pursued together.

My third reaction came as I thought about my upcoming trip to Senegal to participate in the orientation of Wartburg College students who are coming to Senegal to explore and learn about Christian Muslim relations.   That orientation, the entire May Term study will be shaded by the death of Bin Laden.   With the reasonable assumption that supporters of Bin Laden will retaliate in order to show strength and not lose the political battle, it isn’t clear how this will play out in Senegal or in any country.   What is clear to me, is that despite whatever attempts to promote discord might occur, this is a time for Christians and Muslims to unite and move forward.  Just as silly as it is for Republicans and Democrats in the USA to miss this opportunity for strengthening their country politically, so it would be for Christians and Muslims to miss this opportunity to strengthen the world on a spiritual level.

This week, I hope that people through out the world will invite Muslim neighbors  to eat with them and to discuss what this event means for the world and in particular for Muslims and their relationships with non Muslims.   What will the next room look like, what brand of furniture and wall paper?   Will the conflicting narratives move toward mutual understanding?   This is a room we can create together!  Or, people can debrief this world event each in his or her own camp, building on the going narrative and imagining a room very pretty for one’s self, but not accessible to the other.   I think it is a time to unite, a time to invite someone from another faith community to dinner.

Invitational Church

Akwaaba signs similar to this one with a woman pouring drink for a visitor are everywhere in Ghana

My friend Reinhard told me that in a recent survey in Germany, the majority of people said the word ‘mission’ is something negative.  It implies a subject “doing something” to another person as object.  It is contaminated by colonial connotations.  Interestingly, the word ‘mission’ is still used by governments to describe the activities of their embassies.  But still, in church circles, mission is treated not only as characteristic of the church, but sometimes as essential to the church.  The word ‘mission’ is loaded leaving some people hot and some people cold.   Some love it, some hate it.   In church circles, we firmly believe in God’s redemptive mission to the world that He created and we believe we can participate in God’s mission through faith and by the help of the Spirit.  The current ELCA slogan “God’s Work, Our Hands” is about our participation in God’s mission.

When we as individuals get involved in mission work, we need to be careful that our focus is not our “doing something” for or to other people. Global Mission of the ELCA introduced the concept of accompaniment to help nurture a model of mission based on mutuality and not the typical imbalance of power seen in donor- beneficiary relationships.

My friend Reinhard said the survey in Germany is causing the church to reconsider the emphasis on the “Missional Church” and instead  they are talking more about the “Invitational Church. ”   This idea has been subject of conversation in recent years, and even if it isn’t perfect, it has merit.    We are challenged to ask what is our invitation as opposed to what is our mission?  Or, really, what is our connection to God’s invitation rather than our connection to God’s mission?

What do you think of the change in emphasis?   Is your church an inviting church?  Are you an inviting Christian?   Jesus certainly invited us when he says, “Come, follow me.”

Blessed second Sunday in Advent.