A pastoral appeal to South Sudanese to reconcile
By Rev. Bernard Oliya Suwa, PhD
September 15, 2014 – The 15th of December 2013 is a date that we South Sudanese are not going to forget any time soon – and so we shouldn’t! After the violence that erupted that day, a fundamental question followed almost immediately: How can we heal our wounds and reconcile our people? It is a tough question, and it’s one that does not lend itself to easy answers.
And naturally, when we as human beings get stuck, we turn to God for answers – so let’s try.
From a biblical perspective, what makes any reconciliation possible is the fact that God is reconciling the world to Himself – and Jesus Christ is the mediator. Therefore, if we are to take reconciliation as a goal, then every transgression that needs to be reconciled must be taken back to the fundamental violation between human beings and God.
What we are saying, therefore, is that God’s action of sending us his only begotten son to die for us so that our sins may be healed is precisely where we must return. The suffering and death of Jesus Christ goes to the very heart of each transgression, and His resurrection transforms the wound and confirms God’s reconciling work. It is here that reconciliation derives its potential to achieve healing.
In biblical theology, there is vertical and horizontal reconciliation. Vertical reconciliation emphasizes God’s power to forgive us when we sin against Him. On the other hand, horizontal reconciliation draws its strength from vertical reconciliation. Why do we say that? It is because we are all God’s children – and when we harm each other, when we betray each other, when we wish ill against each other, we are actually harming, betraying, and wishing ill against our Almighty Father – the Lord our God.
Horizontal reconciliation is therefore about healing in human relations. It can either be between individuals, or groups of individuals – and that is exactly what the National Platform for Peace and Reconciliation (NPPR) is facilitating the different tribes in South Sudan to do under the theme “Different Tribes, One Nation”.
But we must all recognize that reconciliation is a gradual process – it’s not a goal in itself. Our vertical reconciliation with God was a process that was mediated by the death of Jesus Christ. It is His death that caused us to have a relationship with God once more. What this tells us is that reconciliation requires us all to make sacrifices – painful sacrifices that must be informed by our collective desire to live together in peace as God’s children.
All the transgressions and violations we experience among ourselves and in our societies have their source in the fundamental violation of our relation to God. However, by the very fact of Christ’s death and resurrection, God’s reconciliation reaches beyond our selfish human acts of aggression towards each other. It is this reconciliation that the Church celebrates ritually in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
Our primary concern here, however, is the horizontal reconciliation, that is: repairing the damage that has been done between and among brothers and sisters from the different tribes and communities in South Sudan. What has been happening to us since 15 December 2013 has left us with almost unimaginable damage, and we are left perplexed – and asking: how does one even think about reconciliation after what was close to a genocide? Are there transgressions that run so deep that they cannot be dealt with?
St. Paul is our starting point – and the Scriptural passage from which to begin is 2 Corinthians 5:17-20: “So if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All of this is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making His appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
So what is God’s message for us as South Sudanese who have sinned against each other? The most significant point to note from 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 is that God entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation. We act as ambassadors of Christ – carrying forward this reconciliation ministry on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we accept that, then we as God fearing South Sudanese must also accept that reconciliation is not only a possibility, but a mandate for us.
And by extension, if we accept that reconciliation is a mandate given to us by God, then reconciliation is no longer an option for us – it is a necessity.
Dr. Bernard Oliya Suwa is a key leader in the NPPR structure, and he is also the Secretary General of the Committee for National Healing, Peace, and Reconciliation. Email: [email protected]