Reconciliation Week 2023

Be a Voice for Generations

Tensions rise and tensions fall.  Wars start, are reported on, then … we don’t know – the reports stop. What happened to the broken relationships, those issues which started the wars?

Neighbours argue. Sometimes these differences are resolved, sometimes they are just tolerated.  We live in a world with many divisions. 

Family or friends fall out. It may have been a small thing (or a significant betrayal). They are estranged. The affection of their previous good times together becomes a distant memory. How do they reconcile? Is it even possible? Why would they open the wounds again, those they’ve been treating since that awful time of hurt?

Reconciliation is as important now as it has ever been. The need for understanding, forgiveness and healing between individuals, groups and nations continues to be a dominant narrative. We ourselves may be in the midst of our own struggles – where we feel there are irreconcilable differences between us and others which stop us being who we truly believe we should be. 

We live in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-origin society. People from almost every nation on earth (as they now exist) and some that are no longer formally recognised, make up the population that lives in Australia.

My father’s family settled in Australia, from England, in the 1830s. My mother settled here as a refugee from post World War 2 Europe – a Czech by birth. My wife’s parents were descended from families born in England and Sweden who settled in Australia from 1890 onwards. Your family can, no doubt, tell similar stories of settling in Australia from elsewhere – maybe it was recent, maybe a long time ago – often with convoluted and complicated journeys. 

In Australia, those of us who have settled here since 1788 have struggled to know how to reconcile with our first nations peoples – those who, in some cases, are descended from family and clan who lived and walked on the lands of Australia 60,000 years ago. 

At its core, reconciliation means restoring broken relationships to a former state of harmony. It often involves making amends with those who have been hurt or wronged in some way. It requires honest dialogue, forgiveness, and sometimes self-sacrifice from those involved in order to achieve peace and understanding.

I am particularly thankful to have befriended many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who, as fellow Christians, have shown me how we can do this together. I am touched to hear the reflections of some of them on the website of our dear friends at Common Grace Australia.

Common Grace has encouraged us, as Christians walking with them during a significant period in their own journey with their peoples towards recognition through a referendum, to listen deeply, take action as we feel we can, to pray with them – at all times – for wisdom and guidance, and to offer practical support by whatever means we can.

So now we stand alongside our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters in Christ, knowing that we worship and serve the same God – a God who has promised, and has acted, to reconcile all things to Himself through Christ. Reconciliation is essential for building strong relationships and uniting our many diverse communities.

Finally, let's look to biblical scriptures for wisdom on seeking reconciliation and working towards true unity in love.

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

                                                                                                                              Matthew 5:23-24

If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that “every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Matthew 18:15-17

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Acts 3:19

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Romans 5:10-11

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.                                                                                                                           2 Corinthians 5:18-20

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Ephesians 1:7-10

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ephesians 2:14-17

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.                                                                                                                                                               Colossians 1:19-22

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.                                                                                                                                                                                                                Colossians 3:13

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Hebrews 12:14