One in Christ

One in Christ

Today what I want to talk about might seem a far cry from our current situation of writing exams, but I’ll ask you please to bear with me nonetheless:

A well known piece of Scripture from the New Testament goes as follows:

There is neither Jew nor Greek
Slave nor free
Male nor female
For you are all one in Christ.

In the world today this can roughly be translated to mean
There is neither Palestinian nor Israeli
Neither American nor Afghan
Neither Tibetan nor Chinese

Again in a modern day South African context this could be taken as:
There is neither South African nor Zimbabwean nor Malawian nor Congolese
Neither Black nor white nor coloured nor Indian
Neither Camps Bay resident nor shack dweller in an informal settlement

At a school such as ours it could mean
There is neither Grade 8 nor Matriculant
Neither Xhosa nor Afrikaans nor French nor Italian speaker
Neither member of Walking for Life nor first team Waterpolo player.

This is a radical piece of Scripture, I’m sure you’ll agree.
These distinctions according to God do not exist.

It seems that the differences that constrain and inhibit us
That create boundaries of difference and prejudice
That divide us
These differences are not how God sees us
They are obstacles that interfere with God’s vision for humanity

As hard as this may be to believe, given the way the world is,
Christ came to heal these real divisions that exist and to draw people together
Into new, unimagined and unforeseen friendships and relationships.

This God is an enemy of prejudice.

But we all know that prejudice is real.
So what do we do when encountering prejudice in our own feelings and attitudes?
My advice is to commit the thought to God,
Ask for God’s Spirit
listen for God’s voice
And remember that the person you are prejudiced against is also made in the image of God.

I believe we need to do this
Not only for our own sake and our neighbour’s sake,
But – and this might sound strange – but for the sake of our country.
For the kind of people we are, and the kind of people we are becoming,
The people who live in South Africa now and in the future.

It’s incredible, isn’t it – this idea of being made in God’s image.
For one thing, as I see it, it means that each and every person is incredibly valuable.
This is seen by some as the foundation for a healthy self esteem.
It also means that the people seated next to you right now are made in God’s image.
Regardless of how old they are, where they live, what the cultural norms are in their household,
how they dress, how they wear their hair, and what language they speak.

There is neither Jew nor Greek
Slave nor free
Male nor female

There is another interesting Scripture in the New Testament
Where Jesus complains that some of the religious people of his time
Were straining at gnats and swallowing camels.

This is a bizarre, fascinating and somewhat ludicrous image.
Imagine a group of people straining and making a big fuss about a small annoying nothing
Something scarcely noticeable in the bigger scheme of things
And yet at the same time, apparently without caring or even noticing, swallowing camels –
one of the biggest, most obvious desert creatures.
How does one swallow a camel?
What a bizarre idea!
With great difficulty, I imagine. It must be very painful.

But the message of this teaching is plain. We must take care to organise our priorities.
Put our focus on the big things that God is concerned about, not so much the minor irritations.
In this country, I believe, this means that there is a continuing need
to attend to matters of injustice, racism and entrenched, deepening poverty.

How do we reach this place of non-racialism and this kind of common humanity? And how do we attend to these priorities instead of simply fretting our lives away worrying about the little things?

It strikes me that in spite of all the negative stories we often hear about in the press
There is plenty of hope and plenty of evidence of a new country in the making. 
Much of this, to some extent, is in evidence among our staff and pupils at Westerford.
Apartheid schooling used to keep us separate.
Post-apartheid schooling has given the chance to come closer together.
But racist attitudes in our hearts can still keep us apart, if we let them.

Allow me to mention a few examples:

In the old days there was that horrible K word. It still exists to some extent, and some people wonder if with frequent use it could perhaps be neutralised and defused. I’m glad to be living in a context where that word hardly ever comes into our consciousness. But I am not so naive as to believe it is not there, and I know that more broadly speaking it is present beneath the surface in our country. I have a friend who visited a well known Cape Town tertiary institution recently, and said he was shocked to find all manner of racist graffiti written on the walls in the men’s toilets.

Let me refer to an example of non-racialism here at Westerford:

One of my pupils told me recently of an incident involving a friend and her own mother. She had been having a fight of some sort with her friend, and the two friends had been quite open and blunt with one another. She told her mother about the argument they’d been having, and her mother said something like, “Yho, Yho, yho! No my daughter, you cannot speak to her like that!” So she asked her mother why not. And her mother replied, “Because you mustn’t speak to a white person like that!” implying that her daughter had been too forward, too open, maybe even getting above herself, not sticking to her place… Now I’m not advocating excessive hostility, you understand. The point is that the girl in question hadn’t given any thought to the fact that she was black and her friend was white – they had just simply been having an argument, as friends sometimes do, whereas her mother, who perhaps had never had the chance to mix with white people on an equal footing, could only see the situation in terms of racial dynamics.

In Christ there is neither white nor black.

Much harder than the issue of prejudice is that of injustice. It’s harder to address because we like to think of injustice being in the past – once upon a time things were bad and unjust, but now everything’s fine. Something like that.

We know that’s not true. We know we live in a country where the injustices of the past continue to linger and their implications and consequences hang over us. It would be naive and ignorant to think otherwise.

My point though is that God does not only advocate non-racialism and an end to prejudice, but God is also just – for justice and against injustice. There are many examples of this in the Old and New Testament.

One of the best known and most inspiring comes from the Book of Micah. Here the prophet speaking asks what is it that God requires of us and answers: “To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.”

I’m sure you’ll agree that there are many at our school who care about such matters and are working towards a more just and equitable society. Groups such as Interact, Equal Education, Habitat for Humanity, these are the obvious ones that come to mind, but there are many ways in which people seek to bring about a greater sense of justice. The recent Living Beneath the Breadline initiative, in which many of you took part, is another example of this.

We all have prejudices, to some extent. We all have limitations and weaknesses. We all are confronted by reality when we try to engage with these visions that seem idealistic. Remember though that for evil to prosper, good people must simply do nothing. You are still young - do not give in to the voices of cynicism, defeat and indifference.

One final word on how to proceed on this journey against prejudice and injustice – when the apostle Paul was writing to some of the early missionaries as they travelled to parts of the Mediterranean, he gave them this advice: When in Rome be like the Romans.

This is a good piece of advice, I think, as regards how to adapt ourselves to living in our country. This does not mean that we must simply conform to everything around us, in order to fit in – we’re not talking here about peer pressure or acceptance or mindless conformity, or anything like that. No, we need to have the confidence to become and remain ourselves, but also to observe, learn, listen, come alongside and learn about others – for the sake of new relationships, non-racialism, and opening up new spaces and communication in our country.

It is with this in mind that we can develop some similar ideas:

When in Khayelitsha be like those in Khayelitsha.
When in Rylands be like those in Rylands.
When in Kenilworth be like those in Kenilworth.
When at Westerford be like those at Westerford.
When in South Africa be like those in South Africa.