Pastor Sid's Journal

Ubuntu - Forgiveness

It strikes me that whenever I preach on forgiveness it strikes a chord in people almost unlike any other topic. When dealing with scripture passages on forgiveness (in yesterdays case it was the line of the Lord's prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors,") it always feels as though there's so much more to say than what one can capture in a sermon. One such thing that I would love to have talked more about is how our humanity and who we are tied together. Forgiveness is necessary because we understand that if something is broken in our life it affects not only ourselves but the entire community.

I'd like to post something that Desmond Tutu's writes about in his book, "No Future Without Forgiveness." Desmond Tutu was Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa during the fall of Apartheid (and lived most of his life through the apartheid era of South Africa). He headed up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that worked at reconciliation and forgiveness as a means of a country moving forward together after years of division and pain. His book, which chronicles what he learned and observed through this commission is a powerful testimony on forgiveness, especially as it is done on a communal level. In particular he writes about "Ubuntu." He says:

"Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks of the essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, "Yu, u nobuntu"; "Hey, so-and-so has ubuntu." Then you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly, caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, "My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours." We belong in a bundle of life. We say, "A person is a person through other persons." It is not, "I think, therefore I am." (which is western philosophy) It says rather: "I am human because I belong. I participate I share." A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they are less than who they are."

May our Christian community always strive for ubuntu!