Reconciliation

Tonight I'll be going to SCORR -- Student Congress on Racial Reconciliation, which is held annually at Biola. I've gone in past years and had different reactions every time. The archives of this blog are proof.

SCORR, especially tonight's Worship Mosaic, is a pinnacle of beautiful worship. You see people from different countries, wearing brilliant colors and foreign costumes, dancing and singing and praising God in other languages. One of the themes in years past was "On Earth as it is in Heaven," hinting at how diverse and joyful heaven will be once things like race are not liabilities, but appreciated expressions of God's beneficent plan.

But something so extravagant must have a counterpoint. SCORR is also pretty gritty, pretty depressing, pretty much a downer at times. People are angry and accusatory when they talk about the way they feel because of their skin color. Some people say whites (or "the dominant culture") doesn't and will never understand the minority culture.

I feel helpless, accused, and backed into a corner.

I look at state universities, pluralistic places where women walk around in hijabs and the student body is a potpourri of skin tones, religions and ethnicities. Why does the race issue seem so much more explosive among the most global institution in the world -- the church? Are these secular institutions that much more advanced that they are "post-race"? They're past these problems? I guess it's possible.

Or maybe it's that they've never reconciled with other races -- never engaged enough to conflict -- because they've never been challenged by such provocative mandates as "Go ye therefore and teach all nations," or loving the Samaritans.

Nothing as beautiful as reconciliation ever came easy and cleanly. Does a man who cheats on his wife reclaim his marriage by just standing by? Did Germany and the Allies get over their differences in a night? Did fallen man and a perfect God reunite painlessly?

No. And I know if we seek something like reconciliation, it will come at a cost. My only worry is that we won't have the stamina to get there.