Rev. Tessie Mandeville
October 07, 2007
Christ Covenant MCC
Decatur, GA 30030

Today we find ourselves in the middle of our fall sermon series Building Relationships in Beloved Community. Each week we are talking about important values and spiritual principles that strengthen and guide our relationships with one another.

Today I want us to talk about the core value of reconciliation. As we talk about this core value today we will look at The Gospel According to Jesus and The Gospel According to Shug. Now I’m going to believe that most of us sitting here today have some kind of working knowledge of who Jesus is, a Jewish rabbi and teacher, a prophet, a messiah, depending on your belief systems. But let me tell you a little bit about Shug in case you haven’t met her yet.

“In The Color Purple, Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the blues singer Shug is the sassy, sensual, bounteous woman who awakens the brutalized and silenced Celie to her own strength and sexuality. With loving song and tender touch, she opens Celie to her own loveliness and possibility and reveals a God who is not the "big and old and tall and graybearded and white" stern codger of Celie's old-time religion but, instead, an expansive God of trees, air, birds, [and] people ….

We meet Shug in The Color Purple and reunite with her in Alice Walker’s book The Temple of My Familiar where we read The Gospel According to Shug.

In their gospels, Jesus and Shug give us what is commonly referred to as “the beatitudes.” What they are, are ethics of relationship with one another and with God. As you read their gospels, you realize that they are sharing stories and deep truths based on their own lives and their own lived experiences. They both have a lot to say about reconciliation.

To reconcile is to reestablish relationship with one another; it is to bring back together that which was torn apart. In the Jewish tradition it is called Tikkun Olam—repairing the world. We live in a time that finds so many relationships shattered by anger, greed, selfishness, and revenge, and the call upon us as disciples of Christ is to value our relationships with reconciliation. The call of reconciliation is nothing short of radical and yet, as people of all faiths, we are called to live in right relationship with one another.

In The Gospel According to Jesus we learn that our relationships with one another matter. We learn that it’s not only what we do in relationships that matter; what we think and feel in our hearts matters too. This is what I love about Jesus: when he gives us lessons he wants us to understand the big picture.

As a Jew himself, Jesus was intimately familiar with the Torah and Jewish law. The Torah said, “You shall not murder.” You see, the religious leaders during his time, and even religious folk today, were tempted to think that righteousness, being in right relationship, was defined by the absence of actual murder. As long as we haven’t killed anyone we’re good people. But Jesus is asking them to see the bigger picture. To see the truth that the seeds of murder are planted in the angry word or thoughtless insult long before the final act takes place. Think about this: Isn’t there a real death that occurs whenever we speak unkindly or out of anger toward others? The words can be worked around and even apologized for, but they cannot be unsaid. In writing the gospel of her own life, Shug says to us: HELPED are those who strive to give up their anger; their reward will be that in any confrontation their first thoughts will never be of violence or war.

There are so many circumstances in our relationships that make it possible to drive up walls of separation between us. It’s only natural that we’re going to find ourselves up against the walls of conflict sometimes but the question is, “What do we do when communication breaks down and hostility towards each other rises up to drive a wedge between us?” In The Gospel According to Jesus, Jesus says we work toward reconciliation and in fact, reconciliation is so important that he tells us to stop in the act of worshipping God if we remember that we need to be reconciled to someone. Jesus says, “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift at the altar, go and make it right. After you’ve made it right, then come and offer your gift.” In essence, Jesus is saying, Reconciliation with one another is our act of worship.

I think it’s important to point out that Jesus didn’t say, “If you have something against your brother or sister then go and be reconciled,” although I’m sure the teaching applies to this also. Rather, he said, “If your brother or sister has something against you, then go and be reconciled.” Because here’s the thing: We are more likely to remember when we have something against others than when we have done something to offend others. And if we truly are concerned about our anger and hatred, we cannot be less concerned when we engender them in others.

And Jesus says that it’s important that we make the first move instead of waiting for the other person. Sometimes this is the most difficult step to make but somebody has to stop the cycle of hatred and resentment. Somebody has to stop the cycle of hurt repaid by hurt, wrong repaid by wrong, hatred repaid by hatred, and injury repaid by injury. As Christians we are called to stop these cycles by recognizing that we are not here to even the score. Some scores will never be even and that is the painful truth. Shug knew this as a Black woman in the American South in a time when race determined everything and perhaps that is why she said, HELPED are those whose every act is a prayer for peace; on them depends the future of the world.The future of the world depends on us breaking destructive cycles.

Five years ago, as I was finishing seminary and approaching ordination into full-time ministry, I hit a road block. As I planned my ordination service I realized that one very important person was missing and that was my mother. For a time I tried to ignore the Spirit’s promptings about this situation, but we all know that Spirit of God doesn’t let us ignore things for too long.

My mother and I have spent much of our lives being at odd with one another. I estranged myself from her years ago because of past hurts that she inflicted. For a number of reasons, I was not in relationship with my mother. As I approached my time of ordination, I was convicted in my heart and soul that I could not be ordained until I was reconciled with my mother. That was a difficult time in my life because I had waited my entire life to be ordained and I had just finished three years of a master’s program telling me I was ready. Except that I wasn’t ready yet. It is my personal conviction that as a Christian minister, I am called to the ministry of reconciliation. I had to ask myself, “How can I call others to do the work of reconciliation if I’m not willing to do it myself?”

So I postponed my ordination for what turned out to be seven months. During that time I did some incredible soul-searching and truth-telling about my mom and about myself. And yes, it is true that she hurt me deeply; it is also true that I was holding onto resentment and bitterness.

During this time I had to wrestle with the spiritual practice of forgiveness. You see, reconciliation and forgiveness are closely related to one another. You can forgive even if reconciliation is not possible but you cannot reconcile without forgiveness. So what prompted me to begin the journey toward forgiveness? The realization that I was held hostage by my anger. The realization that I was not using my complete power in the world because some of it was bound by resentment. The realization that I loved my mother even though she hurt me deeply. And ultimately, the realization that it was my responsibility to change my life.

Shug says to us in her gospel, HELPED are those who forgive; their reward shall be forgetfulness of every evil done to them. It will be in their power, therefore, to envision the new Earth.In saying this, Shug is not preaching “forgive and forget.” Bishop Desmond Tutu, chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, a commission established to help bring peace and reconciliation to South Africa after an era of apartheid. One of the things he says in his book No Future Without Forgiveness is this: “Let bygones be bygones is not what we’re talking about here. We’re not talking about amnesia. Our common experience in fact is the opposite—that the past, far from disappearing or lying down and being quiet, has an embarrassing and persistent way of returning and haunting us unless it has in fact been dealt with adequately. Unless we look the beast in the eye we find it has an uncanny habit of returning to hold us hostage.”

I will never ask any of us to “forgive and forget.” What I am saying to us this morning is that wounds can heal and hearts can mend. It starts with a willingness to move beyond our place of pain and woundedness. “Reconciliation is not about the erasure of memory; it is about transformation.” We will know the power of transformation in our lives when we forgive and remember in ways that show how much we’ve healed rather than in ways that focus on revenge and retaliation. We will know the power of transformation in our lives when forgive and remember in ways that show that no one and no situation has power over us anymore.

After my own soul-searching, I called my mom and authentically reached out to her. And the truth was, it didn’t really matter if she didn’t reach back; I did what I felt called to do in order to be in right relationship. And I was blessed because my mother reached out and joined me in the work of reconciliation. And if you were to look at my ordination pictures, you’d see my mother right there beside me.

Forgiveness and reconciliation are spiritual processes; they take time. They require from us a willingness to address the past so that we can move forward in healthy ways. HELPED are those who forgiveand remember differently.

We are building our future together, and in the process, we are writing our own gospel, The Gospel According to Christ Covenant. We are sharing stories and deep truths based on our own lives and our own lived experiences. We are talking about the ethics of our relationships with one another and the values and spiritual principles that are most important to us. As we write The Gospel According to Christ Covenant, may stories of healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation be written across every page. Blessed be and amen.

Green Lap, Brown Embrace, Blue Body: The Ecospirituality of Alice Walker by Pamela A. Smith

“The Gospel According to Shug” in The Temple of My Familiar, Alice Walker, p. 278.

“The Gospel According to Shug” in The Temple of My Familiar, Alice Walker, p. 278.

“The Gospel According to Shug” in The Temple of My Familiar, Alice Walker, p. 278.

Desmond Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, p. 28.

Robert J. Schreiter, C.PP.S., The Ministry of Reconciliation: Spirituality and Strategies, pp. 17 - 18

“The Gospel According to Shug” in The Temple of My Familiar, Alice Walker, p. 278, adapted by Rev. Tessie Mandeville.

Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Tessie Mandeville. Permission granted for non- profit circulation with attribution of author and venue. Other rights reserved.