"Reconciliation"

by Sidney H. Byrd

Today we are gathered here as a people of faith desiring to promote peace in the world, among our peoples, and in our hearts. It may not be an easy task, but our faith in God and the deep feelings in our hearts have motivated us to take the initial steps in a long overdue process. So this may be a historic effort to satisfy the longings in our hearts, and the need to restore broken relationships. That is what reconciliation is all about. It means recognizing our neighbors as fellow sojourners as seekers of peace, and as human beings.

The spiritual brotherhood of man is a fact, but its practice has not always been easy. I rejoice with all my brothers and sisters on this occasion and pray our efforts will be blest. Here me now as I attempt to offer my humble suggestions as to how this process may take place so listen carefully now to what I have to say.

It seems to me that we need: to build three kinds of bridges to restore broken relationships and the building process must be based on the love of God so healing and forgiveness may take place. We have been given the most wonderful and powerful gift this world has ever known. It is a gift of love from our Great Spirit God. Just think for a moment what love can do. It would bring peace and dispel hatred. There would be no more wars, no more killings and destruction. There would be no more homeless people and no more poor people because through love there would be a more equitable distribution of wealth and it would dispel greed. There are many problems that can be solved by love. You name it and God's love can solve them.

It is simply because we do not believe that God's love can solve these problems so they continue to plague us. Again, in my humble opinion, there are three kinds of bridges we need to build based on the love of God to restore us.

First, we need to build a bridge of mutual understanding. And the key word is MUTUAL. It has to be built by both parties, by both sides in mutually agreeable fashion. It cannot be a one sided effort that would be an indispensable requirement to build a bridge of mutual understanding we need to come together openly, willingly and trustfully. It cannot be otherwise.

If we do not come together with a true intent, we defeat our purpose. When we come together we begin to talk and as we begin to talk, we begin the process of social intercourse, a dialog between the different parties.

As we begin to talk and exchange ideas we suddenly become aware of why each of us do things differently and think differently. You may say to each other, "I see now!" "I understand now." It becomes an eye opener! For both parties. Our Lakota people have a word for this sudden discovery of understanding. It is "Hun Hun hey!" Now I know, I understand. The British or Europeans may say "My word!" Others of us may simply say, "Yeah, I understand now."

The second kind of bridge this leads us to build, is a bridge of mutual enrichment. As we come together and share and exchange ideas, both of us become enriched. It is just as simple as that. You may have an idea and I may have an idea. But as long as we remain separated, each of us continue to have only one idea. It is when we exchange and share those ideas that both of us become enriched. We no longer have our own ideas, but by exchanging them both of us have the ideas of the other person and thus we have built a bridge of mutual enrichment. Both of us become richer in our understanding.

I have a friend who once told me a Joke. He said, "My brother-in-law may be bad, but he has worth because he can be used as a bad example."

Finally we need to build a bridge of mutual respect to be successful in all human relationships. We need to respect each other as a fellow human being. We all belong to one race, the human race! Without respect we are doomed to failure. It's as simple as that.
We need to understand I am a person, you are a person, not inferior and not superior, no more no less. We need to recognize that we are regarded as equals by our Creator and both are entitled to his love equally. That's wonderful! He loves even the least of us with the same intensity and I am forever thankful. I owe it to you to show respect even as you are obligated to show me respect. The feeling must be mutual. It has to be both ways. It cannot be otherwise.

We may even disagree and not be disagreeable. I may disagree with my best friends, but they will always remain my friends.
Reconciliation then, if it is to happen and become a reality in our time, will require a mutual effort based on the love of God. So just remember these three ways:

God Bless You.