By Marlin Van Elderen
Assembly participants yesterday had some help from three theologians, silent
meditation, slides and biblical texts in five languages to reflect on the theme of the 8th
assembly, "Turn to God -- Rejoice in Hope".
The 25 slides
depicted the carving of a stone statue depicting a Zimbabwean artist’s
understaning of the assembly theme, while the theologians
-- Albanian Orthodox archbishop Anastasios, Brazilian Lutheran theologian
Wanda Deifelt and Japanese author and ecumenist Kosuke Koyama -- tackled three
aspects of the theme: memory (anamnesis), conversion (metanoia) and hope.
Archbishop Anastasios spoke of Christian memories in terms of four circles: the
"adventurous journey" of the World Council of Churches over the past 50 years;
the "march of the church during two millennia"; a third circle which
"embraces the entire world, the whole of space and time"; and last, "the
fundamental anamnesis which defines our Christian identity: the remembrance of the amazing
intervention of God in the life of humanity".
This memory of the redemptive work of Christ, said the archbishop, "is not a simple
intellectual function; it is an action ... and an existential, personal event". It is
"an incessant, dynamic turning to the Triune God", celebrated in a variety of
ways by Christians around the world.
While underscoring the centrality of the celebration of the eucharist (the theological
term "anamnesis" is most often used in connection with the communion liturgy),
Anastasios warned that this sacramental remembrance of Christ’s work "does not
act in a magical way".
"It needs to have an uninterrupted extension within life ..., to radiate through our
behaviour, to offer criteria in our plans, to illuminate our decisions, to support our
acts."
This anamnesis illuminates all ecumenical issues with the light of Christ’s truth,
love and sacrifice, Anastasios said, "with a quiet optimism as defined in the
Beatitudes, with the decision for a sacrificial diaconia, without anxiety for how we will
become a majority, without the anguish, the pursuit of worldly power...
"Anamnesis is the certainty that our power does not come from our own projects and
decisions, but is found in how God acts in us through his church."
Deifelt underscored the importance of repenting "for the way we perceive our fellow
human beings", insisting that "all human beings reflect the divine image,
independent of class, race, caste, gender, age or sexual preference."
Like Anastasios, she spoke of the importance of consistency between Christian worship and
Christian life: "Although we include repentance in our worship, do we really grasp
its meaning? Many of us feel ‘clean’ because we have done nothing wrong.
Sometimes, however, we do not sin by what we have done but by what we have left undone.
"Let us not wash our hands, like Pilate, and pretend that our cleanliness is purity
of heart. Instead, let us dare to be prophetic, to get dirt on our hands... by reaching
out and holding the hand of the other, the one who challenges our truths and
certainties."
Diefelt asked why Christians "spend so much time and energy on the issues that
separate us as individuals and as churches. Our times demand a much stronger statement
from us: they demand that we take risks and be passionately in love with life -- life in
abundance."
Churches also need to repent of valuing "profits" more than
"prophets", she concluded.
"As Christians, we see the world from the perspective of Christ on the cross. We see
the world with tears in our eyes because we share the pain and the suffering of the world.
Nothing can be more radical, standing at the foot of the cross, than saying, ‘I
believe in Christ.’
"The suffering of Christ makes it possible for us to repent and say: suffering is no
longer acceptable."
Koyama’s address, interspersed with biblical quotations and lively turns of phrase,
was interrupted several times by applause from the participants.
"Grace is barefoot," the Japanese theologian said. "God’s embrace of
the world has become passionate in the homeless Son of Man. No one is more homeless than
the crucified Jesus. Jesus -- crucified, barefoot, the shattered, broken Christ -- speaks
to the shattered, broken world."
Hope, Koyama said, "is not a time-story. It is a love story ... The gospel dares to
place love above time." And while hope is about the unseen, he said, hope is rooted
in love, which is nothing if it remains invisible and intangible:
"The devastating poverty in which millions of children live is visible. Racism is
visible. Machine guns are visible. Slums are visible. Starved bodies are visible. The gap
between the rich and the poor is glaringly visible.
"Our response to these realities must be visible. Grace cannot function in a world of
invisibility."
Drawing on the parable of the Prodigal Son, Koyama spoke of "a running God..., the
Centre God who runs out to the periphery... The light shines from the periphery, not from
the centre. From ‘the stone that the builders rejected’ comes salvation. What an
unexpected commotion!
"Grace causes commotion, not tranquillity... Our hope, by nature, is not tranquil, it
is commotion-ful. The apostolic ‘Rejoice in hope’ is known in this world turned
upside-down by the running God."
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