“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” – I Corinthians 12:12-13
When I think about “Building a Better World,” I remember a life-changing mission to South Africa and experiencing a way of life that I had longed for and knew could be world changing. In Africa, they call it Ubuntu…. a way of life. I knew the word and had learned more about it in reading Desmond Tutu’s book: No Future Without Forgiveness. Tutu writes: “Ubuntu speaks of the very essence of being human. When we want to give high praise to someone we say, ‘Hey so and so has ubuntu.’ That means you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly, caring, compassionate: You respect others, you are unselfish; if I am in need, you share what you have. It is to understand this core belief: ‘My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in yours….’ It is to say: ‘I am what I am because of who we all are’.”
I witnessed this way of life in the pastors who would drop by to thank us for coming, pastors from different churches who worked together, who didn’t compete against each other, because they knew; it’s buried deep in their soul… that it is God’s desire and in everyone’s best interest to bring in the kingdom together. They work hard, because they know the depth of poverty and suffering that exists in the communities they serve; and they know that the Hope of Africa will come when lives are changed, and communities are transformed by a love that is bigger than the evil and corruption that threatens to consume them. They will not give in to it. Ubuntu unites them because they have learned that to harm others is to harm themselves.”
Many times, I would hear our host pastor, Pastor Felipe, say to us: “Thank you for coming… it is good to know that we are not alone.” It was his way of reminding us that we are part of the same body, One spirit.
I believe that if we would live ubuntu, we could transform every government, university, business, school, church, and family in our world, for Ubuntu claims that at the deepest level we are all brothers and sisters. For me, it is one way we build a better world.
By the way, you’ll never find the word ubuntu in the Bible. In fact, there is no one word in English that describes ubuntu. The Hebrew word “Shalom” may be about the closest we can get. If there is an ubuntu verse in the Bible, it’s the apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12:26-27. “If one member suffers, we all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
To experience ubuntu is to live as those who understand what it means to say: “I am what I am because of who we all are.” Is ubuntu the answer to building a better world? It’s not that simple, but it is a step in the right direction.
– Linda Harker, Pastor of Online Worship
