2 Corinthians 5.16-19 is a clarion call to shed selfishness and look to the needs of others writes former Training in Mission participant Bakarizafy Gérard. As we respond we usher in God’s new and equal society.
I come from a background where the discrimination between women and men is unimaginable. My father's family uses women as a tool in the community. Even if my aunt has prepared the food, she has to eat it in the kitchen not with the men in the house.
When we wash in the river, the men go in before the women.
Women are not allowed to speak during ceremonies.
In southern Madagascar people prefer to have boys rather than girls.
While on the Training in Mission programme, learning and taking part in mission in a team of young men and women, I realised this was not right.
2 Corinthians 5.16-19 shows the importance of reconciliation among all people. We can draw three points: that God reconciled the world; that he did this through Christ Jesus; and that he gave us the authority to reconcile as well. Verse 17 says we are a new person in Christ – we are the "new Adam" – the ones who respect and adore him in our daily lives. Adam behaved disrespectfully towards God and was impatient and boastful. Genesis 3.9-13 tells us he made himself first, right, and clean.
we can build an inclusive community in which we find the integration of everyone
Jesus' parable in Matthew 25.31-46 describes the coming of God with his glory and power. At that time he will gather all nations and races in one place and separate people, putting them on his right and on his left, according to how well they treated others. In this way Jesus points to the way God wants us to behave. He asks us to give each other a hand, for we are a new person in Christ.
God needs us to do good things for others, without boasting but with humility, and not for the sake of power but in obedience to him as described in Matthew 6.3-4. This is the life of the new Adam, the one that God asks us to copy. When we live like this we can build an inclusive community in which we find the integration of everyone – poor and rich, black and white, educated or not, Western and Southern, and women and men.
We cannot change the world right now, but together I am sure we can make a difference. And at the end we shall win in God's presence.