But perhaps those two aren't that far apart. Reading yesterday I came across a word that was new to me. Ubuntu. A South African term, the word can be loosely translated "People are people through other people."
Desmond Tutu once said of it,
“ A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”
It recalls to me John Donne's conviction that "No man is an island, entire of itself..." Who we are, and what we become is all tied up, in other words, with who we connect with and what we take care of. Precious, irreplaceably unique individuals who are, nonetheless, inextricably parts of a larger whole. Which is to make more concrete and immediate the insight we have always been taught: that when we "do unto others as we would have done to ourselves" we are, in fact, actually doing it. It is the full-circle of our influence, at once sacrificial and self-enhancing.
People are people through other people. Ubuntu. Community. Stewardship. Our giving is the measure of our becoming. Responsibility. Possibility. It makes the idea of signing a pledge card this Sunday the least of my worries -- and my opportunities.
Let the offering be given and received.
1 comment:
I've heard the term Ubuntu from a clergy friend (American) who currently serves in South Africa.
I don't do stewardship or ubuntu very well. Probably for related reasons.
It's too easy to be independent and introverted, and for me not a long distance from there to self-contained ... People like me need reminders that stewardship of everything -- even "ourselves" -- is for the sake of something larger than our own needs or our own personal piety.
It is for the sake of our Creator and for the sake of those fellow Creatures around us.
Being human, I forget easily. Being easily disconnected from others, I don't have built-in reminders. Therefore, someone like me needs those "formal" prompts regarding both the responsibility and the communal nature of stewardship -- and that it involves far more than just writing out a check to the church like I would pay any other "bill."
I need to use wisely and prudently any resource entrusted to me -- money, time, energy, relationships, talents, natural resources. Living in a consumer culture just makes it more difficult to stay on track. We all need to remind one another that nothing in our lives is only about one's self, but also has consequences to the larger community, no matter how self-sufficient we try to be.
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