Introduction: Peace, Justice & Reconciliation
Derek Poole

Comment
Lesley Macaulay

From the Director
David Porter

Now and Not Yet
Stephen Williams

Grace: An Attribute of Reconciliation
Graham Cheesman

Reflections on ECONI
Ken Wilson & Brian Moore

Stanley Who?
Alwyn Thomson

Justice
Billy Mitchell

Peace
Ethel White

Reconciliation
Brian Cruise

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GRACE ... an attribute of reconciliation
Grace, according to John Newton's hymn, is amazing and sweet. It lies at the heart of theology, with its living tentacles reaching out to touch everything we believe and do as Christians. As ever, our job is to understand it as we encounter it in the Word and apply it as we look at the world. There are three main facets to biblical grace.

Grace is getting what we do not deserve

A fellow principal of mine told me how, a few years ago, a businessman came into his study. The man had quite a large sum of money to give and apparently he wanted it to go to the least deserving student. I do not know how my colleague managed to satisfy that donor, but the idea behind it was plain, He wanted his gift to be undeserved, an act of grace. Under grace, sinners, not righteous people, are justified.

Grace is without charge but not without cost

By definition, grace is free to the receiver, so it must be costly to the giver. Someone has to pay. We celebrate the cost of grace each communion service, in the symbols of the broken body and shed blood of the Son of God. Grace is free to us, but it was not cheap to God.

Grace is God doing what he does not need to do

There is no compulsion on God to save. The sovereignty of God is a component of his grace. Sovereignty in God can be expressed in terms of his freedom. He is free to do whatever he wishes, to create or not, to intervene or not, to show mercy or not show mercy. God was not compelled to save you, so if he did, it was an act of grace.

What has Grace to do with the problems of Northern Ireland? Put plainly, grace rips the heart out of sectarianism. The public face of cultural and ethnic sectarianism has been remarkably similar this century, whether it be in Bosnia, Rwanda, Mississippi or Nazi Germany. Angry public rhetoric by leaders on behalf of the rights of their group over against the other group; the stirring up of fear (as much within their group as the opponents) about what might happen unless they act; thugs on the streets; ethnic cleansing by threat and fire; then finally, bombs and bullets.

Few members of any community, however, are murderous thugs, so it is just as important to address the private face of sectarianism. At the heart of sectarianism are attitudes which allow it to flourish.

Sectarian attitudes include a remembering of wrong done to us

A culture of grievance grows against a group of people, a bearing in mind of what 'they' have done to 'us' and may want to do to 'us'. The idea spreads that they do not deserve us to give to them, or work for their good. The Christian will recognise immediately that this contradicts the first component of grace. God gave to us when he had a legitimate grievance against us. We got what we did not deserve.

Sectarian attitudes include an insistence on our rights

We draw a line and refuse to sacrifice any of our rights as individuals and communities. Or we make sacrifices by 'us', contingent on sacrifices by 'them'. The Christian will find this difficult to cope with. He or she knows that reconciliation is bought by sacrifice, that grace is without charge to the recipient, but not without cost to the giver.

Sectarian attitudes include a refusal to involve ourselves

We feel that it is not for us to do something about sectarianism, that these things have nothing to do with us and we will not get involved. The Christian however will have read the gospels and will know that Christ said we will be judged not only by what we have done, but by what we have not done. "I was hungry and ye fed me not". However much he feels he has the freedom not to act, the Christian knows that God also had freedom not to act for him, but acted in grace. God did what he did not need to do.

It is no coincidence that the three great principles of grace turn out to be the opposite of sectarian attitudes. Grace is the basis of reconciliation, between man and God and also man and man. But we can go further than simply pointing out the incompatibility of grace and sectarianism. Sectarianism provides a unique opportunity for grace. Grace will blaze out against the backdrop of a sectarian situation as against no other. Christians in Northern Ireland have been put on a stage, with the world as the audience, and an opportunity to bring the house down with the praise of God. And all they have to do is show grace.

Graham Cheesman - Principal of Belfast Bible College. His latest book 'Hyperchoice' has recently been published by IVP.