Reconciliation

Last Wednesday, when we sat together at Bible study, I was wondering what I was going to preach on for today.  With all of the things that have transpired in our country, in our congregation, and in my own life this past week, I wasn’t sure.  And, then…the Holy Spirit began to work – as she always does! 

In Bible study, we chatted for a while about what that “ministry of reconciliation” Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians might look like.  How would people know what was going on?  Some answers were:   

·        We need to tell others about the love of Jesus

·        We need to let people know that change is possible

·        We need to help people to stop holding grudges

And then, Sydney talked about a program in the school system when she was teaching called Fair Fight…which practiced words and phrases to use when situations were heated.  So…that when those tensions rose, a conversation could be had, and feelings could be expressed using words…not harmful actions.  And, it worked! 

I was thinking to myself…this was all well and good and I love all of the sharing going on, but…I was struggling with how this all fits with the people who were lying dead last Sunday morning in Orlando…gunned down in a supposed “safe place” while we were worshipping here in safety and perhaps ignorance. 

I asked myself, when is violence ever the answer to a problem?   If it is almost never, then why do we so often revert to violence to solve problems?

Is it reconciliation that is the answer? 

The problem I see with reconciliation is:

1)   people have to be conscious and aware of the issues at hand and

2)    Then…be willing to accept that in the discussion of the issue – there will be differences of opinion and approach. 

3)   There has to be some kind of respect for the process to work and

4)   A willingness to not get the way. 

I thought about Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that have occurred all over the world – Canada, Liberia, and South Africa to name three.  People put a lot of effort into coming forward and telling the truth…truth about what had happened to them…and truth about what they had done to another human being.  The painful testimonies of both the victims and the victimizers were horrible tales of what people can do when someone is seen as “less than human.” 

Sadly, it’s an age-old tale…and it’s in our DNA, it seems.  It goes all the way back to Cain and Abel. 

God created our brains work in ways that categorize and separate and sort…so that we can make sense of what we see, and hear, and experience.  We learn something new by being able to access a similar experience in our brain and putting those pieces together to develop a new learning.  The biggest problem is, far too often, our categories are way too small – either by choice or by lack of experience.

God gives us this ministry of reconciliation when God showed us what true reconciliation was in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  On a day like today when we are full of all kinds of emotions, we must remember…and hold sacred…the fact that Jesus died for ALL.  EVERYONE.  NO EXCEPTIONS! 

Back to last Wednesday’s Bible study.  As we sat there talking about reconciliation in the light of the events in Orlando last Sunday, and in Charleston a year ago, we started to dig deeper into the etymology of the word “reconciliation.”  Naturally, we looked in the dictionary and found that reconciliation comes from the Latin reconciliatio ‎“a re-establishing, reinstatement, restoration, renewal…”

As we sat there, I realized that I didn’t know the Greek word for reconciliation.  So, I got out my Greek/English interlinear Bible, and then the Greek lexicon, and things started to shift.  Reconciliation in Greek is kat·alla·gantos – and in breaking that word down to its simplest parts it means…with God alone. 

With God alone!!!  Bells started going off in my head!  I got really excited!  All of those Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that have happened…and all of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions that need to happen... with God alone! 

It’s the truth of the cross, isn’t it?  Jesus stretched his arms out in love’s widest, most complete embrace and included the WHOLE WORLD.   And, it happened?  With God alone! 

We are here as witnesses this morning to the powerful message that this life of ours only makes sense…with God alone! 

With God alone…do relationships mend.

With God alone…do the poor in spirit inherit the kingdom of heaven.

With God alone…do those who mourn find comfort.

With God alone…do those who stood with hate in their hearts at the funerals of the 49 who died last Sunday, ever find a loving God who knows them by name and loves them more than they can imagine. 

With God alone…do we place those 49 precious lives in the hands of Jesus who bore our pain on the cross – their pain, my pain, your pain – and in that loving embrace, began, and continues to change the world. 

With God alone…can we change!  We can overcome our DNA.  We can bring a message of hope when the world is so full of hate! 

It’s not easy; it means we have to open ourselves and our preconceived notions to God’s bigger vision of the world we live in. 

We daringly live into the radical love-filled, grace-filled message that Jesus died for ALL.  EVERYONE.  NO EXCEPTIONS! 

That is reconciliation.  It can only happen because of Jesus…with God alone!

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen