BE RECONCILED TO GOD

2 Corinthians 5: 16-21

In his book LOVE CAN BE REPAIRED, Pastor Dale Galloway tells this story: “Last winter our dryer went kaput, so we called the repairman and he came out to take a look at it. After he evaluated the damage, he said it would cost just about as much money to fix the dryer as to buy a new one, so we agreed we would get a new one. [Then the brakes started going out on my wife’s car,] so we called another repairman. This time it was a lot cheaper to make repairs than it would have been to buy a new car. Many things in our society can be purchased cheaper than they can be repaired, so we have turned into a throwaway society…. Don’t think this attitude hasn’t crept into our personal relationships too! If love breaks down between two people, we have a tendency to throw away the relationship and look for [another] one. We just aren’t willing to spend the time and effort necessary to repair the relationship, so we treat the other person like a [malfunctioning appliance, throwing it away and buy a new one.] But when people are treated like objects—things to be discarded—the value of human life goes down. On the other hand, when we live Christ’s way, valuing others and treating them the way we would like to be treated, when we do everything we can to repair the relationships, the value of life goes up.” [Fleming H. Revell Company, 1990, p. 35.] We are a part of a fractured world. How many can honestly say they haven’t hurt someone by withholding love or acceptance, or haven’t been hurt by someone who spoke too harshly or thoughtlessly? Sometimes the harshness perceived in another’s actions has to do with estrangement, estrangement from family, friend, or God. The late Dr. Edwin Friedman said to show him someone who had trouble with relationships, and there he would find a person who was estranged from one of his or her parents. To go further than that, those who have trouble in their soul often feel estranged from God, perhaps by sin or burnout or a yawning emptiness inside. The Rev. Thomas Patrick Nolan puts it like this: “Deep in the human heart is a restless longing—a tender, aching emptiness yearning to be filled. It has been described as a thirst, a hunger, a vacuum of the spirit, a God-shaped hole in the very center of our being that can be filled only by God. For Karl Barth it was a longing for the heart’s true home. For St. Augustine it was a deep-seated restlessness that touches every part of our lives…. Charles Wesley described it as being ‘touched by the lodestone of God’s love.’ And Henri Nouwen noted that there is a deep current of despair beneath all the great accomplishments of our time. Our culture is propelled by the quest for efficiency, control, and success. And yet, there is much loneliness in our world. Feelings of emptiness, lack of friendships, depression, and a deep sense of uselessness fill the hearts of many in our society.” [“Alive Now,” Upper Room Publishing, Nov/Dec. 2005, p. 28] Do you also see the fractures in society, and the fences that others put up to keep us away? “I cannot get close to my grandchildren” on person sighs. “My parents don’t understand me,” says another. “My partner has betrayed me” says another. “I feel so alone” says yet another. Chuck Swindoll says that there are killers on the loose in our world, but not the kind you might think. They are grace killers, and they are everywhere. They are the face of disapproval. You know the face: the color drains from it out of exasperation, or the brow furrows, or the eyes roll, or the voice sighs. You may not even be aware of the message you are sending to others. Grace killers also are armed with words of disapproval: and the words can bite. Clearly there are times in families, on sports teams or in churches that those in our charge need to guide, reprove, correct, and try to restore those they are teaching to follow the right path. Paul taught that to Timothy. But sometimes the body language can pour water on the flickering flame of a spirit, and a longing soul then looks elsewhere for fulfillment. The draw bridge goes to the up position and the cost to bring it down is decidedly too high. There are also words like “I’m disappointed in you,” also meant to get someone to do the right thing the next time. People may change with it, but others may be crushed by it. Our families are fractured by parents who, at times, go beyond correcting, allowing cutting comments, as if with a razor, to sever contact with a child. That is heinously drastic. There are others who close themselves off in their room, barely speaking to other family members. They feel misunderstood, angry, or hurt. The vacuum in their lives will be filled; the question is will it be filled with the wrong elements or the right ones? When I was in college and would travel, Hare Krishnas in airports preyed on college aged youth who were hungry for meaning but felt their family didn’t understand them and thought traditional Christian youth groups were irrelevant. For many in today’s world, the vacuum is filled by internet blogs and chat rooms, a sometimes dangerous, sometimes effective way to simulate community. Many times good pastoral counseling can give a person therapeutic guidance to get back on the track to wholeness. Nolan once again says, “Here, in the midst of spiritual homelessness, simple gifts of kindness and hospitality become instruments of healing and hope. Simply put, God is calling us to repent fully and freely, to reconnect with the One whose presence both shapes and fills the vacuum within our heart.” Some of us here today have, either intentionally or unintentionally, created a breach, a divide, between ourselves and other persons. For some, they like it that way, no matter who got hurt in the process. Some haven’t gotten to a point of trying to build a bridge again, and some never will. For others here, you are the victim of a broken relationship that has left weeds of hurt, or anger, or despair growing from the now rancid soil of your heart. You are reeling and cannot find recovery. For those who have created divides, I have some troubling news for you: you are working against the will of God. God is in the business or reconciliation, not retaliation; Jesus lived to show us what reconciliation looked like and often it was contrary to human nature. For example, others said, “Love your neighbors and hate your enemies, but Jesus said love even your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Clearly Paul and all followers of Jesus are also called to this work that is called reconciliation. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, and giving us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians) As important as reconciliation is for peace in relationships, few books have been written on the subject. Bible Scholar C.K. Barrett has said “to reconcile is to end a relation of enmity and to substitute for it one of peace and good will. [God came in Christ Jesus, and in so doing he found] a way in which his love for the sinner and his wrath against sin could be accommodated.” [THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS, Harper and Row, 1973, p. 175.] Often, however, in our human relationships, reconciliation is the glorious end of a loveless stalemate, or a bitter heart, or an unforgiving spirit, or a “me first” attitude. Those are all human poison. I know that, and you probably know that. Doing something about it is the hard part. We are not God. My heart gets heavy and my soul gets burdened when a cherished relationship turns sour. I wonder if God has a burdened heart like that because of us? The world may need love, sweet love, but the result of love is reconciliation; that’s the Biblical order and the human order when bridges are re-established between others: first love, then reconciliation. Paul was powerfully on target writing to the fractured Corinthian church with these words of Christian doctrine. The Old Testament told stories of men with enmity between them: Cain slew Abel, Joseph’s brothers sold him to another nation, a cruel pharaoh tried to own Israelite slaves, and a king named David sent a man to die in battle so he could have his wife.

So what can we do? In a Biblical pathway of steps, here is a proven way to move towards wholeness:

The First step is showing REMORSE OR REGRET over the infraction; that is when people express true sorrow over hurting another person or God. It is the first, but most important step.

The Second step is REPENTENCE, OR RETURNING, that is, turning away from sin and back on the right path. It shows one’s intent.

The Third step is RESTITUTION which squares the account; it is figuring a way to pay the price to fix what was broken. Christians would do well to never forget the cost of their sins; Jesus pays the price to square things with God after we go to the one we have hurt and square things with him or her.

The Fourth step is the focus of today’s text: RECONCILIATION. It is what God showed us how to do out of grace, not out of law.

The resulting Fifth step is RENEWAL AND REUNION, which is God’s ultimate hope that each of us would demonstrate to each other, not out of deserving, but out of loving. That’s it; five steps to a better world, five steps to a better Christian witness; five steps toward whole hearts instead of hurt ones. It is hard for me to do; it may be hard for you. Can we, together, try to build some new bridges to others, since any bridges we have burned also burn our bridge to God? For the sake of our souls and other’s broken spirits, can we put renewed effort into the ministry of reconciliation?

Jeffrey A. Sumner March 18, 2007