The Gospel of Reconciliation

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:18
 
“And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” ~ Luke 23:34

No one has ever won an argument with a spouse or close friend. Sure, plenty of people have out-reasoned or out-witted a husband, wife, or best friend; but to put down someone we love such that we can declare ourselves a “winner” and the other a “loser” is no real victory. There is a greater and higher goal in a relationship, of far more significance than winning or losing, and that is love. When disagreement and divisions arise in the context of a close relationship the goal is not seeking victory at the expense of another, but reconciliation and seeking the best for the other. So as we continue to reflect on what a Christian response to our current political situation entails, it is necessary to say something about reconciliation.

Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers (detail) – Peter von Cornelius, 1816.
Alte Nationalgalerie. Public Domain.

 

The Christian Gospel is a Gospel of reconciliation. Christians know reconciliation because Christians know Jesus Christ, and it is through him that we have been reconciled, giving Christians both the greatest example of reconciliation, and the capacity to be reconciled with others. In a sense, Jesus carries reconciliation between enemies (ourselves and God) in his very person, as He is both fully human and fully God. Reconciliation between God and us is at the heart of our Eucharistic Liturgy. As we pray every Sunday in our Eucharistic Liturgy, “In your infinite love you made us for yourself; and when we had sinned against you and become subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent your only Son Jesus Christ into the world for our salvation.” That brief portion of the Christian story is all about reconciliation. As we ponder the options available to a limitless God in response to the willful subjection of human beings to evil and death, we must be struck by how remarkable it is that God decided to be reconciled with us, giving us a ministry of reconciliation to one another.

We at Christ Church Anglican have been richly blessed with stories of reconciliation thanks to the reconciliation ministry of Hanna and George Miley. Thanks be to God, there are many stories of reconciliation following the horrors of the Second World War, stories which encourage and uplift all of us. The danger of stories of reconciliation from the Second World War is that they can now seem so far removed from us as if reconciliation is a necessity and possibility only for others. It is only for people as bad as Nazis, and for people victimized as much as Jews, to take one example. So we fail to see that reconciliation is a need for all of us at all times. If we take the reality of sin seriously, in ourselves and even in our systems, we must acknowledge that the Christian life is largely one of seeking reconciliation, a ministry that God has divinely gifted to the Church and to every Christian.

This ministry stands at odds with the American public and political culture as we encounter it today. As an observant and participant in this culture, I am reminded of a line in Irish poet W.B. Yeats’ 1919 poem The Second Coming, a poem written in the aftermath of the First World War, in the midst of the Spanish flu pandemic, and during a time of political turmoil in Ireland. He describes his time as one when “the best lack all conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity.” This description of the worst having the loudest voices and the best sitting quietly on the sidelines really hits home one century later in America. I think we must take this description one step further, however, as Christians, and acknowledge that our current climate is encouraging each of us to sideline the best in ourselves and cultivate the worst in ourselves with a passionate intensity. What is the remedy to this situation? It is the ministry of reconciliation given to the Church by God’s grace. We seek the best in and for others as God did for us in Christ Jesus, in prayerful expectation that God would break in and transform the hearts and minds of all people, especially those we now consider enemies. God has reconciled us to Himself in Jesus, giving us this call, and the great power to accomplish it.

Fr. Matt