November 12, 2000
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Rooted and Reconciled II
Corinthians 5. 17-20 Paul, the great Christian church builder, letter writer, and theologian is the embodiment of what it means to live as a person who is reconciled to God. He knows what he is talking about when he describes the ministry of reconciliation. We first meet him in the book of Acts. His name is Saul, and he is holding the coats of the mob that had gathered to stone to death the first Christian martyr, Stephen. He went on from there, making his living hunting down and bringing in Christians to face charges and persecution by the Roman government. But then one day, he had his own encounter with the risen Christ. His life was changed, his eyes temporarily blinded, were opened and he was able to see literally, but he also received a new vision of what it means to be saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. He found a new mission. Now it was no longer his duty to bring in Christians whom he could accuse of treason and blasphemy. Instead, it was his ministry to establish churches and to write letters of encouragement and discipline to them, and to their pastors. Paul has a new life in Jesus that is so powerful that he cannot help but share the story of his redemption and reconciliation as an enemy of the church became its major apologist and defender. Paul's journey eventually sent him to Corinth, his relationship with that church brought about some letters. In one of those letters, Paul helps the church to understand what he has come to understand. He wants the church to know that when we are reconciled and reconnected to God, when we have established a close relationship with God through Jesus Christ, then we can settle in and know God in an intimate, life-shaping way that makes all the difference in the world. Yesterday, at the Christian Women's Fellowship meeting, we were led in a discussion about the damage that is done when we are involved in unhealthy connections. Then we are not leading reconciled lives, but instead lives that leave us feeling hurt, angry, and sick. True reconciliation is a gift of God, and it brings with it a sense of health, wholeness, and even a sense of joy. When we are reconciled, we come to see ourselves in connection with each other, accountable but not condemned, loved but not overwhelmed. The letter to the Ephesians reminds the church that true reconciliation occurs when we find our common connection in Jesus Christ. Paul believed that our connections with God are such that we can go to God in boldness and confidence and offer ourselves to God, the creator of the earth and all that is in it. If I am created by God, and if you are created by God, what right do any of us have to claim God for ourselves in a way that tries to close the connection for others? Are we like the young person who prayed to God, "Thank you God for me, my brother, and our parents. Bless us four, and no more." Surely our outlook is wider than our immediate circle of family and friends, and their families and friends, it extends to the communities in which we live, work, and worship. Our reconciling view determines how far we will go to offer our ministries of reconciliation and to whom we will reach out. Our connections help us to see that we are part of the family of God, and so intimately related to each other. When we are reconciled we can hear this part of the letter to the Ephesians as it was intended to be heard. It is a prayer report in which the writer of the prayer tells the readers of the prayer how he has interceded with God for them. What is the prayer? It is simply that we become grounded in God, so that we can know the love of God, and together we can be the people God calls us to be. That is true reconciliation. We need that reconciliation. Many of you were here a few weeks ago when L Wayne Stewart told us that the family of God is broken, but our God is strong enough to put the family back together again and make it better than new. We see that brokenness all around us. We see it in families in turmoil, in communities fractured by violence and mistrust, in a an election we thought would end Tuesday evening, just like they always do. Families are broken, but they are families nevertheless. Because we belong to God, because we have endless access to God - there is no limit, no condition, no barrier to how often we can come to God, we can find in God a source of our strength in our deepest most private selves, in what Paul calls our inner being, with power breathed into us by the Holy Spirit of God. Aren't you glad that we have available to us a kind of spiritual CPR when have lost consciousness and breath? Feel the breath of God in your spirit when you are so tempted to believe that you are helpless that you cannot see enough of the possibilities to try. Are you like so many people who used to believe it when people said to them, you are worthless, but then one day, you felt that rejuvenating breath of God's spirit in your soul, and you woke up and realized that the breath of life was in you, and that you have worth just because God made you that way. Then wasn't it true that as you found your worth, you found your strength? While we are growing stronger, both emotionally and spiritually, amazing things begin to happen. Like a plant that is properly tended and cultivated, as it given all that it needs to grow, we begin to take root, we find our grounding, and we begin to praise God that the Reconciler provides the soil out of which the reconciled will grow. We are not grounded in our need for good wishes, or total agreement, or in our desire to be the same, not even in the diversity we celebrate. We are not grounded like that tree a few blocks from here on Bryden Road. It fell over in a fierce wind Thursday night and the strength of its roots was such that when it fell, and the tree was uprooted, parts of the sidewalk were uprooted as well. What roots us deeply, what grounds us like a strong foundation of a house, and this building that has stood for 97 years is the love of God for us and for the world. That is the message of John 3. 16-17: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." To be reconciled to God is to know AGAPE, the love of community, not love that is based on physical attraction or family affiliation, but love that sees in each other one whom God has made and loved, and people for whom Christ died. Agape is hard to see sometimes, it is hard for us to understand how we can love people we do not know, or how we can care for communities in which neither we nor anyone we know lives. Yet that is precisely the point. Paul says prayer that as we would come to know the totality of God's love, we come to see the totality of the ministry of reconciliation. In his book, Dancing with Dinosaurs, William Easum describes how we can live in the totality of a reconciled and rooted relationship with God, ourselves, and each other. Interpreted by Frank Madison Reid, Easum says that there are seven signs of a rooted and reconciled church. One, we can reach out. We do not live just for ourselves, our witness increases in credibility and effectiveness when it is extended beyond what we can hold. We know that the muscles in our bodies weaken when they are not stretched, so it is when with the ministries of the church when we do not stretch and strengthen them. Our reach in ministry and mission in opportunities and in outstanding service can, if we will let God stretch us high enough and long enough to reach from heaven to earth and wide enough to extend to our world. Two, a rooted and reconciled church provides the leverage, the standing place to raise up those who have been bent down. We know the ones who are distressed and oppressed, those who are mired in poverty, and the "isms" that so beset us. But we are also bent down by our own lack of balance, our lack of self-esteem, our inability to get ourselves up when we have sunk down as low as we can go. When we are rooted and reconciled, we can find hope in the slimmest possible place, but from that place begin to stand up, and at the same time to raise others with us. Three, a rooted and reconciled church has an attitude of joy. If we believe that Jesus came that we might have life, and have it in abundance, why do we walk around so looking so miserable, why must we act as if there is nothing before us but scarcity and loss? A life lived rejoicing, is not a life in denial of the pains that will come to us all. It is in fact a life that says, no matter what happens to me my trust, my joy, my future, my life is in God's hands and God really is able to give us all we need. Four, a rooted and reconciled church recognizes that it has a message to proclaim and a mission to fulfill. We have work to do, as we open our doors and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, and by God's grace we will get it done. Five, when we are rooted and reconciled, we are free to repent, to turn around from what leaves us broken and to run toward all that gives us a sense of connection. Go toward the people who are affirming, supportive, loving, and helpful to you. There is a community of reconciliation. Six, in a rooted and reconciled church, we can find refreshment and renewal. We are in good shape, but we can use a bit sprucing up. Go downstairs today. Check a book out of the library, examine the computers, look at the carpet, see the more open alcove near the kitchen. Look at the carpet. We have painted and refurbished and we are refreshed, so it is with our lives. Open yourself to God and the people who care about you, make yourself available to the people you care about, and find a renewed soul and a second wind in your spirit. And seventh, when all of that is done, we can find ourselves restored and full of new energy, new resolve, and renewed commitments to our ministries of reconciliation and justice. We can see each other as Christ sees us, worthy of al the love God has for us. Are we reconciled enough to sing, "I am a promise, with a capital 'P', I am a great big bundle of possibility". "Yes, Jesus loves me, enough not to break connection with you, not to abuse you, and not to allow you to abuse me. When we are rooted in the love of Christ who loved us so much that he sacrificed his life for us, we can encounter the love of Christ far beyond our ability to understand it. We can embrace that love fully and experience our faith as real, sustaining and life-changing. Then we can see each other in a way that lets us see not just the flaws in us, but the gifts in us too. I am always amazed by people who are reluctant to praise children because they believe that negative criticism makes children do better and that too much praise creates conceit. It seems to me that conceit comes from over indulgence (you may have whatever you want), not from the support and encouragement (you will get what you need, and sometimes what you want) which we all need. When we are rooted and reconciled, we are ready to dream, to plan, to think creatively, out of the box, out of our comfort zones, into the trust, faith, Spirit, and embrace of God. The one who has reconciled us will be with us. Thanks be to God. Amen. Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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