"Reconciled"

"Reconciled" FPC 8-1-10

2 Corinthians 5:16-20

          Today’s sermon is the third in our “You Asked For It!” sermon series. One of our retired college professors suggested I preach about The Confession of 1967–“its social/historical context; its main theme; the ‘intent of the framers’; the controversy over it. . . . its assertion that the Bible must be read with ‘historical and cultural understanding’ . . . what it suggests about the continuing leading of the Holy Spirit . . .” And this paper must be double-spaced, with footnotes and bibliography, according to the guidelines in Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7^th edition, and be delivered to the department secretary no later than 11:00 a.m. Sunday, August 1, 2010. [Just kidding.]

          Some of you, especially visitors or folks new to the Presbyterian church, may be wondering, What in the heck is The Confession of 1967? It sounds like the title of some steamy romance novel. (Nicholas Sparks strikes again!) But in our tradition, we Presbyterians make confessions of faith, and all of them can be found in The Book of Confessions in our library or on the Presbyterian Church’s website www.pcusa.org. These are corporate and public affirmations of what we believe and in whom we believe. These affirmations speak not only about God and the Bible, but often they address a situation that’s happening at the time of their writing. For example, one of our confessions, The Theological Declaration of Barmen, was written by the German Confessing Churches who opposed Hitler and the rise of the Nazis who tried to co-opt the church as a servant of the state. The basic message of the declaration is: Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord, not the state, and not any other leader either. Jesus is Lord.

          As you might guess, the Confession of 1967 was written to speak to a country and world that, in 1967, seemed to be flying apart, divided by a controversial war,  racism, the battle for civil rights and gender rights, issues of wealth and poverty, and the sexual revolution. There was also conflict within the Presbyterian church. On one side were fundamentalists who wanted to require adherence to “five fundamentals” of faith for ordained officers. Aligned with these fundamentalists was a previously formed group called The Presbyterian Lay Committee. (This group continues to publish The Presbyterian Layman, a newspaper that regularly bashes our denomination for what the group perceives as unfaithfulness.) On the other side were moderates and progressives who argued for a wider definition of faith and a less rigid set of questions for ordination. The Confession of 1967 spoke a word of challenge and comfort in the midst of all this turmoil. And the central Bible passage that informed this confession was 2 Corinthians 5:19 “. . .  in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.” This message of reconciliation spoke then just as it continues to speak now. As Paul reminded the Corinthian church, from now on we don’t look at each other “from a human point of view” as in mere external appearance. No. In Christ, we see a new creation. Everything old has passed away. Everything has become new! “And this is from God, who reconciled us to Godself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”

          Now the Greek word for reconciliation is interesting. It generally means to “exchange one thing for another.” Here it means “the exchange of hostility for a friendly relationship.” (BDAG) According to Paul, what we have received from God is an exchange in relationship: from being enemies to being friends. And that is also the ministry we are to practice with each other and the world.

          Taking God’s word through Paul as its prompting, the Confession of 1967 proclaimed God’s reconciliation in numerous areas. I’ll mention five here. 1. God’s reconciliation, forgiveness, and love for the world through Jesus Christ. As the confession declares, “The risen Christ is the savior of all [people].” 2. “God has created the peoples of the earth to be one universal family. . . . Therefore the church labors for the abolition of all racial discrimination, and ministers to those injured by it.” 3. “God’s reconciliation in Jesus Christ is the ground of peace, justice, and freedom among nations which all powers of government are called to serve and defend. The church, in its own life, is called to practice the forgiveness of enemies and to commend to the nations as practical politics the search for cooperation and peace. This search requires that the nations pursue fresh and responsible relations across every line of conflict, even at risk to national security, to reduce areas of strife and to broaden international understanding. . . . Although nations may serve God’s purposes in history, the church which identifies the sovereignty of any one nation or any one way of life with the cause of God denies the Lordship of Christ and betrays its calling.” 4. “The reconciliation of [humanity] through Jesus Christ makes it plain that enslaving poverty in a world of abundance is an intolerable violation of God’s good creation. . . .A church that is indifferent to poverty, or evades responsibility in economic affairs, or is open to one social class only, or expects gratitude for its beneficence makes a mockery of reconciliation and offers no acceptable worship to God.” 5. “Anarchy in sexual relationships is a symptom of [humanity’s] alienation from God, . . . neighbor, and [it]self. . . . The church, as the household of God, is called to lead [human beings] out of this alienation into the responsible freedom of new life in Christ.”

          Feel challenged enough? And on top of this, the Confession of 1967 reminded the church of a couple of theological points that I suppose most of us now take for granted. Namely, God’s word did not simply drop down out of heaven one day in King James Version. Instead, as the confession states, “The one sufficient revelation of God is Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate, to whom the Holy Spirit bears unique and authoritative witness through the Holy Scriptures, which are received and obeyed as the word of God written.” In other words, Christ is the supreme Word of God, and the Bible is the word of God as it points to Christ. Furthermore, as the confession reminds us, “The Scriptures, given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are nevertheless the words of [people], conditioned by the language, thought forms, and literary fashions of the places and times at which they were written.” So we interpret the Bible faithfully as we read it “with literary and historical understanding,” and as we read it prayerfully relying on the Holy Spirit to continue to speak. And just as God has done in the past, the Holy Spirit will keep on providing us with new insights and new interpretations of the Bible and what it means to be Christian in a new time.

          As we reflect on the Confession of 1967's interpretation of 2 Corinthians 5:19, how are we doing as a world, as a country, and as a church? Well, we’re a people still battling over race–name-calling, accusations and counter-accusations. Wars rage around the world; our country is fighting in two of them at once. To what end, and at what cost? The gap between rich and poor grows while the middle class shrinks, and we’re presented with the false choice of a politics of entitlement or a politics of selfishness. How about a politics of justice and compassion? And we’re puzzled by human sexuality. We want to avoid sexual anarchy, yet provide support for loving, committed, monogamous relationships for all people. Where are we going? Is the world simply going to hell in a handbasket?

          No. Listen to Paul again. “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ . . . ” Even now, in the midst of the upheaval and struggle of our age, we know we are reconciled to God and we are reconciled to each other through Christ. Our challenge, our gift, is to live into what already is and what truly will be forever, even when it doesn’t seem that way. That’s what faith is all about.

          I came across this story. About 12 years after her mother was murdered Patricia Dahlgren “spent an entire day in prison with the killer, accompanied by a friend and a minister. . . .Dahlgren shared with the killer her emotional journey after the loss of her mother. The killer told her exactly what he had done and said he was sorry for it and ashamed of it. The meeting ended with Dahlgren telling the killer she forgave him, which stunned everyone present.” (Naseem Rakha in The Christian Century, July 13, 2010, 8.)

          In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself. And it stunned everyone present. Amen.