18^th Sabbath after Pentecost

September 28/30, 2007

Music Appreciation and TM2 Day

Victor H. Nixon

RECONCILIATION AS MINISTRY

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

This is the final of four sermons in the reconciliation series that explored reconciliation with God, with self and with others. I’ve been saying that reconciliation is God’s dream for the world. Today we look at our calling to become involved in the realization of God’s dream as ministers of reconciliation.

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Life can be different, depending upon one’s point of view. You don’t really understand what it’s like to be the parent of a teenager unless you’ve been there. You can’t really appreciate the challenges of growing old, unless you are there. You will not realize what marriage is like until you’ve made that commitment—and then you forget what it’s like to be single.

Curtis Paul DeYoung says: "Our different ways of experiencing, and therefore interpreting, life can be based on gender, race, culture, economics, nationality, age, physical or mental abilities, sexual orientation, appearance, and a host of other factors. When our perceptions do not intersect with those of others through dialogue and shared experiences, we are isolated."(1)

We see life from our own peculiar point of view—and may feel that our view should be the normative or correct view for the rest of the world. Not so, says Paul. "From now on, . . . we regard no one from a human point of view" (2 Cor. 5:16).

Christ changed Paul’s perspective. He once saw Jesus just as a man, but now he sees him as the Christ, the Messiah, the One who changed his life and his point of view. "Everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (5:17). Paul doesn’t look the same. Jesus doesn’t look the same. Others do not look the same. The world doesn’t look the same since Christ happened to Paul.

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation" (5:18). Reconciliation is God’s point of view, the way God looks at the world and everyone in it. God reconciled Saul, the persecutor, and he became Paul, the preacher of reconciliation. Through Christ, reconciliation is God’s work in the world. God has given the church, Paul says, the ministry of Reconciliation.

The late Samuel Hines made it very explicit: "God has a one-item agenda, listed in one expressive word—Reconciliation."(2)

We live in a time when people are seeking to define who is in the family of faith and who is not. This is precisely the thing that was so upsetting to Jesus. He resisted orthodox notions that excluded people who were considered impure or unholy or unacceptable. Jesus welcomed outsiders and strangers. He touched lepers and healed them. He ate with sinners and tax collectors (considered traitors). He considered the poor first, rather than last. He made no distinctions based on gender. He spoke against rigid notions of orthodoxy and stood up for grace and acceptance, not for exclusion. The task of Christianity is not to determine who’s in and who’s out; rather, it is to follow the example of Jesus’ love and acceptance of people. Reconciliation was Jesus’ business.

Reconciliation is mentioned in the Bible in one form or another a total of 24 times. Reconciliation is the action of restoring friendship and harmony, or rebuilding what has been broken. Time alone does not heal broken relationships. It never has and it never will. People and churches and institutions, with God’s help, are the ones who can restore broken relationships.

Our history as Christians has been blighted. We have found it convenient from time to time to use religion as a way of segregating people. We have often used the Bible as a kind of weapon keeping certain people in their places such as Native Americans, African-Americans, women, the poor, disabled, homosexuals and others. Reconciliation is a process of breaking down barriers, stereotypes and fears. Reconciliation is a way whereby we try to get to know other persons, to know their fears and struggles, to know the pain that family members experience when their sons or daughters are denied dignity and acceptance.

Last week the community and state commemorated the integration of Central High School in 1957. The observance included the remembrance of the pain, fear and hatred that people experienced during those days. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for parents of the Little Rock Nine to send their children to school through an angry mob. How brave they were! And to remember the brave people who, despite resistance and criticism, supported their quest for equity in education and justice, who reached out to them and attempted to be healing influences in the schools and the community. For reconciliation to occur, whether in education, marriage, friendship, community, church or nation, recognition must be given to the heartaches and pain that led to alienation.

Our church history bears this out. Very early the Methodist church family split along racial lines, even before the Civil War, into the Methodist Episcopal Church (white), the African Methodist Episcopal Church (black), the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (black), and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Zion (black). At the General Conference in 2000, the United Methodist Church invited representatives of those historically black denominations to participate in a service of worship at the conference in which our church publicly repented for sins committed against our black Methodist brothers and sisters and committed the church to work toward reconciliation. Though difficult to sit through, it was extremely important to recognize the pain caused by rejection and racism, and to take those first steps toward healing and a reconciliation that is still in process.

I say all this because Paul’s words about being ambassadors for Christ, ministers of reconciliation, are addressed to the church. Reconciliation is the church’s business—reconciliation to God, self and others. Reconciliation is our ministry—or ministries, I should say, because it takes many forms, occurs among all ages, whether in the baptism of a child, teaching in Sunday School, serving in worship, mission, or caring ministries, giving time, abilities and money. There are more than 180 different ways to be in ministry here at PHUMC. I am so excited about TM2—Transforming Members Through Ministry—because it provides each and every person an opportunity to serve as a minister of reconciliation, that is, to enhance faith, that is, relationship with God and with others.

This weekend we initiate the Bishop Kenneth Hicks Peace Awards by recognizing an individual and a church that have contributed to justice and reconciliation in our community. This is a magnificent step that enables us to participate in the ministry of reconciliation just by buying a ticket. Proceeds will support the Hicks Peace Endowment to fund future peace ministries.

Reconciliation is the church’s business. It doesn’t matter who you are, you are welcome to worship here and experience God’s grace and new life here. You are welcome to come here and learn with the rest of us what it means to be a follower of Christ. You are invited to join God’s ministry and to reach out to others in need of God’s grace in a world so in need of reconciliation.

Our hymnal contains a magnificent hymn by Fred Kaan entitled, "Help Us Accept Each Other." The hymn is prayer that ends with these words:

"Lord, for today’s encounters with all who are in need,

who hunger for acceptance, for righteousness and bread,

we need new eyes for seeing, new hands for holding on;

renew us with your Spirit; Lord, free us, make us one!" (3)

Let this be our prayer as the church. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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