The Ministry of Reconciliation: for Richer and for Poorer

Just came back from church camp and it was as usual, a really really pleasant break.

Paul's second letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 5:7-12) popped up as I was preparing for the lessons. I am amazed at how stark and clear Paul is in his writings. Though these thoughts must have been conceived centuries ago, they are so sharp in their observation of what every Christian ought to be concerned with in the myriad large and small tragedies of human living.

I think so far, this has to be one of my most favourite expressions of what being a real Christian means.

"...We live by faith, not by sight...
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.
What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience.

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves
but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

A Ministry of Reconciliation: how beautiful is that? We must tell people that in repentance, there is a place for them where all sadness can be put to rest, all mistakes can be forgiven and all hopes can find a firm foundation. We are refugees born in a world that was never meant to be this frustrating. The promise of heaven is not a promise of Care Bear clouds and Hallmark cherubs. The promise of heaven is a promise of Home.

Being a Christian means simply passing on the message you have already heard - Come Home. Be reconciled to all the things you used to hope for, all the goodness that you ever tasted before and wanted more of. Because that's who and what God is - a very real Person, a sum of all the things that Humanity has known instinctively as Good.

At some point, all of us will feel like the Prodigal Son - the proverbial never-do-well who reached a point in his life where he suddenly sees how badly he screwed up and does not think anyone could possibly want him back. God is the Father who waits with maddening patience at the door of the house, watching for his son to come back at last.

Reconciliation is a message of life for prostitutes, swindlers, liars, murderers, cheats, adulterers, the mean, the promiscious, the greedy, the lazy, the selfish, the idiot. In other words, every last one of us wretched little human beings. The lowest criminals are the first to have seen how clearly deadened they are. Those of us who have more happy, padded, entertained, manicured lives are just more naive and will take longer to see how far we have strayed from the home of our Ideals.

On the topic of reconciliation, I wondered too at camp about the whole idea of the Rich should help the Poor. I think we are all rich in many aspects - and we fail to understand the challenge of rich giving to the poor as long as we always simplify it into financial giving or even time giving. Sure we can give money and time - they are still valuable commodities - but there seems to be more to this giving of riches thing.

For instance: I know I have a wealth of smiling patience to listen to anyone. That is my riches in terms of personality. It's the way I was built, and it really is no great sacrifice for me to give a listening ear to anyone who needs it. An hour of listening to someone talk is probably what $1000 is to Bill Gates - small change. The true twist is when I think conversely of who the Poor that I should be reaching out to. My poor are the people who have no patience, no smiles to give, no social graces, no ease of communication. When I think of that, I get more scared and more sober about what it means to be giving.

My room-mate at church camp is one of the friendliest, sunshiney, beamy, high energy personality types I have ever met. She has just given up her banking career to go into Special Education Needs. She will be teaching autistic kids, kids with all sorts of learning disorders - she will give her riches of intelligence and ready smiles to students who may potentially never learn to smile back or think coherently their whole life.

Others who are not rich in social energy may be rich in the ability to organise and structure systems in a flick of an eye. Their Poor can be those who are an absolute mess and need someone strong to guide them through - be they a chronically distracted unemployed guy or a floundering badly run charitable organisation.

Provocative thoughts...I got to take them seriously. Hmmm....