During 15 years of School Chaplaincy, I was sometimes involved in facilitating mediation, usually between a senior Staff Member, perhaps between the principal, and a teacher.
Invariably, both of them felt they were the aggrieved party; that is, both thought they had been wronged in some way.
A successful mediation saw both parties acknowledge the hurt their actions had caused the other and make their apologies as a way forward was negotiated.
At my second school, I was trained in and then led a number of Restorative Circles.
Restorative Circles, or Restorative Justice, is different from mediation as it is clear who is the injured party and who is the harm causer. That is, it is clear, who has done wrong.
The process:
- much preparation from the facilitator and then
- culminates in the Restorative Truth Telling Circle,
- where the person injured or hurt by the actions of the other,
- gets to both tell their story, and
- describe how they have been impacted by what happened to them.
Restorative Justice, at its best, saw the harm doer both:
- acknowledge their wrongdoing, and
- listen deeply to the effect of their actions on the person.
Ideally, they then voluntarily express their remorse.
What is going on in our reading today, is much more like Restorative Practice than Mediation, for there is only one wrongdoer in need of restoration.
One person who needs to:
- acknowledge their guilt, and
- receive the offer of reconciliation.
Paul’s letters to the Corinthian Church reveal conflict and tension within the Church, and between Paul and the Church.
Paul’s desire is to see relationships reconciled and restored.
In the context of significant tension within the Corinthian Church, Paul, by the time he writes about reconciliation in chapter 5, has turned from the need that Christians live in harmony and restored relationship with each other, to our much greater need to experience reconciliation with God.
As we focus in on verses 18 to 21 of 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, my hope is that we might better understand how wonderful, gracious, loving, and beautiful God’s offer of reconciliation truly is.
That it is truly good news for us and for the world!
In verse 18, we read that God reconciled his people to himself through Christ, and then in verse 19, we read that in Christ, God’s reconciliation extends to the whole world.
(Reconciliation – more than Justification)
What is Reconciliation?
What is it God has done and is doing for the world through the death of his Son Jesus? In Romans chapter 5, Paul changes his reflection on the death of Jesus from Justification to Reconciliation. Justification also features in 2nd Corinthians, and much of Paul’s writing. (Rom 5:1, 8-9)
Paul says in Romans 5, we are justified through faith, and this brings peace (v1), and ‘that we are justified through Jesus’ blood, which saves us from God’s wrath’ (God’s righteous anger) (v9).
Paul then switches from justification to reconciliation, at verse 10 of Romans 5 we read:
For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son…
Justification is a judicial term. It means to be declared not guilty, to be acquitted. Through Jesus’ death on our behalf, God no longer treats us as guilty and deserving of punishment. Even though we are guilty of rebellion against God and deserve punishment from him, because of the death of Jesus, we hear God’s declaration of acquittal. As wonderful as Justification is, Reconciliation goes much further.
Imagine you are in a law court, and you hear the Judge or Magistrate declare a person Not Guilty. Perhaps they had been remanded in custody. Now that they have heard those words, Not Guilty, they are free to leave the court, their handcuffs removed, and the prison van that was waiting to take them back to jail, now redundant. That’s the image of Justification Paul gives us in many of his letters. The announcement of acquittal.
How surprised would you be if a year later, you go to your favourite restaurant, and see the Judge and the former prisoner at meal together, laughing and obviously enjoying each other’s company. The look like they could be best friends. You are astonished to hear from the Judge that, after announcing Not Guilty, decided that the former prisoner should now become their best friend and that over the course of the last year the judge reached out in love and friendship, to the one who had been facing punishment.
Of course, my illustration is flawed – it breaks down – as the judge was no doubt declaring an innocent person not guilty, where God declares, us innocent, guilty.
If a not guilty verdict, despite our guilt before God, is Paul’s metaphor for Justification.
Then friendship with God is the picture he paints for us to describe what he means by reconciliation.
Reconciliation means that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God extends to his former enemies, his deep and abiding friendship.
(Reconciliation – God’s initiative)
It is important that we understand that the offer of reconciliation and friendship with God is entirely God’s initiative.
From verse 17 we read, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.
All this is from God.
If I offend you in some way,
- you can choose to offer me forgiveness and renewed friendship – that is, you can take the initiative in restoring our relationship, or
- I might come to my senses and approach you, offer my apology and beg that you give me a second chance.
When it comes to human reconciliation, either the harm-doer, or the person harmed, can take the initiative. That is not the case here.
As Garland writes of these verses, ‘God is the driving force behind the redemption of humankind. Reconciliation comes solely at God’s initiative.’
In the sending of Jesus to live among us, and then to die in our place, God initiates and secures the means by which we can be reconciled with him.
God does this, not us!
The only thing we contribute is our need to be reconciled.
The means, of our reconciliation and the offer of friendship, are entirely God’s idea, his initiative.
(Reconciliation – Through Jesus alone)
God initiates the means of our reconciliation, and he does this through Jesus and Jesus alone.
God, Paul writes, reconciled us to himself through Christ. [v.17-18]
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ [v.19]
Reconciliation comes to us through Jesus, and apart from Jesus we can never know God as friend.
In our reading, Paul explains why only Jesus can make possible our friendship with God.
God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
God treated Jesus as a sinner, although he was innocent of all sin, so that God could treat us as if we had never sinned, despite our many sins.
(Reconciliation – mission accomplished)
As the Anglican Prayer Book states, in Jesus’ death, ‘God has provided the one full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world.’
There is nothing for us to do, there is nothing we can do, to make up for our failings, for our rebellion against God. On the cross, Jesus did it all!
(Reconciliation – Mission ongoing)
However, there is a sense that God’s reconciliation with humanity is ongoing.
For the benefits of all Jesus achieved on the cross don’t come to us automatically; we must willingly receive them.
To experience a reconciled relationship with God, we need to accept God’s offer of friendship.
Again, I can offend you, and in grace, you can initiate our reconciliation by coming to me, pointing out my offence and telling me that not only have you decided to forgive me, but you intend to go further and make me your friend.
We will not become friends unless both you offer your friendship, and I accept it.
Paul wrote that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. He did this, as we have seen, when God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
That is what Jesus achieved for us, but will we receive it?
The offer is eternal friendship with God… but it is an offer that needs acceptance.
Friends, permit me to ask each of you, do you know God as your friend?
Have you received the friendship with God that Jesus won for you on the cross?
If you are not sure, you can become God’s friend today!
Talk to Ruth or talk to me!
Of course, people can only accept God’s offer of friendship, if they are aware of it, if they have heard about the offer.
(Ambassadors of Reconciliation)
This means that: the Church and its members have a God-given role of critical importance in God’s mission of offering his friendship to humanity.
Those who now live reconciled with God are expected, as Christ’s Ambassadors, Christ’s Representatives, to call others to experience that same reconciliation.
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 people’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.
As Christ’s Ambassadors, his Representatives, his messengers who know what it means to have God as our friend, we are entrusted by God to extend his offer of friendship to others.
To everyone who isn’t yet God’s friend.
Church we are Christ’s Ambassadors, bringing the ministry and message of reconciliation to a needy world.
Of course, this role extends beyond reaching those we know here in Taroona to all people everywhere. That is why CMS, the Church Missionary Society exists. That the world might know the story of Jesus, and how through his death and resurrection, he has made it possible for all people everywhere to know God as friend.
(World that knows Jesus)
Our CMS Australian cross-cultural workers are sent as ministers and messengers of reconciliation. Sent out as Christ’s Ambassadors to serve the indigenous people of Northern Australia and to the people of over 40 countries in our world.
From Tasmania, we have:
Amanda and Maurice serving in a small rural Bible School in Cambodia, training up the next generation of Cambodian village pastors and evangelists. It is these village pastors and evangelists who, we pray, will faithfully represent Christ, as his Ambassadors when they leave Bible College and take the message of God’s offer of reconciliation to rural Cambodia, where so few people have ever heard of Jesus.
We also have Kate, working in allied health in a Muslim country where she weekly gets to read the Bible with Muslim women that they might hear that God is a forgiving, gracious God who desires they know his love and friendship.
In May next year, we will, God willing, send our newest CMS Tasmanian ministers & messengers of reconciliation to Ecuador to train up future church leaders. Bryan, who is Ecuadorian and his wife Sarah, from Kingston, will go to teach the Bible in a city Bible college.
I am so grateful to God that this Church has linked with CMS and our workers serving the nations as Christ’s Ambassadors.
However, your generosity in praying, caring, and giving to those who have been sent does not diminish the obligation on the local Church and every Christian to be ministers and messengers of reconciliation, wherever God has placed them.
Each of you, if you know God as your friend, is now an Ambassador of Christ, given the wonderful message that in and through Jesus, God offers his friendship to all people, everywhere.
Every friend of God is called to take the message that, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself to those who are not yet God’s friends.
When I was involved in Restorative Practice, facilitating Restorative Circles, sometimes I witnessed the wonder and beauty of restored and reconciled relationships.
I regularly saw people:
- acknowledging their wrongdoing,
- listening reflectively and coming to understand how their actions had hurt another person, and
- expressing genuine repentance and sorrow to the person they had hurt.
On some occasions, I then saw,
- The offer of forgiveness made and received, and friendship and reconciliation occur.
With,
- The bully and bullied becoming friends
- The vandal and vandalised reconciled
- The harm doer and the harmed embrace
What I witnessed is, but a pale and imperfect glimpse of what God offers every man, woman, and child on this earth.
God offers us, who have grievously offended him, complete forgiveness, and eternal friendship.
So many lonely, anxious, lost and hurting people do not know that their creator wants to call them friend.
That is the message we have been entrusted with and which we must declare!
Let us pray,
Gracious God,
Thank you that in and through Jesus, you offer us not just your forgiveness but also your friendship. Help us who know you as our friend, to share your offer of friendship with those we know, who so desperately need you.
And as we live, speak and act as your ministers and messengers of reconciliation here in Tasmania, may we be faithful in our support of and prayers for those who have left our state to serve the nations as your Ambassadors.
These things we pray that the world might know Jesus and the reconciliation he offers.
Amen