Gifts of Christmas: Reconciliation

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Isaiah 2:1-5:

After we completed looking at the fruit of the Spirit last week, someone astutely said to me that they were looking at the nine fruit and thinking then about the themes of Advent, which are hope, peace, joy and love. Three of those are fruit, but then they said that when we lose the others, or when we are separated from the Spirit so they aren’t working, then that’s where hope comes in. that’s where we need gone. As Paul says in his letter to the Romans, we don’t hope for what we see, we hope for what we don’t see, and so it is in this season of Advent as we heard in the candle lighting liturgy, Advent is a time of preparation. In some ways it’s like a little Lent, the season to prepare for the coming of Easter, only now we are preparing for the birth of Christ. An even that has already happened, and yet we also await the coming again of Christ, because the promises have not yet been completed. It’s an already and not quite yet event, and so we prepare. And as our act of preparation we are going to be thinking about and looking at gifts that God has given to us through Christ, which all, in many ways relate to that theme of hope, and we begin today with the gift of reconciliation.

That’s a theme that’s really important, especially in the New Testament, but it’s not one that we spend a lot of time thinking about or talking about. And yet it’s right there in one of the most famous pieces of scripture, John 3:16, in which we are told that Christ came not to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. The whole world, not just parts of it, would be reconciled, brought back into proper relationship with God, trough Christ. And those who believe, will move out of the darkness and into the light of Christ. And that promise of reconciliation is already seen in the passage we heard from Isaiah, from whom most of our scripture readings are going to come from this Advent. Isaiah gives this vision of all the nations walking in the light of God, learning from God and following God’s paths, which leads to them turning their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Or we should hear that as turning their tools of war, into tools for feeding people. And then it continues that nation shall not raise up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn war any more. That’s the image that tends to be focused on because of our yearning for such a thing to happen, not having war anymore seems like a good thing, and we also have the same imagery given to us by the prophet Micah. And in hearing that we can definitely think that not engaging in war, would be an indication of reconciliation happening between nations, but there are some key things that lead to that reconciliation that we need to pay attention to, because it doesn’t happen by itself.

It starts first with the nations seeking it out, by coming to God. Now there is a certain nationalism being portrayed here in having all the nations having to come to Mount Zion, and while the Israelites would have heard this literally, we as Christians can hear this metaphorically since it’s not the temple that’s important but the person of Christ. And it’s also our understanding of whom Christ is sent to reconcile, to bring salvation to, that impacts our understanding of this message. When the angels appear to the shepherds they say that they bring good news that shall be of great joy for all the people. For everyone, or as Isaiah says, it’s every nation that’s coming. This is not limited atonement, this is reconciliation for everyone. And then it is God who brings this reconciliation about. The people are coming to God, but they are coming because of the invitation and the promises being made by God. God is the instigator and initiator of reconciliation.

And then pay attention to what happens when the nations come to God. First is that they are coming to be taught by God, and presumably that means they don’t actually have to listen or follow the instruction, but the second part says that they are going to, because it says that all nations may walk in the pathways of God. That is, they are going to seek God’s righteousness, God’s justice, God’s mercy and seek to live and walk in that. Now is that what happens? No, because we’re human, but they don’t fail in their practices because God is reconciling them. And so, we are told that God judges between them, and God arbitrates between the peoples. There are still conflicts, there are still problems and disagreements, but God mediates and settles the problems so that they do not turn into violent encounters. That’s when they then turn their weapons of war into weapons of food production, presumably in order to feed all people.

Now the word shalom does not appear in this passage, but that’s really what’s being talked about here, or the vision that is being portrayed. Some may remember as we talked about a month and half ago or so, as we looked at the fruit of peace, that shalom does indeed mean peace, but it’s also deeper than that. Because peace can simply mean a lack of conflict. But shalom also has connotations of completeness or wholeness, tranquility and harmony. And so, with that understanding then when we talk about shalom and God, it’s about reconciliation with God. Of removing the boundaries that keep us separated, which is a simple definition of reconciliation meaning the restoration of friendly relations. And so, our reconciliation with God begins first with God calling to us, reaching out to us, and us responding by following God’s teachings and seeking to walk God’s paths. And that means seeking this sense of shalom with God, and also shalom with ourselves, a sense of wholeness and completeness, something that can only be done with God, and we know that because we know people who have tried to find it through other things, addictive things like drugs and work, and perhaps that even includes some of us, but it hasn’t worked and it won’t work. To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, that void in our lives can only be filled by God; only God can give us that sense of peace, and reconciliation, and that happens through the gift of Christ.

And so that leads us to what Paul has to say to us about reconciliation, and what Christ means for us in that process. Because it is Christ that brings us from the place of enmity to God, or brokenness because we fall short of the glory of God, back into right relationship. And again, that movement is made by God towards humanity, because God loves us and the creation and sought and continues to seek to be in relationship, and so, Paul says in 2 Corinthians, that God “reconciled us to himself through Christ.” And how did this happen, because, Paul says, through Christ God was not counting our trespasses against us. That is because of the grace, mercy and forgiveness given through Christ brings us back into God’s grace. That reconciliation removes the barriers that might keep us from God. God says come home, come back to me. God is the initiator and the completer of this reconciliation, and this cannot be emphasized enough, this reconciliation is for everyone. For, as Paul also says, there is nothing in all of creation which can separate us from the love of God. Nothing can separate us from this act of reconciliation through Christ.

And I know that there are plenty of people who say that God could not truly love them. That if one God truly knew what they had done, then God wouldn’t make this offer. But, what Paul says is that in Christ we are a new creation, that’s what Paul says immediately before in 2 Corinthians, that the old has passed away, all that stuff has been whipped clean, and everything, everything, becomes new. That is the act not just of forgiveness, but of reconciliation, and it is all because of the gift of Christ. It is all because of the gift of Christmas. That is what we are celebrating and preparing for this Advent season is the reminder of that gift of reconciliation. And it is a gift. We didn’t earn it, it is freely given, without cost, we just have to accept it. And so, Paul says, God is making the appeal to us, to all of humanity, and then he says “be reconciled.” Note that he doesn’t say “reconcile yourself to God,” because the work of reconciliation has already been done. The movement and action of reconciliation is done by God. The world is reconciled back to God, because God has already been faithful and the promises remain, even the call for us to turn our swords into plowshares and to study war no more.

And yet there is one more step to this, and we’ll cover this more after the new year as we talk about forgiveness, and that is reconciling with each other. Because what Paul says is that God has reconciled us through Christ, and therefore we are also called to the ministry of reconciliation. To reconcile ourselves with one another. I’ve talked about this before, but Rev. Zan Holmes has said that we are called to live cross centered lives and that starts by living in right relationship with God, to live in shalom, peace and wholeness, completeness and tranquility with God. That is the vertical relationship, loving God. And then our horizontal relationship is to love one another, to be reconciled to one another, which also happens through Christ, because we walk in the way of Christ, and follow the path of righteousness, and that is our horizontal. One of the gifts of Christmas is the gift of reconciliation, to be reconciled with God, to accept and the know God’s love and forgiveness for us, and then to live in the ministry of reconciliation with the world. And we do that, Isaiah says, the gospels say, by walking in the light of the Lord. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.