Connecting with Connecting

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;

even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,

we no longer know him in that way. 

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:

everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and

has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,

not counting their trespasses against them, and

entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Dear Friends,

Last Saturday night, I attended another Intercultural Dialogue Event with our friends in the Hizmet movement. This particular event showed a video of the work that the Hizmet movement has been doing and then invited various speakers to reflect on the video and Hizmet’s work. My wife, Pastor Laura, was one of the speakers and once again she summarized that their goal is to create world peace through friendship (and food!). She was not alone. Each of the speakers emphasized this theme of being in dialogue and building friendships with people beyond our family groups, political groups, faith groups, ethnic groups, etc.

As I was listening, I was reminded that one of FLC’s core values is CONNECTING (the other three are inviting, uplifting and dynamic). As I pondered this, I was reminded of the verse above from 2 Corinthians… Paul states that WE have been given the ministry of reconciliation. This ministry of reconciliation is twofold and, at the same time, of singular purpose.

First, it is reconciling people to God. Either through fear or ignorance or disillusionment or distractedness or hopelessness, some people do not realize that the God of the universe is FOR THEM. God became human to make this message clear and did whatever it took to give people the opportunity to know this. We are inheritors of this awareness and message and are compelled to share it with others. One might say this is the vertical dimension of our faith… Allowing the reconciliation and healing with God to happen through faith and the power of the Holy Spirit.

The other dimension then is the horizontal one. It is about breaking down the barriers between people. It seems like the voices instigating and calling for division are louder than ever these days. There is a lot of name-calling, demonizing, scapegoating, blaming, suspicion, labelling, bigotry, racism, isolationism… Do I need to go on? Now more than ever, the world needs people and voices of understanding, respect, compassion, forgiveness, caring, empathy, reason, and graciousness… people of reconciliation.

I have talked about the ministry of reconciliation as being vertical and horizontal but they are united into one purpose: Loving God (sounds like the Greatest Commandment doesn’t it?). Because to love God IS to love what God loves. When we remember that we are ALL children of the same heavenly parent and are siblings (in the best sense of the word!) it gives us a different place to stand when we think about and interact with people that we tend to want to other-ize. It means taking a breath, saying a prayer, and seeking to see the person from God’s viewpoint. It doesn’t change them at all but it has the potential of changing the way we interact with them. We all know what the old and ordinary way of acting brings… argument and violence beget argument and violence. Christ’s new way offers the chance of something new to happen. What does it look like at FLC if we embrace and lean into this?

As we ponder our core purpose at FLC, this ministry of reconciliation deepens our discernment.

Peace,

Pastor Phil