It’s Time… to Live our Mission – 1 Cor. 5:18-20
KBC July 9, 06
Scott Stearman
A few weeks ago we looked at the earlier verses of this text. Today I want us to hear what Paul considers the heart of the gospel: being reconciled to God AND taking on the ministry, the life, the mission, of reconciliation.
Did you hear about the centipede who met a toad in the road? The centipede was happily marching along enjoying his conversation with the toad. Until, that is, the toad asked how he knew which leg to put in front of which leg. The centipede responded to the question by dropping into the ditch paralyzed by confusion.
I felt that way this week as I embarked on a study, trying to explore the Greek word for reconcile. I spent significant time finding and reading the original texts that contain the word translated in 2 Cor. 5 as reconcile. I read pieces of Aristotle, Plato, Josephus, and Aristophanes. And the more I read, the more confused I became. For this word in earlier times didn’t always translate reconcile. Sometimes the word meant change (as in change your mind), sometimes exchange (as in exchange during a trade), and then occasionally something like our English word reconcile. The texts would use the word, and the dictionaries would define the word as: 1) change, 2) exchange, 3) reconcile.
How do you go from change, exchange, to reconcile? I know what it means to be reconciled – at least in my gut. But I was trying to get inside the mind of some of the early Greek authors. And as I lay there in the theological ditch with my legs kicking in the air and my mind spinning in space, it dawned on me. The Greeks thought of reconciliation as serious change in status and an exchange in relationships. When you reconcile with a person, you change views, you exchange an enemy for a friend – only with reconciliation the change happens with you – not with your new friend.
The point is quite simple. Reconciliation starts with you. It does not begin with person with whom you are estranged. The change takes place first and most significantly in your heart and mind. You change your enemy’s category. You move them from the enemy folder to the friend folder, from the hated box to the loved box, from the they-owe-me-account to the I-owe-them-my-unconditional-love-account.
In a number of different settings we’ve been having a discussion about continuing our pilgrimage, our journey, towards becoming a missional church.
Brian McLaren says that if you’re on a long journey at some point you’ve got to quit asking “are we there yet?” and start asking: “are we making progress?”
Some of you had this discussion in SS today. Some have been a part of the It’s Time study, and others have discussed this in CLC. A missional church is a church that has recaptured its initial motivation. It has gone back to the beginning and remembered what it’s all about. It’s about the mission of Jesus Christ to love people. It’s not about continuing programs, or building buildings, or getting bigger – those things are always to be subservient to the larger call of Christ.
Paul says that the church is a body, and that the body is made up of many members. Most of you are members of this local body. There are those who will evaluate KBC based on our lovely sanctuary, on our many programs, on the size of our budget, on the size of our attendance, on the beauty of our music. I think God judges the health of KBC by looking at you. A missional church is filled with missional Christians.
My body is only as healthy as the cells which make it up. KBC is only as healthy as you. We are only as missional as you are missional. We will only carry out our mission statement: “together in freedom to care and reconcile in Jesus’ name” if you hear your call to be a reconciler.
Here are the essentials of that call:
1) You’ve understood that God invites you into a reconciled relationship. You know that your brokenness, your sinfulness, your evil – separated you, and made God a kind of enemy. But grace, the gospel, informs us of the nature of God. A forgiving, loving, grace-giving God, who in Christ has reconciled you.
Never in the NT does it say that God should be reconciled to you – but that we (humans) should be reconciled with God. God who once was our enemy should now become our friend. This is not a change God makes, but one we must make.
2) You’ve understood that God gives to us the ministry of reconciliation. This is a fundamental call. Remember one of the ways that Jesus begins his sermon on the mount: blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called children of God.
So, if you had to say in one word what your life was about, what would it be? I would like to answer that with the word reconcile. But I know too often that mission is subsumed.
It is subsumed by my pet projects, my incessant hurry to get things done, my feeling that the person on my calendar is more important than the person in front of me. It is subsumed by forgetting that the person who has offended me is also broken, sinful, shortsighted, just like me. It is subsumed by caring too much about what people think in stead of what God thinks. It is subsumed by forgetting how short life really is. It is subsumed by the absurd idea that things in my life have more significance than people.
If you are estranged from someone, why?
If you don’t have reconciliation as the major goal of life, why?
One of the old texts which use the word reconcile, is an old play my Menander called Dyscolus ("Old Cantankerous"). The curmudgeonly old Knemon lives far outside Athens, with only his daughter and an old serving woman. One day when the wealthy young Sostratos is riding in the country, he sees Knemon's daughter and falls in love. He runs into several obstacles in trying to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Even though it is a union the old grump should be happy to make, Knemon wants no one around and chases everyone away, until he suffers near catastrophe and death. Only then does the churlish loner give in and allow the marriage.
The old wise playwright is making a commentary about will and power. We are much happier, when we seek to reconcile our wants and wishes with the people with whom we live.
I don’t mean to imply that to be a follower of Christ automatically means you’re nice. Jesus called the religious hypocrites a brood of vipers – there’s not much nice about that. What I mean to say that Jesus always had reconciliation as the ultimate goal. Too many of us are like Jonah – we preach hope but secretly desire hell-fire and brimstone. At least for those other folks.
In a few moments we are going to receive communion together. I hope when you eat and drink you will think and feel. Think about the sacrifice that made real love possible, and feel the call of Christ to take up that cross, deny yourself, and commit your life of reconciliation.
Scott Stearman
A few weeks ago we looked at the earlier verses of this text. Today I want us to hear what Paul considers the heart of the gospel: being reconciled to God AND taking on the ministry, the life, the mission, of reconciliation.
Did you hear about the centipede who met a toad in the road? The centipede was happily marching along enjoying his conversation with the toad. Until, that is, the toad asked how he knew which leg to put in front of which leg. The centipede responded to the question by dropping into the ditch paralyzed by confusion.
I felt that way this week as I embarked on a study, trying to explore the Greek word for reconcile. I spent significant time finding and reading the original texts that contain the word translated in 2 Cor. 5 as reconcile. I read pieces of Aristotle, Plato, Josephus, and Aristophanes. And the more I read, the more confused I became. For this word in earlier times didn’t always translate reconcile. Sometimes the word meant change (as in change your mind), sometimes exchange (as in exchange during a trade), and then occasionally something like our English word reconcile. The texts would use the word, and the dictionaries would define the word as: 1) change, 2) exchange, 3) reconcile.
How do you go from change, exchange, to reconcile? I know what it means to be reconciled – at least in my gut. But I was trying to get inside the mind of some of the early Greek authors. And as I lay there in the theological ditch with my legs kicking in the air and my mind spinning in space, it dawned on me. The Greeks thought of reconciliation as serious change in status and an exchange in relationships. When you reconcile with a person, you change views, you exchange an enemy for a friend – only with reconciliation the change happens with you – not with your new friend.
The point is quite simple. Reconciliation starts with you. It does not begin with person with whom you are estranged. The change takes place first and most significantly in your heart and mind. You change your enemy’s category. You move them from the enemy folder to the friend folder, from the hated box to the loved box, from the they-owe-me-account to the I-owe-them-my-unconditional-love-account.
In a number of different settings we’ve been having a discussion about continuing our pilgrimage, our journey, towards becoming a missional church.
Brian McLaren says that if you’re on a long journey at some point you’ve got to quit asking “are we there yet?” and start asking: “are we making progress?”
Some of you had this discussion in SS today. Some have been a part of the It’s Time study, and others have discussed this in CLC. A missional church is a church that has recaptured its initial motivation. It has gone back to the beginning and remembered what it’s all about. It’s about the mission of Jesus Christ to love people. It’s not about continuing programs, or building buildings, or getting bigger – those things are always to be subservient to the larger call of Christ.
Paul says that the church is a body, and that the body is made up of many members. Most of you are members of this local body. There are those who will evaluate KBC based on our lovely sanctuary, on our many programs, on the size of our budget, on the size of our attendance, on the beauty of our music. I think God judges the health of KBC by looking at you. A missional church is filled with missional Christians.
My body is only as healthy as the cells which make it up. KBC is only as healthy as you. We are only as missional as you are missional. We will only carry out our mission statement: “together in freedom to care and reconcile in Jesus’ name” if you hear your call to be a reconciler.
Here are the essentials of that call:
1) You’ve understood that God invites you into a reconciled relationship. You know that your brokenness, your sinfulness, your evil – separated you, and made God a kind of enemy. But grace, the gospel, informs us of the nature of God. A forgiving, loving, grace-giving God, who in Christ has reconciled you.
Never in the NT does it say that God should be reconciled to you – but that we (humans) should be reconciled with God. God who once was our enemy should now become our friend. This is not a change God makes, but one we must make.
2) You’ve understood that God gives to us the ministry of reconciliation. This is a fundamental call. Remember one of the ways that Jesus begins his sermon on the mount: blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called children of God.
So, if you had to say in one word what your life was about, what would it be? I would like to answer that with the word reconcile. But I know too often that mission is subsumed.
It is subsumed by my pet projects, my incessant hurry to get things done, my feeling that the person on my calendar is more important than the person in front of me. It is subsumed by forgetting that the person who has offended me is also broken, sinful, shortsighted, just like me. It is subsumed by caring too much about what people think in stead of what God thinks. It is subsumed by forgetting how short life really is. It is subsumed by the absurd idea that things in my life have more significance than people.
If you are estranged from someone, why?
If you don’t have reconciliation as the major goal of life, why?
One of the old texts which use the word reconcile, is an old play my Menander called Dyscolus ("Old Cantankerous"). The curmudgeonly old Knemon lives far outside Athens, with only his daughter and an old serving woman. One day when the wealthy young Sostratos is riding in the country, he sees Knemon's daughter and falls in love. He runs into several obstacles in trying to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Even though it is a union the old grump should be happy to make, Knemon wants no one around and chases everyone away, until he suffers near catastrophe and death. Only then does the churlish loner give in and allow the marriage.
The old wise playwright is making a commentary about will and power. We are much happier, when we seek to reconcile our wants and wishes with the people with whom we live.
I don’t mean to imply that to be a follower of Christ automatically means you’re nice. Jesus called the religious hypocrites a brood of vipers – there’s not much nice about that. What I mean to say that Jesus always had reconciliation as the ultimate goal. Too many of us are like Jonah – we preach hope but secretly desire hell-fire and brimstone. At least for those other folks.
In a few moments we are going to receive communion together. I hope when you eat and drink you will think and feel. Think about the sacrifice that made real love possible, and feel the call of Christ to take up that cross, deny yourself, and commit your life of reconciliation.
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