Resurrection and Reconciliation

Christ has Risen!

Let us reflect on the miracle of Christ's resurrection--a resurrection that reconciled us to God the Father in a way that we could never have done for ourselves.

You see, I know I have messed up in my life. I may not have killed anybody or committed grand theft auto, but I know I have hurt people, both intentionally and unintentionally. Sure, I am basically a good person when I am well rested and not pressed for time, but I have lied when cornered, and wished ill for someone when I wanted to get ahead. I have thought I was better than so-and-so at such-and-such. I have had thoughts in my heart that I wouldn't want to share with my closest friends, let alone a holy powerful God, in any sort of intimate way.

And I know God loves me profoundly, but He also loves the people I have been disrespectful to, or have been scornful of. And He kinda wishes I hadn't done those hurtful things to His children and He would like it if I would make it right with them.

If only there were a way that I could apologize for all of those things, or pay some sort of compensation, so that when I saw God in heaven, I wouldn't be so embarrassed. Some way that when He reflects on the times I have been cruel to my siblings on earth, I could say "yeah, but I did X hours of community service to make up for it!"

But how many hours would be enough? And what happens when, as soon as I finish them, I have another angry outburst at my husband, or become jealous of my next door neighbor. And so I have to compensate for those new hurts too...Ad nauseum. There are simply not enough hours in a day, or days in a lifetime to keep covering my tracks.

Enter scene: Jesus. A guy with all the love of the Father, but all the personal experience of the struggles here on earth. He lived His life without accumulating a list of errors and oops that we all collect, which meant that by the time He died, He had no apologies to make, no compensation He needed to pay for His wrong-doings. He could stand before God, totally unhindered and unembarrassed.

Yet when the time came, He reflected on my failed attempts to apologize for myself, and said to God "blame me for the things she has done. Treat her as though she had lived her life perfectly, and let me spend the rest of eternity writing her apology notes, and repaying the hurts she caused. Let us trade places in Your eyes so that she need not feel the weight of her mistakes, but instead can enjoy her time with You, totally guilt free."




And so that is what they did: Jesus took the blame, and I got the promise that, if I want to, I can spend the rest of my existence enjoying an uninhibited relationship with the One who knows me, and loves me, the best.

Reconciliation: With one hand,
He holds to the Father,
and with the other, he holds to us
as we make the journey

Jesus, in the mean time, is a lot stronger, faster, and more powerful than I am. He managed to take the blame for my issues, and deal with all of the consequences of my mistakes, yet sill make it home in time for Easter dinner. Not only mine, but everyone elses's as well.

Without any mistakes of His own, and having the power and wisdom of the Father, He was ideally suited to take care of business. So much so, that having accomplished it, He too can now stand before God, unhindered and unembarrassed. It was His resurrection that demonstrated this ability, this power, to accomplish what I could not do on my own.

It is this miracle that we celebrate on Easter. It is this trading-places that makes me eternally grateful. It is why I follow Him, and try to take His advice on how to live my life. It was on the first Easter that Jesus reconciled us to God, so that we need not feel shame, regret, or humiliation, only bathe in God's love and caring:

 "But now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation" (Colossians 1:22) 

"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." (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

Sisters and brothers, now that we have vertical reconciliation with God, let us work for horizontal reconciliation with each other: "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." We must continue to Stand in the tragic gap, between what is and what could be. We must remember how Jesus forgave even as He was on the Cross, and learn to forgive one another, be reconciled to one another.

See Also:

The Christmas Story

"Basically Good"
The Social Gospel Saved my Soul

The Friends Jesus Invited

There are plenty of folk that would feel uncomfortable chatting at a party with some of my sisters and brothers at Church For All People. We've got old folks, young folks, retired, wealthy, unemployed, convicts, PhDs, GEDs, physical illnesses, mental illnesses, addictions, and a whole lot of joy in the Lord.

Sometimes, we fear we have no common ground with God's people.We doubt if we interacted that we'd be able  to sustain conversation. But if we withdraw, we miss out. And we let Satan's whispers win: "we just don't have anything in common," "I feel too embarrassed for her," "It's just too uncomfortable," "he is just so socially awkward." But need it be as difficult as he would have us believe?

Are we Christians that love Jesus as long as He sticks to our social norms and knows how to put on a good face? What about when He smells funny, or speaks with a slur? Do we love Him then? Do we love Him when he overeats? Or when He needs help understanding the bus schedule? Do we love Him when he is incoherent and confused? Do we love Him when He is rude, or when our feelings get hurt?

And by 'love,' can we say that we seek out His company, that we enjoy being with Him? Or do we just tolerate Him? Do our time with Him so that we can move on with our lives? Loving through gritted teeth, and glances at the watch? Being charitable with our gratuitous kindness?  Is that what we mean by love?

You may serve food at a soup kitchen, but have you eaten at the table as well? You may 'pray for the poor', but do you ask for their prayers as well? Unless we have an attitude of equal partnership and fellowship, we cheapen and divide the body of Christ. Are we really so prideful to think we have the more to offer? Jesus, the One with the most to offer, spent his time in fellowship, not charity.

It is important to remember that we ourselves have much to gain from a relationship with the marginalized. This is not a charitable endeavor, but one that is fundamental for own souls. We need to understand what it is to depend on God rather than money, to enjoy every day as it comes, and not to be preoccupied with rat race that is 'planning for the future,' to gain pleasure from relationships rather than from stuff, to respect natural resources rather than domineering over them, to trust in the daily manna rather than storing up treasures. These are skills that I do not posses in any meaningful way. Do you? In a world where some churches have million dollar mortgages, we have a lot to learn.

Let us examine who Jesus had surrounding Him in His time on earth. Who did he journey with, break bread with, live, and love with? Who did he choose to die with? Jesus chose Mary Magdalene, Matthew, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Thomas, Judas...

These were doubters, weirdos, manual laborers, 'low characters,' nerds...mostly, they were people like me: just folk, trying to find their way.  How much more could we learn if we got out of the textbook, and experienced hands-on and heart-on learning?

Today, we know Jesus's disciples by name. Because they were Jesus's friends, not His charity cases. Jesus didn't call them to His death bed, just because it is what He 'ought to do.' These are the folks He walked with, shared His life with. And we are not too good for Jesus's friends. Sheer statistics tells me that there will be very few people in Heaven I might consider 'easy to converse with.' Surely, if God on High can find common ground, so can we.

Reposts: Think Christian, Peregrinaje, Capital Commentary

Some articles from today for your consideration:
Civil Rights in Georgia under attack: HB87
Why the United States needs Al Jazeera English
Politics: A Christian Duty

Happy weekend!

See Also:
Spanish-speaking Samaritan
Arizona's Ban on 'Ethnic Studies'

News Flash: Black churches like to sing

This article from the UMC just popped up on my blog feed: Study shows how black churches use music. Has some good things in it, but is also pretty awkward on a couple different levels.

Brings up some questions:

How do we gather information in order to better serve a demographic, without oversimplifying or homogenizing?  How do celebrate various traditions without over stating how different we actually are (example from article: oral and rote traditions, which are used in white non-denom mega-churches nation-wide)? How do we acknowledge cultural differences without stereotyping or categorizing?

Do some of the characterizations here come across weird, or am I being hypersensitive?

See what you think. Discuss.

See Also:

UMC's Rev. Mark Sargent: Thunk, Gap, and 6A's 

Why I love the Church for All People
Repost: UMC Black History Month

John Thompson, race, justice, and God

In a recent New York Times article,  John Thompson tells his story of being wrongly accused of murder, ending up on death row, and being acquitted moments before his execution. As it turns out, the prosecutors had withheld evidence that could have exonerated him. They have done so to at least five death-row inmates. They cannot be charged with a crime and most of them are still practicing law.

The article doesn't mention race and it doesn't mention religion, but both are extremely salient here. Read the article keeping mind the stories of the adulterous woman, the anger vented when the status quo is challenged, and how the crowd eventually turns on Jesus himself.

How do our collective biases and group momentum affect the lives (and deaths) of those that find themselves on the wrong side of public opinion? What is our responsibility as Christians in situations like these and do our own prejudices hind our owning up to that responsibility? Do our hearts model that of Jesus, or of the vengeful mob?

The racial sins of the prison system will be discussed in full in a later post, but for now check out John Thompson's testimony.

See Also:
Troy Davis: Georgia's 'Strange Fruit'
Break In

Grateful for God's protective favor, but...