Are you in Christ? Do you want to be in Christ?
You are and it does not matter if you want that!
Paul informed the Corinthians and by extension us: “Everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!”
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our death and resurrection are in God’s past!
We are in Christ not because we choose that or want that but because in Christ the whole world is a new creation.
Paul does not speak about an individual soul. Paul speaks about the whole cosmos: All times and all places are in Christ.
There is nothing and nobody that is not in Christ.
When Paul says Christ, Paul means Christ! This is not about people professing their faith. This is not about people joining a church. This is not at all about what people do. Reconciliation is an act of God. It may or may not show in a person’s life here on Earth. Again: Paul speaks about the whole cosmos: All times and places are in Christ. It does not matter for a person’s relationship with God whether they come to Jesus in this life. They are in Christ anyway, just because the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are big enough to blanket-cover all persons of all walks of life, no matter their faith or lack of faith. You don’t have to be a good Christian in order to be reconciled to God. God does the reconciling no matter what.
This is what this day is all about. Today we combine two observations: All Saints Day and Reformation Day. And Jesus Christ is where they come together: Martin Luther started the Reformation based on his discoveries that that we are pardoned sinners and God’s grace is indeed free. And All Saints Day is when the church remembers that all God’s children – living or dead – are in God’s hands.
Now let that one sink in: Paul goes even further and states: “God does not count their trespasses against them”. The free grace that God gives to the living and the dead applies to your friends and loved ones who are already dead: You may unearth the most horrific stories about your ancestors: God’s love is stronger than their sin. God will not count their sins against them because in Christ reconciliation has already happened. Again: Everything is done, taken care off. All sins are forgiven we owe God nothing, God owes us nothing. We’re even. All is well.
There is a problem though: Not everybody knows that. Maybe everybody has heard the message of free grace by now. Maybe everybody has some sort of hope for their deceased friends and relatives. But actually finding the peace in your heart that only full reconciliation brings is elusive. We forget. And doubt creeps in: “But God can’t be that good. But I messed up really bad.” Well, that’s where we come in. That’s what the church does. Each and everyone of us is an ambassador for Christ.
Even though this world is reconciled with God, we are not reconciled with one another. As ambassadors for Christ we have the ministry of reconciliation. That means we need to model and teach reconciliation: Now, how do you do that?
See yourself as reconciled with God.
See everyone as reconciled with God.
Act as if God were okay with you.
Act as if you were okay with yourself.
Act as if God were okay with everybody.
Act as if you were okay with everybody.
Those things are hard to do. On one hand we need to remind ourselves of God’s free grace and then we need to model what reconciliation looks like for the world. Looking at my own soul is not enough. Looking at the souls of my family and friends is not enough. As ambassadors of Christ our ministry does not stop at individual souls. One soul may be a starting point but the goal is to model and teach reconciliation to the whole cosmos. As ambassadors of Christ our job is to bring reconciliation
between Democrats and Republicans after the election,
between police and the communities they serve,
between black and white,
between gay and straight,
between men and women,
and between those who are not easily defined along those binaries.
Now, how do you do that?
The magic formula is to not compare your strengths with their weakness. Everyone can take what they are best at and compare it to another person’s weak spot. Now when groups, parties, ethnicities start doing that, reconciliation goes out the window. We need to remind them that we are all made new. We need to regard no one from a human point of view because the separations and distinctions of this world are fleeting and don’t count with God. It’s so easy to make others look bad. The challenge of reconciliation is to accept that God is okay with everybody.
There is another problem though:
The hardest part is to accept that God is okay with me.
I keep messing up.
I keep beating myself up.
But God doesn’t seem to get it because God keeps telling me I am okay.
I cannot forgive myself and keep hurting myself and those most dear to my heart.
But God doesn’t seem to get it because God keeps telling me I am okay.
I cannot believe that.
The only way I can stop hurting myself and those most dear to my heart is to believe that I am okay.
I must change!
I must be okay!
I can’t do that on my own accord.
God does that. It is the love of Christ that compels us.
Reconciliation takes a changed perspective and maybe it’s minimal.
God offers reconciliation no matter what. So the message of All Saints Day and Reformation Day is in a nutshell:
Amen.
