The Christian gospel in real life

Americans love to put one another on trial. To some extent, I understand. We are a nation of law. We value an orderly society in which we are accountable to one another. Our founding documents are based on high ideals. My family and I are incredibly blessed by being U.S. citizens. As much as I am pleased to be an U.S. citizen, I am constantly reminded that my first loyalty is not to the United States. By God’s grace, I am a Christian. My first citizenship is in the Kingdom of God. When being an American comes in conflict with my citizenship in the Kingdom of God, I am committed to following the ways of Jesus from Nazareth, the special son of God.

Paul from Tarsus was a fascinating interpreter of the message of Jesus. He wrote about half of the material that we call the New Testament. Paul never knew Jesus from Nazareth. He was not from the same area in which Jesus grew up and taught. He was not of the same social class as Jesus. He was not a good listener to the followers and disciples of Jesus. He argued with them.

Paul was not interested in the Jesus of history. His great interest was in a theological Jesus, who was used by God to reconcile sinful human beings to a loving God. Paul got a lot of things wrong. He also got some things right that are essential to understanding the messages of Jesus. In the 5th chapter of his second letter to the church in Corinth, he remarks that, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” Reconciliation is at the very heart of the Christian gospel. In fact it is at the heart of Judaism and was borrowed by Christianity. Reconciliation is the great measuring stick for the practice of both the Christian and Israelite faiths.

Reconciliation rules out every form of punishment, rejection and judgment. I have yet to be given an example of punishment that redeems, makes whole or reconciles. In response to a recent column a faithful reader raised the issue of restitution. In the name of justice should not a victim rightly claim the restoration of what has been taken or denied? This standard can certainly be argued in a court of law, but Christianity is never at home in a court of law. Christianity does not operate on some sort of seeking of parity. Christianity seeks reconciliation.

When attempting to understand the good news of Jesus Christ, I return over and over again to the great stories of the Bible. One of my favorites is the story about the loving father. The younger of his two sons made a dumb, selfish request of his father. The father complied. The son made a fool of himself and ended up eating with pigs. The son decided to go home and beg for mercy and forgiveness. He cried out in repentance for his foolishness and begged forgiveness. The loving father was interested only in reconciliation and threw a party in honor of the returned son. The point of the story cannot be sidestepped. It is a story about gracious reconciliation that restored a family.

The Old Testament story of Joseph is another gem. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. He was enslaved, falsely accused, imprisoned and forgotten. Joseph survived and became the loving redeemer of his whole family. The point of the story cannot be sidestepped. It is a story about gracious reconciliation that restored a family.

For this believing Christian, all reconciling stories pale in comparison to the story of Jesus of Nazareth and his crucifixion in Jerusalem. Jesus was a truth-teller who never harmed anyone in his short lifetime. He was falsely accused, deserted, put through a false trial, whipped, and crucified with criminals just outside Jerusalem’s garbage dump. He never defended himself and never uttered a word of condemnation about those who abused him and crucified him. Paul rightly saw Jesus in the tradition of Joseph and universalized what took place. For Paul, a loving God was in Jesus reconciling the whole world to himself. The point of the crucifixion story cannot be sidestepped. It is a story about the gracious reconciliation that seeks to restore creation with the creator.

I love churches. I have been an active part of a church every day of my life. Collectively they bless our world. They collectively also have said a lot of dumb things with their creeds and moral pronouncements and have done dumb things in their search for power and prestige. They have jumped on the world’s moral bandwagons and have forgotten the essentials of their task. They have forgotten that they are to be servants of people rather than rulers. They have forgotten the message of reconciliation.

In the passage in II Corinthians, chapter 5, Paul hits a nail squarely on the head. “Christ has reconciled himself to us and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. In Christ God was reconciling us to himself, not counting our trespasses against us, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” The business of bringing reconciliation to everyone around us is the mission of Christians and Christian churches.

We Christians live in a real, hard, tough world. Our priority message of reconciliation is out of step with the ways of our world. When we act out our priority of reconciliation, we appear to be foolish and unrealistic. So be it! It is the genius of Christian faith.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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