We Have This Ministry

Fractured relationships. They seem to be all around us and not one of us is immune. Even in my own extended family there have been fractures in relationships between siblings. It started with my mom’s death and moved from there to circumstances in the world. Covid to politics has made the fractures all the more real. It is not that we don’t get along, but the ability to speak freely has gone by the way side. Each of us measures our conversations so that we can continue to spend time together, love one another, and then depart on good terms. It is not that we haven’t always had differences of opinion but we are far more careful now about how we express those opinions than we once were.

I have heard of this being the case for many families in this time that we are living in. Though fractures and fault lines have always been a part of relationships, it now seems even more pronounced. Having said that, even the family I married into has had it’s share of trouble long before the world seemed to change in 2020. Brothers and sister estranged from each other, with battles over property and rights, who did what and who deserves this or that.

Us humans are difficult people. And these fractures are seen in our community, in our nation, and in the world. I don’t have to tell anyone about the challenges of the political landscape here in Canada and how politicians and those who back them can be at odds. Can you even imagine a political stage in Canada where party leaders work together for the good of the people and not only for the good of winning the next election? That kind of cooperation and respect would transform what and how things are done while creating an environment that values and make decisions based in the well-being of everyone. Or a world where those who have abundance freely shared with those who have not been so fortunate. Where the care of everyone becomes a reality, not because it was forced, but because everyone saw the benefit of equity in education, health care, housing, food security and more.

When we look globally the fractures get even more significant, from the elections and the crazy that is politics in the U.S. to the war in Ukraine and the insanity of the Gaza strip. And all of these things are just what we hear about regularly. How often are the struggles of people in Muslim or predominately black countries even making our news feeds? We don’t know the half of the challenges going on. So we sit with all of this, feeling like there is very little we can do to change our own circumstances let alone that of the nation or world.

Fractures in relationships have been the norm for humans since nearly the beginning of time. Though the story of Adam and Eve is one handed done to us, it is the first story we have in scripture of the fracture of human relationships with one another, creation, and with God. That story of Adam and Eve and the apple, being tempted by the serpent and giving in to the temptation, set Adam and Eve against each other, separated them from God and even affected the way they lived in the beautiful creation that had been set apart for them. It is a story that speaks to the human condition. We continue to have challenges in relationships between ourselves and God, and the concerns over climate change is the prime example of how we are at odds with nature.

In this second letter of Paul to the Corinthians the broken relationship is evident. This writing is more like a personal letter and speaks to the hardship and challenges in the relationship between Paul and this particular community of faith. In the reading from today Paul starts out talking about living by faith and moves into what a ministry of reconciliation looks like. And it is that reconciliation piece that is the focus for us today.

When Paul writes, he writes as one who at one time went after Christians in order to put a stop to their witness and work, even to the point of killing people. As a zealous man of the Jewish faith, one with authority, he was going to make sure that nothing threatened the status quo of his religion. And he did it from a place where he was sure he was right, where change was unwanted, and threats to the religion that he was so sure about were to be dismantled.

And then he changed. He had a Damascus Road experience that rocked his world to the point that he became the change maker, the instigator for making disciples for Christ. This time though he would do it from a place of love and not hate. He would build communities of faith that would bring the love of Christ into the world.

Paul came to realize that Jesus was more than a mere human being, Jesus was God’s Son and that changed everything, including how he would see and live with others. It meant seeing the world and all that was in it from the point of view of Jesus’ love and God’s grace. These things given as a gift in Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit to be our teacher and guide. Paul wrote, “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 know him no longer in that way.” In other words, yes, Jesus was human and walked among people, but things changed with the resurrection of Jesus. There was something much bigger at work.

At the time that Paul was writing this second letter to the Corinthians there were still fractures in the community of faith and with Paul himself. In his writing he was looking for ways to reconcile the community to himself and to God, as well as each other. And so, he looks to the example of what God was doing in Christ. Again, we hear from Paul in verses 18 and 19, “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.”

God’s reconciling act is to be an example to us about how to be in relationship with one another. But even the fact that reconciliation is needed shows that broken relationships happen. If we are to live into our Christian faith as followers of Christ then we are called to find ways to reconcile our personal relationships, looking also beyond ourselves into the community and more broadly to the relationships in our nation and in the world.

It that sounds like a tall order, well it is. And once again, we will not do it perfectly and sometimes we will not even do it well. In our humanness there will always be relationships that we cannot reconcile. We are human and we are broken and sometime the hurt is too deep, the danger to real, in order to reconcile. Still, we strive to be image bearers of God where we respond to the brokenness around us, restore what can be restored, and rejoice when reconciliation happens.

…I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about our relationships with Indigenous People on this Indigenous People’s Sunday. I will do it from the point of the work done and yet to be done in the PCC.

This first week of June, when I was at General Assembly, a key moment happened when the Assembly stood together to hear the apology of the PCC to those who experienced the trauma of residential schools run but the Presbyterian Church in Canada. I take the following from an article written for the PCC,

As a church that ran 12 residential schools, we bear a collective responsibility to truth and healing. In the 1980s and 1990s, the truth about abuses children suffered at residential schools began to be heard. Over the next decades, more truth about the pain and harm inflicted at the schools have become part of our common memory, in large part because of the courage of Survivors and intergenerational Survivors who are standing against a legacy of colonial violence and racism, seeking healing from their harmful and deadly impacts.

June 3, 2024 [marked] 30 years since the church adopted its 1994 confession, which acknowledges the church’s complicity in a deadly assimilation effort that targeted Indigenous children.

In its report to the 2023 General Assembly, the National Indigenous Ministries Council articulated the need for an apology that reflects the “now greater understanding of the profound harm these institutions [residential schools] caused and continue to cause, to generations of Indigenous people.” … members of the church are invited to engage in collective and group learning about the need for an apology, the legacy of residential schools and intergenerational trauma, the roots of anti-Indigenous racism, our responsibility and commitment to uphold the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and what is needed for truth, healing, and justice for Indigenous peoples. This includes in worship, which is central to our faith life and community.

As I said, the apology was made at the General Assembly this year. It was  humbling and I will always give thanks that I was present in the moment it was first read aloud in the PCC. This fall, on September 29, the Sunday closest to September 30 which is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the apology will be read in this church.

Reconciliation, whether in our personal lives, in our community, with Indigenous People of our nation, and reconciliation in the broad sense of our country and our world is our responsibility as Christians. From the Apostle Paul we hear, “So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

To be reconciled to God means that we bring that work of reconciliation to our lives and that of others. We are Christ’s ambassadors in the world and our ministry is reconciliation, bringing wholeness and healing to lives in any way we can. We do it in Christ, with Christ, and through Christ. Amen.