Greetings,
Lent
We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake
he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.
As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace
of God in vain. For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to
you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the
acceptable time; see now is the day of salvation!
II Corinthians 5:20b-6:2 (NRSV)
“We urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.” I think that this is perhaps what Lent is all about. We who are active in the life of the Church have already accepted the grace of God. We already believe that God sent Jesus to become our sin, to pay our death penalty, in order to bring us to salvation. We already have said “yes” to God, and accepted that grace, gift, of God’s love and mercy. Yet Paul warns the faithful that even as we work with God, even as we share the burden with Jesus, we are in danger of accepting the gift in vain.
It is so easy for us start taking for granted our relationship with God. The fervor with which we first accepted the salvation of Christ can very quickly pass. We become used to our status as “saved” Christians and it comes to not make any real difference in our lives. The thrust of Paul’s comments in this passage are that we need to actively engaged on an ongoing ministry of service and reconciliation. If our acceptance of God’s grace was genuine, if it was truly understood, then it made, and needs to continue making a difference in our lives. As Christians saved by God’s grace, we not only talk about “being saved,” we live as saved people. We make a difference in our world. We bring forgiveness, reconciliation as God’s fellow workers in the world. The compelling encounter with God in our time of salvation needs to become the compelling mission in our lives. The experience of God must become our ministry for God.
Martin Buber, wrote: “Meeting with God does not come to man in order that he may concern himself with God, but in order that he may confirm that there is meaning in the world. All revelation is summons and sending. God remains present to you when you have been sent forth; he who goes on a mission has always God before him: the truer the fulfillment the stronger and more constant the nearness.” In his inaugural sermon in the parish of Safenwil, Karl Barth explained: “I am not speaking to you of God because I am a pastor. I am a pastor because I must speak to you of God, if I am to remain true to myself, my better self.” For all of us, you and me as Christians, all ministers of the Gospel, the ministry of reconciliation derives from our profound experience of being reconciled.
During this Lent, I urge all of us to look at our Christian walk and witness. Are we actively engaged in bringing God’s blessing to the lives of those around us each day? Are we an agent of reconciliation and peace for all people and situations, even when it is difficult to do so? Do we speak up for God and God’s justice wherever we are, even among friends and family? It is so easy for our personal ministries to become a routine of postponement and accommodation. Under the guise of working for “careful” change we easily end up working for no change. God in this passage confronts us with God’s now. God has responded decisively in our behalf. We are now called to respond, and to continue to respond, as decisively on God’s behalf.
Yours & His,
DED
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