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<\/a><\/p>\nIf there is any passage in Paul\u2019s letters that illustrates how hard he can be to follow, 2 Corinthians 5:6ff. may be one of the best illustrations.\u00a0 So, while I try to avoid using a paraphrase, in this case I think it is extremely helpful to use one.\u00a0 This one relies in large part on Eugene Peterson\u2019s Message<\/em>, but takes some liberties with it, as well:<\/p>\nOur firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.\u00a0 Because of this decision we don\u2019t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don\u2019t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.\u201d\u00a0 [And now, based on that experience \u201cGod uses us to persuade [others] to drop their differences and enter into God\u2019s work of making things right between them. \u00a0[Our message is from Christ himself:] Become friends with God; he\u2019s already a friend with you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This rendering of Paul\u2019s letter puts what the Apostle has to say here in sharp relief:<\/p>\n
First: Paul works from one principle and one principle alone: Christ has died for everyone and his death puts everyone on the same footing<\/em> \u2013 both in terms of their need and in terms of the way that Jesus meets that need.<\/p>\nThere is no one who is an exception to this rule.\u00a0 We all need healing.\u00a0 Even if we cannot admit it to ourselves, we all need healing.\u00a0 And we all lack the ability to heal ourselves.\u00a0 And the only way to find healing is to embrace the Resurrection life offered in Jesus.<\/p>\n
It is easy to imagine that it is only \u201cother\u201d people who need that healing.\u00a0 Our instinctive approach is to think that healing is something just a few people need. Our minds are populated with stories about people who are troubled in conspicuous ways: Those who cheat, steal, or kill; those who struggle to find direction in life; those who are tormented by memories that keep them trapped and embattled.<\/p>\n
But Paul\u2019s one and only principle is based upon the conviction that we are made in the image of God and until we live from that place, until we let life in Christ order our priorities, we all remain unhealed.\u00a0 The idea is that there is no life that we can live \u2013 even what we might be tempted to describe as a virtuous or industrious life that is the life for which we were made.<\/p>\n
Reconciliation, for Paul, however, is peacemaking between what God desires for us to be and the hundred and one alternatives that we imagine for ourselves.\u00a0 And that is a lifelong process of discovery made possible by Jesus, whose life, death and Resurrection makes that process of discovery possible.<\/p>\n
The second point that Paul makes is that this common ground completely changes the way that we see people.<\/em>\u00a0 Because Jesus has made reconciliation with God and with one another possible, we can no longer take refuge in our judgments about one another as a means of navigating life.<\/p>\nWe can no longer judge people on the basis of their outward appearance.\u00a0 We can no longer judge others on the basis of their accomplishments, their social status, or their value to us.\u00a0 Least of all can we make judgments about their value to God.<\/p>\n
In this new order that Jesus has inaugurated, we all stand on the same ground.\u00a0 We are all beloved children of God.\u00a0 We have all been called upon to live in ways that make peace, that close the distance between ourselves and God.\u00a0 And, in closing the distance between ourselves and God, we are called upon to close the distance between one another.<\/p>\n
What does this have to do with \u201cbeing church?\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, everything, really.\u00a0 Because, as Paul, tells the Corinthians, \u201cGod uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God\u2019s work of making things right between them.\u201d\u00a0 And that can\u2019t be done in the abstract or at a distance from a living community of faith.<\/p>\n
So, what Paul has in mind \u2013 come to that, what Jesus has in mind<\/em> \u2013 is a messy, physical reality that requires participation in the life of the church.\u00a0 It revolves around baptism, the celebration of the Eucharist and the vows that bind us in responsibility to one another and those to whom we invite to become friends of God.<\/p>\nIt includes children who come forward for the Eucharist who ask for seconds on wafers.\u00a0 It includes adults who have one of those terrible illnesses that has robbed them of their ability to remember exactly what goes on here.\u00a0 It includes the hale and hearty, and those who make their way to the altar using a walker.<\/p>\n
It involves taking the time to spend time listening to one another.\u00a0 Listening to stories, hopes and disappointments.\u00a0 It involves thinking through Scripture together and admitting the struggles we experience.\u00a0 We drop our prejudices and see one another differently, when we visit one another in the hospital; when we expose our fears of frailty to the frailty of our friends in Critical Care or a Trauma unit; when we take flowers and food to families who need to be reminded that they are loved.\u00a0 It involves celebrating and laughing with one another.\u00a0 It involves crying and grieving with one another.<\/p>\n
That experience, made possible in our baptism and around an altar, cannot be phoned in or experienced at a distance. \u00a0It can only be had by\u00a0 taking the time to listen to those who are in crisis, to those who are dying, to those who are imperiled by isolation and unemployment. \u00a0This is the way that we learn to see one another differently, to treat one another differently, to be made someone who sees others anew \u2013 as objects of Christ\u2019s love, as beneficiaries of his sacrifice.<\/p>\n
Long before therapy, self-help, dispute resolution, or legislation, this was and remains the way in which God realizes the new life that Paul describes.\u00a0 It rests upon face-to-face encounters; the common ground of our dependence upon God; our share in the love of God; and our obligation to declare the love of God.\u00a0 It is the only way that we can and will see one another for the first time.<\/p>\n
Together as the church, we are invited to consider how our work contributes to the healing, peacemaking, and gap-closing work that God is doing in the world.\u00a0 This is where we invite God to close the gap between our visions of ourselves and the vision that God has for us.\u00a0 This is where we invite God to heal us.\u00a0 This is where God invites us to embrace one another in the name of making peace with God and with one another.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo by Jonathan Borba<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If there is any passage in Paul\u2019s letters that illustrates how hard he can be to follow, 2 Corinthians 5:6ff. may be one of the best illustrations.\u00a0 So, while I try to avoid using a paraphrase, in this case I think it is extremely helpful to use one.\u00a0 This one relies in large part on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3422,5,3329,3424,3419,3416,3415],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apostle-paul","category-church","category-ecclesiology","category-ii-corinthians","category-paul","category-prejudice","category-seeing"],"yoast_head":"\n
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