Ash Wednesday Sermon: Ambassadors of Reconciliation
Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:21–6:10
In seminary I remember other students longing for the ideal church Luke presented in Acts. The ideal church where everyone got along, shared resources, and sang Kumbuya as the sun sank in the sky. Then when the church in Corinth was brought up everyone would moan and groan. That church had problems: factions, arguments, church members taking each other to court, raucous services, and then there was all the sin. Let’s go back to Acts they’d cry.
Accept for me. Like many here, I grew up in the church. I’d never been to a church like the one described in Acts. But Corinth. Corinth I could relate to. I knew about churches with problems. The ideal Luke presents in Acts is nice, and I’m sure it was nice...for all of 30 seconds. Here’s the thing about the church: it doesn’t matter where it is or when it is, it’s full of people, and people have problems, and egos, and tempers, and sins. And God expects us to somehow work together to build God’s kingdom in the here and now. As the Apostle Paul knew that was easier said then done.
In 50 A.D. around the time Paul would’ve first landed in Corinth, Corinth was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire. It was a major trading and commerce center. The city was also known as one of the most immoral cities in the Roman Empire. In the downtown area 33 wine shops have been excavated along with other questionable entertainments. It was ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse with temples to Greek and Egyptian deities coexisting side by side. It was also a city of extremes: the rich were really rich, and the poor were really poor, with nothing in between. So of course, when Paul arrives in Corinth, his first thought is: this is a great place to start a church! Say what you want about Paul, but that man loved a good challenge. And a good challenge is what he got.
Tonight’s epistle reading comes from the third letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian churches. Yes, I know it’s title is 2 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians Paul refers to a letter he wrote the churches previously, so this is the third known letter of Paul to the churches in Corinth. One of the major problems the churches in Corinth had were too many cooks in the kitchen. They loved their celebrity leaders and grouped around their favorites: one group claiming Paul as the best leader, another group claiming no Peter is the best, and another arguing for Apollos. Paul spends a lot of time in 1 Corinthians trying to get them to unite under the only who really matters: Jesus.
In 2 Corinthians there is still work to do—not only with the Corinthians themselves—but also between Paul and the Corinthian Christians. In between these two letters, Paul had visited Corinth, and it did not go well. He referred to it as “his painful visit.” Then he was supposed to visit again but decided not to. This did not sit well with some of the Corinthians who thought Paul was getting wishy-washy.
Be Reconciled to God…And Each Other
Which brings us to tonight’s reading where Paul begins his plea with: “We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” But I want to back up a couple of verses to get Paul’s full thought. Beginning in 5:18 Paul writes:
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. 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. 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” (All Scripture is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible).
The only way the Corinthians were going to get past their squabbling over who was the best and brightest was first to be reconciled to God then pursue reconciliation with Paul and with each other. Paul cuts the legs out from under their arguments over who was right with 5:22: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Paul is once again reminding the churches in Corinth that they have nothing to fight over or brag about: Christ and Christ alone is the reason they can have any relationship with God. Paul, Peter, nor Apollos died for their sins. None of the various leaders of the many house churches in Corinth died for the sins of everyone. Only Jesus did that. Only Christ reconciles us to God.
And only Christ reconciles us to each other. This is the grace Paul wants them to accept, so that “the grace of God [is not] in vain.” Reconciliation for Paul works in two directions: first we are reconciled to God, and then we can accept the love and grace of God to be reconciled to each other. We can do the hard work of listening to each other, forgiving each other, and walking together as children of God. Then we can go out into the world to proclaim God’s reconciliation to our families, friends, and neighbors. God’s love is always spreading out—God’s love is always wanting to welcome new people to the family and new diners to the table. We are to be part of sharing that love with the people around us.
Paul then reminds the churches in Corinth, now is the acceptable time—and only time—we have to share God’s grace. Paul assures the Corinthians that “we are putting no obstacles in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry.” Paul wants to reassure them, that even with his missed visit, he wants what is best for them and wants them to flourish in their relationships with God and each other.
Faithful Through Hardships
Now we come to 2 Corinthians 6:4-10. These verses start off fine: “As servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way.” Then comes what theologians call A Hardship List. Paul loved hardship lists. This isn’t the only one he wrote. It’s not even the only one in 2 Corinthians. How does Paul commend his ministry to the Corinthians? By telling them all of his accomplishments? How many people he preached to? How many people saw the light? How many people he baptized? Because that’s what we and the Corinthian churches are expecting. But just like his Messiah, Paul loved to turn expectations upside down, so he lists his “credentials.”
As servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything (2 Corinthians 6:4-10)
It’s really easy to brag about being faithful and obeying God when times are good, and everything is going our way. Paul is making the point that he is not a fair-weather apostle or a fair-weather friend. He has been faithful and obeyed God through quite a few bad times. When things were hard, Paul kept his eyes on God, and the calling God had placed on his life. This includes Paul’s ministry to the churches in Corinth. Paul was not a wishy-washy apostle and leader that some of the Corinthian Christians believed: He’d endured many hardships and calamities and stayed faithful to his God and ministry.
I also want you to notice verses 6-7. In the middle of all of the hard and difficult events Paul has survived, he tells us what saw him through: “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.”
These are the practices and virtues that helped Paul weather some very brutal events, and these are the practices and virtues that Paul wants the Corinthian Christians to build into their common life together. Paul does not want them to be blinded by the values of their culture and society. He wants them together to find a way to live in their world without giving into its values. These are the values Paul wants the churches in Corinth to live by.
A Communal Lent
These are the virtues that we need to live by. During Lent we are encouraged to personal piety: to look at our own lives and take on disciplines to bring us closer to God. But that is not the only piety we are called to. We are also called to look at our life together as the church and develop communal disciplines too.
As a church do we need to grow purity, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, and truthful speech this Lent? Are there members who need to be reconciled to each other? Do we need to give each other the benefit of the doubt instead of jumping to conclusions? Do we really listen to each other? Especially when we disagree?
In a few minutes, we will be praying the Litany of Penitence. When we do, just as Paul used the plural personal pronoun “we” to include the Corinthian churches in his hardship list, we will confess our sins to God. We will confess how we as the Body of Christ have not lived up to Christ’s vision for his church. As we go through this Lent, let’s try to be mindful of how we treat each other: are we being patient, kind, loving? When we hear a rumor concerning a church member, will we talk to that person first, or carelessly spread gossip? When there is a dispute, will we listen to each other and have empathy? Or do we need to be right at all costs? Let’s be mindful of Paul’s call to be reconciled to God and to each other. Then be willing to do the work of reconciliation, so we will be able to take God’s love and mercy into our neighborhoods, into our city, and into our world.