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Dr. Jac Kelewae clean slate 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Lent 4C 14 March 2010 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. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 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. **************************************************** We have been considering the parable of the prodigal son for the last three weeks: considering things from the father’s point of view, then from the wayward son’s point of view, and then from the indignant older son’s point of view. And today, we look back at the story from the perspective of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, lifting up the issue of reconciliation. Reconciliation is what the parable of the prodigal son is all about but the source of this reconciliation is the extravagant grace of God, God wiping the slate clean for each of us. As I was thinking about this grace, an old newsreel from World War II came into my remembrance. The scene is outside of Paris as the Germans are invading. The people are running for their lives with whatever worldly goods they can carry, leaving the city and seeking safety. We see planes zoom in from above, strafing the roadside. People fall to the ground in panic. The camera narrows in on a couple and their young daughter, who throw themselves over the daughter. Soon the planes leave and stillness is all we see, until a slight movement reveals the little girl making her way out from under the bodies of her parents, covered in their blood. Stand in her place for a moment. Here she is alive, through the sacrifice of her parents. She had no choice in the matter. It just is a fact, a gift. She did not ask for this sacrifice, nor would she have even wanted it if she had had a say. But here she is alive, through her parents’ selfless protection. She can’t earn this gift. She can’t pay her parents back. All she can do from that moment is to live her life as a gift, saying thank you to them with every day she lives. And that is what grace is: a gift - not something we earn or deserve, or can even pay for. It is the experience of the prodigal son. This son had already shamed his father beyond belief, declaring him good as dead, selling his portion of the estate and then wasting it. He loses all sense of values, even living with the most unclean of animals, the swine. He comes back to his father, knowing that there is no way he can repair the damage he has done to himself and to his father. But the father runs to him, something no father in that day would have, and embraces him before he has a chance to finish his apology. He wipes away all of the shame and even begins to repair the damage done with the neighbors by holding a big welcome celebration and inviting everyone to come celebrate the son’s return. This is what Paul is trying to get across to us, that our reconciliation with God is God wiping the slate clean for us, removing all barriers between us and God. It is not something we do. It is something done to and for us. In Christ, we are a new creation and it is God who has given this new life to us. We symbolize this extravagant grace in baptism, especially in the baptism of infants. Baptism announces a new life for a child, that this child is a new creation from that moment, requiring nothing at all from the child. It is a gift, unconditional and free. All we baptized people can do, as with the little French girl, is live our lives as a thank you. That is why we gather in worship, as a community of the baptized, to say thanks, to sing praise, to celebrate together the clean slate given to each of us. This declaration of a new life, a clean slate, is coming from a person who knew this experience personally and well. He had been Saul, the hunter and killer of Christians. He had been struck down by God on the road to Damascus and could not see or eat for days. A fearful disciple Ananias did as God commanded and laid his hands upon Saul, and the Holy Spirit filled Saul and he could see and eat again. He rose and began testifying for this Jesus he had opposed so violently and even changed his name to Paul to announce to all the world that he was a new person. The Corinthians, of course, knew this story, knew that Paul had gone through this drastic conversion. Paul’s point to them is that such a drastic conversion was not just true for him, that it was true for them and for us, as well. For each of us, “the old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” The message is that if the slate has been wiped clean for us, it has been wiped clean for all. If we are new creations, have new life, then all people have been given this new life, as well. This is the disturbing part of the grace of God, that it is freely given to all: to murders, adulterers, rapists, ponzi schemers, terrorists, and everyone else. In Hebrews 11, where Paul does a roll call of the saints, he even includes Rahaab the Harlot. If grace is true for one, it is true for all. I say this grace is disturbing because it rubs us wrong, like it did the older brother in the parable. This wiping the slate clean for everyone is not justice, not right from our point of view. The prodigal son gets away with shaming his father, wasting the estate, living in the gutter. From the older brother’s point of view, surely the prodigal son needs to pay penance, do more than say he is sorry. It was amazing hearing the commentators, especially the young people, being so critical of Tiger Woods as he offered his apology, saying that he has not paid enough of a price. All I can say is that we all live in glass houses and there, but for the grace of God, goes anyone of us. We cannot be judgmental about anyone. We have all been given the same clean slate. To give up on anyone, no matter what their condition or situation, is to give up hope on ourselves. How can we think we are any different from anyone else? We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, as the Shorter Catechism teaches us. That is the problem with grace, it is generous beyond any calculations we can muster and just does not add up. We are tempted to be like the Pharisees and the scribes, criticizing Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners. We Presbyterians can often fall into that judgmental attitude, quickly passing judgment on governments and businesses and all manner of people that we really know so little about. We need to put a pause in our reactions and get into the position of grace, of giving thanks for the new life we have all been given, a new life that is just as freely offered to those we would criticize. And this brings us, then, to the ministry of reconciliation, to the job Paul calls us to, the job of being ambassadors for Christ. Our job as the community of the baptized, the “clean slate club,” is to be like the father, running to welcome the prodigal son. We are tempted to feel that our job is to convert people, to clean them up and fix them, and then bring them into church. We have nothing to do with anyone’s conversion. That is God’s job. Our job is to rejoice in our own clean slate and share the joy of our new life, to be a welcoming presence, and be willing to come into the party God has prepared and welcome others to come with us. It is amazing how willing we are to enthusiastically invite people to things in other areas of our lives and, yet, be so silent with this most life changing party. I hear about this young teacher in my wife’s school who has become so much a fan of an exercise class that she keeps talking it up to people and inviting them to come with her. This group has now become known as her “posse.” How many of us have gathered a “posse for Christ,” gone out and welcomed others to the party God is throwing in their behalf? Our job is to practice baptismal discipline, to look at each other through the water of baptism. The fact is that we are each new creations already. It is not something we make each other into. It is something we discover in ourselves and in each other. We are each new, each forgiven. We are the community of the forgiven. We embrace each other as new creations and that embracing makes us the body of Christ, a community of grace. As ambassadors, we are charged with becoming the visible expression of the reconciled life with God, of being out in the world as rejoicers. We are not to wait for people to come in, but to go out like the father did for the prodigal son and embrace other new creations and welcome them to come in to the party in their honor. Paul is clear that cleaning slates is God’s job and that we have a role in what he does. Paul’s view of life is that we are already living the life after death, that we are already living with one foot in heaven while we have one foot still on earth. Living that way, we live without fear, live in the moment, act generously, give as freely as we have been given. In other words, we live like very different people, like changed people, like gift-giving people, saying thanks with every day that we have been granted. We live as ambassadors of God’s extravagant grace, inviting everyone to the party God is throwing for them and for us. |