Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Remade to Reconcile

City Series M-2
Speaker: Ken Shigematsu
Title: Remade to Reconcile
Text: 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
August 26, 2012


BIG IDEA: When we are reconciled to God, we become an instrument of God’s reconciliation in the world.

INTRODUCTION:

One of the great gifts of the Olympic Games is that it brings together people from so many cultures, social backgrounds, and countries.

And it’s great to see athletes, who may not share a common language, congratulating each other after a victory or consoling someone else after a defeat.

One of the reasons we are impressed with this kind of cross-cultural interaction is because we don’t see it very often.

Sociologist tells us that for most of us our friends look like us, earn about the same amount of money, and have similar backgrounds to us. And while we may have a few acquaintances that are richer than we are or poorer than we are, most of our real friends are just like us.

But this can change when enter into a friendship with Jesus Christ.

At our newcomers’ dinner, Connections, I tell the story about how on one Sunday a group of people spontaneously decided to go out for lunch after the worship service.

In the group was a man from India, who had been raised as in the Brahman priest sect. He was from a very traditional background. He had come to Vancouver and through the ministry of Tenth had given his life to Christ. There was someone gay in the group, who was more liberal in his sensibilities. There was an artist in the group, an engineer, I believe, and an accountant. (I wasn’t actually at the lunch). Apparently during the lunch someone looked around at the table and said, “Look at us, there’s no way we would be having lunch together if it wasn’t because of our common connection to Christ.”

And when we meet Jesus Christ personally, we discover that God remakes us so that we experience not only a new relationship with God, but we find we are in closer relationships to people who are different from us – people who might otherwise be distant from or even enemies.

In short, when we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ, we find ourselves reconciled to God and to people. But as we are reconciled to people – we find ourselves drawn closer to people different from ourselves – we will find that others in turn are drawn closer to God.

In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 18, we read that God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, has also given us the ministry of reconciliation. Today, we're going to explore what this looks like.

Today, as we conclude this series from Corinthians on the Gospel in the City, or how we live out the way of Jesus in the city, we are going to look at what it means to serve to have a ministry of reconciliation in the world.

If you have your Bibles you please turn to 2 Corinthians 5: 11-21:

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 (TNIV)
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

PRAY

As we will see in this text, our ministry of reconciliation, our work of building bridges to other people, and then helping others cross a bridge to God, begins with our first being reconciled to God.

As we are reconciled to God, we find ourselves more likely to draw closer to people who are different from us in some way. As this happens, with the help of God, we’ll see people drawn closer to God.

But, what’s the first step in our becoming an instrument of God’s reconciliation in the world? How do we become people who reach out to people who may be very different from ourselves--and in some cases even with those whom we would naturally be distant from and even our enemies? How do we become people who “share the presence” of God through our lives so that others are reconciled to God?

The first step is our being reconciled to God--when we enter a relationship with God.

Edwin Friedman, the author of the classic Generation to Generation, writes about each of us is involved in a series of emotional triangles.

In relationships, there is often an unseen third person who affects that relationship.

A young boy seems angry is bullying his classmates. It’s later revealed that his father become beats him when he's drunk.

A woman appears to be increasingly distant from her husband. This emotional estrangement coincides with an affair that she has begun.

More positively:

A high school student is able to calmly resist peer pressure to use drugs at a party – even though it's costing him some popularity. It’s later shown that he has a great relationship with his father.

A newly-married woman has a surprisingly good relationship with her mother-in-law. Later it comes out that the newlywed has a really healthy relationship with her own mother.

None of our relationships exist in a vacuum. Each of them is affected by some unseen person in the relationship.

And, when God becomes a central part of our lives, all of our other relationships are shaped. When God is part of our life, all our other relationships are changed.

One of the signs that we have really come to know God, according to Romans 5, is that we have this sense of God’s love streaming into our hearts. And as this love from this unseen “third person” streams into and wells up within us, we become more loving people.

When we know how much we are loved by our Maker, we cannot help but overflow with love for others. In fact, the mark of a person who is in a genuine relationship with God is not a cross around their neck. It’s not a fish. It’s not even a set of doctrinal beliefs, as important as what we believe is. But THE mark of a person in a genuine relationship with God is love. Jesus said, “By this all people will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”

And when we are reconciled with God, when God is the unseen person that affects every other relationship we have.

(T)

Of course, the reason God affects every other relationship is because when God is in our life we become new people.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read that if we are in a relationship with Christ, we are made new.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

And when God comes into our lives we become new, and one consequence of being made new is we see people differently.

What we see is shaped by who we are.

Two people on plane can react very differently to a crying toddler in the row in front of them. One can be annoyed by the child and its mother or father. The other can be moved to compassion for the child and want to help.

What we see is shaped by who we are.

In verse 16 Paul writes that, as a result of being reconciled to God, we become new. We regard no one from a worldly point of view. In the opening message of this series, Lee Kosa talked about how when we are brought into a relationship with God it changes the ways that we see people. If we are not in a relationship with the living God, we see Christ, this historic figure, hanging on a cross, and we feel sorry for him, for his suffering. Or we assume, like most of the people of his day assumed at the time he was being nailed to the cross, that he was being executed for some heinous crime he must have committed. In much the same way that we would assume if we saw someone sentenced to an electric chair. But when we are drawn into a relationship with God we see Christ differently. We no longer see his death as an ignominious defeat, or as retribution for a crime he committed. We understand that, in a mysterious way, the Christ on the cross was bearing in his body the punishment for our sins so that we could experience the forgiveness of our sins and be reconciled to God…

And when we are in a love relationship with God, we are changed and become new people. We see Christ differently and we see people differently (vs. 16): “we no longer regard people from a worldly point of view,” because what we see is always the result of who we are.

We human beings tend to judge people on their appearance, what they do, how much money they have.

When we are drawn to God and made new, we see people differently because what we see is always the result of who we are.

And this isn't merely a theoretical point.

I know this to be true of my own experience.

As I shared before, as a young teenager the most important goal in my life was to be part of the popular, cool, tough crowd at school.

I worked really hard to gain admission to this group and made it – though just barely.

And I remember as a group we looked down on almost everyone else – including a group of soccer players who were also some of the more preppy students on campus. At the time, I was taking martial arts. I remember walking down the hallway and seeing one of the kids who was part of the soccer group sitting by his locker eating an apple. I wanted to impress my friends on the accuracy of my kicks, so as we were walking by I decided that I would kick the kid’s apple out of his hand. So I jog up and I am attempting to kick the apple out of his hand, but I missed the apple and instead catch his chin and drive his back into the locker.

It isn't so much hurt him physically, but it did humiliate him. I just walked on pretending that I was intending to kick him in the head.

About a year or two, later I committed my life to Christ.

Christ began to change in the way that I viewed people.

And I remember thinking that the kid Mark who I kicked in the head wasn't just some preppy loser, but someone who was made in the image of God.

So when I was in grade 11 and grade 12, I was attending a different school, but remember looking up his address, knocking on his door and he answered.

I said,” You probably remember me. I kicked you in the head. I have come to your house to apologize.”

He said, “Oh….Sure, but I'm curious why are you apologizing now?”

I said, “This may sound strange, but I have met Jesus Christ and this powerfully changed my life in the way I see people.”

He said, “It's interesting. You probably don't know this but my dad is a pastor and I’m a believer too.”

Being in a relationship with Christ totally changed the way I saw Mark and helped me see him as being a person made in the image of God and as a fellow brother from a different mother.

While I have been changed quite a lot by Christ – it's been ages since I've kicked anyone in the head.

I find I can slip into old patterns of relating to people.

I can find that I have more energy to start to talk to someone, socially engage a stranger at a coffee shop or at the gym or at park, if they're attractive or seem interesting.

And I catch myself saying this: Christ has loved so freely without reference to what I could do for him. Everyone is being made in the image of God.

The other day in a public setting (and, no, it wasn’t Tenth). I'm deliberately making the setting vague... I recognized someone I have met only once or twice as they were serving me. And this person was amazed in the sense that because she is not classically attractive in a worldly kind of way a lot people probably don’t remember her.

I thought I want to become the new kind of person—new because of Christ—that cares in small ways for people, people my old self would ignore or despise.

Being in a relationship with Christ, not only changes how we view a particular individual, but as many people in the community or nation really embrace Christ, it changes the way they see people from other nations, other races, other cultures.

I am originally from Japan. Part of the reason why the Japanese up until World War II subjugated other Asians to cruelty, slavery—including sexual slavery, and murder--was because they saw themselves as descendants of the gods, and therefore superior to other peoples. They had a false sense of purity.

In our own country, part of the reason that immigrants from Europe stole land, enslaved, raped and murdered many First Nations Peoples was because they saw the natives as savages.

Historically, south of border racism and slavery against blacks was “justified” because people thought that black people did not possess a soul.

How does Jesus impact this?

Miroslav Volf explains… that when Jesus came he not only remade things, but he also renamed things. 2X. Jesus renamed things--that others had called unclean, out of a false sense of purity, and called them clean….2X When we are made new in Christ, we will lose our false sense of purity, our false sense of superiority. We will name things clean that once we once deemed unclean because of our false sense of purity.

When we are remade, in Christ not only will we rename things, but like Jesus, we will also reach out to people who are different from us--different from us culturally, economically, religiously.

Our power for ministry, our motivation for reconciliation, flows from a love relationship with Jesus that transforms our vision…

Paul said in his letter to the church in Philippi (Philippians 2); “If any of you have any
encouragement from being united with Christ (any of you have any of this?), if any comfort from his love (any of you have any of this?), common sharing the Spirit (any of you have any of this?)… Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to used to his own selfish advantage, but became one who serves others…”


We will be drawn to them and then they may be drawn closer to God.

This summer I read the amazing story, the true story, of Louie Zamperini: the book by Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken.



Keep the book jacket up through the highlighted section:

Louie Zamperini as a boy was living in Southern California and somewhat like me had been a juvenile delinquent. He got into fights, broke into homes and stole things and once jumped a train to Mexico just for the fun of it.

His older brother Pete was concerned about Louie, so he got him involved in the track and field team to channel Louie’s defiance into something productive.



(Keep the photo up over the yellow).

Louie began running and discovered this was his gift.

He ending up breaking a bunch of high school track records and at only 19 ended up running in the Berlin Olympics.

Many people predicted he would become the first human being to break the four-minute mile.

With World War II breaking out, Louie enlisted in the United States Air Force and became a bombardier. While flying on out on the Pacific less than 1000 miles west of Hawaii, his defective plane crashed and he found himself on a small life raft with sharks swirling around him. After 47 days at sea, his rafted floated into the Marshall Islands and he was immediately captured by the Japanese Navy.

Zamperini became a prisoner of war and he experienced brutality at the hands of the Japanese guards that would make the hair on your neck stand on end, or move you to tears, or great anger.

They were starved and beaten mercilessly with fists, kicks, and baseball bats and in the case of one particularly brutal prison guard by a belt buckle on the head again and again, until they would fall unconscious.

Amazingly Louie survived the POW camp where many had died.

After the war he returned to North America where he met married a woman named Cynthia. But because Louie was experiencing severe post traumatic stress disorder, he started drinking and became an alcoholic, got into fights on the streets and in bars, and experienced nightmares where he was being beaten by particularly a brutal guard, fighting for his life.

Because of the injuries he sustained in the POW camp, he could no longer run.

His singular ambition was to make enough money to go back to Japan to find the prison guard that had tormented him most and kill him.

As you can imagine, it was very difficult for Cynthia to live with Louie and said she was making plans to divorce him. But she was invited by an acquaintance in their new apartment building to attend a Christian service being held in a circus tent in LA. The speaker was a young, relatively unknown preacher at the time, named Billy Graham. And as a result of that service Cynthia was awakened to a relationship with God.

Louie was appalled.

Cynthia and their apartment neighbors invited Louie to go, but he adamantly refused. They kept inviting him. One day Cynthia told the little lie that tipped the balance. She said the Billy Graham's sermons were filled with reflections on science. She knew that her husband was interested in science, so he reluctantly agreed to go.

That night as Mr. Graham was making an invitation for people to meet Christ, Louie was spooked and ran out of the tent angry. But he returned with his wife on another night and felt as though God was speaking to him at the end of that meeting to offer his life to God.

When they returned to their apartment, Louie went straight to his cache of liquor. It was the time of the night when the urge to drink usually took hold of him, but for the first time in years, he had no desire to drink. He carried the bottles to the kitchen sink, opened them and poured the contents into the drain. Then he hurried through the apartment, gathering packs of cigarettes, a secret stash of pornographic magazines. He heaved it all down the trash chute.

In the morning he awoke feeling cleansed. For the first time in five years, the brutal prison guards had not come to him in his dreams and they would never return. Louie felt a profound peace.

He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the guard had driven him to become. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed. He was a new creation. Softly he wept.

(Paraphrased from Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand).

He lost all desire to gain revenge against his Japanese captor and instead felt compassion for him.

Prior to the winter Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998 Zamperini was invited to carry the torch past Naoetsu, the notorious prisoner of war camp where he had been starving and unmercifully beaten to an inch from death.

He said, “Yes.” And he wanted to offer forgiveness to the prison guard that had treated him with the most cruelty.

He had met the other guards on a previous trip to a prison in Tokyo where they were being held that time. When he entered the prison, he threw his arms around each of them and offered forgiveness. They were stunned. Louie shared with them how Christ had changed his life.

Several days before going to Nagano, he thought how he wanted to meet and offer forgiveness to the guard who treated him the worst and who had not been at the prison because he had been in hiding.

Louie learned that the guard was alive and now living in Tokyo.

He sat for several hours in silence and then clicked on his computer and wrote:

To Matsuhiro [sic] Watanabe,

​As a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment, my post-war life became a nightmare. It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance.

​Under your discipline, my rights, not only as a prisoner of war but also as a human being, were stripped from me. It was a struggle to maintain enough dignity and hope to live until the war’s end.

​The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble, but thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, “Forgive your enemies and pray for them.”

​As you probably know, I returned to Japan in 1952 [sic] and was graciously allowed to address all the Japanese war criminals at Sugamo Prison…I asked them about you, and was told that you probably had committed Hara Kiri, (suicide) which I was sad to hear. At that moment, like the others, I also forgave you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian.

Louie Zamperini

The former guard almost spat the invitation and refused to meet Louie, but someone offered to deliver the letter. Whether he read it or not, no one knows.

Though our experience may not be as dramatic as Louie’s--when we are in Christ we are made new and we will see people and even our enemies differently, we will move toward them. As we do, in some cases they will be drawn to Christ.


You may have never been beaten like Louie or have kicked in someone in the head, but are you being called to offer forgiveness, or being called close to some who you would naturally be distant from, or even an enemy?

Take time to pray:



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