“Real Religion”
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
St. Paul AME Church, Manchester, KY
David A. Shirey
First things first. This morning’s reading begins with the word “therefore.” From now on, therefore…” (v.16). One of my professors used to say: “When coming upon the word therefore in Scripture ask, ‘What is the therefore there for?’” In this instance, the “therefore” is preceded by 4 chapters of Paul’s letter we call 2 Corinthians and 16 chapters of the letter we know as 1 Corinthians – 20 chapters of correspondence that reveal in no uncertain terms that Paul and the Corinthians had a rocky relationship. 1 & 2 Corinthians are not love letters. Corinth was Paul’s problem child church. In one preacher’s alliterative words, Corinth Christian was filled with “factions and frictions, conflicts and confrontations.[1]” So, after spilling 20 chapters of ink trying to save the church from imploding, Paul implores them: “From now on, therefore, I beg you to be reconciled and to be ambassadors for reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:16, 20).
It’s ironic who’s begging the Corinthians to be ambassadors of reconciliation: Mr. Divide and Conquer himself. When the book of Acts opens, Paul wasn’t bringing Christians together. To the contrary, he was on a Search and Destroy mission: “Breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). But on the Damascus Road, he was confronted by the risen Lord Jesus, knocked from his high horse to his knees, had his sight temporarily taken away, and was given a permanent new insight. Namely, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 5:28). From then on, Paul became what he called “a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17) – an ambassador of reconciliation. Who woulda thunk it?
Which raises a question: How ‘bout you? Are you “a new creation?” Would someone who has known you for a long time be able to say of you today: “Now there’s a new creation! S/he used to be… but now s/he… I remember when s/he was… but now s/he’s….” The testimony of Scripture is that anyone “in Christ” is a new creation. That phrase “in Christ” appears over 170 times in Paul’s writings. Paul believed that anyone who spends time “in Christ”—in Christ’s people (the church), in worship, in Scripture, in prayer, in service to others – will over time be changed like a rock exposed to the ebb and flow of wind and rain is smoothed, shaped, transformed. As Glinda sings to Elphaba in Wicked: “changed for the better…changed for good.” Paul says people who live their lives “in Christ,” open to God’s influence, will be changed. Paul was. We can be.
Here’s the thing: We’re made new creations for a purpose: to be ambassadors of reconciliation. Paul says, “God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ. God is making his appeal through us. (vss. 18, 20). That’s quite a title isn’t it? Ambassador. A few weeks back, Paul told us we’re all called to be saints. Now he tells us we’re all duly appointed ambassadors. Ambassador Lyttle, pleased to meet you, sir. Ambassadors Denver and Margaret. Ambassador-in-training Brenly. Ambassador Pennington who rings the bell to the embassy at 11 o’clock. We are ambassadors all.
Being an ambassador of reconciliation is at the heart of gospel living. Why? Because so much needs to be reconciled! Alienation, division, dissension – the opposites of reconciliation – are so painfully evident all around us. Shirey’s Law of Interpersonal Thermodynamics says “Where bodies are in close proximity there will be friction. Where there is friction there will be heat… and if cooler heads don’t prevail, alienation, division and dissension will ensue. As in red states/ blues states. Liberal/ Conservative. Hawk/Dove. Caucasian/Hispanic/African-American/ Pacific Islander/ Asian/ Other. First World/Third World. For/Against. Pro/Con. We/They. Us/Them. God help us! … God did! It was into just such a divided world that the Apostle Paul received his heaven-sent attitude adjustment on the Damascus Road and received his call to be an ambassador of reconciliation to the point he wrote in his letter to the Ephesians: “God has made known to me God’s plan for the fullness of time, to gather up (to unite) all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Eph 1:9,10).” What a plan! To reconcile everything. We’re made new creations in order to be ambassadors of that cosmic reconciliation!
So it is Paul writes, “We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled. Be ambassadors of reconciliation.” “We entreat you.” Some translations have “We beseech you.” The RDSV translation – Revised David Shirey Version – has “I beg you.” With all due respect to The Temptations, St. Paul “ain’t too proud to beg, baby, baby” for us all to be reconciled. St. Paul is begging St. Paul Church to be ambassadors of reconciliation.
Which brings me to one of my favorite words. I’m hesitant to say it anymore. It’s a word that has fallen out of favor. People use it pejoratively. Scoff at it. Many go to great lengths to distance themselves from it. But at its core it’s a good word: the word is religion. Would you agree with me religion is a word in need of redemption? I hear people say, “I’m a spiritual person, but I’m not religious.” Translation: I believe there’s more to life than what I can taste, see, hear, touch and smell, and I want to grapple with questions like What is the meaning of life? but I don’t want to have anything to do with organized religion. I hear, “She’s really religious.” Translation: She’s stiff and musty-smelling and not much fun to be around. I hear, “Some people take their religion way too seriously.” Translation: If you practice your faith wholeheartedly you’ll end up a wild-eyed, obnoxious zealot.
To all those derogatory uses of the word religion I say, ‘Please look closely at the word and see what it really means: re-lig-ion. Note the syllable in the middle-- at the heart of the word-- lig as in ligament as in what holds us together. The song says “The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone/ The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone/ The ankle bone’s connected to the shin bone....” Ligaments hold all dem bones together. Here’s The Big Picture: religion at its root (and at its best!) is about religging – bringing back together, healing and mending, whatever is broken into pieces (bodies, minds, souls) and whatever has grown apart (relationships, the human family, nations, all creation).
There’s a crying need for re-ligging in this world of ours. After all, that prefix re- means having to do something again. Re-ligging means something that was previously ligged has become un-ligged and – let me tell you – torn ligaments hurt. I speak from personal experience. I suffered a torn ligament once in my knee. The doctor said, “You’d have been better off if you’d just broken your leg. I can set that and it’d be better in weeks. But a torn ligament takes a lot of time to heal.” Torn ligaments hurt. But I’m not telling you anything. You know as well as I do how it hurts when ligaments are torn. When the bond that holds one person to another is torn asunder – that hurts. When the fabric of a friendship or a family or a community or a nation is rent asunder – that’s painful. When guilt, shame or despair, affliction or addiction tear us up – ouch! When the ligaments that hold us together body, mind, and spirit are torn – it hurts!
The good news of the gospel is that real religion heals that hurt! Real religion is people who are being made new creations renewing and reconciling everything else – re-ligging their relationships, their church, their community, their world. Someone (Gene Brice) said, “One of the best gifts you can give to God is the stubborn refusal to participate in or contribute to brokenness anymore. Whatever anyone else may say or do, you can vow before God to be on the side of building up rather than tearing down.”
Jesus’ life was all about re-ligging. When he walked this earth, Jesus healed and mended human beings and their relationships with each other and God that were frayed, torn, severed. He prayed in John’s Gospel “that they all may be one.” He prayed from the cross, “Father forgive them” On the cross our Lord died the way he lived: reaching out to the left and right. His own body was stretched – his own ligaments torn – to reconcile us to God and each another. His arms were outstretched as if to embrace the whole world. And Hallelujah! he was re-ligged by God in the resurrection and he is re-ligged when we come together as his Body – the Church. Says Paul in Ephesians, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” “Therefore, let us “grow up into him… and be joined and held together by every supporting ligament” (Ephesians 4:16).
St. Paul church, hear me when I say you’re called to be ambassadors of reconciliation. What Isaiah calls “repairers of the breach” (Isaiah 58:12). Don't let anything cause you to grow apart from each other, from worshipping, studying, fellowshipping, and serving together “in Christ.” You’re called to be religious people in the best sense of the word. Says St. Paul to St. Paul: “From now on, therefore, I beg you to be reconciled and to be ambassadors for reconciliation.”
Let all God’s ambassadors of reconciliation say, AMEN.
[1] Edward Markquart http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_ambassadors_for_jesus_christ.htm
