My employer is Anderson University School of Theology, whose
mission is to form women and men for the ministry of biblical reconciliation. Lately,
we’ve been talking about the meaning of biblical reconciliation. Prospective
students, and others, wonder what we mean by that. So let’s think about it for
a few minutes.
“Reconciliation” implies that a relationship has been broken.
Two parties need re-conciliation. So at its root, reconciliation denotes the
healing of relationship.
It seems to me that the whole Bible is the story of God’s
work to heal his relationship with humanity, which was broken in the garden
when Adam and Eve chose disobedience. Their disobedience broke their
relationship with God, and the whole rest of the Bible is the story of God’s initiative
to heal that brokenness.
Building on the idea that Adam and Eve’s sin broke their relationship
with God, my understanding of sin is any thought, attitude, word, or action
that is harmful to relationships: our relationship with God, with creation,
with other people, you name it. I can’t think of a sin that doesn’t fit that
definition. Any thought, attitude, word, or action that is harmful to
relationships.
So
everyone needs reconciliation. Everyone needs healing of relationships. All
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And all have the
pain of broken relationships with family, friends, neighbors, nature, and “others”
(like ISIS, Al Qaeda, and so on). So everyone needs reconciliation. Everyone
has relationships that need healed.
II
Corinthians 5:18 says that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That
is to say, God has given us the ministry of healing broken relationships. Along
two dimensions: vertical and horizontal. It is ours to help people reconcile
with God and with others (and with creation).
And so the seminary’s mission might be understood as forming
women and men for the healing of relationships. This is only accomplished with prayer, with humility, with dependence on the Holy Spirit (who is the
Reconciler), with obedience to God (who commissions us to disciple others and
who commands us to love God and neighbor), and with the full understanding that
we ourselves also stand in need of some healing of relationships.
Shalom.
I wondered about the mission statement when I first started at AU. I agree that God's story of trying to reconcile us to him is what the Bible is all about. Sin can bruise or destroy a relationship either with others or with God. However, it is such good news that our Lord is persistent in His pursuit of us. We just need to stop running and turn to him. Chapel today was so great with all of the visuals R. presented. The vision of God yanking open the door between us and pulling us into his arms was powerful. That is what we need to be doing in our own relationships and helping others to do as well.
ReplyDeleteJesus seems to have anticipated our need to forgive others in the Lord's Prayer: "as we forgive...," in the parables like the unforgiving servant, the older brother in the prodigal son story, the instructions to forgive before sacrifice at the altar, the command to forgive 70 times 7 if necessary, and others. I think it is convenient at times to accept and even crave God's forgiveness and mercy toward us. But it is much harder to always forgive others, even living in an attitude and expectation of forgiveness knowing that there is nothing that can be done to us that we cannot forgive, since Jesus gave us the ultimate bench mark for forgiveness when he asked God to forgive those who cruelly and thoughtlessly crucified him.
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