God Makes Things Right

“God Makes Things Right”
Based on Rom. 5:1-11
First delivered Mar. 15, 2020
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr 

            Reconciliation: to re-conciliate, to make things right. Reconciliation is one of those big words that names a number of experiences in our lives that can be quite meaningful, even transformative. Reconciliation is right up there with peacemaking, restoration of relationships, burying the hatchet, starting fresh with a clean slate. Reconciliation is one of those experiences that can potentially be some of the most important moments of our lives.

            Of course, not every experience of reconciliation is life altering. Those of us who sit down with our bank statement every month to reconcile the statement with our checkbook knows that this is not a life altering moment. Hopefully it is a short and tedious couple of minutes to go through and make sure that there are no crazy charges showing up on your bank statement. The most alarming thing that could happen when you are doing this reconciliation is if you find some fraudulent charges. Then you have to go through the process of contesting the charges, changing your account number, and so forth. Most of the time, this reconciliation process is pretty painless and doesn’t require a lot of intentionality or effort.

            Another way reconciliation is experienced is after a time of war, especially a civil war. You and I have not had this experience of reconciliation. One somewhat recent example of this I am aware of is in South Africa when Apartheid was ended and the nation had to come to terms with the ravages of the racist policies that pitted the minority white population with the majority black population. The violence and hatred that was stirred up during Apartheid had to be exposed and healed so that South Africa could move forward as a nation when Apartheid came to an end. In an effort to bring healing to the nation, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established. This commission provided a process in which those in power who enforced Apartheid could come forward and confess what they did, to speak the truth of the harm they perpetrated and publicly acknowledge that what they did was wrong. Rather than sweep it all under the rug and move on, a deliberate process was set up so that the truth could be told so that reconciliation would be possible. This is a dramatic and intense experience of reconciliation, attempting to heal the wounds of a nation.

            For most of us, reconciliation is mostly an experience of repairing a relationship that has been harmed in some way. By words or deeds, either you have hurt someone or they have hurt you. And the hurt is deep enough that it drives you two apart. The relationship has been harmed. For that relationship to be healed, a process of reconciliation has to be worked through. The first step, of course, is to acknowledge that harm has been done. Next, the one who did the harm, having acknowledged it, resolves to try to make things right. Over time, hopefully the hurt feelings can ease and the two can be friends again. It may not happen overnight. The relationship may never return to the way it was before the harm. Reconciliation is not guaranteed. But, by working the process, reconciliation is possible. Relationships can be restored.

            Whether it is two friends who have been hurt or a nation that has been ripped apart by strife, the process is the same. The one who has done wrong has to own up to what they have done. And remember, in most situations, both parties in the dispute can likely name harm that they have committed. The harm must be named. Next, the one who did the harm has to try to make things right as best as it can be. And, of course, somewhere along the way the one who did the harm has to ask for forgiveness and hope that the one who has been offended will accept the forgiveness and extend a hand so that the relationship can be restored. This is the process of reconciliation. And it doesn’t always have a happy ending.

            Then, there is another broken relationship that is deep and profound. It is the broken relationship between God and creation. Specifically, the rupture in the relationship between God and humanity because of the virus of sin. We talked a few weeks ago about how sin is like a virus which infects every human being, distorting who God has created us to be, dis-ordering our relationship with God, with one another, and with ourselves. Yes, we have free will. We are responsible for our own actions. We can’t say, “sin made me do it.” But sin does influence what we do. We are ultimately responsible for our actions. What we say and do corrupted by sin is an offense to God. The level of offense each of us has perpetrated on God and on God’s creation is truly immeasurable. The rupture between us and God is vast. We don’t even know, much less have the capacity to confess, all the offense we have perpetrated against God. There is no way that we can make things right. When it comes to reconciling our relationship with God, it is not possible for us to fix it.

            Have you ever had the experience where the pain the other person inflicted on you was so great, the hurt so deep, that mending the relationship was hopeless? It’s one thing if it’s just an acquaintance or a co-worker. But if it is a spouse, a parent, a child…that is a hard thing to carry. Sometimes the parting of ways is necessary. Self-protection and self-respect dictate the need to end abusive relationships, to at the minimum physically separate from each other, but also even emotionally separating for your own health. Regrettably, many of us will in our lifetimes have to acknowledge the necessity to end relationships, that there are some relationships that cannot be reconciled.

            Paul says that our relationship with God was like that. Our offensive actions against God was so great that the relationship was beyond repair. There was nothing we could do to make it right. When it came to mending our relationship with God, we were without hope. And God would not have this. God’s love for us is so great, so deep, so vast, that God was determined that nothing would prevent reconciliation from taking place. Even though God is the offended one, God determined to take the initiative and do what was necessary to make things right. Through some great mystery, God closed the gap in our broken relationship through the death of Jesus on the cross. Theologians have tried to explain in a number of ways exactly how the death of Jesus on the cross fixed our relationship with God. We will never know for sure how this works. But we can affirm that God, the offended one, extended amazing grace by acting through Jesus in a decisive way to make things right. By God’s own force of will God reconciled all of humanity to Godself. As far as God is concerned, we have been reconciled with God. We couldn’t fix it. So, God fixed it for us through Jesus.

            If our relationship with God was a check register, and we are $1 million off from what the bank statement says we should be, it is as if the bank sat down and credited our account $1 million so that our check register balanced. We could never repay that debt. So, it was covered for us. This is the amazing grace of God, the love that God continues to pour into our hearts day by day. God’s grace is like a constant infusion of credit into our relational bank account with God. Sin is still working in us. We spend our whole lives resisting its influence. And we fail regularly. We offend God daily. And the grace of God never stops applying grace to our offense.

            To top all this off, Paul teaches us that if God has paid such a high price by offering God’s son on the cross so that we could be reconciled with God, it would be the height of folly for God to then abandon us to the wrath we deserve. Paul believed a day will come, a day of judgment when God would pour God’s wrath on God’s enemies: the great and terrible day of the Lord. It is a punishment we all deserve for our offense toward God and God’s creation. We deserve God’s wrath. But if God has paid such a price to reconcile our relationship, why would God then pour God’s wrath on us? If God was going to do that, why would God have paid such a huge price to make things right? God has invested too much in each of us to at the end of the day walk away from us and destroy us in God’s rage. Besides, God loves us too much to do such a thing. In other words, Paul is saying we can have confidence in the hope that because of Jesus we will not suffer God’s wrath. Our future with God is secure. God will never abandon us or forsake us. This is our good news.

            “Karen”, not her real name, had given up on God. Her husband came out as gay. They belonged to a church that understood being gay as a sickness that needed cured. Karen and her husband went to a therapist the church recommended to cure her husband of his gayness. No surprise. It didn’t work. They got divorced. The church Karen belonged to also saw divorce as a sin, just like being gay. They did not support her divorce. Karen lost her husband. She lost her church. And she threw up her hands and gave up on God.

            Karen was in a situation where she felt God had wronged her, treated her unfairly. She linked God with the church. The church hurt her deeply. So, God hurt her deeply. She wanted nothing to do with church, with Jesus, with God, none of it. She had been hurt by God at the hands of God’s church. She was the offended one.

            Many years later, Karen was diagnosed with breast cancer. During surgery, when she was having a mastectomy performed, her heart stopped briefly. They were able to get her heart pumping again and were able to complete the procedure. Karen said that during her surgery she saw the bright light at the end of the tunnel that people talk about in after death experiences. Karen came back to life. She felt like God had given her a second chance. So, she seized it.

            Now Karen is deeply committed to God. She came to realize that the church she belonged to did not adequately reflect the heart of God. Karen has found her calling in life. She has dedicated herself to create inter-generational and ethnically diverse communities, safe spaces, where people can tell their stories, where stereotypes and misunderstandings can be overcome, so that strangers, even those at enmity with each other, can become friends. Karen has adopted as her life calling a ministry of reconciliation. This ministry emerged from her own profound experience of being reconciled with God.

            Karen went through a difficult and painful experience. Each of us go through things, endure painful experiences and broken relationships. We live through disappointments and sometimes even betrayal. We may even experience a sense of disappointment and even betrayal at the hands of God. Not everyone gets over their anger toward God for what they perceive God has inflicted on them. But, in time, Karen was able to get to a different place in her relationship with God. She got to the place where she could affirm what Paul is saying in Romans 5. There is one relationship that we can trust. It is our relationship with God, who has done all that is necessary to reconcile us, to make right our relationship. From a place of love and grace, God has acted to make things right between us. God has and continues to forgive us of our sin. God has and continues to stretch out God’s hand, to spread wide God’s arms so that we can respond with gratitude and confidence. We can trust that God loves us, no matter what. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even our sin, because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

            This can be our hope, a source of strength and confidence, as we move through our days. All of us share a common relationship with God, a reconciled relationship. We all are loved by God and there is nothing any of us can do about it. This is one thing that we all have in common. It is this reality of God’s love for each one of us that can serve as a foundation to reconcile with each other where there are broken relationships, by affirming God’s mutual love for each one of us. It is this foundation of mutual love that grounds us in our mutual task of reconciliation. It isn’t easy. And not every relationship can be fixed. But the fact that God loves every person provides a baseline, a foundation, on which we can establish loving relationships with others. At the bare minimum, we can respond with empathy toward others in their time of need because they too are loved by God. They too are persons for whom Christ died. They too are persons of sacred worth. We don’t have to be friends with everybody. We don’t have to agree on everything. Social distancing serves a purpose besides preventing the spread of the coronavirus. But it is not a small thing to affirm that person is someone for whom Christ died and whom God has reconciled with because of God’s unstoppable love for that person. Let’s not lose sight of this incredible faith claim that Paul is making for us in Romans chapter 5.