Date: 13 Mar 2001
Time: 02:02:20
Reconciliation is to the sign of who we are? We are to be going around making peace where there is conflict, restoring people to relationship with God and each other? Why, that would mean that we as Christians should be ATTRACTED to conflict! For that would be the place that reconciliation is needed, where we could be of help. Yes indeed, when I see a disagreement, and tempers rising, or backs being turned and folk walking away from each other, what I am impelled to do is get right in the middle and share God's love.
No, I don't think so. It seems to me that most of us in the church avoid and shun conflict most of the time. Show me a conflict and I'm out the door. We're all just going to be NICE to each other and never mention our disagreements. We'll just overlook them. We'll just conceal how we really feel. We'll just pass the peace, not really make the peace.
Could it be the other way? Could WE be the other way? Is a world, or at least a church possible where we would look forward to conflict as a sign of life, or creativity, of God's call to us to expand our horizons (again)? Why, then I wouldn't have to hide all the time!
Sara, in GR, MI
Date: 13 Mar 2001
Time: 03:47:37
Paul makes such a wonderful statement that comes out of his own experience (on his way to Damascus), that if we are truly new in Christ, we look at the world in a wonderfully new way...through the eyes of Christ. Does this mean that we even put our own lives on the line for the sins of others? Are we truly ambassadors, delivering Christ's message of peace and salvation? Do we continue to count a person's sins against them, or do we help them build a bridge and get over it? Look for the goodness that lies within each person. Seek and lift up their gifts. To look at this world as Christ does, is to see that this world is the "kingdom of God." Hmmm, just some "off the top of my head" thoughts. A wonderful passage from Paul's letter. Peace and Joy, Francis
Date: 19 Mar 2001
Time: 16:31:37
This passage is one of my favorites. To see the world as God see it is to see each as a child of God. A person of worth. Only God gives us worth. Other give self esteem. No one can take away the self worth that God gives. Because we see as God sees we understand that reconcilation is healing and peace making. Now if we could just get our congregations to hear it and do it! nc-wi
Date: 19 Mar 2001
Time: 22:19:50
I guess I am doing the obvious thing to get a vision of a "New Creation." I'm going to Disney World. (Just kidding folks) I actually am leaving for a short vacation but will be back in the pulpit next Sunday. I am not sure that five days will give me a new creation although God took 6 days in the beginning. I feel that the break in routine is a God-send. Just in case I am at it late Saturday night, what do you have to share about "New Creations" TN Mack
Date: 20 Mar 2001
Time: 13:02:47
The PCUSA Confession of '67 is, in part, based on this scripture. It is a wonderful passage to preach on. So is Psalm 32, so is the Prodigal son one. What to do? What to do? reverend KJ
Date: 20 Mar 2001
Time: 15:14:37
When I lived in Ottawa (the capital of Canada) embassies, where ambassadors lived, seemed often fortresses. These representatives of their countries lived in these residences protected by high walls, armed guards, surveillance equipment, and very tough security. People could ony get in with passes.
This picture seems a far cry from the picture of ambassadorship meant by Paul - representatives of Christ openly reaching out with the message of the Gospel of hope, love, forgivness, peace, reconciliation. When the church hides behind its fortresses of tradition, dogma, rules or whatever which is how the world may see us, - the human point of view - we are no longer the face of Jesus Christ to the wounds and brokenness of the world. Jesus died with his arms wide open. People should not have to "get by" us to experience God in Christ.
DRS in Ontario
Date: 21 Mar 2001
Time: 14:25:46
Was thinking about the sermon for next week...hmmm I said to self...nothing happening....I will think about using the prodigal son story for a children's sermon , ask others to dramatize, making signs for a prodigal daughter, older daughter and Mom and Dad, mordern day....using this town is BORING---older sis will inherit the family business anyway can I have my share now? Then walk around to different people in congrregation acting like whoo hoo party loan money to one for a dot.com investment loosing it---then act like eating out of dumpster at McDonalds...say if I could just go home be be a the stable girl...cleaning dung...at least have a roof ove the head...go back mom and dad welcome with open arms..sis mad tho...act this out in modern day may ass light...thought of the WILL WORH FOR FOOD.... then using the resorative theme in 1 Cor. God restores us makes us look at life thru new eyes.
Date: 21 Mar 2001
Time: 17:15:17
As I read this passage, I think: How do I look at myself each day. Many times, we look in the mirror and we see nothing but faults: overweight, needing more make-up, not talented enough, financially insecure, the list goes on and on. How sad that is. And yet, it is exactly what our culture pushes on us... You need this new car... You need this credit card to help you fulfill your dreams... You need Slim Fast to have the body you've always wanted... In other words, the message we hear over and over again is: You can be better, if you only try this or that! Against that backdrop, Paul writes, "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" Perhaps during this season of Lent, we ought to be encouraging people to stop focusing on the externals and reconnect with that newness that comes through relationship with Christ. My sermon this Sunday is entitled: Looking at Ourselves Jerry in College Station
Date: 22 Mar 2001
Time: 10:06:38
You know, Sara, everything you said is absolutely true. But it might be helpful if we went a little deeper with our people as to why they avoid conflict. They're not bad people wanting to pass the peace and not make the peace. At least, they pass it. I have a person in my church who will not look at me nor sahkemy hand nor greet me in the name of Christ. Everyone knows the truth of what you say.
How do we help them trust in Christ's power, how do we help them get past the previous pain to once again confront conflict and thus make peace?
STAN in TN
Date: 22 Mar 2001
Time: 16:18:05
If we follow the psalmist and the prodigal son story and forgive the ones who have harmed us, then the process of forgiving is a burden removed and we become anew creation. Hopefully, my sermon will be an expereince of forgiving another and sensing that burden removed and becoming a new creation. Sam in SC
Date: 22 Mar 2001
Time: 19:31:16
Jesus came and taught us that God is unconditional love. And people who needed to be healed came to him, and the outcasts were drawn to him, and those who heard the truth were amazed. Not everyone liked his message. He was crucified for it.
Today young teens in school who befriend outcasts are in danger of being marked as outcasts themselves. People who search out and invite the unlovable to church are in danger of being ostracized by friends and family. There are those who are drawn to Christ's message of unconditional love. Others want to hear about judgment and hell, fire, and damnation. They are like the older son and wnat to see those who don't measure up get the judgment they deserve.
Those who preach, teach, and practice unconditional love are crucified. Do we really want to be ambassadors for Christ?
CarolLion in Carolina
Date: 24 Mar 2001
Time: 16:37:00
Since I wrote my first comment, I have been thinking alot about what it would take to be a reconciler. Yes, Stan, we avoid conflict because of previous pain. Bad experiences of the past have taught me avoidance is a safer plan. I don't want to be hurt, and I'm convinced by my past experiences that I will be hurt if I am involved in conflict. Or, I'm terrified of the anger that may be unleashed against me. I might be destroyed.
Date: 24 Mar 2001
Time: 16:46:20
...I might be destroyed.
Somehow I'm supposed to act AS IF I can't really be hurt. When am I going to rest so thoroughly in God's care that I believe I can't really be hurt? I do get to that place sometimes, when I'm relatively unthreatened, or when the other person's pain is so great, I just have to get in there with them. So I know it's possible to get past my fear.
What I do have to accept is that I don't have to be afraid I'll get hurt, but I do have to be ready to CHANGE. I'm going to have to be something NEW, which means the old is going to pass away. OOPS, I have trouble with that too! When the old passes away, my world is destroyed, and I'm going to have to tolerate chaos until the new order arrives. I hate it when that happens.
Enter the older sibling as myself in the gospel reading. I've got the world figured out, and how to act, how I should get rewarded, who gets it in the neck. You means I have to give all that up? The rules have changed? Or I never got the rules right to begin with? DANG! I'm going to have to be a new creation (and that hurts).
Still thinking, Sara, in GR, MI