RECONCILE
We all need to be reconciled. I need to be reconciled. It is part of our identity as Christian that we are a redeemed people, reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus Christ.
At this gathering I made a conscious effort at reconciliation. The overarching theme for me was being reconciled with this denomination I call my home. I have had a roller coaster relationship with the United Church of Canada. Someday I may write about why I stay within its ministry. Upholding traditional orthodoxy and traditional morality seems at times a fool's errand, a voice crying in the wilderness, or more likely a voice too timid to say anything at all.
I found reconciliation as I looked around the sanctuary and saw my brothers and sisters in Christ. I realized my denomination was not political statements, or bureaucracy, or mandated training sessions. This was the home I had searched for in the United Church of Canada for twenty years. And as I listened to Richard Bott, with whom I probably disagree more than agree theologically and ethically, I saw a fellow servant of the Risen Christ, even if we need to discuss who that Risen Christ is.
Reconciliation is a tricky business. It involves giving of self in ways that demand vulnerability. My persistent sins of cynicism and indifference needed to be named, lifted up and confessed. At the Tuesday Prayer Summit, that happened. I confessed, accepted God's forgiveness and tried to muster up my own forgiveness. It hit hard. But it opened up a way back to the fellowship of believers.
On the last day we sang "It is well with my soul." And as we sang I thought of all those behind me in that sanctuary...
- broken by their congregations
- broken by the denomination
- broken by grief
- broken by sin
- broken by illness
- broken by process
- broken by uncertainty
- broken by fear
- broken by exclusion
- broken by darkness
- broken by selfishness
- broken by doubt
- broken in ways beyond measure
- broken in ways they cannot yet see
Reconciled....
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