Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

Reconciliation is a ministry of hope. When what once was together has been broken apart, we ask, “Can it ever be brought together again?”

The Apostle Paul was captivated by the hope for a new humanity through individuals being reconciled with God through Christ; people made new in Christ to carry forward the ministry to others by being ambassadors of reconciliation.

Such was the case when an unthinkable tragedy occurred in the fall of 2006 as five school girls were murdered in the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.  Later that year, Beliefnet, the nation’s leading religious and spirituality website, chose the people of that community as the most inspiring person/s of 2006.

Why?  Because, as Beliefnet’s CEO said, “The first thing they did was bring food and comfort to the family of the killer.  Second, one of the little girls reportedly offered to be shot first, hoping to save other lives … They were living their faith and exhibiting values we all wish we could live up to - personal commitment to forgiveness.”  Forgiveness - the seemingly impossible - had been shown to be possible.

Throughout the pages of Scripture, the sweaty work of reconciliation is shown by such stories as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, Moses with Aaron and Miriam, Hosea with Gomer, Esther with her people, the loving father and prodigal son, the Samaritan and the beaten man, Peter with Cornelius, Paul with John Mark, and Jewish Christians with Gentile Christians.

The Great Commission recorded in Matthew 28:16-20 highlights Christ’s promise to be with us “to the end of the age” while we are ministering to all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As ambassadors of reconciliation, Christians build on God’s promises for a new humanity.  Let us never forget that in the best of times and in the worst of times, we have a future to write from the baseline of Christianity’s oldest confession, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”  Hope blossoms from our homes and our neighborhoods and ripples around the world when we as Christians pursue our God-given identity as ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation.

Jesus said his followers are to model community with such a vibrant witness that the world would be inspired to live similarly (John 13: 34-35).  The challenge is more than we can accomplish on our own, but in God’s power the seemingly impossible is shown to be possible.

I grew up in Boerne, Texas, which is a stimulating Hill Country community shaped by a blending of Hispanic and Germanic cultures.  To get along with each other - year after year, school event after school event, post office visit after post office visit, grocery store check-out after grocery store check-out, business deal after business deal, political vote after political vote, church gathering after church gathering - meant we needed to develop a healthy understanding of each other.

Consequently, at age twelve, it seemed a natural follow-up to my believing in Christ to form a weekly spiritual discussion and prayer group with my friends.  From junior high through high school we met weekly to talk through our faith, denominational theologies, hormonal drives, biblical questions, community issues, and political views.  Transcending denominational, economic, and racial boundaries became enmeshed with our faith-built friendships.

As conflicts arose in our school, churches, or town life, we could heal hurts and build hopes through our reference points of trust forged by our love for Christ and our love for each other.  Local reconciliation is always personal.  Reconciliation carries the force to heal a wounded past if in the present reality a courageous people begin to act in ways contrary to what had caused the past failures.  Then a better future is born.  Then all things become new.

Whether it be to repair broken personal relationships, to help right wrongs in one’s neighborhood, to help bring healing to a town or city, or to make a path for peace in another part of the world … the call and the promise is the same.

Pastor Les Hollon

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

- II Corinthians 5:14-21 (NIV)

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about God and your place in His world, contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

If you liked this article, please share it on del.icio.us, StumbleUpon or Digg. Thanks!