Is anyone beyond God’s redemptive love? There’s a story told about Karl Barth, the great Swiss Reformed theologian. It is said that Barth was asked what he would say to Hitler, if he ever had a chance to meet the man who had tried to annihilate the Jews and had wreaked so much destruction on Europe. The person who asked Barth that question most likely assumed that Barth would prophetically thunder God’s vengeance against the perpetrator of so much evil. Instead, Barth replied that all he would do was to quote Romans 5:8, “The proof of God’s love is that Christ died for us even while we were sinners.” Barth knew that accusation and judgment would have provoked Hitler’s self-righteous defense and self-justification. Only the knowledge of God’s boundless mercy and forgiveness, only the good news of God’s infinite grace, could possibly have wrought a change in Hitler. Do we believe that? Could you have said what Barth said? Could you have said those words to Pol Pot or Bull Connor, to Saddam Husain or the September 11th terrorists? Can you say them to Bashar al-Assad or Jared Loughner? Can you say them to yourself? Is anyone beyond God’s mercy, forgiveness, and love?
I hope that if I were called to answer the question put to Barth – and it would be a very hard one for me – I would be able to say, “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us…. We entreat you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.” For, once we hear Paul’s statement of the good news, then we see the world and all other human beings differently. We “regard no one from a human point of view.” We understand that no one is beyond the reach of Christ. We understand that, whether we or they think so, Christ has died for all. Not some, not a chosen few, but all. Christ has died for Hitler, for Pol Pot, for Saddam Husain, for the September 11th terrorists, for Bashar al-Assad, and for us. Such is God’s infinite mercy and grace.
Is God’s grace too unbelievable? Does God’s grace offend our sense of fairness? Don’t we always expect God to mete out justice, vengeance, and punishment? Do some of us live in fear of God’s justice, or even secretly pray for God’s punishment to rain down on others?
Make no mistake. If we cannot trust in God’s mercy – for all – then we have no basis for hope of any kind. For if we give up hope for anyone’s salvation – even the most evil person we can imagine – then we give up hope for ourselves. Indeed, if we can engage in honest self-examination, or if we are fortunate enough to get a glimpse of how others see us, then we know that we are not engaging in false humility when we say to God, in the words of the old confession, “We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us.” Can we then hope for redemption for ourselves, while denying that others can be saved? Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar reminds us that the church has never, in any place, declared anyone definitely to be damned – not all those consigned to Hell in Dante’s Inferno, not the killers of martyrs, not even Judas. “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,” and in Christ God has definitively demonstrated that God’s mercy extends to all.
Is that too unbelievable? Perhaps the saints among us – in whose number the church has dared to include those from “every nation, tribe, people, and language,” – are those who have accepted God’s all-inclusive grace, and are already living in that new reality. Jesus proclaimed that, “The Kingdom of God has come near.” Indeed, as members of Christ’s Body, as those who have been made new by his death and resurrection, we are living in that new realm now. Not in some life to come, but now. We are living under a new dispensation, inaugurated by Christ’s life and teaching, Christ’s death and resurrection. We are citizens of a new country, and we are ambassadors of a new way of living. God has reconciled the world to Godself, and we are called to proclaim that message of reconciliation to others.
Let’s look at that word “reconciliation.” Notice that Paul doesn’t say “sacrifice,” or “justification,” or “redemption.” “Redemption” means release from slavery. “Justification” is a legal word. Sacrifice” reminds us of rituals that have little or no meaning for us moderns. The word “reconciliation” is different. It comes from the world of international diplomacy. Elsewhere Paul uses military images and speaks in terms of spiritual warfare. Here he tells us that we are diplomats, ambassadors, and representatives of God. Now we no longer see the world in us/them terms; we look at the world as if we were diplomats, called to bring peace to a world full of conflict.
Of course, it is God who has made us citizens of a new country, it is God who has called us to be ambassadors and diplomats, it is God who has called us to be peacemakers. As one commentator tells us, “God reconciles and humanity is reconciled! For Paul it is never Jesus the loving son stepping into the gap to protect humanity from an angry father. It is God the Father who takes the initiative by sending Jesus the son to accomplish the work of reconciliation. God is not an angry tyrant “out to get us,” but one whose reconciling love has taken flesh in the life and death of Jesus.”1 It is that work of reconciling love in which we are called to participate. We are charged to be the advance guard proclaiming and showing forth the new creation and the ministry of reconciliation. As individuals, and more importantly, as the church, we are called to join the Peace Corps of God, the Red Cross of Reconciliation, and the embassy of Christ.2
Can we do that? As those who are now part of Christ’s Body, can we know ourselves to be recipients of God’s love? Do we believe that we are living in the new country that God has created? Can we share that good news with others? Are we willing to be agents of God’s love?
Where do we begin? Can we even conceive of the new creation we are called to proclaim? Perhaps we begin by attempting to see the world through God’s eyes. Such vision begins in prayer, in a way of seeing that God gives us when we pray. When we stop talking and take time for holy silence, when we open ourselves to God, we strengthen our ability to see as God sees. We begin to see all people, people nearby and people farther away, good and bad, healthy and sick, legal and illegal, addicted and clean, rich and poor, all people, indeed all creation, as reconciled to God, as beloved by God, as worthy of God’s and our forgiveness, care and concern.
When we see with God’s eyes, then we begin to have empathy. We begin to see through others’ eyes and begin to understand how the world looks to them. After that, we can begin to take concrete action. The children of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida have already begun to act as God’s agents.3 Every year during Lent, the youngest Sunday school children raise money for Episcopal Relief & Development. In 2012 they learned about malaria and raised $550 for Nets for Life. This year, the children decided to purchase a dairy cow from the ERD catalogue in order to help a family in need. They wanted to raise $630. Parents and parishioners gave them donations and cleaned out the extra change from couch cushions. The children went a step further and set up a lemonade stand to raise even more money. They encouraged members of the congregation to buy animals of their own and even set up a Noah’s Ark on the parish hall bulletin board filled with purchased animals. They hope to fill the ark by the end of Lent. “Our children continue to amaze and inspire us with their genuine desire to help others,” said Margaret Cavin, Sunday school coordinator at St. Mark’s. “I've loved hearing stories from parents about their children's efforts to raise funds. One student emptied his entire piggy bank so that he could be sure to contribute a mosquito net last year. I've already heard parents say that any bit of change found in their home or car has been scooped up and deposited in a mite box. We can't wait to see how much the children will raise!"
The children of St. Mark’s have already become ambassadors for Christ. Young as they are, they have already become emissaries of God’s love to children whose names they will never know. Can we do any less? God has decisively demonstrated God’s love for us and for all humanity. Whom are we called to embrace? To whom is this parish called to reach out in love?
1. Hulitt Gloer, “Ambassadors of Reconciliation: Paul’s Genius in Applying the Gospel in a Multi-cultural World: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21,” Review & Expositor 104, no. 3 (Summer 2007): 591, quoted in L. Susan Bond, “Fourth Sunday in Lent,” New Proclamation (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 169.
2. L. Susan Bond, ibid.
3. http://www.er-d.org/Friends-February-2013-St-Marks-Jacksonville
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