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Only Reconciliation is Reconciliation

God gets up every morning with the single-minded purpose of reconciling this broken world “and us broken folks“ to God-self.  To be more theologically accurate, God has reconciled this world to God-self in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  And, in every moment, the Holy Spirit breathes anew hoping that we might fully realize the gift and the obligation of reconciliation.  Gift?  We could not reconcile ourselves to God.  It was God who moved first to rescue us from our estrangement.  His doing; not ours.  Obligation?  The Apostle Paul calls us "ambassadors of Christ," and says we have been given "the ministry of reconciliation" (II Corinthians, 5:18-21).   If reconciliation is not the most urgent calling of a Christian, then it will do until that calling gets here.

But here's the rub:  only reconciliation is reconciliation.  And, when it's for real, it is the hardest work we ever have to do.  Reconciliation is a call to suffering, to radical truth-telling, possibly remorse, certainly accountability, the risk of forgiving, accepting forgiveness, and offering up a new vulnerability for the sake of love all about as appetizing as a broken-glass-and-mayo-on-whole-wheat sandwich.  Only those willing to do the suffering can hope to know the benefits of freedom and healing on the other side.

In Latin, the word is reconciliare, and means "to change mutually."  When the sinner and the one sinned against are willing to risk everything in a serious encounter with reconciliation, both are changed.

God risks everything.  Reconciliation is the very heartbeat of the Gospel, which is why I'm astonished when Christian communities attempt to stop that heart from beating.  The Church is laden with Brand X alternatives purporting to be reconciliation, even disguised as such, but no amount of hoping will make it so:

Get over it ...
Let it go ...
She's hostile to the us ...
I feel your pain ...
Can't we all just get along ...
You need to decide if you want to be here ...
When you serve the Lord, you expect these attacks ...
He's such a negative person ...
We need to move on ...
Do we have to re-hash the past ...

These are the great conversation stoppers of the modern Church.  If we say them with a facial expression of deep, pastoral concern, we can be most effective ... in making sure that we never get well.  This rhetoric thwarts the deeper purposes of God.  This political strategy, and that's just what it is, guarantees that wounds will submerge into the darkness, certain to emerge again in the form of renewed conflict.

My experience of myself and others is that we advocate for "getting over it" in exact proportion to what we fear we will lose if we seriously participate in the work of reconciliation.  There can be no greater gift to a Christian community than someone who will lead us in this work.  From the national Church right down to the pews in the local church, we have never needed this leadership more.

Steven C. Kalas, M.Th.

June 12, 2001

steve kalas is an episcopal priest in las vegas nevada.  he work at christ the king episcopal church