A New Point of View (Sermon)

 “A New Point of View”

Micah 6:6-8 and 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Allen Huff

Jonesborough Presbyterian Church

9/3/23

 

With what should I approach the Lord
        and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
        with year-old calves?
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
        with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
        the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?
⁸ He has told you, human one, what is good and
        what the Lord requires from you:
            to do justice, embrace faithful love,

and walk humbly with your God.

(Micah 6:6-8 – CEB)

 

¹⁴ The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died. ¹⁵ He died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.

¹⁶ So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. ¹⁷ So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

¹⁸ All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. ¹⁹ In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.

²⁰ So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” ²¹ God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:14-21 - CEB)

 

 

         The young Corinthian church is up to its neck in conflict. When Paul isn’t there, who has authority to teach faithful Christian understanding? In that bustling, multicultural seaport, what constitutes faithful Christian practice and witness?

In his letters, Paul reminds the Corinthians that, through Christ, God is reconciling an alienated world to God’s own Self. Indeed, the Incarnation of Christ bears dramatic witness to God’s intent to restore humankind to the grateful and generous living that makes a person truly human.

Paul defines truly human as having “the mind of Christ,” that is, living in continual awareness of the presence of the Divine. When we reconnect with our true humanity, with our true selves, the Spirit awakens us and restores our sight. And then, Paul says, we no longer regard anyone according to false or selfish “human standards.” As new creations, we become expressions of God’s reconciling grace.

         As cozy as that sounds, transformation is difficult business. Holiness and reconciling grace flash and rumble in our lives when the warm front of God’s love meets the cold air of our false selves. And in this perfect storm, the imperfect world tends to crucify those who choose reconciliation over pride, compassion over power, and love over fear.

Even when it’s between just two individuals, reconciliation helps to restore balance to all creation. Over the centuries, though, the Church has usually tried to restore balance the way nations do—through force and the imposition of absolutes. Just make everyone look alike and think alike, and we’ll all get along. And in Jesus’ name, the Church has endorsed and even participated in unspeakable inhumanity against human beings and the earth in order to make people, communities, and even geographies fit into the dogmas of those holding dominance.

         Brian McLaren says that one of Christianity’s great failures has been to reduce faith to systematic theologies. So, what began as a holy path, a way to live God’s new point of view, has been locked inside gated communities of rigid ideology. And why? Why do we respond more readily to wall-building fear than to bridge-building grace? 

         It seems to me that we all harbor both obvious and hidden wounds. When those wounds are not acknowledged honestly and dealt with graciously, they emerge as bitterness, as judgment, as scapegoating violence against people we don’t like.

Grounded in the old points of view of suspicion and competition, we say things like: Look out for Number One! God helps those who help themselves! And doesn’t that point of view destroy any desire for reconciliation?

         Paradoxically, when we find the strength and the will to face our own sinfulness and woundedness, we begin to find the strength and the will to follow paths of holiness and reconciliation. So, making peace with others begins by making peace with ourselves, and peacemaking requires the hard spiritual work of honest self-examination. Through reflection, we rummage around in those dark corners where we hide all the things that frighten and embarrass us. We acknowledge them, confess them, and offer them to God. Such work paves the way for self-forgiveness. And to forgive ourselves is to receive God’s grace.

We “accept being accepted—for no reason…whatsoever!” says Richard Rohr. “This is the key that unlocks everything in me, for others, and toward God. So much so that we call it ‘salvation’!”¹ This transformation is not required for becoming disciples. It’s the goal of discipleship. And the deeper we go within ourselves, the more we encounter God’s grace calling us out of ourselves and into the world with this new, and re-newing point of view. Isn’t this what Jesus means when he calls us to take up the cross and follow him?

Over the last 15-20 years, there’s been a well-documented rise in hate groups in our nation—new assemblies, new members, new visibility, and all for very old and very malicious points of view. In the midst of those rising numbers, however, a few stories leak out around the edges, stories of people who are leaving those groups, leaving the violent ways, and the purity codes of the dangerously misguided religion and nationalism of the far right.

There’s a consistent feature in the accounts of people leaving communities which are committed to white supremacy. Even while thriving on their hate, these folks encountered other people—and often the very people at whom they aimed their fear, their fists, and their weapons—people who, transcending their own trepidation and any desire for vengeance, chose to show compassion to those whose lives were consumed by ignorance and hatred.

That is grace. And it embodies God’s new point of view. Gracious love is fierce enough to see through the scars of broken homes and abuse, to see through the bald heads, swastika tattoos, Confederate battle flags, even to see past the mini arsenals individuals carry around on their shoulders and hips. For many who leave the hate groups, there would be no healing without someone showing them grace because grace was exactly what was missing in their lives in the first place.

God’s grace attends to those who suffer and to those who cause suffering. And for those who call themselves Christian, and who know that evil isn’t easily overcome, our work of reconciliation means claiming our prophetic voice and calling out the evils behind the suffering. And that begins with confessing our own prejudice, our own intolerance, our own pride. Only when we see brokenness in ourselves can we call it out in others with compassion. And if we’re the Church, we must follow Jesus in doing this, lest we—like Pharaoh, Jezebel, and Caesar—become so self-obsessed that we not only tolerate evil, we try to spin it as virtue.

Christ’s new point of view is one of gracious invitation, justice, and reconciliation. And we’re not always faithful stewards of that point of view. That’s why we confess our individual and systemic sinfulness each Sunday morning. And through confession, forgiveness, and forgiving-ness, we are the body of Christ. We’re “new creations.” The old is passing away because the new has begun. And “the love of Christ” inspires and guides us on our journey.

         Christ’s table is set with his reconciling feast. As you participate in this meal, look within yourself at the new person and the new point of view God is creating. And look at those around you with the new eyes of that new creation. Taste and see that God is good, and present in all people, races, and lands.

         And may this bread and this cup nourish the image of Christ within all of us, so that we may, as Paul says, “become the righteousness of God.”

 

¹Richard Rohr, The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See. The Crossroad Publishing Company, NY, 2009. p. 141.