Why We Must Breathe Out

2 Corinthians 5:9 - 2 Corinthians 6:2

Is This True of You?

Someone once brought you a message about God's love that you desperately needed to hear.
Receiving it, you experienced something that gives you hope and is changing your life.
You know that message and experience is not just for you but for all. You are a good news bearer.

The first two points are a part of what I call "breathing in". Hearing the message of God's love for you and believing is breathing in. Our worship together today with the whole church family should be a big part of our breathing in: including the teaching and admonition that should come through a sermon, our offering praise to God through our singing, bringing our offerings out of gratitude to God, and spending time in confession and prayer… When you come into the church place depleted (with no air in your lungs), I want you them take the moments we have together to drink in deeply of the presence and good news of God.

But we do that so we can live lives of worship, i.e., going out and seeing each encounter with a person as a divine appointment, reaching out to people who have lost a child or parent with the message and love and justice of God… That's breathing out. Just going out and loving people and telling them about Jesus – that's breathing out. So, we come to breathe in and leave to breathe out. We gather -- to go..

This breathing in together and then going out into the world is the way God has made us to live – we're alive when we live that way. To illustrate this:When I was a boy, I used to spend a few weeks each summer with an uncle who was an agriculturist. He built lakes and ponds in West Virginia. Sometimes, he would take me with him to see the different ponds there. On one particular day, he first took me to a pond that was built that had no outlet. It had only water coming into it, but no place for the water to escape -- and then he took me to a newer pond that was built both with a sufficient in-flow and out-go. The problem with the first pond was that it had no opportunity to allow for a constant flow of fresh water. It became polluted. No fish could live there. The second pond, however, was obviously fresh and was alive with fish. The difference between the two was striking.

I think that that his lesson to me that day is a parable of us! If LAC becomes a place where most of us only breathe in, i.e., receiving more and more teaching or praising or fellowshipping or…, we will soon become stagnant. Jesus said we are God's salt for a deteriorating world. But if we don't get out and just are here with people we're comfortable with, we'll parch one another's throats. He said we're light – but light has to shine outward. If we stay inward we'll only blind one another. When a church begins fighting with one another, almost always the reason is that we're not carrying the message and love of Jesus to our world – so we have too much time to find little things we disagree about.

So, today the point I want to make is that breathing out always means that we are involved in a ministry of reconciliation. That's God's ministry – and it must be ours.

In 2 Corinthians 5, the Apostle Paul, whom I think we must consider to be one of the most outgoing, out-breathing Christians of all time, tells us about our calling to be God's agents of reconciliation.

#1: Where we must start: I dare never forget that I am a product of God's grace.

Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all… (2 Cor. 5:14)

The Apostle Paul looked at his life before meeting Jesus as being a life of self-righteousness. The Book of Acts describes him as one who stood and gave approval to the stoning of the young Christian leader Stephen. He was one who became a fierce persecutor of Christians. Graphically in Acts 9, we are told that when he breathed out, he breathed out murderous threats against the disciples of Jesus. Why did he do this? Because, as he points out in Philippians 3, he thought he was doing everything right on his own: he was a Jew circumcised on the eighth day, he was from the best tribe, He was from the most religious group being a Pharisee in terms of commitment to the law of God… He said in 2 Cor. 5:15, I was living for myself. And, Paul considered himself as better than liberal Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles – and than these Christians!

But then he met Jesus. As we know, it was an eye-opening experience -- in more than one way. He was forced to see himself in a new way -one who was a sinner. In fact, for the rest of his life, he would say he was the chief of sinners. No longer proud. No longer better than others. No longer self-righteous. But ... this did not render him as one who felt so worthless that he did not want to go on living. Why? Because, he had been confronted by the love of Christ. Paul discovered that God knew him, valued him, was ready to forgive him, and even ready to use his life for good. And that changed his whole life. He no longer lived for Paul. So practically, he puts it here in 15, "I no longer live for myself but for him to died."

He never forgot that he was a product of God's love and grace. And that's what you and I need to remember every time we gather here. We must know, "If there is hope for me to be reconciled then there is hope for anyone!" When we know that deep inside, that reality will change our lives – and it will change our church. We cannot be proud. We know we have something beautiful to offer to all. What we have to offer is the opportunity for reconciliation.

Now, what do I mean by reconciliation? It is restoring things to their intended and proper relationship. You might imagine two friends who have a fight or argument. The good relationship they once enjoyed is strained to the point of breaking. They stop speaking to each other; communication is too awkward. The friends gradually become strangers – and something beautiful they once had is lost. What is needed is reconciliation. To be reconciled is to be restored to friendship or harmony. A reconciler is the one who takes the risk, engages in the courage, to do whatever is necessary to bring them together.

Let me show you a striking peace of art called Reconciliation by Josephina de Vasconcellos. Originally created in 1977 and entitled Reunion, it depicted a man and woman embracing each other across barbed wire. The artist said this: The sculpture was originally conceived in the aftermath of World War II. Europe was in shock, people were stunned at the level of the evils that had separated nations. I read in a newspaper about a woman who crossed Europe on foot to find her husband who had fought on a side of the war she had opposed, and I was so moved that I made the sculpture. Then I thought that it wasn't only about the reunion of two people but hopefully a reunion of nations..

But people who saw the artwork found it struck them deeply and that the message was not simply reunion but reconciliation. They saw the "barbed wire" still separating the couple as being the sins of misunderstanding, pride, and injustice and oppression that has separated people from people throughout history and that lead to war. They saw a longing among people to have that barbed wire removed. They recognized a conviction within the human soul that people were not supposed to be broken from one another. So, the asked the artist to rename the sculpture, Reconciliation. The original is at Bradford University in the UK but brass copies are found in many places.

I saw it first at the Hiroshima Peace Park with Japanese brothers in Christ. I will never forget what struck me. Decades earlier, I would have seen these friends I was with as enemies – now I call them brothers. The starting point was that the self-centeredness and pride that leads to broken relationships is dealt with when we find out that the God who made us all is offering us peace with him. And, when we are at peace with him, we can be at peace with all. Jesus bore the sin – the barbed wire – of sin that separates us. When we have experienced the grace of God that we do not deserve, it changes us. Look at the prayer that is found in the Reconciliation liturgy posted on a plaque by the sculpture:

Litany of Reconciliation

The hatred that divides nation from nation, race from race, class from class,

Father forgive.

The covetous desires of people and nations to possess what is not their own,

Father forgive.

The greed that exploits the labors of people, and lays waste the earth,

Father forgive.

Our envy of the welfare and happiness of others,

Father forgive.

Our indifference to the plight of the homeless and the immigrant,

Father forgive.

The lust that uses for ignoble ends the bodies of men and women,

Father forgive.

The pride that leads us to trust in ourselves, and not in God,

Father forgive.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you

When we spent months as a church family going through the "Gospel of God" and the essential elements of the gospel as expressed in our SOF, we saw that what went wrong with our world started with a break in human relationships with God - that led to broken relationships with people and with the created world. Then, we saw God beginning a mission of reconciliation - to make things right again. God's mission is always one of offering and accomplishing reconciliation. It starts with being made right with him. When we see what God did so that you and I can have harmony with him, then we are grateful - and never proud.

We will never be reconcilers unless we are in awe of the fact that we are loved by God - that we have been restored to a right relationship with God – through the death of Jesus.

#2: Where reconciled relationships must be seen: We dare not be broken from other members of God's family.

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 (2 Cor. 5:20-21).

Pastor Annie Neufeld showed me something this week I had never seen before (oh, I know I'm supposed to know it all and show younger pastors what they have never seen before…): Paul turns from general teaching about us engaging in being God's ambassadors to the larger world to the point of saying, "Brothers and sisters in church, we still need some reconciling work to happen here among us!" Do you see it? V. 20: "We are called to a ministry of reconciliation…" Then, "So you be reconciled…"

It became so clear for me: One of the biggest problems that led to 2 Corinthians being written is that there was a terrible break in the relationship between Paul and many of the people in the church in Corinth. Some gifted but arrogant people had come in from Jerusalem and said, Oh, that Paul. He is a crazy man, isn't he? He's always out in the streets stirring things up and saying, 'Turn or burn.' He gets thrown into prison and stoned because he's so irritating. And he's always calling you to give to the poor and help the oppressed." And, people in this church to whom Paul had brought the gospel at great personal cost had turned against him.

Paul is saying to them, "The first place we have to apply this teaching is to us! We cannot have divisions among ourselves and then go out into the world and tell them about the peace of God established by the death of Jesus." It's like Paul's message in Ephesians that we've seen so often, "Our unity in the church is to show the world God's unity. So, Paul wrote, I pray that you will be one. I urge you to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." The message is the same one John delivered when he said, "Don't say you love God when you don't love your brothers and sisters. That's not possible." It's like Jesus when he said, "This is how the world will know that you are my followers – when you have love one for the other."

So, I join my voice to theirs and beg us all to stop for a moment and ask, "Do I have any broken relationships with a brother or sister in church. Am I mad because he or she didn't do what I like – or said something that irritated me?"

One reason God has placed us here at the corner of Lake Avenue and the I-210 is so that we can show this divided world what a community of people reconciled to Jesus and to one another looks like. Do you see the urgency of this: Reconciliation simply must start with us as those who claim to follow Jesus.

#3: What we must do as God's agents of reconciliation -- We are the hands and feet of God's reconciliation ministry to a world he loves.

God gave us the ministry of reconciliation… God has committed to us the message of reconciliation… We are therefore Christ's ambassadors so that it is as though God makes his appeal through us (2 Cor. 5:18-10).

Throughout 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says that what we do will flow from what we know.

What Do We Know?

We know ourselves that we are mercy-needing people who have found mercy. We are beggars who know where bread is to be found. We know it took a crucifixion for us to be reconciled to God..
We know we are in deep trouble before God – and "each one" must stand before God's judgment.
We know Jesus loves us "to death".
We know that Jesus died not just for us but for all.
We know that if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. God offers a new beginning to all.
We know that people need to see the love of Jesus through us and hear about God's salvation from us.

That's what we know. So what do I want us to do?

That's way too big a question to deal with fully but I think I'll boil it down to this: I want us to do what Jesus did to go and be with people – to love and reach out and offer hope to people. Jesus left where he was to come to a very different (and difficult place) to engage in a ministry of reconciliation. He entered into relationship – and experienced needs – leprosy, brokenness, prostitution, hopelessness. And he made a difference. As he was sent, he sends us.

I want us to do what Paul did after he met Jesus. He no longer just spent time with other Pharisees – but we see him out with Samaritans and Gentiles. Eventually, we find him calling them brothers and sisters and worshiping with them and serving alongside them. Ministries of reconciliation can only happen in relationship. So, I want us all to do like Jesus and find ways to have relationships with people we are not normally comfortable with – and to love them, to tell them about Jesus, and to serve them.

On a lower level commitment, an easy place to start would be to serve some place here in church where you normally would not be involved – maybe in the choir if you're a student, or on the tech team, or at a very different age level in our Sunday School than you normally would be with. You'll be stretched. You'll grow to understand how others think.

You may say, "Oh Pastor Greg, that's too little to ask for." Then, another level may be to join our LACF in mentoring or tutoring in the community. You will see how life is for others. You'll begin to ask, "What hope does the gospel offer in this situation?"

You might even be like Randy Nelson (who will be with us next week) and say, "God is greater than anything so I want to go to the hardest places." He ended up going to a nomadic people group in the deserts in Kenya and, indeed, he found out that the gospel was as life-transforming for them as it is for us. I'm sure there are some here today being called to carry the message and ministry of reconciliation to those who have never even heard the name of Jesus.

The Bible is not just a book that helps us to get it together with God. It's a book that shapes us to be kingdom workers for God… One of the glories of my job is to see Christ-centered communities that are doing kingdom work on the streets. They are doing the sort of things that Jesus did. People see God at work in little ways, big ways, healing ways, and ways of bringing hope to devastated communities. When Christians do that, there's subtly something different happening: It is living within the Word of the Bible."

"The congregation may start to be aware that something needs to be done in a community, and maybe that's what God is calling us to do. That is the Spirit - speaking through Scripture being preached - and then empowering so that the kingdom of God is at work.

NT Wright, from In Tune; Developing an Ear for the Word

What does this life of "breathing out" as God's kingdom workers look like? I met a great example several years ago. Elizabeth Elliot and I were the two plenary speakers at the Japan Evangelism Conference in Okinawa - a conference focusing on reconciliation. She was asked the question that she must have been asked a thousand times over the past four to five decades, i.e., "How did you do it?" You probably know that soon after their marriage, her first husband Jim was engaged in an attempt to bring the message of Jesus to a previously unreached people, the Auca Indians in South America. That attempt led to him and his colleagues being killed. However, instead of Elizabeth Elliot remaining angry or embittered; instead of her even choosing to ignore this group of people who (from our perspective) had done such an irrational deed, she went back to them herself. She committed her life to bringing them the Gospel personally. Why? Her answer, I would guess, was the result of many years of reflection:

Although I'm sure I made a decision to go back to the Aucas, it seemed to be the natural thing to do as a Christian. When we think about the incarnation, about the sinless Son of God coming to earth as a man, it is hard to remain separate from people. When we think about the cross, about Jesus dying for our sins, its hard to remain angry at people simply because they have sinned. So, I suppose I would say that I made the decision to go to the people who killed my husband because… I felt compelled by the love of Christ.

What does the love of Christ compel you to do?

To His glory alone,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor