Reconciliation-World Mission Sunday March 2, 2003 The Rev. Diane Livingston, Deacon Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi RECONCILIATION - theme for World Mission Sunday 2003 - is from Latin meaning to unite again: the process of reestablishing fractured relationships. Whatever is out of sync or out of rhythm is harmonized. All becomes right with the world. As I began to reflect on Reconciliation in preparation for this Sunday, I thought of many connections. You may relate to some of these: 1) On all of our minds is the international situation with Iraq, with Afghanistan, with Israel and Palestine - is reconciliation possible? Does the world truly want reconciliation? 2) Reconciliation within families - in our own family or families we know often there are estranged members or various individuals who struggle to interact positively with family. Maybe because of a death, or a divorce, or addiction problems, individuals struggle to develop new ways of continuing their lives. 3) Or maybe your thoughts go to the practical issues of money - how can you reconcile your checkbook and establish a pattern of using financial resources in the way that is best for you and the priorities you have established? 4) I certainly think of racial reconciliation - a major focus for this diocese. Both of our Bishops have been placing it as a priority as different races of people struggle to understand how one another sees the world and each other based on different life experiences. Much progress has been made by some as partnerships are developed; as different churches and races work and pray and play together. How are issues of power and negativity and passed-down misconceptions and even hatred reconciled? 5) What about personal issues in our lives? When we must deal with happenings that are not as we want them to be, how do we reconcile the life we were living before unexpected changes came with the reality of today? An extreme example, maybe, but I think of Pastor Jerry Durr from Brookhaven who runs the Brookhaven Outreach Ministries. Several months ago a few of us from Vicksburg had traveled on the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church van to Brookhaven and McComb to visit pantries there that might give us guidelines and insight as we planned to open an ecumenical food pantry in Warren County. The pastor in Brookhaven who met with us had started multiple ministries there which were helping many in need. A few weeks after meeting him and having this visit, our group received word that this pastor's son, an older teenager, had been killed by other youth in their community. How could this be? After the offenders were in custody, in the state news, I heard Pastor Durr speak to the press and say that he and his wife did not want the perpetrators to receive the death penalty. Though they grieved for their son and were still in shock they wanted others to know that seeking the deaths of others would not be helpful or comforting in any way to them. Reconciliation?? I certainly think so. As I read and learn more about Episcopal Relief and Development in the United States and the world (and, by the way, they have developed the Lenten calendars and mite boxes that are available to each household today for your own Lenten discipline), I see a group always trying to use funds from all Episcopalians to help reconcile areas of hurt and need and disaster to a more peaceful, full life. You may know that after tornadoes, earthquakes and other disasters including man-made disasters such as war and 9-11, they send help. Reconciliation - Mission - all of us as missionaries - why the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus today with all of these themes? Let's look closely at Mark: 3 disciples go to the mountain to be witnesses. God is including US - the regular people - the disciples - those of us who so often just don't get it when Jesus explains things. After Peter sees Jesus transfigured, sees his clothes become dazzling white, sees Jesus talk with Elijah and Moses, he suggests that they build 3 booths. He was frightened however his inclination was that they would all stay on the mountain. God interrupts this plan by declaring in a voice from the cloud - "This is my son, my beloved. Listen to him." The transfiguration is an epiphany, a sudden manifestation of the divine. It is God, reconciling the world to himself in Christ Jesus. Did they stay on the mountain in contemplation of all that had just happened? No, they came down. You will see if you read beyond today's lesson that there were things to be done in the valley - an epileptic boy who needed healing, a father and a whole crowd of disciples who needed their faith strengthened. Service and evangelism must go forward. How can we open our hearts to be reconcilers? 1) Bishop of Sweden Kristen Stendahl, says that reconciliation with God was meant to be reflected in mutual forgiveness as the fundamental structure of the common life of the people of God. We learn in the Lord's Prayer that we are to forgive even as we are forgiven. Indeed, our refusal to forgive makes it impossible for there to be room in our hearts for God's forgiveness of us. Reconciliation is not on option; it is the fundamental requirement of Christian corporate existence. That is why we find the exchange of peace at the transition to the Great Thanksgiving in the Eucharist. It is the task of the community of those reconciled with God to be reconciled to one another, so that we may in word, sacrament and deed offer that reconciliation to the world. 2) Besides forgiving, how can we open our hearts to be reconcilers? Pray - pray into the mind of God. By that, I mean that we must be open to a change in our thinking, a whole different way of seeing, seeing as God sees. If Diane Livingston - independent of prayer and a relationship with God - tries to reconcile the world, we may be in big trouble. But, if in the Body of Faith, I will pray with others and we commit to being open to the mind of Christ then through God's Grace, the consciousness of Christ becomes our consciousness. We begin to see things in terms of mercy and truth, justness, compassion and then it is through these things that we see the world around us. These things become the energies that fuel us and move us to a deeper collaboration in God's work, in God's Kingdom. Remember that prayer changes us and as we pray God may put things out there for us to do that we weren't necessarily ready for. 3) And so, thirdly we must step out before we get it all perfect trusting that incomplete reconciliation moves out into the world and actually becomes complete by trying to be authentic in the world. As we offer ourselves to forgiveness, to prayer, to stepping out - we indicate to ourselves and to others that God doesn't call us to be successful, but rather to be faithful. 4) Next, we can lead the church into the world of mission and needs - focusing on the things out there where our love and faith are needed vs. only being occupied with ourselves. We can say with all honesty the post communion prayer: "Send us out into the world with strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart." If we don't look out there how then can the church be a sign? How can we work to reconcile a world filled with desperate situations - one example being our brothers and sisters in Africa who are being destroyed by HIV/AIDS. An entire generation is disappearing. Schools are closing because the teachers are all dying and the age group of about 25-40 is disappearing and there are millions and millions of orphans. 5) Also, we can give. We can respond materially with money to help support reconciliation efforts in this community, this diocese, this country, the world. We can give creatively and still do so many things without a lot of money when there is not a line item in the budget for what we are doing. 6) Finally, we can embody in our own lives the mystery of reconciliation. Ask yourself what is your relationship with Christ. Where are you in terms of the communities you are a part of - your family, Resurrection parish, Starkville, the diocese, the world. Does some reconciliation need to occur? And, then move outward - beyond yourself - and be a sign, a manifestation of reconciliation in the larger world. Why bring these concerns and issues up in church - in a sermon, no less? Because mission is what the church is about. Though not one of the lessons for today, in 2 Corinthians we read, "In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself and if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation, all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." Mission is the ministry of reconciliation in all its forms. In the BCP we read that the mission of the church is "the restoration of all people to unity with God and one another in Christ" which is what reconciliation is all about. As our presiding bishop Frank Griswold put it: "So, the mission of the church is really God's project. It is much more than everyone being nice to one another. As Christians, we are called to participate in God's work, God's project, which is the reordering of all patterns of relationship, the breaking down of all walls of division, so that God's fullness which exceeds anything we can imagine or even comprehend can, in fact, be let loose, unfettered by us and our limited imaginations, our limited understandings of what reconciliation is all about. "This is my son, my beloved. Listen to him."