"Implore, Beseech, Urgently Beg, Sincerely Ask, Plead: Be reconciled to God"

"I am a glutton"

"Be reconciled to God"

"I prefer my class over someone else's"

"Be reconciled to God"

"I am a gossip"

"Be reconciled to God"

"I am a liar"

"Be reconciled to God"

"I am sexually immoral"

"Be reconciled to God"

"I am prideful"

"Be reconciled to God"

"I am divisive"

"Be reconciled to God"

"I am self-righteous"

"Be reconciled to God"

I can keep going here, you know.  Really.  Doesn't matter.  Search yourself.  Like me, you're going to come up short.  Definitely something there that is holding you back.

See, we're called to be ambassadors for Christ.  Paul himself was one when he wrote to the Corinthian church.  Twice.  The first time he kinda laid it all out, showing them some problems.  They didn't get it.  So, he wrote them a second time saying, essentially, "Look.  I'm talking for God here, folks.  You're seriously messed up and you're just not getting it.  I'm here to tell you, if you want to do what I do and what we've ALL been called to do, get yourself right with God.  Nothing else matters until you get that taken care of."

We can talk all we want about being a missional church and working out a missional "Purposeful Plan".  But we're going to be so many clanging cymbals (thanks Ted and Co for this FABULOUS imagery) if we don't connect to the guy we're supposed to be representing in the first place.  

This is what I heard when Ervin Stutzman gave his message tonight.  And there I sat, stunned.  I had spent all week begging and pleading for SOMEONE in the Mennonite Church to say, "Look, we need to get right with God first".  And it started with Ervin himself.  We cannot build bridges to the cross for the rest of the world if we're not building bridges to the cross for each other.  And we can't do that when we're "speck hunting" in everyone else's eyes, whacking them with the plank in our own.  Ervin said it best, "We need to take the plank out of our own eye and use it to build a bridge to the cross and bring someone else WITH us."  We have to start with ourselves, first.  And then we need to give the same message Paul gave to Corinth.

"We BEG you, URGE you, IMPLORE you, BESEECH you, PLEASE: Be reconciled to God."

Why?  And Paul is great with this, because our sin has been taken care of.  "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might be the righteousness of God."

Thousands of people then went forward, confessing by walking to the front of the ball room that they had sin in their lives, sin that needed to be addressed.  While they are Christian people, they recognize the need for the continuous process of being changed, molded, transformed, and sanctified, a journey that lasts our whole life.  They stood, humbly, before the deacons that were present, deacons themselves that received the same unction, and asked for annointing of oil.  This annointing was both an annointing to heal as well as an annointing of blessing.  The sin is confessed, the healing is received through the power of the Spirit, and the ambassador is blessed and commissioned to God and spread the message.

"Be reconciled to God."

I walked forward, quietly, watching as person after person received this blessing.

"Be reconciled to God"

As I walked, I thought, "What am I doing here?"

"Be reconciled to God"

And I heard the answer, "You're being reconciled to God"

"Be reconciled to God"

"What for?" I asked

"Be reconciled to God"

"You are an ambassador, someone who is sent to go and tell others about the person you call Lord and to represent His wishes"

"Be reconciled to God"

I almost stopped there.  I'm not worthy.  This is not for me.

"Be reconciled to God"

I stood in line waiting my turn and I noticed something.

"Be reconciled to God"

The deaconess annointing the people in front of me.

"Be reconciled to God"

Why is she weeping?

"Be reconciled to God"

And I realized...because she is reconciled to God and is doing her part.  By annointing us with oil, she is spreading that ministry of reconciliation.  She's acting it out, showing everyone, "It's okay.  God loves you.  God wants to bless you.  And I'm part of it." And I saw, in her, the same enormity of purpose... she was chosen, a simple person, to be God's representative... to me.

I wept as I asked her to annoint my hands and my head.  I wept as she prayed blessing on me as the oil was placed on my forehead in the shape of that instrument that took away the sins of the world, the cross.  I wept as she prayed blessing on me as the same symbol was marked on my palms.

I wept as I walked back to me seat, realizing that my world is not going to be the same any more... I no longer represent myself.  I am an ambassador for God. It's no longer about me.  It's all about him.

"Be reconciled to God"

I must ask it now.  I would not be a good ambassador if I didn't.

Are you reconciled to God?

 

 

 

Well, are you?