Reconciliation or Wreck-onciliation

There is a tremendous need today for people to learn to live together in peace and harmony. In the New Testament, Christians are called upon to be “reconcilers”. There is a very deadly sin within most of us that refuses to accept people who are “different”. The difference may be that of nationalistic background, racial and ethnic differences, gender differences, differences of religion, and even differences of physical size or color of hair.

We call this “prejudice”. We are prejudiced against certain people and this is a form of “wreck-onciliation”. We have preconceptions, predispositions, suspicions, smoldering dislike for certain folk in our world.

In the world of automobiles, high octane gas takes the “knock” out of the engine. And so the Christian is to be the “high octane” to people who are “knocking one another”. How can we run our lives with antagonism and angry disputes among us, when our Lord called us to be “reconcilers” and peace makers?

Once a year, we celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who has been considered one of the great reconcilers. In Vachel Lindsay’s classic poem, “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” he says:

“It breaks his heart that kings must murder still
That all his hours of travail, here for men
Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace
That he may sleep upon his hill again?”

And even more than the vision of Abraham Lincoln, is that picture of a cross silhouetted against the hillside, and the realization that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.

Reconciliation is a hard thing to achieve. It involves humbling ourselves, it involves penitence that seeks forgiveness. It means going the second mile. It means taking it on the chin, bearing the cross, absorbing evil rather than bouncing it back. It involves understanding of why people do the things they do, and it can all be summed up in one command, “Thou shalt love…”

We are to love, because we were first loved. God has been an aggressive lover. He is the aggressive lover who can break up my temper, my sinfulness. Christ’s whole life was an offensive of divine love. And the cross was God’s love, at the very flash-point of its power. It was timed to take the “ping:” out of our angry souls, and give us the grace of reconciliation.

We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. If only we could learn to keep the engines of love running smoothly. Perhaps then, our Lord would recognize us as reconcilers, not “wreck-oncilers”.