C, Lent 4 - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, "Ambassadors for Christ"

 2 Corinthians 5:16-21   From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.  Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When the prodigal son returned home the father runs out to receive him.  The younger wayward son who formerly treated his father as dead, comes home, and the father celebrates saying to the older son, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”

In Saint Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he says we are, “Ambassadors for Christ”.  He also says because we no longer regard Christ in the flesh, we are to regard anyone in Christ as a new creation.  He says,  “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

However, being honest with myself here in this text, I struggle!  I see many of my Christian brothers and sisters, and behold, I fail to see the newness of Christ in them.  I don’t see them as new creations, but as the same old, same old, as my inner being grates against the grain of their personality. 

I might tolerate them trying not to be rude to them, but in God’s word I am called to be reconciled to them, as Christ has been reconciled to them.  How can I be reconciled to them when all I want to do is distance myself from them?  The longer I stand in their presence the greater the risk is of me opening my mouth and causing greater separation.

How am I to be an ambassador for Christ, when within the depts of my being, I seek to rid myself of those I really do not want to be around?

Alternatively, there are those with whom I really love sharing my time!  I welcome the opportunity to have experiences with them, sitting around, chewing the fat in friendly fellowship.  I yearn for a repeat of good times with them, as I have had with them in the past.

But even here, if I am honest, has nothing to do with being an ambassador for Christ.  I don’t want change according to Jesus Christ, for the benefit of Jesus Christ!  I want sameness for myself!  I would rather be one of those proverbial birds of a feather, flocking together.  Perhaps I believe there is safety in numbers, or in familiar surrounds, company, or like-mindedness.

So, what is it that I actually want?   What is it that I’m seeking?  What is it that I really want to worship?

What I do find is a fundamental, deep desire to trust only in myself.  I assess things by way of my reason or thoughts.  My feelings fill me with a spirit of what I believe to be good or bad.  So, I look at the deeds of others and measure them according to what I think best for me.

Like the older brother in the parable, so often I do not act as a true ambassador.  I don’t see anything new with my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I see the same old garbage, I hear the same old, I, I, I, prattle, and “I” feel the self-serving desire to distance myself.

So, the question I ask myself, what actually is an ambassador?  I need to look more into what reconciliation is, or how being reconciled works.  I realise I am so weak!  I need the Holy Spirit to open God’s word in my heart!  I need a new spirit because my human spirit wants nothing more than to silence that which I find annoying, it wants my word to be the last word.

The first thing we can examine is, our Heavenly Father’s love.  Like the father’s love in the parable of the prodigal son, God’s love has nothing to do with any one’s ability to love him back.  God’s love is not conditional on what we do or do not do.  

God’s love “is”, it just is!  It exists and streams from his being to all without prejudice or favour.  Our Father in heaven’s love is impartial and it flows to all people through Jesus Christ, regardless of their faithfulness to him or their rejection of him.

My love, however, struggles with partiality and prejudice.  My love is given conditionally to those to whom I know will return it to me in kind. 

As a Christian, as one who is freely given God’s love of forgiveness, God expects me to learn through lived experience, the reason I receive his love has nothing whatsoever to do with my performance.  I am a being created by God, to be loved by God, despite what “I am and do” as a child of fallen humanity.

This puts me in the same position as those who had knowledge of God through his Word, in Jesus’ day.  I am the same as those who had access to God through the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament.  The teachers of the law, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the militant Zealots, and the everyday faithful Jewish mothers and fathers are the same as you and me. 

They are the elders of Judaism and the Law.  We, are the elders or seniors of Christianity.  Therefore, we are ambassadors of forgiveness and renewal through Jesus keeping the Law.  We are ambassadors of Christianity because we continually receive the reconciling work of the Holy Spirit. 

The word ambassador in the Greek is presbuteros, and means elder or a representative, and it’s from where we get the word presbyter or presbyterian.

The elder brother in the parable should have stepped in to stop his brother leaving and functioned as mediator between his father and the younger son.  Similarly, we, as elder brothers in the Christian faith, who’ve knowledge of Jesus Christ and experience the forgiveness of our sinful nature and deeds, should likewise, be merciful ambassadors or presbyters.

However, it’s easier for us to be more like the elder brother in the parable.  We grumble against our brother receiving love and mercy from the father, rather than celebrate the new life and sonship the father has lavished on his child who has been redressed and recovered by his love.

There are a number of issues needing to be addressed with us, as the elder brothers.  My sin separates me in just the same way as my wayward brother.  I have received the same reconciliation as my brother because of my Heavenly Father’s love.  And I do not determine the time frame or parameters for forgiveness, lest I exclude myself from being redressed or recovered by my own deluded decisions.

The sins one does, are not a sign that one has become a sinner, but that one always was a corrupt sinner, and all people need to be recovered by God’s love and forgiveness.  Therefore, the covering of sinfulness begins in baptism and is an ongoing event, worked by the Holy Spirit every day of one’s life.

Apples fall from apple trees, and oranges from orange trees!  The fruit that falls from the tree does not make the tree!  Fruit can identify what the tree is, but the tree is, what it is, regardless of it producing fruit or not.  Similarly, sinners produce sin.  The being of a sinner is their being, irrespective of them sinning or not.  You are a human being, being human, regardless of what you do!

However, this does not justify us, doing despicable human things!  This is not permission to keep sinning, but instead it’s a lesson in God’s compassion, forgiveness, and love.  It’s here we have an opportunity to look intently at Jesus Christ and see our sin, what it did to him, and learn from it.  We also look at Jesus Christ and see his righteousness, what it has done for us, and learn from this as well.  We see the being of Jesus, as a human being, being and doing what we were originally created to  be and do.

This is a crucial lesson learnt as ambassadors for Christ.  If each of us don’t learn from our sins and experience of God’s mercy and forgiveness, we end up being ambassadors against Christ.  You and I become ambassadors for ourselves.   Our hair might go grey, and age might set in on our faces, but an ambassador of oneself, will remain a spiritual baby having not learnt a thing from life in Christ’s forgiveness.

This is why Saint Paul implores and pleads for the Corinthians to be reconciled to Jesus Christ.  To stop being infants of the faith, continuing in sin, without learning about themselves from it, and its forgiveness, to trust and follow Jesus. 

We are people who know our human nature and spirit and rely on the covering of Christ with his Holy Spirited nature.  Paul pleads and prays, “be forgiven, forgiving, sinners!”

Yet here I am, day in day out, still struggling to let the Holy Spirit, to see my brothers and sisters in Christ as new creations.   When I fail to see them as new creations, I fail to see myself as a sinner needing daily forgiveness!

However, the Holy Spirit works in us the ability to see we need a Saviour.  We need a big brother who is the true Ambassador, and this Ambassador is Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the Ambassador!  The Ambassador of all true ambassadors, the Reconciler of all faithful reconcilers!  The Holy Spirit brings us to the Ambassador’s embassy, the tent embassy, the temple embassy of his body on the cross.

Jesus Christ is a true elder brother!   Not me, not you, the pharisees, nor anyone else can be this elder brother as Jesus is.  He is the perfect reflection of our heavenly Father’s love. He is the Mediator, and he is the Reconciler.

So, we see in ourselves traits of the prodigal son and the pharisaic older brother, what can we do?  We run to the true elder brother to cover and reconcile us to our Father.   

We hear the Word of God in Psalm thirty-two and see the wisdom of the Father’s love, Jesus’ faithfulness, and the Holy Spirit’s work in our continual reconciliation and forgiveness. We pray to our Father, knowing from the bitter experiences of our sin that we are surrounded by his steadfast love!

I uncover my guilt and acknowledge my sin.  The Holy Spirit leads me to say, “I will confess my sins to the Lord”.  And I know that he promises to forgive the iniquity of my sin!  I hear the promise of Jesus’ presence so the rush of great waters, my great sin, will not overcome me. I know I am blessed, my transgressions are forgiven, and the sins I cannot cover, are covered by Jesus!  

You and I are delivered, forgiven, and covered.   The Holy Spirit is our counsellor, teacher, and instructor.  He reconciles us into Jesus Christ and enables us to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ.  Amen.