February 21, 2007

by The Rev. Constance Jones

2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10

St Paul says, “We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.....
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation.”

Or, as Martin Luther King, Jr. once said in a book called “Why We Can’t Wait,”
there is a way that time can somehow ripen
and what once could be lived with, no longer can,
and one must put one’s whole life into correcting it,
regardless of the consequences.

Or, consider a new movie just in release, one I can’t wait to see.
It’s called “Amazing Grace,” taking its name of course from the hymn.
The movie is about William Wilberforce,
the great English leader in the anti-slavery movement,
whose whole energy and drive came from his Christian conviction.
Here’s what he said in 1788, when he first introduced a bill in the House of Commons to abolish slavery.
(I will spare you the rest of the three and a half hour speech!)

“Sir, when we think of eternity and the future consequence of all human conduct,
what is there in this life that shall make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice and the law of God!”

For the English – and of course for the Americans as well –
the time for abolishing slavery dragged on and on –
Wilberforce introduced his legislation over and over and over before it finally passed.
It was long past what might be considered God’s good time.
1833 for the English,
1865 and a catastrophic Civil War for the United States.
How many other cries for justice have gone unheard,
how many offenses against God go unmended in our own time?

In all great crises of conscience and morality, whether public or private,
there comes a time when by God’s grace the scales fall from our eyes
and we see and can name the truth.
“How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed,” says the hymn.
But sometimes the hour of self-awareness can come like the stroke of an ax,
and thank God for the assurance of God’s love.
Abraham Lincoln often considered the terrible war as God’s judgment,
but was never swayed from his belief in God’s righteousness and mercy.

John Newton, who wrote the words to “Amazing Grace,” was once a slave-ship captain. A wretch indeed.
One writer said of him “that even his crew regarded him as little more than an animal. Once he fell overboard and his ship’s crew refused to drop a boat to him. Instead they threw a harpoon at him, with which they dragged him back into the ship.”1

And then there came a violent storm, with a wind so high the livestock were swept overboard, and the crew tied themselves to the ship to avoid the same fate. As Newton attempted to maneuver the ship to avoid sinking (as he recalled in his journal) all seemed lost. But he said aloud, “Lord, have mercy on us.” And for the rest of his life he counted that moment as the time of his salvation. He went on to become an abolitionist, then a priest of the Church of England, and a great evangelical preacher. “I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.”2

God says, through Isaiah and through St Paul,
“at an acceptable time, I have listened to you, and
on a day of salvation, I have helped you.”

During this holy time of Lent, I invite you to join me
in opening our eyes to see all that we have turned a blind eye to.
The untended and hidden parts of our lives
which we have tried to conceal from God and from ourselves.
The ways that we have filled our lives
with noise and clutter and even worthwhile activity,
all to avoid the pain of self-knowledge and self-revelation.
The time we have spent running away from the moment of honesty before God.

We entreat you, St. Paul says, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
And in this passage from second Corinthians he even suggests
some of the tools by which that reconciliation can be effected.
He does mention, as a matter of fact,
something that John Newton might not be surprised about --
that shipwreck may sometimes be involved!
For those of us who don’t go on boats,
he has some very practical suggestions about spiritual practices
that invite reconciliation with God.
They are practices in the context of the church:
“purity, knowledge, patience, kindness,
holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God.”

These are confusing and difficult times in the life of the Episcopal Church.
A great conference in Tanzania of the primates,
or heads of the national churches within the Anglican Communion, has just ended.
Judging by the communications over the internet, nobody is very happy.
There is a Covenant whose first draft has just been written,
to make formal what are the ties that bind the Communion together.
Nobody is very happy with that either.

But the only time we have to be Christians,
to be in relationship with each other and with God, is now.
The only time we have to embark on our Christian journey
with patience and holiness of spirit is right now, even if it is a time of discontent.
God calls us to speak truthfully but with kindness –
not pointing out fingers at others,
but with penitence looking to our own hearts.
It is the “genuine love” Paul mentions that ought to govern us.
Love for one another, but also the certain knowledge of God’s love for us.
Fill in the blanks here, but the liberals or the conservatives,
the Nigerians or the Presiding Bishop,
the gay-loving-revisionists or the rigid-orthodoxy-loving reasserters
(to use some labels I have heard)
may be driving us crazy.
We may blame the “other side” for wrecking the church.

But the fact is, the church was made by God and it belongs to God.
Our task is not politics.
Our task is self-examination and truth-telling in a holy Lent.
It is patience, holiness of spirit, and genuine love.
Not later. Now.
Now is the acceptable time for reconciliation with God.
And the place is not out there, but here.

If we can just lean in God’s direction, right now,
the pain of self-disclosure will yield the sweetness of blessing, forgiveness, and,
as St. Paul puts it here in 2 Corinthians,
“We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown,
and yet are well known; as dying, and see--
we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing;
as poor, yet making many rich;
as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”

Amen.

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