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Drawn together - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 - Living by the Word - Column

Christian Century, March 15, 1995 by Darrell Jodock

CENTRAL TO these passages is reconciliation, the resumption of a healthy relationship. In Luke's parable of the prodigal son, reconciliation occurs when the father "put his arms around him and kissed him." In Paul's epistle the reconciliation is between God and human beings. "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself... and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us"; so "we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."

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Christendom was a societal arrangement in which Christianity enjoyed a privileged position. Christianity was allowed to determine at least some societal priorities, and the resulting harmony between culture and church helped to reinforce behavior that the church deemed desirable. Whether in medieval Europe or mid-19th-century America, people in Christendom knew what was expected of them, even if they did not always live up to expectations. When they failed, they experienced guilt. In such a setting it was important for pastors and preachers to emphasize that reconciliation could overcome the guilt and enmity associated with an offense.

From this perspective, the emphasis in Luke's parable falls on the son's confession. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you," and on the forgiveness involved in his father's acceptance. In other words, in Christendom the emphasis fell on justification, the opening movement in the symphony of reconciliation.

Our society, however, has gradually left behind the marks of Christendom. The burden of societal expectations may influence people's performance in secular pursuits, but often not in the moral or religious sphere. With regard to morality or religion, the societal signals are confusing and unclear. The individualism that pervades our society reinforces that uncertainty. Each person is expected to decide for himself what is right. There are no publicly acknowledged transpersonal norms other than tolerance. Each person is expected to pursue his own interests. Such an expectation is too general to be much of a burden (perhaps it becomes its own kind of burden). In our social setting, the problem is not offense, guilt and enmity but separation. Indifference, facile tolerance and the absence of involvement keep people apart. People are less aware of God's wrath and more aware of the experience of God's absence (as evidenced by the current demand for books on spirituality"). To understand the main thrust of reconciliation in our setting, we should emphasize drawing together selves who have been out of contact with one another.

We are more like the people of Corinth. It was easy for the people of Corinth to affirm their freedom, because freedom did not challenge individualism. It was harder for them to take responsibility for one another. It was easy for Corinthians to exult in their new status as recipients of God's grace, because that did not challenge their individualism. It was harder for them to understand the implications of the cross: to be marked with the cross is to be a servant who edifies others and builds up the community. To take one's clues from the cross is to recognize that God works through weakness and failure rather than worldly success.

Luke celebrates the overflowing love of the father, a love that does not wait for confessions or explanations, that does not calculate a measured response. The father's exuberant, unbridled love knows only that his son has returned. The sons presence is reason enough to let loose with a celebration. "This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." The geographical and personal distance between them has been overcome. Even in the face of the elder son's anger, the father expresses no moral judgments. He just reminds the elder son of their unbroken closeness, "Son, you are always ways with me." He then tries to turn that son's dissociation from his younger brother into reconciliation.

Paul emphasizes that God has overcome the distance separating humans from God. Believers do not stand afar off; they are "in Christ." They no longer judge "according to worldly standards" but according to the cross.

Here is a different view of selfhood. According to today's standards, the self is an autonomous unit, similar to a ball with extendible hooks. These hooks can link up with others whenever it is convenient and whenever it serves one's own interests to do so, but can also be retracted when their utility ceases. Linked or unlinked, the self remains pretty much the same. By contrast, the self that is "in Christ" is constituted by relationships. It is not a self-contained sphere with extendible hooks but a hub that expands with each new connection to another. Add a new relationship or restore an old one, and a bulge appears on the hub. The self is enriched. It has grown in the direction of the other and is different from what it was before.

Thus the self reconciled to God is an altered self; it has been enhanced by that restored connection. As it is reconciled with others, it changes again, expanding in the direction of each person with whom reconciliation occurs.

Drawn together - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 - Living by the Word - Column

Christian Century, March 15, 1995 by Darrell Jodock

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