Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat 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.
Sermon:
May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be always acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
Not long ago, I took my sons to breakfast at the Waffle House, and it was my younger son’s birthday. As we got close to the end of the meal, he shared with the server that it was his 11th birthday, and she congratulated him there at the table, but then she stepped back and said, “Hey, everybody, this is his 11th birthday!” Spontaneously, the entire restaurant cheered and clapped, and it simply delighted both my sons, but especially my younger son, to have such a display of enthusiasm and joy for his birthday.
In our reading from Second Corinthians, Paul is writing to the Corinthians, and it is almost impossible not to sense the joy that’s coming through as he writes about the reconciliation wrought by Jesus and this new creation. “If anyone is in Christ, new creation” — it’s like it’s pulled out of him. He can’t help but say it. Paul is enthusiastic about this. He is celebratory, and he’s inviting us — he’s inviting you and me — to be part of this celebration. In fact, we are called, he says, to be ambassadors of Christ, to be the ones who go out and share the reality and the truth of this reconciliation with others. We’re called to celebrate and invite people in to something in which they already are participants and yet don’t know.
But how can we be ambassadors of the new creation when there are so many things about our lives and about our society which seem to be evidence against the reality of the reconciliation of humanity with one another and with God? How do we do that? This world is full of what you might call contrary evidence.
I’ll give you an example. This was also at a Waffle House. I went to a Waffle House near my work one morning, and I was by myself. I was sitting at the tall counter, and the cook and one of the servers were having a conversation. It became clear very quickly that they were talking about a third employee who wasn’t there at the time but was coming in later. The server mentioned this person to the cook, and he just went on a tear about this young woman who wasn’t there. He started talking about how — well, you know — “Obviously I know she’s supposed to be in recovery, but you’ve seen her. She’s all padded up. How is she ever going to accomplish the things that she hopes to accomplish? She’s never going to get custody of her child again.” It just went on and on for about five minutes, almost, and the server, who had mentioned something to him, had just been sort of standing there and didn’t really know how to respond.
Then I heard the door open, and it closed, and I heard the server, in a sort of awkward way, say, “Oh, hi.” It turned out it was the young woman that they had been talking about. The cook in particular had seen that woman through human eyes — through eyes of the flesh — and he had heaped judgment upon her and had constrained her possibilities in his own mind. Now, when she came in, he did greet her, and then he turned to go back to his work. He didn’t say any of those things to her face, which honestly almost made it worse. Perhaps it did make it worse.
It is all too easy to see people from a human perspective. Paul wants us to celebrate. Paul wants us to testify to the new creation, and it may be that in order for us to testify to it, we first have to understand what it is we’re testifying to. What is it that is so powerful about this? What is it that elicits this exclamation from Paul — “new creation”?
I would suggest to you that it is the fact that God in Christ has unilaterally declared peace and put an end to the enmity between humanity and God, which was always one-sided, and put an end to the enmity between humanity. This is something to celebrate. It’s something to testify to. It’s something to invite people into.
Paul’s understanding, I believe, is that this is something available to all people. This particular passage, where Paul says “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation” — I believe this is one of those times where there are multiple meanings to this text. If any one person is in Christ, they are a new creation. If any one person is in Christ, they testify to the reality of the new creation in which we all participate. If anyone is in Christ, then they themselves participate in a new creation that all are called to participate in. Various translations back this up — some talk about “if someone” or “if a man is in Christ, he is a new creation”; others talk about “if anyone is in Christ, then there is a new creation.” They testify to the new creation. You can see this diversity of meaning in the diversity of translation, but all of these are getting at Paul’s true meaning. It’s not just one — it’s all of them — because each of these things is true, and we are to be ambassadors of this.
But how can we be ambassadors of this if we see people heaping judgment on others, constraining the possibilities of other people, assuming the worst? How can we be ambassadors of hope in a world that too often lingers in the hopeless?
I have a third story from Waffle House to complete the triptych. A number of years ago — it was still on the heels of the Black Lives Matter protests; we had just been able to start going out to restaurants again — I’d taken my sons to a Waffle House again to have breakfast. I was getting up to pay, and in front of me in line was a Black man, probably in his mid- to late twenties, and he had a young girl with him, maybe three years old. He was paying for their meal, and as the server at the register rang them up, she said, “How was everything?” He responded, “Very good.” Then he leaned down to his daughter — she was smiling and jumping around — and he said, “Can you tell the nice lady thank you for taking care of us?” Which the little girl did.
Then something else happened. In order for you to understand this, you have to know that when I was standing at the register, if I looked to my right, over in the corner at the low bar, there was an older couple, perhaps in their seventies. The man was a bit older than the woman. He was in a wheelchair and had a Vietnam veteran cap on. I don’t know what their story was, but the little snippets that I caught as my sons and I were eating let me know that, in spite of the fact that they were very jovial and interacting with the staff, they were having some difficult times.
So the young man in front of me leaned forward to the woman at the register and said, “Excuse me, ma’am, I would like to pay for their meal.” She said, “Okay, let me get their ticket.” She got their ticket, rang it up, and he paid. He and his daughter left the restaurant, and so I got to be there, as I was waiting to pay, to see the server walk over to the older couple. When they asked for their check, she said, “It’s been taken care of.” I saw the surprise on their faces. The man sort of laughed and shook his head, and his wife teared up.
Now, what made this interaction all the more powerful is that this man and this woman were white, and this young man who had paid for their meal was Black, and it was in the context of a time in which we were — as we still are — wrestling with issues of race and discrimination in our country. I have no idea what may have motivated that young man. I don’t know what his faith background may have been. I don’t know if he was a veteran or if he had family members who were veterans. I don’t know if maybe he was just being kind. But regardless, he saw something. He saw an opportunity for kindness.
So, what are we to do in a world where there’s so much evidence built up against the reality of reconciliation, so much evidence against the reality of a new creation? How are we ambassadors? How are we to invite people to participate?
Well, the thing about being an ambassador is you’ve got to know a little bit about your country. The thing about being an ambassador is you’ve got to be able to interpret to other people. The thing about being an ambassador is you have to invite people to come and take part and experience something new so that they can know it themselves.
So our job as ambassadors is to point to the signs that we see, to point to the evidence of the kingdom — those moments of kindness. Now, here’s the thing. Some people might say that the Spirit only works in believers to do these things, but I’m going to say to you that no, the Spirit blows where the Spirit wills, and God works through all people in all places. Our first task is to look around. If we’re to be ambassadors, our first task is to look around and to see where God is already active.
And then, if we’re to be ambassadors for the kingdom, if we’re to be ambassadors for Christ, we are the ones who are called to interpret the signs. We are the ones who are called to share with other people what it means for there to be kindness in a world where really it sometimes appears that there can’t be — or shouldn’t be — any more kindness. We are, in other words, the ones who share the good news of the reconciliation of all people to God in Christ, and we’re the ones who share the evidence. And we rejoice in every example — like that server and the breakfast on my son’s birthday. We are called to announce the reality. We are called to announce the need for celebration. We may just be surprised how people will respond.
If anyone is in Christ — new creation! Amen.
