¹⁹ It is central to our good news that God was in the Anointed making things right between Himself and the world. This means He does not hold their sins against them. But it also means He charges us to proclaim the message that heals and restores our broken relationships with God and each other.

²⁰ So we are now representatives of the Anointed One, the Liberating King; God has given us a charge to carry through our lives—urging all people on behalf of the Anointed to become reconciled to the Creator God. ²¹ He orchestrated this: the Anointed One, who had never experienced sin, became sin for us so that in Him we might embody the very righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:19-21 (Voice)

Instead of using the word “representatives,” many translations use the word “ambassadors” in verse 20. What does the word “ambassador” communicate about your role in relationship to God and others? If we are God’s representatives of reconciliation, what do you think God wants us to do when people don’t listen to the message?

Each day (except Sundays) during Lent, we will post a Scripture for reflection on our theme, “Military Withdrawal.” Together, we will learn to walk in God’s ways of peacemaking and reconciliation. These posts are meant to stimulate conversation and interaction. Please post your thoughts and comments.

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Think about how Paul once viewed Christ – heretic, blasphemer, enemy–but he understands Christ as the one who brought reconciliation through his death and resurrection and has inaugurated the “new creation.” How does that change is view of others?

What does it mean to only view someone from a worldly point of view? How does the reconciling work of God challenge and change your view of others–including those we often consider “enemies”?

Each day (except Sundays) during Lent, we will post a Scripture for reflection on our theme, “Military Withdrawal.” Together, we will learn to walk in God’s ways of peacemaking and reconciliation. These posts are meant to stimulate conversation and interaction. Please post your thoughts and comments.

⁵¹ Not long before it was time for Jesus to be taken up to heaven, he made up his mind to go to Jerusalem. ⁵² He sent some messengers on ahead to a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. ⁵³ But he was on his way to Jerusalem, so the people there refused to welcome him. ⁵⁴ When the disciples James and John saw what was happening, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy these people?” ⁵⁵ But Jesus turned and corrected them for what they had said.^[b] 

Luke 9:51-55 (CEV)

Footnote: 9.55 what they had said: Some manuscripts add, “and said, ‘Don’t you know what spirit you belong to? The Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s lives, but to save them.’“

Pastor Ray referenced this incident in his sermon on Sunday, March 20. James and John took offense at their treatment by the Samaritans and offered a solution: Genocide. Are you surprised by their response? Was it a justifiable response? Is calling down fire (or bombs) ever justified? What do you think Jesus would say?

Once again, we feast with God, the Peacemaker, who broke down dividing walls of hostility and created a new humanity at the cross–a new creation where reconciliation is the order of things.

We feast on reconciliation in the midst of escalating wars in Ukraine, Yemen and multiple other global locations – wars that are the fruit of wars fought in the past and that sow seeds of wars in the future. The cycles of revenge and retribution continue unabated. And we feel powerless to stop it.

Honestly, our Lenten Compact isn’t going to put even the slightest scuff mark on global conflict. Our collective commitment to “study war no more” isn’t going to drown out the voices those who loudly insist on military action as the means to end military action. However, to say nothing or do nothing is to become complicit in the destruction.

Our Compact is about changing us and inching us closer toward God’s reconciled humanity. However powerless and pointless it seems on the global scale, our “military withdrawal” is an act of resistance against the push for escalation and the resulting death and destruction.

Peace begins with people who resist. So today, we resist. Today, we worship the Reconciler of All and become the practitioners of reconciliation.

¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Galatians 5:13-15

The command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” has been the primary text used to oppose war and militarism because war and militarism destroy those whom Scripture would define as my neighbor. Yet, a majority of Christians regularly support war as an appropriate response when there is a national or global threat. Why do you think that is? How would you respond to someone who held that opinion? Is there an alternative? If so, what?

Each day (except Sundays) during Lent, we will post a Scripture for reflection on our theme, “Military Withdrawal.” Together, we will learn to walk in God’s ways of peacemaking and reconciliation. These posts are meant to stimulate conversation and interaction. Please post your thoughts and comments.

 ⁹ The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”^[a] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Romans 13:9-10

We have often used the question, “What would Jesus do?” to determine what action is best in a situation. Maybe we should ask ourselves a different question: “DTDH – Does this do harm?” Although, that raises the question, How do I define “harm?” How would you define “harm?” Is this helpful to determine how to love your neighbor as yourself? Why or why not? How does this impact your thinking about militarism and the war machine?

Each day (except Sundays) during Lent, we will post a Scripture for reflection on our theme, “Military Withdrawal.” Together, we will learn to walk in God’s ways of peacemaking and reconciliation. These posts are meant to stimulate conversation and interaction. Please post your thoughts and comments.

All eyes and ears have focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the past month. Meanwhile, back in Yemen, the 7-year war, has resulted in what the UN is calling the “world’s worst humanitarian disaster.”

For many of us, the Yemeni civil war has never been on our radar. Sadly, the humanitarian crisis is not getting the attention (or the funding) it needs. According to the UN, more than 377,000 people have died during the war both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease. Children account for 70% of the deaths. Eighty percent (80%) of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance and fully half of children under 5 are suffering chronic malnutrition.

The UN has said that $4.3 bn is needed to alleviate the hunger crisis in Yemen. So far, only $1.3 bn has been pledged. And there is no end in sight to the war. To understand more about the crisis in Yemen, watch the video.

The Parable of the Good Irishman Part 2

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Luke 10:29-37

Jesus’s story has an unlikely hero, the Samaritan. Samaritans were descendants of the tribes of Israel that had split from Judah to become the nation of Israel under the leadership of kings like Ahab and Queens like Jezebel who led the people into the idolatrous worship of the Baals. They were of mixed blood, they read an inferior version of Hebrew Scriptures, and they didn’t recognize the need to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. As a result, they were marginalized and hated by good Jews.

How does Jesus’s story answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” How do you think the law expert felt about having to acknowledge that the Samaritan was his neighbor too? Is there anyone who ISN’T your neighbor? If Jesus were telling the story today, who do you think he would make the hero?

Each day (except Sundays) during Lent, we will post a Scripture for reflection on our theme, “Military Withdrawal.” Together, we will learn to walk in God’s ways of peacemaking and reconciliation. These posts are meant to stimulate conversation and interaction. Please post your thoughts and comments.

The Parable of the Good Irishman?

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Luke 10:25-29

This law expert had the correct answer, but applied it incorrectly. That he wanted to justify himself indicates that he regularly limited his definition of “neighbor.” How easy it is to define our neighbor as “those who look like me, think like me, believe like me, and/or behave like me.” The rest can be ignored or treated as “other.” The Irish, upon their arrival in the US, were frequently depicted as ape-like beasts – less than human, alien. Other immigrants have had the same experience. Mexicans are drug dealers and rapists. Anyone from the Middle East is a terrorist. Africans are sub-human and uncivilized.

Time for confession… When have you limited your definition of “neighbor.” What was the basis of excluding a person or a group of people from that definition? If they are not your neighbor, what are they? How does the limited definition of “neighbor” make it easier to do harm to those we exclude?

Each day (except Sundays) during Lent, we will post a Scripture for reflection on our theme, “Military Withdrawal.” Together, we will learn to walk in God’s ways of peacemaking and reconciliation. These posts are meant to stimulate conversation and interaction. Please post your thoughts and comments.

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.

³² “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him.³³ To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

³⁴ When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Mark 12:28-34

Jesus’s answer to the law professor’s question brings together two Scriptures – Deuteronomy 4:4 -5 and Leviticus 19:18. This is the first time in the Bible that these two separate “love” commands are unified. The first command relates to our “vertical relationship” with God, while the second relates to our “horizontal relationships” with others. We often hear that we need to be in right relationship with God as if the vertical is primary and the horizontal is secondary. Jesus doesn’t allow us to disconnect them. To be right with God demands being right with others, and to be right with others is necessary for being right with God. The kingdom of God is experienced only when the vertical and the horizontal are connected.

Why do you think we’ve kept “loving our neighbors” secondary (and optional)? Is loving our neighbor the same as loving God. Why or why not?

Each day (except Sundays) during Lent, we will post a Scripture for reflection on our theme, “Military Withdrawal.” Together, we will learn to walk in God’s ways of peacemaking and reconciliation. These posts are meant to stimulate conversation and interaction. Please post your thoughts and comments.