We hardly go through a week without asking, “Where is God in all of this?” It came dramatically last week when the tapes were released picturing five policemen senselessly beating a man to death.
Even with the questions about police brutality, race relations, justice, community and the common good, it is difficult not to be forced to ask, “Where is God in all of this?”
As I have wrestled with this, a word from Paul became more challenging. After affirming the new life that is ours in Christ, he said, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)
Clement of Alexandria, one of the early church fathers, said all Christians should practice being God.” When I first read that, it shocked me. Me…practice being God? But the more I thought about it, the more gripping the idea became. Practice being God. Don’t close your mind, thinking this is irreverent. Ponder for a moment. Paul was talking about this in his word about reconciliation? “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”(2 Corinthians 5:18) Do you see it? Paul said first, God reconciled us to himself…that’s what God does. Then he says, God called us to do the same. Isn’t He talking about practicing being God?
Come at it in a slightly different way. When are we most like God? We are most like God when we are most like Christ. When are we most like Christ? We find our answer again in Paul. Preceding what he said about reconciliation, he wrote: “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore, all have died. He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”(2 Corinthians. 5:14-15) What an encompassing statement! “We are convinced that (Christ) has died for all.” That means that since He has died for all He has died for each. If Christ loves like that, and we are to love as he loved, then reconciliation is the base dynamic of community.
Whether we like the language, practice being God, or not, at the core of the Christian faith is reconciliation. Since it is the core of reconciliation, forgiveness must high on any list of Christian practices.