The message of reconciliation is the embodiment of love. Without reconciliation we are expressing a message of hate either from our lack of action or our lack of care. I believe that reconciliation is what leads people to stronger friendships, healing, and relationships. I believe that reconciliation is what the underlying message of Scripture is. It is what God is doing for His creation. The culmination of the ages was God in flesh making reconciliation with all of creation. This was the message of Christ…this WAS Christ…Truth became human and lived among us. God challenged us to join in the celebration of our reconciliation by bring restoration to all things…to restore our relationship to God and to each other.
As we embark on the new paradigm shift out of the ashes of modernization, we sound very similar to Pontius Pilate who says, "What is truth?" Truth has been for many years captive to metanarratives, fundamentals, abstract notions of God, systematic theologies, and doctrinal statements leading others to a subscription of belief. As this has been going on, there is the beckoning of the God-Man asking for us to follow…asking us to sell our possessions and go with Him…to live the life of a vagabond. N.T. Wright says that new creation lives alongside old creation. It is up to the first fruits to teach old creation and to show what has been done and what truth is.
Truth is alive and breathing; truth ate with us, drank with us, and prayed with us.
Truth cried when he was broken hearted, thirsted when he was out in the desert, and laughed when someone told a joke.
Truth had late night conversations about religion with his friends; he went to feasts and weddings and drank wine
He was the one that everyone wanted at their party; and at this same party would invite the homeless and hookers
Truth danced, loved, and mourned
Truth was born, lived, and died
But Truth defeated death and showed us the new life,
The life of restoration of all things which was God's dream from the beginning
And from there, Truth became hidden
Not somewhere in the sky or alone in a cave, but in the eyes of the hungry and in the needs of the children.
Truth told us where he would be and challenged us to find him
He said that he would be in the margins of life, where people were oppressed and down trodden
He told us that we would know his voice, even though it would be different each time
His voice was a begging woman, or a child orphaned by AIDS,
Truth has been living on the streets for awhile now, downtown close to the mega-church on the corner
