PREPARING THE WAY: “Ambassadors for Christ”
II Corinthians 5:14-21
March 30, 2025
Our New Testament reading for this week comes from II Corinthians 5:14-21.
I had prepared a whole sermon on serving as “ambassadors for Christ”,
but, as sometimes happens, the Holy Spirit sent me in a different direction.
Listen for the Word of God from II Corinthians.
For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all;
therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live
might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.
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.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
One summer evening in 1955, a group of 180 teenagers, teenagers intentionally selected
from different religious, racial, cultural and economic backgrounds,
were brought together for a workshop high in the California mountains.
The young people had been brought together to experiment with creating understanding
and friendship, amidst their diversity, through education, and discussion groups,
and living and working together in a camp situation.
In the discussions that week at camp, the common theme that arose among the young people
was a yearning for peace, both inner peace and world peace.
As a part of that conference, a husband and wife songwriting team,
Sy Miller and Jill Jackson, shared a song they had recently written.
When they were ready to teach the song, they gathered the young people
on top of a mountain, had them form a circle and lock arms,
and then sing the simple song they had written about world peace.
As a background note, Jill Jackson, one of the songwriters,
had gone through a very difficult time after the failure of her first marriage.
She had even entertained thoughts of suicide.
She later said she wrote this song after discovering what she called
“the life-saving joy of God’s peace and unconditional love”. (Wikipedia)
(SLIDE) Perhaps you’re familiar with the popular old song:
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be.
With God our creator, family all are we.
Let us walk with each other in perfect harmony.
Let peace begin with me, let this be the moment now
With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment, to live each moment in peace, eternally
Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.
When they came down from the mountain, those inspired young people
started sharing the song. it. As though on wings, the song began an amazing journey
around the globe, first with the young campers to their homes and schools,
to their churches and clubs. Before long the song was being shared in all fifty states.
Then “the song spread overseas to Holland, England, Italy, France, Germany, Lebanon,
Japan, India, and on to South America, Central America, Africa, Asia and Australia.
The Maoris in New Zealand were singing it. The Zulus in Africa were singing it.”
(http://www.jan-leemusic.com/)
Within a few years, the song of peace had been sung by millions across the globe.
And it is still being sung 70 years later.
When you search for the definition of the word “peace”, you don’t necessarily find
a good definition in terms of its positive meaning.
The Oxford dictionary defines peace as “freedom from disturbance”
or “a state or period in which there is no war”.
“Peace” is often best understood when defined in terms of the absence of something else,
like the absence war, or the absence of “disturbing thoughts or emotions.”
We begin to discover peace when we experience the absence of strife or conflict
or fear or anxiety.
Though we understand peace best when we view it’s opposite,
we all know peace when we see it, or when we feel it, or when we hear it.
When our Chancel Choir sings together in beautiful acapella harmony,
we experience the complete absence of disharmony, and its wonderful.
It sounds and feels like peace.
A church member told me recently that when he is on a fishing boat at sunrise,
and the water is completely still, and the sun begins to peek over the horizon,
then he knows peace. He feels peace in his heart and soul.
Another person shared with me recently that when their life suddenly began to come together,
when all the various uncertainties in their life began to settle down,
and they began to feel some coherence to their life and less chaos,
then they received a tremendous feeling of peace.
Peace, harmony, goodwill, good feelings – is not that the way the world was meant to be?
Are we not meant to live with an absence of anxiety and fear and conflict?
Do you remember the first words in Holy Scripture every time a messenger of God appears?
Fear not. Be not afraid.
Do you remember the first words of the risen Christ in the Gospel of John,
the words spoken to the fearful disciples?
“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house
where the disciples had met were locked (because they were afraid),
Jesus came and stood among them and said, (Shalom). ‘Peace be with you.’” (John 20:19)
God sent Jesus Christ into the world to grant us peace.
God sent Jesus Christ so that we may know the absence of conflict,
that we might know the absence of disharmony and strife,
that we might know the absence of troubled feelings and anxiety,
the absence of fear and trepidation and chaos.
God sent Jesus Christ into the world to reconcile us to God and to our neighbor,
not to drive us apart. God sent Jesus Christ so that the world would come to know
God’s peace which passes all understanding.
What did the songwriter Jill Jackson say that she had discovered after her divorce?
“The life-saving joy of God’s peace and unconditional love”.
Ultimately, peace comes from love, from God’s unconditional love –
agape love, other-oriented love, the kind of love we come to know in Jesus Christ.
Peace comes from knowing that we are loved, loved by God,
and in response, we are more able to love our neighbor.
It’s all that easy, and it’s all that hard.
Love will save the world, not efficiency, not hatred.
Love will save the world, not fearfulness of diversity and equity and inclusion, but love.
Friends, I have to say – diversity, equity, and inclusion are not bad words.
Now, surely, those words have been misused.
People will disagree strongly on how we work toward being a diverse,
equitable, and inclusive society, but when you have a heart full of love,
when you are seeking to act on love for your neighbor,
you cannot help but be involved in issues of diversity, and equity, and inclusion.
I spent over a year with a group from the seminary exploring issues of DEI.
To be honest, I was stretched. I heard more fully the voices of women and people of color.
I was humbled about some things. I learned some things, and I, personally,
am better off for that experience.
Suddenly, a few years later, I learn that these words are deemed “bad words”,
words to be stricken from websites?
Friends, these are not bad words.
Those are New Testament words, words closely related to the Acts of the Apostles,
words that reflect the ministry of the earliest house congregations
in places like Philippi, and Athens, and Thessaloniki.
God sent Jesus Christ into the world so that we may first be reconciled to God,
so that each of us may come to know God’s unconditional love for us,
and knowing that love, thus discover peace in our inner selves.
And having received that peace that passes all understanding,
we find ourselves more able, more ready, more committed to work for peace with our neighbor.
If we are experiencing some lack of peace in our lives,
if there is some troubled nature to our thoughts or emotions,
if we find ourselves tending toward fear and distrust of neighbors,
what we most likely need is reconciliation – reconciliation first with God,
and second, reconciliation with neighbor.
Broken and estranged and unreconciled relationships lead to a lack of peace.
Broken and estranged and unreconciled relationships lead to disharmony, to conflict,
to anxious and troubled lives, and ultimately, to war.
A handwritten quote was taped to my mother’s refrigerator for years. It simply claimed: “Marriage is not about finding the right person but about being the right person”.
We could take that quote further and claim that “having a rewarding job
is not about finding the right employer but about being the right employee”.
We might say that “having a great Sunday School Class or Bible Study or worship experience
is not so much finding the right church as about being the right kind of church member.”
I had a whole sermon for today about serving as ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
My sermon was going to talk about how challenging and fearful it can be
to think of ourselves as ambassadors of Jesus in our daily lives.
But before we, or the Church of Jesus Christ, or anyone else can serve as an ambassador,
first we must seek and receive peace with God, reconciliation with God, inner peace.
And part of that inner peace is becoming reconciled to God’s will and God’s ways.
God’s will and God’s way is love. God’s driving force is love.
As the Scripture claims, Whoever does not love, does not know God, for God is love.
Since God loved us so much, so we also ought to love one another.
If we do not love our neighbor, whom we can see,
From I John 4:
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…
Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another…
Those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them…
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…
Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars;
for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God
whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this:
those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Let there be peace in your home, and let it begin with you.
Let there be peace in your place of work, and let it begin with you.
Let there be peace in our nation, and let it begin with us, with this congregation.
Let there be peace in the world, and let it begin with the Church of Jesus Christ.
Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
