"A New Kind Of View"

There is a church in Colorado that has a tradition on Veterans Day. They ask all the veterans to stand up and be recognized at the end of the service. One year one old veteran remained seated, staring at the floor. "Why aren’t you standing?" asked the new pastor.

"I can’t stand up today," he replied, "because during the war, I fought for the other side." The company of standing veterans urged "Klaus" to stand up, and then they gave him a rousing round of applause, not because he fought in the German infantry of WWII, but because we are a new creation, reconciled through the cross of Jesus Christ.

These men, who had formerly viewed each other through the sights of guns, viewed one another according to the flesh no longer. Our text today tells us that we can have a new kind of view. We can have that view because through Christ, God has reconciled us to himself, and in that reconciliation we have become messengers and ambassadors of that reconciliation.

Being an ambassador is one of the most thankless and glorious jobs a nation can offer. Men and women like Ben Franklin, George Bush, and Shirley Temple Black have served the United States as ambassadors to other counties or to the United Nations. Flag-lined Embassy row in Washington DC, the address of countless ambassadors from all over the world, is a breathtaking view of class and elegance in the swankiest part of town.

A diplomatic credential or license plate gets an ambassador into places and events that often resemble Cinderella’s ball. On the other hand, an ambassador has no authority make foreign policy. He is permitted to speak nothing apart from the official line given to him by his head of state. Of course, that puts him in the line of fire of an irate foreign president or prime minister when his government back home takes an unpopular position.

God has reconciled the whole world to himself in the death of Christ, and wants the whole world to know his policy of not counting their trespasses against them. To that end, he has made you and me ambassadors. God makes his appeal through us. We speak his words, not ours.

Not everyone we tell about Christ will eagerly receive his message. Some may even be offended or become angry. But speak we do, and there is no more glorious a calling. There is no higher honor God could give us than to be his ambassadors of reconciliation, God making his appeal through us, God using us to bring new souls to the joy of eternity with Christ.

Of course there are some things that get in the way to the completion of our mission as an ambassador. Our Old Adam takes a fleshy view of people and even of God. Most of the time, other people are little more to us than either obstacles or useful stepping stones to be used to achieve our happiness.

We compete for position on the highway. We compete for promotion and income by trying to make ourselves look better than the competition. We value people for how they look or how they make us feel. As a culture, we believe that we are entitled to our fair share and then some.

People even view Jesus in a fleshy way. He is a great cultural icon at Christmas. Most of the time, Jesus is cute and loving, never judging us or demanding righteousness. Not many believe Jesus’ words that he is the way, the truth, and the life – the only way to the Father and salvation. So many believe the lies that they need to do something to earn salvation, or that there is something they can do to contribute to their own salvation.

When we view Jesus as a great moral leader, we ask; "What Would Jesus Do?" While all the while we know we can’t do what Jesus did. None of us can raise the dead, live a perfect life, or die on the cross for all the sins of the world.

Even we baptized believers sometimes lose our perspective. Our ears itch for pastors, teachers, and bureaucrats who will massage God’s clear word into a more comfortable, socially acceptable message that conforms more to our culture rather than the other way around.

God must have changed his mind about women pastors and homosexuality. Muslims and Jews are all okay, since they pray to God the Father, even though they deny the Son. Our friends and neighbors are good people, and surely God will accept them as long as they live a decent life. We want to reconcile our differences. Let’s include everyone. Let’s be politically correct. But eternal differences don’t go away just because we close our eyes to them.

"Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer." Through the eyes of faith, we can see Jesus as he reveals himself to us in the Scriptures: God’s only begotten Son and the world’s only Savior. It is only through Christ that we are forgiven, reconciled, and made a new creation. Our new creation receives a godly view.

God’s Word is non-negotiable, and his gifts of Word and Sacrament are able to make us that new creation, reconciled to God and given new life in him. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come."

Every single human being is valuable to God. Jesus’ work of salvation on the cross is available to everyone. "In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them." What Good News we find in those words! In Christ, God reconciled the whole world to himself!

People are no longer obstacles, competitors, or a means to satisfy a perceived need. People are dearly beloved by God, and so we too, being redeemed, new creations in which God dwells, can love those same people. God places his true, saving, non-negotiable Word in you so that you may bring the Good News of God’s reconciling work in Christ to every individual that you meet.

God reconciled us to himself through Christ. He has now given us the ministry of reconciliation. God reconciled us in our Baptism, and He told us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. (Matt 28:19)

When the kindness and love of God appeared in the person of Jesus, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs, having hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)

"For our sake he made him to be sin who had no sin." (2 Cor 5:21) "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written" "cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." (Gal 3:13) Christ hung on a tree for us – he suffered the agony and shame of the cross so that his righteousness could be re-created in you.

Jesus tells us that he has placed his life-giving Word in you, so that you might appeal to others on his behalf, so that together with the whole communion of saints we may all share in the joy of the new creation on that day when He makes all things new! "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. The old order of things will pass away." (Rev 21:4)

The whole communion of saints will be gathered as together as far as the eye can see. Believers from every nation under heaven, once enemies of God and of each other, will be joined forever. No sin will separate. All will be one in the reconciling work of Christ and in the reconciliation we share. What a new kind of view that will be. Amen.