Lent

“Go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. ” Matthew 5:24

It is often in times of meditation in the presence of God that we can become more aware of our shortcomings and a better sense of how we should serve Christ. This verse is all about whole hearted reconciliation, yet. so often we tend to limit our efforts to but wrongs right.

One New Year's Eve at London's Garrick Club, British dramatist Frederick Lonsdale was asked by Symour Hicks to reconcile with a fellow member. The two had quarrelled in the past and never restored their friendship. "You must," Hicks said to Lonsdale. "It is very unkind to be unfriendly at such a time. Go over now and wish him a happy New Year."

So Lonsdale crossed the room and spoke to his enemy. "I wish you a happy New Year," he said, "but only one."

The wounds inflicted by men and women on each other constitute the fundamental fault line running beneath all other human conflicts. However, the biggest reconciliation issue of all is our need to be reconciled to God. Jesus fully understood this need and in his words was doing no more than recall the Jews to a principle which they well knew and ought never to have forgotten. 

The idea behind sacrifice was quite simple. If a someone did a wrong thing, that action disturbed the relationship between them and God, and the offering was meant to be the cure which restored that relationship. Secondly, to be effective, such an offering had to include confession of sin and true penitence; and true penitence involved the attempt to rectify any damaged relationship.

Charles Finney an American Presbyterian minister (1792-1875) once said. “If an elder or private member of the church finds his brethren cold towards him, there is but one way to remedy it. It is by being revived himself, and pouring out from his eyes and from his life the splendour of the image of Christ. This spirit will catch and spread in the church, and confidence will be renewed, and brotherly love prevail again.”

Loving God,
you have reconciled us in Christ Jesus
and have given us the ministry of reconciliation.
We pray for all those from whom we are estranged.
Bring healing to strained or broken relationships.
Forgive us for the times we have wronged others,
whether by ignorance, neglect, or intention.
Grant us the courage and the grace to seek their forgiveness
and opportunity to make amends.
Where others have wronged us,
grant us a gracious spirit,
that we might forgive
even as we have been forgiven in Jesus Christ. Amen.