Communique of the Kingdom

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) God's saving work in Christ gives us a new identity, a way to walk, and the equipping of the Spirit to walk in that way.  And as we learn to walk in this way of Christ, we discover that one of the fundamental cadences that begins to mark our steps is confession and forgiveness.  The way of reconciliation. That's not strange, it was God who first reconciled us to Himself through Christ.  While we were still sinners, Christ forgave us through his taking of our place on the cross.  The initiative was God's, and still to this day, that forgiving initiative of God is what invites us out of our hiding places to honestly confess and receive that which is ours in Christ: forgiveness and restoration to full relationship with God.  His forgiveness leads and disarms us, our confession follows, and we are reconciled.  This is the power of the Kingdom of God, and it is the power that God authorizes all of us as the ambassadors of his kingdom to utilize fully as we walk in his ways among our family, neighbours, and friends.  Whoever we're with, each of us walk with this diplomatic communique of the Kingdom in our hand.  It is God's invitation to the world to receive his forgiveness so that they can be reconciled to God.   It's more than that though: in a very real way, we ourselves are that communique of the Kingdom.  We are called to live it too: to forgive as we have been forgiven.  To confess openly and honestly when we're in the wrong or have wronged someone else, because we've been forgiven.  Not only is that a diplomatically attractive way to display the walk of our citizenship in the Kingdom, it also carries power with it to draw poison from wounds, to heal, and to restore. You don't have to go far to discover anger, estrangement, bitterness, grudges, and hopelessness.  It is in the news, in our politics, on our social media feeds, and in our families too.  Even in our church denomination, a constant drumbeat of the inevitability of our splitting off from one another can be heard.   But this is not the power of the Kingdom.  Forgiveness is.  Reconciliation is.  And this forgiveness and reconciliation has the power not only to heal our hurts, but perhaps also our relationships, our political divides, our church, and our world.   How might you respond to God's radical diplomacy of forgiveness today?