LIfe can get complicated and messy, especially our personal relationships ... and this includes those within the church.  What is our responsibility when sin interrupts these relationships and our heart is filled with animus and ill-will toward the our brothers and sisters in Christ? 

Jesus teaches his disciples they are to give reconciliation within the body of faith top priority.  Matt. 5:23-24.  We are commaned to love others as we love ourselves.  The bedrock of reconciliation is love.  God reconciled us to himself through the atoning death of Jesus Christ because he first loved us.  He reconciled us so that we, too, can live as God had originally intended us to live:  in unity and peace with the triune Godhead and with one another.  What a gift!

A great example of this Christian duty is the story of Jacob reconciling with his brother Esau.  Gen. 33.  I invite you to read the chapter and discuss with each other what he did to reconcile.  With Esau, word from a messenger that Jacob wanted to meet and reconcile was like rain falling on hard soil.  It softened Esau's heart.  Note his response in 33:4.  For Jacob, when Esau received him favorably, it was like seeing "the face of God."  

The challenge I put to the congregation on Sunday when I preached this sermon was this:  "Who do you need to reconcile with?  What is your next step?" 

Not every case is easy.  Not every case requires you to meet with the other person.  Sometimes it's impossible: for instance, when the person is deceased, or meeting with a perpetrator would raise such a horrendous emotional response it could harm the victim.  If God is using you to counsel with that person, what  do you tell them?  How does scripture inform your response?

I hope you will give this matter your serious consideration.  I see a few hurting faces every Sunday in our congregation, people who are suffering in the chronic pain of being in conflict with somebody.  God may be calling you to fill the breach and walk with that person as s/he endeavors reconciliation. 

God bless you on your journeys.

Blessings,

Michael