2 Corinthians 13:11-14
11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All God’s people here send their greetings.
14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
The God of Love and Peace Calls Us to Live in Love and Peace
Can I just read that first verse again? “Brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace.”[1] Could there be a more timely message than this for our world today?
2020 has been quite the year. And it’s more than just “the Rona.” Do you remember the bushfires in Australia? There were huge locust swarms in Africa and Asia. Murder Hornets made their way across the Pacific Ocean. We’re 3 months into a global pandemic. And then there’s George Floyd.
His case is different, isn’t it? Maybe we can pin COVID on a conspiracist; we still don’t know the root cause. Maybe there was an arsonist behind the Australian bushfires; I don’t know. Maybe the Murder Hornets stowed away on a poorly supervised shipping container. Maybe there was some human cause for all of them, but the odds are there was no malice. These were not premeditated or planned out. They’re probably just freak accidents of nature outside of anyone’s control.
But not George Floyd.
To be fair, it doesn’t seem like the officer who killed him woke up that morning with a plan to kill a black man, but that doesn’t excuse the officer’s actions in any way or make his death any less of a tragedy. If anything, it has opened our eyes to how prevalent and pervasive prejudice is.
We can be so quick to make up our minds about someone else before we know anything about them other than the way they look. The color of their skin or their economic status can completely change our perspective of them to the point that we treat them not like a human but like a stereotype.
Racism is ugly in any context and deserves our conversation. But I’ll be honest with you. That’s not something I like to hear. I know it’s shameful now, but I used to be proud to say that I walked out of a lecture in which a speaker accused me of being racist. My mind was filled with justification for why I could do that, e.g. he didn’t know me. I lived overseas where bombs that targeted Americans exploded a few blocks from where I was.
I have a history of getting defensive and arguing my case until I’m blue in the face. I hate to see buildings burned and livelihoods destroyed in the name of social justice. My blood boils when I read about the violence and vandalism that are coming out of these riots.
But that’s half the problem, isn’t it? It’s hard to burn with anger when you’re rejoicing. It’s hard to be resentful when you’re striving for full restoration. It’s hard to be divided when you are of one mind and living in peace.
Christians, now is not the time to point the finger at anyone else. Now is not the time to make justifications, explanations, or excuses. Now is not the time to draw up battle lines and determine which hill you’re going to die on. It may not even be the time to talk. It is time to listen to things that aren’t easy to hear. It’s time to point that finger inward and ask, “Am I striving for full restoration, or am I content to turn off social media and change the channel because that’s not my city and it’s not my problem?”
Paul didn’t write these words to people who were divided by race, but they were divided. There was prejudice and pride. There was an underlying sense of superiority that did not consider everyone to be equal. There were microaggressions and open hostility that resulted in a fractured and faltering church. The congregation in Corinth was in danger of falling apart because of human squabbles, because of barriers and differences that people invented.
Did you get angry when you heard how George Floyd died, to learn or see how that officer continued to kneel on his neck for 4 minutes after he had obviously lost consciousness? Did you get angry when you saw protestors burn down buildings and loot local businesses? Did you get angry when you heard what Celebrity A tweeted or Politician B stated? What would you say or do if you were the mayor of Minneapolis right now?
I have a suggestion: Brothers and sisters, rejoice![2]
How can Paul possibly say that? He had poured his heart and soul into this congregation. He had visited them 3 times and wrote them 3 letters, arguably giving them more attention than any other church anywhere. And they were threatening to bring it all crashing down because they couldn’t get along. They were building walls where God calls for unity and they were driving a wedge where God called them to live in peace. How can Paul be so cordial or so naïve to suggest that they just “Kiss and make up”[3]?
I think it’s because Paul believed it when he called them brothers and sisters. They weren’t related. They weren’t even the same nationality (they were Greek; he was Jewish). They didn’t have the same history or culture, but Paul truly believed that they were part of the same family, and that changes the narrative.
Maybe you’ve seen those signs: “There is only one race – the human race.” When we see each other as fellow human beings who deserve the same rights and privileges, it stops being black vs. white, or cops vs. color, because we’re all sisters and brothers, because we’re all human. Human decency demands that we treat each other with respect that we would like to receive, and that we don’t dismiss someone else’s trauma just because it doesn’t directly affect us.
We’re all sisters and brothers because we’re all human beings, but that’s not why Paul calls them that. He calls the Corinthians sisters and brothers because they were all one family under Christ. We have more than human DNA connecting us, more than one common ancestor thousands of years ago. We have the God of love and peace living with us. We have the Triune God – Father, Son and Spirit – pouring out his threefold gift of grace, love, and fellowship on all of us.
We hear those words a lot here at church, whether at the beginning or end of a service – or both! But as common as they may be, they’re still worth our attention today.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.[4]
Grace is God’s undeserved love for sinners. There is no room for a sense of entitlement in a room full of sinners. None of us is better or worse, more or less deserving of God’s love than anyone else. By putting that word first, Paul is emphasizing how none of us deserves God’s love. As he writes to the Romans, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[5] “There is no one who does good, not even one.”[6]
You don’t have to kneel on someone’s neck to be guilty of racism. The police officers who stood by and did nothing have been charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder. Maybe you haven’t committed violent acts of hatred, but have you stood idly by as a silent spectator while someone else (or an entire segment of our society) is suffering? Then you need God’s undeserved love too.
The Christian life is not one of pointing fingers or casting blame. It’s not about highlighting the greater harm or crusading for someone else’s condemnation. It’s about owning our sin and acknowledging our shame. It’s about hitting our knees with broken hearts that mourn the hurt and loss in this world and the many ways we contribute to it.
But the beauty of the Trinity and the threefold blessing of our God is that he doesn’t leave us on our knees. Although we don’t deserve God’s love, he still gives it to us wholeheartedly through our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the love that your heavenly Father has for every human being – Greek or Jew, black or white – that was willing to sacrifice his Son to save you.
That’s the kind of love that God has for you. It’s unconditional, meaning that he doesn’t wait for us to be loveable to love us. God’s love doesn’t require reciprocation, meaning that he won’t suddenly take it back when you keep messing up. God’s love is active and intentional. It’s not a matter of emotion that can change from minute to minute; it’s a matter of his will that he has decided to love you no matter what.
That’s why he sent Jesus to the cross. Jesus died an unjust death to bring true justice to this world, to pay for the wrongs you have done and the good you have failed to do. In love God sent Jesus to die to forgive you and remove your guilt and shame. In love God unites you to every other sinner in this world under the blood of his Son and our gracious Lord and Savior Jesus.
And in love God lives with you. That’s what Paul calls the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It refers to the Spirit of God taking up residence in your heart. It’s the promise that Paul made earlier, i.e. how the God of love and peace will be with you.[7]
How blessed you are to have this Triune God as your God! To have a God who loves you no matter what you’ve done. To have a God who puts that love into action and sacrifices himself for you. To have a God who doesn’t leave you but lives with you and in you, enabling you to be like him, if only in the smallest way. To have the God of love and peace equip us to live in love and peace.
The troubles and problems of this world are deeply engrained in us. They won’t go away after a week of protesting or a 20-minute sermon. But long after the hashtags are forgotten and these words are buried in a mountain of other online content, the God of love and peace will still be with you. So, rejoice, brothers and sisters, and strive for full restoration. There is work to do if we are to be of one mind and live in peace with each other.
It starts with listening. Before you post anything, before you get into it at the next, socially-distanced BBQ, read an article from someone who has a totally different perspective than you. Better yet, talk to someone who has had a totally different experience than you. And listen with open ears, not to respond but to understand. We can be united, of one mind with each other, without being uniform, because what unites is stronger than what divides us. And I’m not talking about humanity or decency. I’m talking about the Trinity – the God of grace who loves us and lives with us, i.e. the God of love and peace who calls us to live in love and peace.
Rejoice that he is your God and that we are all his children, united in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
[1] 2 Corinthians 13:11
[2] Ibid
[3] V.12 – Greet one another with a holy kiss.
[4] 2 Corinthians 13:14
[5] Romans 3:23
[6] Romans 3:12
[7] 2 Corinthians 13:11