Ambassadors of Reconciliation

When we hear the word “ambassador,” we often picture a diplomat in a crisp suit, navigating foreign policy from a grand embassy, standing between two nations to facilitate peace, dialogue, and understanding. An ambassador doesn’t represent themselves. They speak on behalf of another. They don’t set their own agenda; they carry the vision, values, and priorities of the one who sent them.

As Christians, we are not just disciples. We are not just followers. We are ambassadors, ambassadors of reconciliation. According to Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, this is not a role we choose; it’s one God has entrusted to us. We are called to speak and live on behalf of Christ: not to conquer, not to control, not to dominate, but to reconcile.

This world, my friends, is not our enemy. It is our mission field. Jesus does not call us to withdraw from the world, to shelter ourselves in bunkers of doctrine, or to build walls of moral superiority. He sends us into the world, not to fight it, but to love it into wholeness. This is our calling. This is the ambassador’s call.*

Reconciliation as Our Primary Identity

Paul writes, “So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!” This newness isn’t a private feeling. It’s a public commission. Paul continues, “God has given us the ministry of reconciliation… So we are ambassadors who represent Christ.”

That means our identity in Christ is inseparable from the call to reconcile. This isn’t a spiritual extra-credit assignment. It is the gospel call. It is the church’s reason for being. Every single disciple of Jesus Christ has been appointed, as an ambassador, for the sole purpose of the ministry of reconciliation. 

Reconciliation is not about forcing unity through silence. It’s not about pretending all is well. It is the difficult, holy, embodied work of standing in the gap between wounded and wounding, between victim and aggressor, between communities divided by race, politics, economics, history, and theology. Reconciliation does not flatten differences but honors them. It acknowledges injustice and works toward healing. It calls us to confess, to forgive, to change. Reconciliation actually encourages diversity because diversity brings the rainbow of flavors that all people can enjoy and receive benefits through its multicultural offerings.

Ambassadors of reconciliation cannot hide behind pulpits, pews, or church walls. We must go out. We must speak peace in places that thirst for war, division, and intolerance. We must carry mercy into systems bent on punishment. We must offer grace where fear demands revenge. 

We must offer an ambassador’s interpretation of scripture, especially around the terminology of God’s wrath. I offer an interpretation that seeks to fully realize what God’s wrath truly means, it cannot go against the ministry of reconciliation, it cannot go against the love of God, it cannot go against the holiness of God. What we, as ambassadors of peace and ministers of reconciliation, proclaim can be perceived and received as wrath against those who are anti-Christ, anti-gospel, anti-God, anti-love. 

The proclamation and active engagement of reconciliation with the world is felt as God’s wrath and revenge for the simple reason that enemies never expect you to love them, especially when they are actively against you. The apostle Paul is quoting Proverbs 25.21-22 and Deuteronomy 32.35 in his letter to the Romans to show how love is the foundational force for our call to the ministry of reconciliation. It is divine love that is the revenge and wrath of God in action. God’s revenge and wrath have nothing to do with death, suffering, and annihilation; it just feels that way to enemies of the cross. Paul provides proof for this as he quotes the Hebrew Scriptures in Romans chapter 20 verses 18-21 he writes, 

“If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people. Don’t try to get revenge for yourselves, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. It is written, “revenge belongs to me; I will pay it back, says the Lord. Instead, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. By doing this, you will pile burning coals of fire upon his head. Don’t be defeated by evil, but defeat evil with good.” 

God will not use evil to defeat evil. This is clear from the words of Jesus when he said, “Satan cannot cast out Satan…how could his kingdom stand?” God’s foundation is build on divine holy love, which cannot do evil, as God’s love shows how to effectively engage our enemies with peace and reconciliation. This, my friends, is how our ambassadorship shines in a world that can be filled with much darkness.*

“In the World, Not of It”

Now in John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples: “I’m not asking that you take them out of the world but that you keep them safe from the evil one… Just as you sent me into the world, so I am sending them into the world.”

Jesus is clear: the world is not something to escape. It is the very place we are called to live and love, you know, “on earth as it is in heaven”. Yet so many churches behave as if the goal of discipleship is isolation. “Don’t associate with them.” “Don’t be tainted by culture.” “Don’t let the world influence your faith.”

Jesus flips that script. He doesn’t pray for removal, he prays for resilience. He prays that we’ll have the courage to stay engaged, the wisdom to discern, and the strength to remain grounded in grace while walking into mess.

We are not called to retreat. We are not called to purity bubbles. We are called to embody the gospel in real places with real people. In Mt. Sterling. In Columbus. In Washington, D.C. In Gaza. In rural communities divided by conspiracy theories. In churches wounded by politics. In families torn apart by ideology. In schools where children don’t feel safe. In neighborhoods saturated with despair. We carry the ministry of reconciliation into every place we walk.

Our ambassadorship doesn’t get checked at the door of the school board meeting, the town council, church committees, the voting booth, the dinner table, or the table of the Lord. We are not part-time peacemakers. We do not stop being disciples when the setting gets uncomfortable. We go into the world as Jesus went. Full of grace and truth and loving to the end. We must refuse to return violence for violence, hatred for hatred, and insult for insult. That’s not even the easy way out, it’s the evil way out. We must choose love and reconciliation regardless of the circumstances.*

Peacemaking as Public Theology

Reconciliation is not passive. It is deeply public, deeply theological, and deeply political but it is not partisan. When we speak peace into the world, we are making a theological claim: God is not a God of human vengeance. God is not a nationalist. God is not on anyone’s political side. God is on the side of mercy, justice, peace, love, and life.

Being ambassadors of reconciliation means we reject every attempt to baptize violence, every effort to wrap the cross in camouflage or red, white, and blue. We are not prayer warriors, we are prayer ambassadors and peacemakers. We do not war in the spirit, we walk in the Spirit. It is that Spirit of God that leads us into the public square with gentleness, humility, and fierce compassion.

Peacemaking doesn’t mean silence. It doesn’t mean comfort. It often means confrontation, but of a different kind. We confront lies with truth. We confront dehumanization with dignity. We confront empire logic with kingdom values. We don’t conquer, we testify.

Friends, when Christian leaders call for “holy war” in the name of God, they are not ambassadors of Christ. They are agents of the empire in a clerical collar. When pastors bless political rallies like revival meetings, they are not reconciling people to God. They are reconciling the gospel to a flag or a political party platform and in doing so, they fracture the witness of the Church.

When megachurch pastors preach the prosperity gospel and tie your holiness to your income, they are not bearing witness to the kingdom of God. They are affirming the empire’s idolatry of wealth. When church leaders endorse legislation that marginalizes immigrants, trans youth, pregnant women, veterans, the elderly, or those without housing, they are not protecting holiness, they are betraying the very Christ who became homeless for our sake.

The ministry of reconciliation demands that we reclaim public theology. Not to control the public, but to speak a different word: love over fear, grace over retribution, mutuality over hierarchy.*

Commissioned to Restore, Not Dominate

The core of our calling is restoration. Not rule. Restoration. Reconciliation is not about returning to a mythic past; it’s about participating in God’s dream for a just and healed future.

The Church is not the spiritual arm of the township, local, state, or federal government. It is not an empire’s moral mouthpiece. It is not a warrior tribe fighting for dominance in a pluralistic world. The Church is the body of Christ, broken for the world, not weaponized against it.

To be commissioned by Christ is to enter the wounds of the world, not to inflict them. It is to stand in the place of risk. It is to offer the better way even when no one wants to hear it. Ambassadors are not always welcomed. Jesus says, “I send you out like sheep among wolves.” We must remember that the wolves are dressed like the sheep; that is the reality of reconciliation.

We are to stand between police officers and protesters, clergy and wounded congregants, parents and estranged children, nations and the nuclear button. To stand there in Christ’s name means we cannot take sides as the world defines them. We stand for peace. We stand for justice. We stand for dignity.

Where there are dividing walls, we bring ladders, not battering rams. Where there is violence, we bring healing, not retaliation. Where there is oppression, we advocate, not dominate; always defend and never attack.

Hear me clearly: the kingdom of God has no border walls. It has no voter suppression. It has no systemic racism. It has no caste system of clergy and laity. It has no Christian privilege. It is a kingdom without swords, without crowns, without nuclear arsenals, without golden thrones. Its only weapon is love. Its only law is grace. Its only crown was made of thorns.

So, church, what do we carry with us when we walk out those sanctuary doors?We don’t carry talking points. We carry a testimony. We don’t carry offensive weapons. We carry towels and basins. We wear the defense of the Lord which starts with compassionate restraint that hopefully calms chaotic events.

Ambassadors of reconciliation are not easily admired. We are often misunderstood. We are called naïve, soft, unpatriotic. Yet, we are also the ones who reflect the God who so loved the world, not that he judged it, but that he offered every possibility to become Christ-minded while living in it.

We do not get to decide who is worthy of reconciliation. We are not gatekeepers. We are bridge builders. That means we reconcile across political lines. Across racial divides. Across theologies. Across denominations. Across personal grudges and long-standing wounds.

We are called to walk into fractured families and say, “There’s still room for healing.” We are called to enter broken communities and say, “There’s still hope.” We are called to confront hateful systems and say, “There is still a better way.”

That way is Christ. Christ sends us, every one of us from this church in Mt. Sterling, to every corner of our Annual Conference and beyond to the borders we’re told to fear, to the communities that make us uncomfortable. We go not as conquerors but as reconcilers.

We go as ambassadors of a God who will never give up on reconciliation. So may we not retreat when the work gets hard. May we not dilute the gospel for the sake of comfort or security. May we not preach the kingdom and promote the empire. May we carry this ministry of reconciliation as if the world depended on it because, my friends, in many ways, it does. May it be so. Amen.

Let’s pray: God of peace and reconciliation, send us into the world not as warriors, but as witnesses of your mercy, your justice, your unstoppable grace. Make us faithful ambassadors, even when the world misunderstands. Teach us to reconcile where others divide, to stand between where others run, to love where others hate. May we carry your presence into every space, never abandoning our call, never forsaking your peace. In the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Servant of All. Amen.