Be Reconciled

Are you ready? The time has come. Today, we begin our 2026 journey to the cross. That journey begins on the day that we remember who we are. Children of God saved by grace.

Part of that remembrance will take place a little later when we receive the ashes and hear the words “From dust you came, to dust you shall return.” Only the return of Jesus can prevent us from at some point following the path of the saints before us. Passing on from this life into eternal life.

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I was reminded of this fact a few weeks ago when I learned of the death of someone I had gone to church with. He had entered 2024 with hope and expectation. Only to find later that year that he had terminal cancer. That diagnosis led to his death earlier this year.

He is out of time, but it is during our time on this earth that we can show God that we are thankful for the life that he will offer to us after our deaths. This is why as is pointed out in today’s scripture we need to be reconciled with God.

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Being reconciled with God involves us being willing to restore or become more compatible with God. It is us seeking to strengthen or possibly begin a growing relationship with the one who created us. The one who saved us.

We need to offer to God the thanks and praise, and service that he deserves for what he did for us and what he continues to do for us today. God died so that we could live. God offered us grace so that we could be saved.

God gave us the Holy Spirit so that we can be connected to him. We become reconciled with God when we live our lives as those saved by grace and therefore desire to remain connected to him.

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Paul in his writing to the church in Corinth reminds them about life. Sometimes things are going good and other times we will face hardships. He wants them to strive to not allow the good or the bad times to lead them away from God.

Paul is saying to them I have kept the faith. I have faced more hardships than most if not all of you in my life. I have felt more blessings than some of you most likely have been able to experience. Paul is saying, I have faced the good, the bad, and the ugly of life but I still believe in the God that saved me.

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There maybe times when life is good, and you may end up forgetting about God. We find this within scripture; the chosen people of God forgetting to talk to God or ask for God’s opinion. This lack of attention led God to decide they didn’t want to have him be a part of their lives.

He leaves them on their own to live as they desired to live. We can be similar. We can begin living lives of busyness. We can allow ourselves to turn our focus on the worldly instead of on the Godly.

We can get wrapped up in the ways of the world. We can choose to not leave time for God. We can end up believing that the answers we need in our lives can come from those around us and we can end up not spending time with the one who created us.

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The opposite can also happen. We can be going through life and troubles come. We weren’t ready and we wonder why God would allow for bad things to happen to good people. We can forget that we live in a world that has been corrupted by human sin.

We find this in our first reading. The people are seeking God after seeming to be separated from him. They believe they have a need to need to be consecrated to God. We know that we are blessed. We know that no matter what we do that God is waiting for us to decide we want to be reconciled to him.

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The Lenten season can become that time in which we reset our life with God. In which we choose to be reconciled with God. We are given a prolonged length of time to reconnect with the one who saved us. To remember the love that God first showed us.

Being reconciled with God can look different for each one of us depending on where we stand in our relationship with him. For some it may mean beginning a relationship with him. You may have come today in order to find out that you want to or need to become reconciled for the first time.

You may be hearing for the first time about the one who in a few weeks we will be remembering the sacrifice he made for us on the cross and his resurrection which you would celebrate as Easter.

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For others of us, it may be starting again what has already been. A decision that you need to return to the love of the one who first loved you. No matter how far you have gone away, God has not moved. God is waiting with open arms for your return.

It may be for you that the busyness of life has overtaken the time that you would have previously spent with God. You can take the time that we have in this season of Lent to rebuild that spiritual connection that you once had with your God.

This can be a time for you to cry out to God and ask to begin again. What we have to acknowledge is that God as not moved. We have moved away from God, and he is awaiting for our return. All we need to do is ask.

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Some of you may be here today and you may have stayed connected and feel close to God. This can be a time for you to speak to God and ask him for the ways that you can become even closer. We are never finished with becoming closer to God until our time on earth is finished.

Have the bravery to ask God how he can help you become even closer with him. But also, don’t be surprised if you don’t like his answer and don’t want to continue the conversation. God will often push us out of our comfort zone.

It then becomes our decision if we are willing to do what God has called for us to do. We get to decide if we are going to answer the prayer that we asked for. Our we going to be willing to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus to those God places before us.

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We are blessed because we are able to reconcile with God while in community with those around us. Paul is not writing this letter to an individual as he does in some cases. Paul is writing to a group of believers who are doing life together. He is saying, live life together, become reconciled with God together.

 When we do this, we get to help each other. Learn with each other. And learn from each other. The church becomes that place where we can become more connected with God. We get to help others become connected with God while leaning upon each other to deepen our relationships with him.

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Our scripture begins with why it is important for us to reconcile with God. We are Christ’s ambassadors to the world. We are to be who the world looks towards as what it means to have a relationship with Jesus.

We view an ambassador as someone who lives in another country and represents his country to the people of a foreign land. This is similar to the scripture that tells us that we live in this world but not of this world.

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An ambassador would live in a land but is not from that land. It is through being an ambassador for Jesus that we can let those around us know about our Lord. We should fulfill this mission of being an ambassador through our words and actions.

Jesus spoke to anyone that would listen. Jesus helped those who were sick. Jesus offered love to those that were the outcasts of Jewish society. He offers us an example of what it means to be his ambassador. He showed us what we are called to do in order to fulfill our role as his representatives to our communities, to our nation, and to the world.

That is why we should be showing the love of God to others through our local churches. We each have our own communities around us. We each can reach those we meet while also through worshipping together show the world that we are united together.

Let us use this season of Lent to strengthen our relationship with Jesus. Let us show those around us Jesus through our words and actions. Let us be united together in loving God and loving those around us.

Let us pray…