"Public Faces"--July 31, 2019

"Public Faces"--July 31, 2019

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." [2 Corinthians 5:18-20]

An ambassador has a unique job.  To be an ambassador is not simply to be a dealmaker between one country and another, or an empty-suited dignitary who shows up at international ribbon-cuttings and ceremonies that higher-up elected leaders don't want to have to attend.  To be an ambassador is to embody the one who sends you as the public face of the realm you represent, for the sake of maintaining relationships in the country to which you are sent.

That means a couple of things.  For one, an ambassador only really has borrowed authority, which comes from the leaders who commission them to speak for the country whom they represent.  Ambassadors don't generally get to make up policy decisions on their own, but they are sent to bring in person the messages and policies of the heads of state from back home.  That also means that if your home government has sent you to bring a message of good-will to your host country, you still have to speak that good-will message, even if you don't particularly like the personalities of the people you have to talk with in your host country.  To be an ambassador is not so much to tell your host country's officials what you think, but to bring the message that is given to you by your home country's leaders.

And second, being an ambassador means that you are sent to represent a particular way of life, a set of ideals, and a way of life that represents the country from which you have come.  People in your host country will receive your individual actions as representative of the whole country that has sent you.  So if you are rude, you represent your whole country as rude.  If you are kind and gracious, those qualities also reflect on the country from which you have come.  If you show in your negotiations that you do not care about what is "right" but only what is "profitable," you reflect that these are the priorities of your homeland as well.  To be an ambassador is quite simply to be the public face of the nation that has sent you, for the sake of the people to whom you have been sent.

So... the apostle Paul sees something similar in his calling as a representative of Christ.  "We are ambassadors for Christ," he says, which means that he knows he isn't just bringing his own personal message to the world, but God's own message.  And it also means that his actions and words will always be interpreted as representing the God in whose name he speaks (and rightfully so).  There is no time he is "off the clock," and there is no point at which he can stop being a representative of Christ, because he is always showing for the world what God's Reign is all about.

It also means that when Paul announces God's blanket forgiveness and reconciliation with "the world," it doesn't mean Paul thinks everybody on God's green earth is polite, friendly, nice, well-behaved, or fresh-smelling--it means he has come to announce that God's policy is to have reconciled with the world, even though that world is still full of nothing but stinkers.  Paul knows he has been called to speak a message of God's radical grace to the world, and that this grace comes, not because of Paul himself, but because no less than God has chosen to reconcile with the world--even with people that Paul doesn't like or get along with.  The personality squabbles or conflicts between Paul and anybody else in the world do not overrule God's authority to set a policy of radical forgiveness in Christ.  God sets graces as the policy--the ambassador's job is simply to declare what the Sender has set as that policy.

Therefore, because grace is the policy, Paul knows that grace is to mark his actions and words toward those to whom he has been sent--which is everybody.  He knows that he is a public face for the Christ whom he represents, and so there is never a time where Paul is allowed to be personally cruel or demeaning to others, and there is never a time where it is OK to descend into petty name-calling or insulting others with whom he disagrees.  That is unbecoming of an ambassador, because those do not represent the "homeland" (the Reign of God) that he represents.

And, to cut to the chase, the same is true for us as well, two millennia later.  We are sent into the world--right where you find yourself today--bearing the radical grace of Christ as God's official policy toward everyone you meet.  We are sent as the public face of Christ, which means that people will look for a glimpse of who Jesus is, and what God's Reign is like, from our actions and words, morning, noon, and night.  There is no point at which we get to indulge our pet hatreds and prejudices, lobby for our own interests first, or sink to the level of being cruel or dehumanizing to anybody else, ever--because we are called, 24/7, to reflect the character of the One who has sent us.  If Jesus were a rude, pompous jerk, maybe we could have an excuse for being rude pompous jerks ourselves as his ambassadors.  As it is, we have been sent by the One who laid his life down even for his enemies and put the needs of others before his own comfort.  So that's the policy we are called to embody for the world where we have been sent. Jesus himself has set the policy of reconciling with "the world," which includes even the folks I don't think are worthy or don't like or seem too different from me.  This is not extra-credit Christianity for "saints"--this is simply what it is to be someone in whom Christ dwells.

So the question in the day in front of us is simply this: how can you and I most faithfully reflect the character, the values, and the personality of the Christ who has sent us?  People will be watching us today, and they will be drawing conclusions about the God we claim to represent as they see us.  What sort of picture will we offer them?

Lord Jesus, be seen in us--truly and beautifully--today.