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All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people\u2019s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ\u2019s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ\u2019s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:18-20)

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As Pastor Michael noted yesterday, God\u2019s saving work in Christ gives us a new identity, a way to walk, and the equipping of the Spirit to walk in that way.\xa0 And as we learn to walk in this way of Christ, we discover that one of the fundamental cadences that begins to mark our steps is confession and forgiveness.\xa0 The way of reconciliation.

That\u2019s not strange, it was God who first reconciled us to Himself through Christ.\xa0 While we were still sinners, Christ forgave us through his taking of our place on the cross.\xa0 The initiative was God\u2019s, and still to this day, that forgiving initiative of God is what invites us out of our hiding places to honestly confess and receive that which is ours in Christ: forgiveness and restoration to full relationship with God.\xa0 His forgiveness leads and disarms us, our confession follows, and we are reconciled.

This is the power of the Kingdom of God, and it is the power that God authorizes all of us as the ambassadors of his kingdom to utilize fully as we walk in his ways among our family, neighbours, and friends.\xa0 Digitally and in person.\xa0

Each of us walk with this diplomatic communique of the Kingdom in our hand.\xa0 It is God\u2019s invitation to the world to receive his forgiveness so that they can be reconciled to God.\xa0

It\u2019s more than that though: in a very real way, we ourselves are that communique of the Kingdom.\xa0 We are called to live it too: to forgive as we have been forgiven.\xa0 To confess openly and honestly when we\u2019re in the wrong or have wronged someone else, because we\u2019ve been forgiven.\xa0 Not only is that a diplomatically attractive way to display the walk of our citizenship in the Kingdom, it also carries power with it: to draw poison from wounds, to heal, and to restore.

Many today are angry with government leaders, health leaders, neighbours from the other side of the political aisle, or even fellow Christians who navigate this pandemic differently.\xa0 Some of that anger has boiled over in harsh statements on social media, in slanderous, dishonest gossip, and even in violence like the attack on the US Capitol last week.\xa0

But harsh words and harsh actions are not the power of the Kingdom.\xa0 Forgiveness is.\xa0 And forgiveness has the power not only to heal our hurts and our anger, but perhaps also our relationships, our political divides, and our world.\xa0

How might you respond to God\u2019s radical diplomacy of forgiveness today?

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