Pastor Ponderings #193: Truth & Reconciliation

Today marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. Our nation recognizes its role in separating aboriginal children from their parents and families to be assimilated in residential schools. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said, “On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, we honour Survivors of Canada’s residential school system, remember the children who never returned home, and stand with the families and communities who carry that loss.”

There are serious questions to be answered around reconciliation. How much time must pass before we are reconciled with these wronged communities? What is fair reimbursement? How can amends ever be made for those lives lost? Many of the questions being asked are subjective and there are too many parties affected to come to a settlement satisfactory to all involved. More importantly, this is dealing with an issue of national guilt which doesn’t translate well on an individual level.

It reminds me of the truth of reconciliation in which Christians believe. Not for its similarities, but for its distinct differences. Canada may well bear responsibility for its past failures on a national level, however, the Bible teaches that every sinner is guilty on an individual level, Romans 3:23. That means there is no governing body or bureaucratic committee established to negotiate settlement terms and timelines between us and the chiefly offended Lord. I’m not sure Canada will ever reconcile to the point of reaching a reset between all parties. In Christianity, there is every hope that one may be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. There is a tangible reset from our sin-stained past.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

The key to gaining access to all things new is to be “in Christ”. This is discovered in response to the Gospel. Once believed and received, we are enlisted as ambassadors and gospel peddlers in hope that others too may be restored to a right relationship with God. Paul’s thread continues in 2 Corinthians 5:18 “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

Do you desire truth? In John 14:6 Jesus is described as the way, the truth and the life. Not “a truth”, as though He were one among many, but “the truth”, as in exclusively. He is also the Word made flesh and the Word spoken at the beginning. His word abides with us today in the Bible. Do you also desire reconciliation? Peace that passes understanding is available from His hand. He offers forgiveness and adoption into His family through repentance and faith. These things would mark a real day of truth and reconciliation.