Ministers of Reconciliation

Beloved of God,

    Our Good Friday service is still several weeks away, but I have space for four people of any age to join us in reading Scripture. Most of the service is an opportunity to meditate on Christ’s sacrifice for us by letting Scripture guide our thoughts. Please email me if you would like to help lead us in this way.
    Spring Break will be in full swing by week’s end, and I will be praying for those of you who are traveling. I do hope that you will make a special effort to join us on Sunday, April 3rd as we get a special opportunity to hear from our Mission and Outreach team during and after the service. God is at work among people far and near, and we will have a chance that Sunday to consider how we might take part in that work.

Our Scripture reading this week comes from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. It relies on the metaphor of an ambassador, bearing news that the world has changed. 
We don’t run into performative language as often as other types of speech. Performative language is the way that speaking can really and truly change the world. It can take a boyfriend and girlfriend and make them husband and wife. It takes students and makes them into graduates. It makes foster children sons and daughters. And yes, it takes loyal subjects and turns them into ambassadors.
We who are in Christ are a new creation, signs of a new world. We are not merely declared to be ambassadors, we are transformed into ambassadors and ministers of reconciliation. The old thing has gone. The new thing is here…and we’re it! Beloved, live your life as the new thing you are. Let God use you, a living sign of a new creation, to make His appeal to a world desperate to be renewed.

Please join me this week in praying for:

• An end to this pandemic. 
  
• Those of us who are facing or recovering from medical interventions.
• Those of us who will be traveling over Spring Break.
• Those who respond to emergencies on our roads, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes
• In praise for the good gift of late snowfall.
• In joy over the arrival of spring.
• The young people we know and love, especially those facing big changes or big decisions.
  
• Mercy when we need it, and wisdom where we lack it.
• Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,

Marshall

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