Icon (Close Menu)

Reconciliation and Christian Faith

The Rt. Rev. Jeff W. Fisher, Suffragan Bishop of Texas, writes about the National Day of Reconciliation:

I don’t really like reconciliation. Reconciliation requires me to make an effort. Yet Jesus asks me to put in the effort and work to be reconciled to people, people who sometimes drive me crazy.

I didn’t know that there was such a thing as a National Day of Reconciliation, April 2. I can now add that to my list of other days that I have learned about such as National Margarita Day and National Left-Handed Day (which as a southpaw, I completely support).

To me, it is interesting that this National Day of Reconciliation falls on Easter Monday, the day after we celebrate that God raised Jesus from the dead. For after the Resurrection, I imagine that a lot of reconciliation needed to take place.

The night before Jesus dies, the Apostle Peter throws Jesus under the bus, denying him three times. The relationship between Jesus and Peter was not in a good place. Judas did more than throw Jesus under the bus; the relationship is so torn that Judas takes is own life. And we do not get off the hook either: we, the crowd, ask Pilate to do our dirty work, screaming “Crucify him!” so that an innocent man dies. As Jesus hangs on the cross, our relationship with Jesus is certainly broken.

The day after the Resurrection of Jesus, there was a lot of reconciliation required.

In my own experience, the only way that I am reconciled is to have a one-on-one conversation. Not an email rant. Not a text. A real live conversation.

Read the rest.

Matt Townsend
Matt Townsend
Matthew Townsend is the former news editor of The Living Church and former editor of the Anglican Journal. He lives in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Top headlines. Every Friday.

MOST READ

CLASSIFIEDS

Most Recent

GAFCON Blasts Welby for Endorsement of Gay Sex

The GAFCON Primates’ Council rebuked Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby for stating in a recent podcast interview that he believes that sex within any “committed relationship, straight or gay,” is moral, which they call an “explicit repudiation of Christian doctrine.”

ACNA Installs New Archbishop

In a service marked by pageantry, prayers and celebratory bagpipes, the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) received its new Archbishop and Primate this week.

Rowe Urges Strategy-Driven Executive Council

“You can only have a helpful evaluative structure if you have a strategy to evaluate,” Rowe added. “Otherwise you end up with what each individual board member thinks is important, a recipe for chaos.”  He also noted that “the staff reports to the CEO, not the board. This has been clear in our canons, but not in practice.”

11/24 Issue Online

The November 24 Advent issue of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers. In our cover story, Lauren Anderson-Cripps profiles developments...