With Easter so early this year and the Mexico mission the next day it seems as if we have been running a marathon. In a time when we long for peace and a tranquility that will allow us to feel the presence of God we are running so hard that we cannot even catch our breath. Our Mexico mission team had already returned before April had even started. A lot of things have kind of run together and seemed difficult in this past year. Yet Easter morning dawned bright and clear. Christ is truly risen from the dead and our difficulties and differences, if we accept that hope, must all be looked at in the light of this new hope.

We as the body of Christ have been given a great responsibility, ministry that will change the world one heart at a time into the wonderful creation God intended it to be. Christ, as he rose from the dead revealed God’s love and purpose for our world. Yet much of the time we are baffled by the behavior of those around us and the difficulty of being a people of God. I think it is important to focus on being a people of God rather than a church because often we can be even more frazzled if we allow programs and building concerns to distract us from our true purpose. Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians explains not only our ministry but is very clear on how and from whom we have received this ministry. He says; 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)

Our first task as we contemplate our ministry is to be reconciled to one another Jesus himself explains this necessity in the Sermon on the Mount. When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24) We have spent most of a year working with Speed Leas on just this kind of reconciliation and it is my prayer that it will begin to bear fruit in this coming year. We have to do some things though in order to nurture the fragile seedling we have gone through such trouble to plant. Probably the most important thing we could do is to take the time to fellowship together. To plan a series of events or potlucks that will bring together the whole Body of Christ that worships at RLC. We need to plan some things that cut across the generations and differences in worship styles. These are artificial differences that truly make no difference to God. It will take organization and vision but it is only when we see ourselves as a people of God reconciled with one another and with God that we can truly begin the ministry we have been entrusted with.

If the task seems overwhelming think of the example our youth set for us in the Mexico Mission this year, the task seemed overwhelming, to build a house on a postage stamp sized lot, where there was no place to work, no real way to get to it and the plans we thought were to guide us no longer applied. It was easy to feel overwhelmed and abandoned. Adults gave instruction only to find what had worked in the past was not working there. We stepped on one another and grumbled, pushing one another out of the way because there was no room to stand. Yet in spite of the difficulty Jesus’ words in John 14 "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. The true accomplishment in a very real way was the ability to continue to work together in spite of our frustration with one another, a frustration born more out of the overwhelming difficulty of the task than true differences we had with one another. Jesus was with us, reconciling us to one another and with God. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, not our own strength, by the new life, the Resurrection Life he has given us we were able to give new life, new hop to a struggling family enduring difficulties that are almost beyond our comprehension.

In this same way let us look to the task set before us this year at RLC to the reconciliation that needs to take place within our midst as a people of God and within the Tri Valley community we were called to reach with this ministry of reconciliation. Finally Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. Galatians 6:9-10

Pastor Jim Bliss
April 2008