The Ministry of Reconciliation

How easy is it for us to feel alienated and out of place in this world? I'd say that many of us carry around such a feeling a lot of the time. The world today only increases the sense of estrangement: Fast-paced, heavy on technology, increasingly individualistic ... is it any wonder that we feel like strangers in a strange land?

The world is a sinful place. There's just no getting around that. Our individual sin drives us away from the healing that relationship with God and neighbor can offer. We willfully seek out our own way, convinced that we know what is best for us (despite the fact that our human will leads us to unhappiness time and time again). In such a situation, Christian people are called to be in the church. We are called away from our isolation and loneliness and into the one covenant community that can truly sustain us.

Emily and I witnessed one such community this past Sunday. I write about it in this week's column in the United Methodist Reporter.

Have you witnessed a community of reconciliation and hope that was particularly powerful? I'd love to hear about it.