“In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself . . .therefore the love of Christ compels us.” 2 Corinthians 5

“Unforgiveness is the poison chalice that we drink from in the hopes of hurting others.”

What’s your favorite ice cream? 

Friday night the church I pastor in Allenspark had an old-fashioned ice cream social.  It reminded me of childhood days when we used to make homemade ice cream by hand.  That’s the kind they had on Friday.  While there were many flavors to choose from, my favorite was a scrumpdilyicous bowl of chocolate ice cream.  It was based on the Frosty ice cream served at Wendy’s.  I asked Cindy how she made it.  “It’s very simple,” she said.  “You just use chocolate milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cool whip.”   

Do you remember in the movie “Forrest Gump”, where he says, “Life is like a box of chocolates”?  Maybe God’s love, peace, and reconciliation is like a bowl of chocolate ice cream. 

Certainly God loves us more than we love ice cream, chocolates, our children, or anything else.  And just as the ice cream at the church social on Friday was free and delicious, so too is God’s love!  God’s love is sweet, and abundant, and fills us with that pleasant, satisfied, “all is right with the world” feeling that we have when eating ice cream—or chocolates. 

The love of God is what compelled The Christ to do the hard work of reconciling the world to God.  While we may have enemies, or at least people we don’t like or are at odds with, God doesn’t.  As St. Paul says, “In Christ Jesus, God was reconciling the world to Himself.”  And now God has given us the gift of reconciliation.  This is the really hard part of making peace with others.  To intentionally be reconciled. Just as it took the death of Jesus to bring about reconciliation to God, so too it takes our dying to self to bring about reconciliation with others.  But like that chocolate ice cream at the church social, there is an easy recipe to follow.  There are three essential ingredients.

The first is to Let Go and Let God.  We let go of the long list we’ve made of how the other person has hurt us.  We let go of our desire to justify ourselves.  We let go of the desire to see the other person punished or pay for what they did.  We let go of the need to be right.  And we let God.  We let God take all of the offenses.  We let God fill us with love and grace and the desire for forgiveness.  We let God lead us in the path that Jesus walked, which is one of love and humility.  And this leads us to the second ingredient.

The second ingredient is “Getting.”  In the words of Jesus, we are to stop examining the speck in the eye of the other, and get the log out of our own eye.  Another word for this is humility.  In humility, we are to consider the other person better than ourselves.  In humility, we are to give up on our desire to be right and instead accept the role of the one who is in the wrong.  In humility we are to carefully consider the part we ourselves have played in creating the conflict.  Along with this, we should get rid of expectations for a certain result.  Just because we might want to restore peace with another person, they may not be ready.  We might apologize to them, but they may not accept it.  The important thing is for us to have an attitude of genuine humility.

The third step is to “Go.”  We are to approach the other person in a spirit of humility, and clearly convey to them the manner in which we have caused offense, and ask their forgiveness.  Not making excuses, or giving explanations as to why we did what we did to create the problem, but simply and humbly reaching out to them.  This can be done in a variety of ways.  The best is if it is in person, but sometimes that is impossible.  Perhaps a letter or email might work.  Or maybe, there aren’t words involved, at least not at first, but a gesture of love, like the one that Esau made with Jacob. 

The chocolate ice cream at the church social on Friday was fantastic.  I don’t know that I’ll ever make it myself, but if I do, I have the recipe.  We’ve all been given the recipe for reconciliation, which is so much sweeter than ice cream, leaves a better taste in our mouths, lasts longer, and is certainly healthier!

I leave you with this Song of David from Psalm 133:

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.  It is like precious oil poured over the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard and over the collar of his robe.  It is as if the dew of Mount Hermon were descending over Mount Zion.  For this is how the Lord bestows His blessing and gives life forevermore.”