Ministers of Reconciliation

For anyone united to Christ, there is a new creation: the old [world] has gone; a new [world] has already begun.^{^[1]} And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

The coming of Jesus Christ was at the perfect time, the close of an age, in which the old world was passing away. The world of Zechariah’s and Ezra’s temple had come to pass, but like the Davidic temple and Mosaic tabernacle before it, its time came to an end. Each symbol, each temple, was incomplete, needing a greater fulfillment, a better picture of the heavenly tabernacle which it pointed the people of God towards. And so the first Word came into the world to tear down the temple and bear it up in three days. In so doing, the Word brought life to the old Law. That old Law led unto death because it was a covenant of a stone temple, but Jesus brought a covenant leading unto resurrection because his was a covenant of a fleshly temple. By taking on flesh and reconciling man in his mortal body, his born-again children no longer live by the world passing away, the age of temple-stone burned by fire, but live according to the Spirit which burns our hearts and transforms us into living temples, living sacrifices.

Jesus Christ, by coming into the world as a fleshly yet Spirit-filled man, crossed the boundary of these ages, and dying and rising again showed the result of the flesh as death, yet the result of the Spirit in the flesh as eternal life. Jesus Christ thus reconciled the old world and the new world, the old covenant and the new covenant, our righteous Father to sinful humanity, the model heaven and the made earth: all was brought to bear in his flesh.

Dwelling in Jesus Christ, as ministers of the Gospel, we become ministers of these reconciliations found in the God-man. As ministers of him, we declare that the world of new life has come, and that all must be brought into it. The way to everlasting peace and grace was cut in the piercéd flesh of our temple veil, Jesus Christ. We point to those wounds as the wounds by which the world can and will be healed, both in our embodiment of Jesus Christ’s dynamic and transformational life, and also through our proclamation of Jesus’ reconciliation to all creatures being made new.^{^[2]}

Contextualizing this ministry of reconciliation in the 21st century means taking the principle of reconciliation and overlaying it onto our culture, for Scripture gives us a proper lens to read creation in light of redemption. Particularly in light of America’s thin, dying Protestant cultures (much akin to perishing, temporary covenants), ministers of the gospel need to establish centers of thick worship and cultural practices grounded on a full reading of Scripture in the Spirit.^{^[3]} These cultural and worship centers are simply churches who can interpret the best of our historic Anglican faith and give the raw materials for building a new world to our Adams and Eves, the everyday families who seek to obey the Great Commission of Matthew 28 and Mark 16. One way might be to describe these churches as Benedict Options, but that would be to only examine the earthly, political aspect of cultural preservation.

As ministers of reconciliation, practices from our “old covenants” must be brought before the scrutinizing Scriptures and made new, not merely recovered. Still imperfect, certainly, but bringing the wisdom and guidance of the Spirit into the present. This will involve the restoration of many old practices, such as a renewed feasting and fasting with the liturgical calendar and rest on the Lord’s Day to redeem the time and live in conformity with the church everlasting. Monthly prayer and singing of the Psalter is another culture-reconciling practice.^{^[4]} These are a few of the timeless tools found in God’s two books that are always pregnant with the power of the Spirit of God.^{^[5]} These are the habits and practices that can lead our world to groan as it awaits the final and complete coming of Christ.^{^[6]}

Another of the Evangelical tools–nay, sacraments–that is so required for cultural reconciliation is biblically expository preaching. When the word goes forth, it does not return null and void. Bishop Ryle notes the restraining effect it has on the unbeliever even as it sanctifies, renews, and reminds the Christian. A culture deep in sermons is filled with a people trained to listen, a most godly posture in both Testaments.

One underdeveloped aspect of the catholic church’s culture-making is its biblical anthropology. What does it look like for women to glorify the church? The vision of the Psalter seems to be taking a tree and streams of water (Psalm 1:3) and developing it into a resonant sanctuary (Psalm 150:1)^{^[7]} How might the woman of Canticles 8:6‒7 be a mirror for how women should serve and even resurrect the church?^{^[8]} Women have certainly saved American Episcopalianism before, so how might their glorification do so again?^{^[9]} Men are coming to the church in record numbers–how do we plant them in rich, Biblical soil so that they may grow strong roots to hold that Biblical culture in place, provide the lumber for future glorified temples, and bear fruit to feed the starved nations?

Anglicans have many of the tools of cultural renewal within their own past. We have been party to multiple civilizational restorations since Elizabeth I restored the English currency and ushered in a golden age of Christian poetry, theology, and literature. But those tools are buried deep in our past and a simple return is impossible. God has promised us the future. But a future unmoored from the ministry of reconciliation given to Christ’s church, a future where the Anglican ministers bury their talents in the ground is a Christian future without an Anglican church. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.^{^[10]}

Notes

REB 1989, sourced from In the Fullness of Time by Richard Gaffin. “Order” has been replaced with “world” to highlight continuity of “all” across the better translated first verse and the authorized rendering of the later verse. ↑
Mark 16:15. ↑
This is the charitable reading of Dr. Peter Leithart’s The End of Protestantism. ↑
Ephesians 5:17. ↑
Psalm 19 notes the speaking of creation and then the written word. These two sources of Revelation, both truly God’s speech, culminate in the man’s imitation of them, a pleasing meditation and imitative speech returned to God. ↑
Romans 8:19‒22. ↑
Psalm 144:12 reveals a peculiar and sexed prayer for sons and daughters suggesting this movement from garden to city, from nomadic/frontier to agrarian/civilization, from man to woman. ↑
Her appeal to be bound on the heart and sealed on the hand clearly echoes the role of the Spirit writing the law upon the Christian ↑
Consider the revival of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia in the early-mid 19th century, due primarily to the pious efforts of women who kept prayerbook worship alive in their congregations. ↑
II Corinthians 7:1. ↑