Art and Imagination: the apocalyptic vision

Ash Wednesday- Reconciliation

Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent; Create and     make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Division and separation are a normal part of creation, a fluctuation between unity and separation is part of what it means to be created – we cannot escape it. Two people come together ‘are one’ and a new life is made. The foetus is part of its mother when it is in the womb – but its full identity is generated through separation from the mother. 

The life of God, the Trinity, is a perfect and mysterious performance of the interplay between independence and unity – the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit experience both unity and separation, both communality of will and yet independent action.

When we think about the ejection of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, we notice that such a separation was informed by the idea of making the wrong choice, of being disobedient. Reconciliation implies that there is a brokenness, that there needs to be healing, a coming back together. Christian doctrine locates this brokenness between God and his created world specifically in the actions of humans, going against God’s will; Jesus is the reconciler who brings the divided parties back together. The Christian faith narrates human experience as both exile and homecoming.

When we think about reconciliation the concept of the ‘other’ is essential, because reconciliation is about both unity and belonging. A good question might then be, who is ‘the other’ for you? What is it that makes them other? Christian community is created when different people come together, barriers of misunderstanding are broken down, where there is true diversity, and through Jesus there is the beginning of true communion, friendship, agape.

God in many ways is also ‘other’ – we have been divided and separated from him in order that we become independent, and yet like the baby who leaves the comfort of the womb we remember what it feels like to be totally secure and dependent. Being human then involves a restlessness, a sense not only that we are separate, but that with the separation there is also sin/pain/death. We have not only become separate but also exiled from home. 

In the wilderness for 40 days and nights Jesus entered into an environment that couldn’t be less womb-like. It was a wilderness where he was in danger, under attack, where none of his needs were met. He was not at home, he did not belong, and he was tested. Here he did battle with himself and the temptations that offered him a way out of the human condition. Jesus had to find a way of becoming ‘the reconciler’ that did not involve abuse of his power and knowledge. He found that the way back to God, back home, was through pain and suffering. The words from Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’ echo in my thoughts: ‘Anything new coming back to life is gonna hurt’. Jesus was the midwife of creation, enabling us all to come to new birth.

For us to come back to the fullness of life in God for which we are destined is to experience a re-making which hurts. Part of that is about acknowledging the extent to which we are responsible for ‘the other’, because we all participate in the wounding of our neighbour – in small and larger ways. We know that we have wounded, have been wounded and may well be wounding now those with whom we live and work among. This is another way of thinking about ‘sin’. We take what we want, do what we want because that is our default nature, ‘the woman gave me the fruit and I did eat’. Some of those wounds are inflicted entirely unintentionally; others we inflict out of our own alienation from God, wilfully; still others emerge from the depths of our longing and desire. In Lent we are invited to expose ourselves to the searching gaze of God’s refining fire so that our capacity not to wound, but to heal and reconcile is realised. We cannot be healers and reconcilers unless we recognise the depths of our own woundedness, our ability to damage others.

To be reconciled to God is to be remade in the light of Jesus’ love. On Ash Wednesday we are reminded of our mortality, of our earthly destiny. But, we are also reminded that in Christ we are being made ‘other’. That ‘othering’ is our salvation – to become a stranger to all within us that speaks of death, and instead to become a friend of life. During Lent we are disciplined so that we might choose life and not death. 

'Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return, turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ'.

Justin Welby

Christ calls us to be peacemakers who cross the borders and barriers that divide us – radical in our generosity and welcome. It’s a call to see others in their full humanity, to persist in seeking their good. Communities of followers of Jesus across the world are present at the most local levels where relationships are made or broken. In these relationships, the Church has the opportunity to offer honest, deeply-rooted hope.                                         

Quoted in ‘Reconciliation’ by Muthuraj Swarmy

2 Corinthians 5.17-20

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 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.  

Colossians 1.19-22

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or on heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him.