Lent 4 C - 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

The apostle Paul makes it sound so simple. “If you are in Christ you are a new creation…” How is it then that so many new creations continue to live in old ways regarding themselves and others and even the Christ from a human point of view? It is because we continue to cling to our old skin, stretching or shrinking it to make it fit even when it is obvious to everyone else that it doesn't.  Becoming a new creation is as much a death as it is a birth and both birth and death are very difficult things to do. So how do old creations learn new tricks? It begins and ends with what sounds so simple – a new point of view. That is we no longer think of Christ or others or ourselves from the point of view that sees reconciliation as compromise and forgiveness freely given as cheap. Or the point of view that accepts reconciliation for self but withholds it from others. Or worse, the point of view that accepts reconciliation for everyone else but can’t quite come to accept it as true for self and so the old skin clings to us as much as we cling to it. But if we dare to shed the old skin without fear of being naked we will die to the human point of view of selfish ways (ways that are both self-serving and self-denying) and become the new creation we already are all because of who God is. God does not count your sins against you. You can stop counting them as well.

Lent 4 C 2010