"Can we all get along?"

“Can we all get along?” This was the plaint of Rodney King in 1992 in the riot torn city of Los Angeles after violence broke out in the wake of what most perceived to be an unjust verdict that acquitted the officers who were caught on videotape beating him. An already strained relationship between the LA police and the black community reached a breaking point with devastating results: 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, and over $1,000,000,000 in damages; a terrifying and troubling example of sin’s disruptive power.

The truth is we can’t all get along. Fractures in even the strongest of relationships seem inevitable. Peace between people takes work. Recently at Neighborhood Church, we considered two of the resources the gospel provides in that effort:  unity and forgiveness. By unity is meant our commonality as human beings. We are all made in the image of God. This means that we are not free to regard others in a manner any different than how we would want to be regarded. We are all made in the image of God, yet we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We are all in need, therefore, of the redemptive and reconciling work of Christ. That’s true whether you are the slave owner, Philemon, or the slave, Onesimus (we’ve been looking at Paul’s letter to Philemon on Sundays). For those in Christ, our commonality is deepened for we all have him as our head and all drink from the symbolic one cup. Embracing our commonality goes a long way in undermining presumed superiority while instilling humility, two important ingredients for removing enmity between people.

The necessity and ability to forgive flows from the fact that through the reconciling work of Christ we have been “delivered . . . from the domain of darkness and transferred . . . to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). The expectation is that as the Lord has forgiven us, we will also forgive; as we know the blessing of being forgiven, out of love we must grant it to others (Colossians 3:13). The contrast of reactions between the father and the older brother in the familiar parable of the prodigal son reveals the kind of heart Jesus wants us to have: ready to forgive when repentance is proffered.

I suspect each of us can think of a person who presents a challenge along these lines. We should make that one a project: praying for him or her to come to an understanding of how he or she has offended, while at the same time asking God for a heart that is desirous to lovingly pronounce forgiveness when the Lord answers our prayers for the other.