Fleshly reconciliation
by Pastor Tim Castle-Schmidt
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And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death (Colossians 1:21,22).
Read Colossians 1:15–23
How are your Christmas celebrations going? Do you feel that you were once estranged from and hostile towards God? Because you were. In fact, you probably have been again in the last couple of days in your fleshly body, feeling the post-Christmas blues as you return from the joy of Christmas.
I find it mind-blowing that Paul says Jesus has reconciled our estrangement, hostility and evil deeds in his fleshly body. His flesh and blood reconcile us to God and one another so that we can live a new life with him in our flesh. Therefore, reconciliation (or salvation, the phrase often used) is not just a spiritual thing and something that we will only receive in the resurrection, but something we are given now. It is physical and achieved through Jesus’ fleshly body.
And Jesus continues reconciling us with his physical body, which we receive in the Lord’s Supper. Christmas is book-ended with Easter, with the last book on the shelf being the Lord’s Supper. It frees us to live loving lives, working for reconciliation now so that we can live the reconciling life with Jesus, working reconciliation through us. And all because God’s eternal Son enters into our world at Christmas.
Jesus, as we continue pondering what happened on that first Christmas, help us to recognise that we continue to be reconciled physically and that you remain with us even today. May we also learn to walk as your physical body so we may experience reconciliation and bring reconciliation to this world. Amen.
Tim Castle-Schmidt is the pastor of Onkaparinga Lutheran Parish in the Adelaide Hills. After spending many years as a teacher in Lutheran schools, he finally listened to God’s call to the pastoral ministry. Tim is passionate about social justice and engaging the church with contemporary society. Tim shares his life with Fiona, Miranda, a Jack Russell called Otto and 11 chooks. By his own admission, Tim Castle-Schmidt is a broken man. Broken in body, mind and spirit, he is learning that God is at work in and through human brokenness. For while God has not ‘fixed’ him, God continues to work through his brokenness to connect with the world.
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