Having pressed
ahead with its blessings of homosexual unions,[1]
the Church of England now wants to repair the disunity this has inevitably
rendered in the denomination. The words ‘love’
and ‘faith’ were used to enshroud this rejection of God’s commandments on
gender, sex, and marriage. Now the word
‘reconciliation’ has been introduced to attempt to rally unity between the
orthodox and heretical groups despite fundamental disagreement. The baker has followed a faulty recipe, the
cake has flopped, and now he imagines he might repair the mess he has made with
a pretty icing. Theological terms—nice-sounding
terms—like ‘love’, ‘faith’, and ‘reconciliation’ are used in feigned
spirituality, devoid of their Biblical meanings, in order to drag Christians
along a heretical path.[2] The overseers of a Church that they have
abused and diminished[3]
cajole faithful believers not supporting their wayward ways.
‘Reconciliation’
is a term found in Paul’s writings, and if Scripture is to be referenced at
all, one needs to begin with passages like 2 Corinthians 5.17-21; Romans
5.1-10; Colossians 1.15-23; and Ephesians 2.11-21.[4] Paul’s theology of reconciliation is rich,
and it reaches back into Old Testament eschatology even though one will not
find the word ‘reconciliation’ used. In
the Old Testament, a theology of reconciliation is the third leg of salvation
history. The first is sin, the second is
judgement, and the third is reconciliation.
This pattern is repeated again and again in Old Testament narrative and
theology. As a narrative, the three are,
of course, sequential. Reconciliation
has to do with God’s forgiving a repentant Israel that has been judged. Israel’s story in its post-exodus history is
one that repeats this plot in the minor narratives of various judges and
kings. When Israel divides into ‘Israel’
as the northern kingdom and Judah as the southern kingdom, the plot continues
for each: sin, judgement, a promise of reconciliation. Ultimately, judgement becomes exile, and the
vision of reconciliation that the prophets foretell is of a return from exile
that includes unity between the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah and an
inclusion of Gentiles into the people of God.
A number of Old
Testament texts might be considered to explain the eschatological vision of
reconciliation on which Paul is dependent for his theology of
reconciliation. A new covenant,
forgiveness, peace, return from exile, and so forth are all part of the Old
Testament writers’ hope of reconciliation with God and with one another. What is essential to understand from such
passages is that reconciliation is not about communal fellowship alone, a
united kingdom under one king alone, an acceptance by God alone—it is not
merely relational. It is not a teaching
about two groups that differ agreeing to disagree. Nor is it a matter of smoothing over
differences, as though they were not significant enough to require fixing. Judgement follows sin, and reconciliation
only comes when sin is removed.
Consider a
vision for reconciliation expressed in Ezekiel 37.15-23. Sinful Israel and Judah are at this time in
exile for their sins. God caused Israel
to be taken into exile in 722 BC by the Assyrians and Judah in 587/586 BC by
the Babylonians. Their sins had built up
to the point that, like the Canaanites before them, the land vomited them out. Ezekiel also says that God’s presence left the
Temple. Judgement had finally come.
Yet Ezekiel is
given several visions of God’s subsequent restoration of His people from their
sins and from exile, such as the new covenant and resurrection of the dry bones
(chs. 36-27) or the New Temple (chs. 40-48).
One of these visions is when God tells the prophet to take two sticks,
symbolising the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and join them together,
predicting a miraculous return from exile and a reunion of the two. This reconciliation requires more than
lashing two sticks together. It is not
an apparent or fake unity. It requires
repentance and conversion, a complete change.
In Ezekiel 37.23, God says, 'They shall not defile themselves anymore
with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their
transgressions. But I will save them
from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and
they shall be my people, and I will be their God.' Reconciliation with God and one another
requires a rejection of other religions and detestable things (transgressions,
backsliding, sin). When that happens,
there can be reconciliation to God and to one another. Not before.
Those at the
General Synod of the Church of England this month who have touted
reconciliation as a communal affair, a ‘walking together’ without repentance of
sin and turning in obedience to God, are promoting a continuation in sin. If we are to picture this in terms of the
three-legged stool of Biblical theology and narrative, of sin, judgement, and
reconciliation, the proponents of this distorted version of reconciliation have
removed the leg of sin—declaring ‘good’ what God has called evil—and they have
removed the leg of judgement, replacing it with ‘blessings’ of sinful
unions. They are trying to sit on a stool
with one leg. Even then, the leg of
reconciliation has been cut short and not nailed to the seat. Watching the show from the stands reminds one
of the circus clown trying to balance on a one legged stool.
Nehemiah lived
in the days of the return of Israel from exile.
In Nehemiah 9-10, we read a passage that shows us what reconciliation
really involves. It was not, as Bishop
Martyn Snow of Leicester is suggesting, finding ways that people who differ
over righteousness can just get along and get on with serving the nation.[5] Rather, the people of Israel having been
brought back by God from exile in their sins, were to be reconciled by means of
certain concrete actions. The acts
required for reconciliation might be summarised from these two chapters as
follows:
1.
Assemble with fasting, sackcloth,
and dirt on their heads in a corporate act of repentance;
2.
Separate themselves from all foreigners
(who, by the pressure of cultural conformity, encouraged infidelity to God);
3.
Confess their sins and the
iniquities of their fathers;
4.
Read the Book of the Law (not
throwing around vague principles like love, faith, and reconciliation but
enquiring of God’s Word what obedience entailed);
5.
Confess further their sins as they
hear the Law read;
6.
Spend time in worship of God;
7.
Bless the Lord (not blessing
those in sinful unions);
8.
Rehears their heritage as God’s
people;
9.
Acknowledge that the laws,
statutes, and commandments are right and good and from God;
10. Acknowledge that their history as a people involved disobedience,
that they had rebelled against God, cast aside God’s Law, killed the prophets,
and committed great blasphemies;
11. Declare the truth that God is ready to forgive, gracious, merciful,
slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and that He remains faithful;
12. Acknowledge yet again that, even though God sent ‘saviours’ or prophets to
the people time and again, they continued to do evil, act presumptuously, sin
against God’s rules, turned a stubborn shoulder, stiffened their necks, and did not obey Him or heed the prophets He sent to warn them;
13. Made a covenant with God to walk in God’s Law, observing and doing
all His commandments, rules, and statutes, desist from their sins, and observe
right worship.
Let us not turn ‘reconciliation’
into yet another act of disobedience, a way to continue in sin without
repentance and conversion, without covenanting to follow God’s righteous
requirements. For sinners to insist that
the prophets God sends to them should be reconciled to them in their sin makes
a mockery of God.
[1] I am fully aware of how these blessings have been packaged to avoid
saying that the union itself is being blessed or that no affirmation of same
sex marriage or cohabitation is involved.
This is just packaging. We all
know what is really going on, and to play along with the nuances and processes
and endless conversations or debates is to play the fool.
[2] See the beguiling words of Bishop Martyn Snow, Leicester: ‘Living
in Love and Faith: “The Work Goes On” Bishop Martyn Tells Synod,’ The Church of England (27 February,
2024); https://www.churchofengland.org/media/press-releases/living-love-and-faith-work-goes-bishop-martyn-tells-synod
(accessed 28 February, 2024).
[3] Cf. Ian Paul, ‘Ian Paul’s Speech to General Synod—“Standing on the
Brink of a Precipice,’ Anglican Ink (27
February, 2024); https://anglican.ink/2024/02/27/ian-pauls-speech-to-general-synod-standing-on-the-brink-of-a-precipice/
(accessed 28 February, 2024).
[4] In
response to the current confusion in the Church of England over reconciliation,
see Martin Davie, ‘What Do We Mean by Reconciliation?’ Reflections of an Anglican Theologian Blog (27 February, 2024); https://mbarrattdavie.wordpress.com/2024/02/27/what-do-we-mean-by-reconciliation/comment-page-1/?unapproved=3905&moderation-hash=b0508fe27879303fe9143847b779d1cc#respond
(accessed 28 February, 2024).
[5] Cf. note 2, above.
