A Horrible Loneliness Ended
Repentance 1
“…that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:19
The Surgeon General of the United States has declared that loneliness is a health risk to the people of our nation. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, stated in a recent proclamation, “Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation has been an underappreciated public health crisis that has harmed individual and societal health. Our relationships are a source of healing and well-being hiding in plain sight – one that can help us live healthier, more fulfilled, and more productive lives…”
I think the loneliest I have ever been was in the second year of our engagement. Mary was in Milwaukee. I was in East Lansing Michigan attending Michigan State. We would be married in less than a year. Telephone communication was about $5.00 a call at a phone booth at the length I wanted our calls to be, when the minimum wage was $1.25. So we wrote letters. I was on a campus of at least 15,000 students that summer. I was number 124,802. They didn’t even call us by our names. I lived with four guys I would be teaching with the next school year, but I did not know them well at all. On weekends I stayed in the rented home and they all went home to families. Loneliness. I did preach on weekends somewhere different each Sunday, to help pastors out who were taking vacations with their families. But loneliness was like a knife in the stomach and an ache in the head. There was no one to talk to.
Think about the clients we serve who are struggling through anxiety and depression and marital problems and addictions. They have a lot more than the six weeks of loneliness that I had that summer. Many of them have years of it – and they feel it will never end. Even thoughts of suicide race through their heads. They doubt themselves. They doubt others. They doubt God.
Let’s start with God. He knows our loneliness. Jesus said from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Our sins separate us from God. Jesus felt the loneliness of our sins which he took upon Himself. He knew the loneliness of the human condition in a world of sin and doubt and depression and despair. Our verse uses the word, “reconciliation.”
Reconciliation is explained with the later words we quoted. “Not counting people’s sins against them.” Jesus paid for our sins! He did this for every sinner in all the world. You and I and our clients are not left out. We are a part of the world for whom Jesus suffered and died and made the perfect payment for sin. We are right with God! We need not doubt God nor His love for us.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.” I Peter 3:18
Christ is crucified and arisen for the world of sinners. This is the fact of God’s love. Jesus, the Righteous One, for you and me and all people, who are unrighteousness. This is the fact of God’s grace.
This is the comfort and hope of God’s gracious forgiveness in Christ. Listen to the Promise of Jesus:
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” John 14:16-20
Jesus has made us right with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Triune God is always with us with His love. We can go to Him for anything, even to confess our sins. Amen.
Prayer
Help us Lord to see your eternal, loving presence in our lives. Help us communicate your love for all people to all people. Thank you for your Son Jesus, our Reconciler. Amen.
