Joe E. Trull tells of a primitive tribe located deep in the South American jungles. Anthropologists learned the most important role within the tribe was the "keeper" of the flame. Since fire is so precious -- and takes such effort to recreate -- one member is entrusted with the responsibility of keeping the flame alive.

During the night the flame keeper adds wood to the fire. He keeps the fire alive whenever the tribe moves to another location -- carrying it in some vessel in order that the very difficult task of starting a fire in such a primitive culture might not have to be repeated. His is a vital task.

I've begun to believe that that role is the most important in every tribe and every culture - the keepers of the flame of truth -- basic integrity.

The keepers of the flame of love -- caring for another.

The keepers of the flame of conviction -- willing to stand for right and justice.

And we could go on and on.

Paul named the one flame that every Christian is to keep alive. Listen to him in a portion of our text -- verse 18 -- "all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation."

Reconciliation -- that's the ministry to which we are all called. The dynamic of reconciliation is forgiveness. So, our theme today as we continue our series of sermons on the Christian Walk -- our theme is "Saying Yes to Forgiveness".

I.

Let's begin with this core truth: Saying yes to forgiveness is saying yes to God. Get that now: Saying yes to forgiveness is saying yes to God. Clement of Alexandria, one of the early church fathers, said all Christians should practice being God." When I first read that, it shocked me. Me? Practice being God? But the more I thought about it, the more palatable and the more gripping the idea became. Practice being God.

Now don't close your mind, thinking I'm irreverent when I ask, Howdo I practice being God?

Now this is not irreverent, so don't close your mind. What do you think Paul was talking about in our text?

Listen to verse 16: "From now on, therefore, we regard none from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer." He was talking about practicing being God -- not viewing persons from a human point of view, but from a God perspective. And when we have that perspective, the ministry of reconciliation follows.

Come at it from a slightly different way. When are we most like God? We are most like God when we are most like Christ. And when are we most like Christ? We find our answer in the verses from II Corinthians immediately preceding the lesson we have read -- let's go back and read verses 14 and 15: "For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised."

Instead of saying, "the love of Christ controls us", the King James Version says "the love of God constraineth us." In either translation, it's powerful. The love of Christ constrains or controls. Why? Because we are convinced that Christ died for all.

What an encompassing statement! "We are convinced that (Christ) has died for all." That means that since He has died for all He has died for each, and that is the great solvent by which the love of God melts our hearts. This is the great proof that Jesus Christ loves me and loves you and loves all of us.

Friends, if you eliminate that conception, you have eliminated from your Christian faith the proof, the vindication of the belief that Christ loves the world.

I have a friend, Mary Levack, a former Roman Catholic nun, now working as a program director for a Methodist Church, whose testimony of this love of Christ for each and for all is powerful. Her father left her mother with 14 children when Mary was only 5 years old. You can imagine what that would do to a little girl -- feeling abandoned, unloved, unwanted.

She entered the Convent when she was young. Two sisters had done so before her.

She told me her story late one night over coffee after I had preached in her church. I was so moved I asked her to record her testimony on tape. She did -- a powerful witness. I had it transcribed. Let me read you just a part of it.

"I entered the Convent for two reasons. One, I felt the Lord calling me to a closer life with Him; and two, I was such a scrupulous individual, and needed direction in the depths of my spirit because I did not really understand that this closer walk with the Lord meant for me; I was of the mind that I had to make up for my sins. And so, as a teenager in the middle fifties faced with a time when it came time to do something with my life, I was of the opinion that it would be difficult for me to love one person to the exclusion of all others, and marriage therefore seemed out of the question even though I felt that was a stronger personal desire than going into the Convent, but I needed to make up for my sins, and so, I thought God must be calling me into the Convent. Two of my sisters had entered the Convent before me, and I was definitely of a mind that I had to do something to make up for my sins. And, having been let into the Convent, I was blessed. I found the Lord in a most beautifully intimate way. But I also found community life, and it was very threatening, and five years later I ran away because it was too difficult for me in the sense that I was in too much inner turmoil. I was very closed-mouthed. I wasn't really a person who shared what was going on inside of her; I didn't know you could do that and be respected for it. So I left the Convent. Because I hadn't been counseled properly I went right into another depression and thought, well, God, now I've really blown it -- I've divorced the Lord -- and I'm never going to get to heaven. So I went back into my wounded position and cried and wept and prayed, and felt that God moved heaven and earth and Rome, and I was finally accepted back into the Convent. And again I was blessed. This time I had a little more help in finding out what was really the source of the problem.

"The word of the Lord came to me through a priest to whom I had admitted having entered the Convent, among other reasons, for the sake of making up for my sins. When he heard this, he literally wept. And then he said, "Oh, my God, didn't anyone ever tell you Jesus did that. You don't have to do that. You can't do that. Just receive His forgiveness."

"Well, at that time I was almost 30 years old and I had just heard the Good News and praise God, it was from a Catholic Priest."

So when are we most like Christ? We are most like Christ when we are doing what He did in his extravagant gift of love on Calvary -- forgiving.

So that's the first point -- saying yes to forgiveness is saying yes to God.

II.

Now the second point: Saying yes to forgiveness is our clearest witness to the fact that we are Christians.

It was 1921 in the south of Poland, following the devastation of another war. A Quaker woman nurse had driven herself in selfless service to that war-torn land. She had spent herself in tireless love, and she died -- having literally given her life away.

A question arose: Where would she be buried? It was Roman Catholic territory and church law forbade any but baptized Roman Catholics be buried in the consecrated ground of a Catholic cemetery -- and that was the only cemetery around. Yet the Quaker nurse was deeply loved by all. It was a far more serious question than we modern Protestants can grasp. Where would she be buried? Finally, though, it was settled. The decision was made that she was to be buried just outside the cemetery fence. So it was done. During the night, however, Polish peasants, faithful Roman Catholics, moved the fence so that it would include the grave of their beloved nurse inside the sacred ground.

Now that's what Christ does, and that's the task of Christians -- to move fences, to tear down walls. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation." I like the way Clarence Jordan paraphrases that great text -- "God was in Christ, putting his arms around the world and hugging it to Himself."

Saying Yes to forgiveness is our clearest witness to the fact that we are Christian.

III.

Now, let's come at it from another direction. Say yes to forgiveness by forgiving yourself. The ongoing hazard each of us face in trying to be Christian is a double one. One side of it is to become so self-absorbed that our righteousness turns into self-righteousness.

Do you know what I'm talking about -- persons can become so self-absorbed with their own righteousness that they allow it to turn into self-righteousness, and all of us know a few people like that.

But there's the other side of the hazard -- that is to slip into self-condemnation. It may be even easier to slip into self-condemnation than it is to slip into self-righteousness.

Norman Vincent Peale tells of a time when he was a young minister -- in fact in his first church. He was still in Seminary and was disenchanted with his work and also with himself. One day he was groaning and moaning the state of affairs to a man in his congregation. The man had little formal education, but was blunt and honest-- also possessed a great deal of native insight. As young Peale went on and on with his complaints, the craggy man suddenly made an impatient gesture and almost shouted, "Stop it! Stop all that defeatist, negative talk! Remember this, Norman, and remember it always: Never build a case against yourself!" (Guideposts, 10-85, pp. 32-33).

That's very good advice -- but we are always doing it, aren't we -- slipping into self- condemnation, building a case against ourselves. We need to say yes to forgiveness by forgiving ourselves.

IV.

Now this final word. Saying yes to forgiveness offers freedom to the other -- and claims freedom for yourself. Now get that. It's very important. Saying yes to forgiveness offers freedom to another, and claims freedom for yourself.

There is a sense in which your enmity and estrangement from another hold both of you in bondage.

Let me underscore this point by addressing a particular issue -- the issue of conflict in marriage. I don't believe that a family without conflict is a very healthy family. Does that shock you? "I don't believe that a family without conflict is a very healthy family." One writer has declared, "Show me a family that does not quarrel, and I will show you a family that will eventually fall apart." Well, I'm not sure we can be that dogmatic. Statistics do show that most couples on the verge of divorce do not engage enough in open conflict -- that is, they do not confront the issues with which they are dealing because they are afraid of conflict.

Rodney Dangerfield, that zany comedian, commented once, "My wife and I sleep in separate rooms, we never eat dinner together, we take individual vacations, and we are doing all we can to keep our marriage together."

Well, some people think that the perfect marriage is one that is unmarred by conflict -- one in which there are no arguments, no expression of differences -- no sign of confrontation and estrangement. In fact there are some who believe that you are truly Christian when you always have your feeling under control, never raise your voice, never lose your temper, never take a person to task or do battle. That just isn't so. Jesus didn't teach it. Conflict is going to arise anywhere there is intimate relationship. So the sign of health in a marriage and in a home is not the absence of conflict -- the sign of health in a marriage and in a home is forgiveness.

You see, we can't live together intimately without hurting each other -- but, we can't keep on hurting each other and survive a relationship without forgiveness. So, you get the point. Saying yes to forgiveness offers freedom to the other person and claims freedom for yourself. Because if you remain estranged, if you remain separated from another, you hold both yourself and the other in bondage.

I've said four things:One, saying yes to forgiveness is saying yes to God.Two, saying yes to forgiveness is our clearest witness to the fact that we are Christian.Three, we say yes to forgiveness by forgiving ourselves.And four, in saying yes to forgiveness we offer freedom to another and we claim freedom for ourselves.Let me close with a story that underscores the need and the dynamic of saying yes to forgiveness.

"Father William Scanlon was involved for many years working with runaway teenagers who gravitated to the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. Some of the stories which he related of adolescents who left home and family and ended up being exploited in the seamy life of drugs and prostitution make one's heart ache. One of his goals was to reunite the teenagers with their families. His efforts were not always successful, but there were wonderful times when teenagers went home with their families after moving moments of reconciliation. Sometimes the breakthrough occurred in the worship services which he conducted. He would ask people to join hands as they prayed together Our Lord's Prayer. He said there were tense moments as a parent would reach out a hand to a runaway son or daughter and the teenager would not respond. In certain situations, something else would begin to happen as the prayer started, "Our Father who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name." Gradually the teenager's hand would open towards that of his or her parent. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Hands would then touch. "Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Hands would grasp each other and tears would fill the eyes. As the prayer ended, parents and son or daughter, would be in each other's arms. (Clayton Barbeau, Future of the Family)

"Conflicts can be resolved through the grace of God working between us. We do not need to let the evil and destruction of alienation and brokenness overcome us, ruin our lives, and keep us from the joy of love. (We can overcome by saying yes to forgiveness.)" (Donald Shelby, "Healthy Conflict", September 27, 1987).