This devotion originally appeared March 3, 2016
By Dominique Burgunder-Johnson, director of marketing
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (NRSV)
When I was a kid I often thought of Lent as a time to temporarily give up or add certain habits to my life. Then at the end of the season, I could simply check off a (figurative) box next to the task of “go 40 days without sweets,” and then return to my pre-Lent sweet consumption habits.
In my teenage years I was taught that Lent was about more than completing a one-time “task.” Instead, Lent was about completing a task that could help move me closer towards a larger and more long-term goal – that those 40 days without sweets could help move me closer towards a larger goal of leading a more healthy lifestyle (without suggesting a complete elimination of sweets for all-time – phew!).
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read that if anyone is in Christ, “there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” At first glance this language might suggest that being “in Christ,” is also one of those handy one-and-done tasks in life – that once one has made the decision to be “in Christ,” the task can be checked off as done.
Yet a few lines later, we read that to be in Christ is to “become the righteousness of God.” “Become” hardly implies a one-and-done task, but rather a process that likely involves a life-long series of tasks to work toward a larger goal.
In reading today’s passage, during this season of Lent, I am reminded that completing some of the most important “tasks” in my life is itself not the goal. Instead, these tasks serve as means to continuously progress towards much larger and long-term goals for myself, and our world.
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (NRSV)
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. 17So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.