Belonging Transforms Villains into God's Beloved Family
Daily Scripture
John 3:3-7, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
John 3
3 Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew [or from above], it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom.”
4 Nicodemus asked, “How is it possible for an adult to be born? It’s impossible to enter the mother’s womb for a second time and be born, isn’t it?”
5 Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Don’t be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’”
2 Corinthians 5
16 So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. 17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!
18 All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.
20 So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” 21 God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Reviewer Maggie Orsinger wrote, “If you are not familiar with the Despicable Me movies, they began with villain Gru adopting three little girls as pawns in an evil scheme, only to build an actual family over time. He even gets married to an Anti-Villain League agent, Lucy…. The redeeming power of family… is what draws you into these films.” * For the apostle Paul, the redeeming power rested ultimately in God’s family, though often experienced and shared through family and church family connections with other humans. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “A final reason I think Jesus says, ‘Love your enemies’ is this: love has within it a redemptive power. There is a power there that eventually transforms individuals…. I can see [Jesus] looking out at the Roman Empire with all of her fascinating and intricate military machinery…. I can hear him saying: ‘I will not use this method. Neither will I hate the Roman Empire. I am just going to use love as my ammunition.’” **
- Methodism’s founder John Wesley defined the “new birth” Jesus promised in John 3 this way: “In a word, it is that change whereby the earthly, sensual, devilish mind is turned into the ‘mind which was in Christ Jesus.’ This is the nature of the new birth: ‘So is every one that is born of the Spirit.’” *** Have you, like most of us, moved away from God at some point(s) in your life? When you create that distance, do you picture God as uninterested and distant, as angry and eager to punish, or as lovingly eager to bridge the distance to all human beings (including you) and to give you, in effect, a new life? The Message paraphrased 2 Corinthians 5:21 as “We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.” **** How has your reconciliation with God transformed you into “a new creature in Christ”? Who do you know who needs an invitation to join in that transformed, “new life” quality, quite possibly from you?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, God was reconciling the world (the world that includes me) to himself through you. Shape me into a transparent, winning beacon of the message that God loves us all. Amen.
GPS Insights
Dan Entwistle
Dan Entwistle, who serves as Managing Executive Director for Church of the Resurrection, wrote today's Insights.
My youngest daughter, as she will gladly tell you, is four-and-a-half. She’s been attending a day camp program for a few weeks this summer. When we approached her classroom yesterday, she paused at the door and excitedly waved her hands in the air to greet her friends before rushing in to join a play group. I’m glad I get to drop her off on my way into work in the morning and hear how much she loves spending time with new friends.
Adults, too, wave our hands as way to communicate a warm “hi” or “goodbye” to others. Remember in 2020, when the entire world collectively asked why everyone waved our hands at the end of a Zoom meeting? It seems a Zoom meeting couldn’t officially end until every square showed raised hands and wiggling fingers. I suspect the curious new habit helped overcome the awkwardness of abruptly exiting a meeting without the familiar social practices of collecting our things, standing, and engaging in small talk before leaving a room.
But did you know that many body language experts point to a deeper meaning behind waving? By holding our palms open toward the other person with fingers outstretched, we are essentially saying, “You can feel safe with me. I carry no weapon, and I mean no harm. You can trust me. I am friendly.”
Today’s passages call for us to be born anew and to become reconciled with God. This reconciliation is a re-joining or mending of relationship. When we picture God, how do we imagine God greeting us? Is it with weapon, or fist? With arms folded, hands on hips, or perhaps with hands held behind the back? Instead, we can envision a warm, safe, and joyful greeting. We imagine a joyful father running with arms open to embrace his prodigal son. Or, as captured in the stained-glass window at our Leawood location, we see Jesus walking toward us with his arms outstretched and palms gently open. We hear him saying with compassion, “Come to me when you are weary and carrying heavy loads. I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
Today’s passages call us to be born anew, to be transformed and to be reconciled with God. And as we do, we’ll discover that God is already drawing near to us, and he does so with open hands and a warm embrace. “You can feel safe with me. I carry no weapon, and I mean no harm. You can trust me. I am friendly.” Or, as beautifully captured in The Message paraphrase of today’s passage, “Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.”
We can trust in a God who warmly welcomes us. May we also extend safety and grace to those around us, with open hands.
© 2025 Resurrection: A United Methodist Church. All Rights Reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* From https://www.familytheater.org/blog/despicable-me-gru-minions.
** https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church
*** The entire sermon is found at https://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-45-the-new-birth/
**** Peterson, Eugene H. The Message Numbered Edition Hardback. Navpress. Kindle Edition.
