So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, "At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see - we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

It's been over 20 years since the "Back to the Future" movies came out and we watched as Marty McFly took the Mr. Coffee-powered DeLorean to the past to his parents' high school prom. He knew the future¬ - his parents would fall in love, get married and produce a family - ¬but his knowledge of the future, which had already happened, had a bearing on how he acted in the past, which was his present. Confused yet? The future had already happened, so to speak, and that made a difference in the here and now, whenever that is¬. (If your mind is boggled by this, I'm with you.)

The Apostle Paul is dealing with a sort of "Back to the Future" scenario as well. The Corinthians are divided, contentious, and quarrelsome, and Paul is upset with them because their present behavior doesn't reflect the future that he knows is already a reality. God in Jesus Christ has acted to heal the great rift between God and humankind - God initiated the reconciliation, completed it, and guaranteed it. That's the reality they have in their baptisms! But their life together isn't reflecting that reality.

Paul reminds them in his usual straightforward way that his mission is to make them aware that reality has changed. They are a people who have received God's love and acceptance for eternity, and he urges them not to have received it "in vain." That reality, not fully unveiled yet, needs to impact how they live out their lives in the present. Living out the grace and love that God has shown them doesn't mean that life in the present will be wrapped up neatly, conflict free. There would be the tension, as Paul described, of rejoicing in sorrow, of having everything when having nothing, of being very alive in the midst of dying. But living out that grace and love does mean that people who had deep divisions could come together at the table and begin healing.

The past event of the cross gives power to those of us in the present to live out God's future. Back to the future, secure in the present, fixing our eyes on God's promise in the life-giving death and resurrection of Jesus, done once and for all time in the past: This is our reality to live out as we journey together this Lenten season.