2 Corinthians 5:17-19  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. (CSB)

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I pledge to go to bed on time and check the results in the morning after every national election. Inevitably, I stay up way too late and still don’t get the full story by the time I go to bed. 

This morning’s news is full of doom, gloom, jeering, and triumphalism, just as we knew it would be no matter who won. 

How now shall we live? 

The Apostle Paul helps us answer this question. If we belong to Jesus, we must let it show, and we must do what redeemed people do as we join Jesus in his ministry of reconciliation. 

In verse 20, Paul calls us ambassadors for Christ. While national elections are full of winners and losers, Jesus makes his appeal through us with the best kind of good, good news. He never fails to receive, redeem, and claim any who turn their hearts toward him. Then he brings us into the family business of building a better world. 

We represent far more than a political party, far more than a geographic identity; we represent our King, his Kingdom, his perfect love and amazing grace. Election results cannot compete with that no matter who wins or loses. 

The best thing you and I can do today is the same thing we are called to do every day. We can tell people about our coming King before whom every knee will bow and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God forever and ever. 

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I will represent Jesus with the good, good news of endless hope and ultimate salvation.

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Our Father, remind us as often as necessary today to remember whose we are and what it means to be ministers of reconciliation and ambassadors of heaven. Amen.