Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (6 September 2020).
Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (6 September 2020).
The Scripture readings (Track II) can be found HERE
Public Domain
James Tissot, The Exhortation of the Apostles (between 1886 and 1894), The Brooklyn Museum.
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I wonder if you have ever said or heard someone comment, “this would be great if it weren’t for that,” of course substituting “this” and “that” for descriptive markers of the specific context. For example, “school would be great if it weren’t for the students,” or “camp would be great if it weren’t for the campers,” or “this job would be great if it weren’t for the customers.” Though I’m sure no one has ever utter the phrase, “church would be great if it weren’t for the people.”
All of these phrases articulate that emotional response to the complexities of being in community. People are complicated, they do not always act as we think they should, they do things they might come to regret, relationships can be really tricky, and all of that makes being in community, at times, really hard.
While there may be moments where we become frustrated or aggravated to the point where we find ourselves wishing that the students, campers, customers, or even parishioners were not there, we all know deep down that if the people were not there our beloved communities, our schools, and camps, and congregations would cease to exist. For what is a school without students, camp without campers, or church without the people?
This means that we have to figure out how to be in community together, how to be in relationship with one another. We have to figure out how to maintain those bonds of affection when it is easy to be together, and more importantly, when we struggle to stay connected. We all have to put in the hard work of restoring relationships when we hurt one another, reconciling after conflict, and renewing our commitment to continue to grow together. For if we fail to come together in the midst of adversity, things will begin to fall apart and that could prove disastrous for our relationships with one another.
There is a misconception that to be a Christian means always getting along with other people: that being a Christian means never arguing or fighting with our neighbors. While we are Christians, we are also human. And human beings, no matter what their faith tradition, hurt each other. We all sin. All of us have times when we act in a way contrary to how we know we should behave. What makes us Christian is not whether or not we fight, disagree, or wound one another, but how we go about addressing and resolving these issues.
When someone hurts us, when they sin against us, the world has a very clear way of responding. We are to get back at them. We are to get even, and then go a bit further. We are to respond in retaliation. When someone hurts us, we might be inclined write them off, and never interact with them again. We are to respond by dissolving the relationship. When someone does something wrong, society tells us they must be punished.
But today, in what we hear from Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that is not how we are to behave. The prime motivation for us is never punishment but alway reconciliation. So here Jesus clearly articulates a way of responding to conflict in our communities where restoration, not retaliation, is the goal.
When one member inflicts harm on another, the person who has been hurt is to go and take it up with the offending member. Jesus says, “if another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone” (Matthew 18:15, NRSV). Jesus tells us that when we are hurt, we are to go to the other person and try to reconcile and restore the relationship. We do this privately, not slandering the other person. The aim it to protect the dignity of all those involved. To be clear, the reconciliation that is possible happens where there is repentance and forgiveness. The person who caused the harm must acknowledge their sin and repent of it. The interaction must be more than that trite societal phrase forgive and forget. Unless there is true acknowledgment of the harm, reconciliation and restoration is impossible.
If the person refuses to listen, then more members of the community get involved. One or two others join in the conversation. The small group works together to see if restoration of relationship is possible. If that does not work the whole church is made aware of the situation. This is a reminder to us that this is not just about individuals, but conflict between members impacts the whole community. At this point if the offender refuses to listen, then they are removed from the community. Someone who causes harm, who refuses to acknowledge their sin, who will not repent, is not allow to stay and continue to inflict harm on the community.
The consequences of failed reconciliation are so severe, because Jesus is talking about behavior that will destroy communities. Therefore when we entered into this process of accountability we must do so seriously and prayerfully, for much is on the line. At the end of this passage Jesus says, “For where two or three are gathering in my name, I am there among them” (Matthew 18:20, NRSV). Every step along the way, Jesus is present in these conversations. It is because of the sustaining power of the presence of our risen Lord, that our communities, that the Church of God, will survive the strains imposed by human failure (Douglas R. A. Hare, Interpretations: Matthew (John Knox Press, 2009), 215).
It is up to each and every member of a community to ensure that all are living the ways of God. We are all accountable to and for each other.
The conversation that God has with Ezekiel in today’s passage from Hebrew Scripture adds to this idea of collective responsibility, and an invitation to forsake the trap of individualism.
God says to Ezekiel, “whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked ones, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand” (Ezekiel 33:7b-8, NRSV). God says to Ezekiel, if you do not share my word, if you do not look out for others, if you do not call their attention to their wicked behavior, and they perish because of it, you are responsible. God makes clear that Ezekiel will only be saved if he shares the word of God and warns the wicked. Ezekiel will only be saved by showing care for the community.
After the warning to Ezekiel, God gives him a message to share. The people of Israel have transgressed, they have sinned, they have turned away from God. All of this weighs heavily upon them and they have cried out wondering how they can live. God tells Ezekiel, “Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live” (Ezekiel 33:11, NRSV).
The message from God is this: If the house of Israel turns back towards the ways of God, they shall live. If not, they shall die. But, God is clear. God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. God’s desire is for all of God’s people to have life and have it more abundantly.
Just like Ezekiel, just like the process outlined by Jesus, we are to call out to those straying from the path of God and encourage them to turn back. To repent and return to the Lord. To reconcile ourselves to God and each other. My friends, this is the mission of the Church, and I mean that literally. In our catechism, found in the back of The Book of Common Prayer the mission of the Church is described this way, “The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ” (The Book of Common Prayer, 855). It is our mission to constantly be working for the reconciliation of all people, and sometimes that means having these really hard and difficult conversations in the midst of pain and conflict.
By the way, lest we loose sight of this, we must always be mindful that sometimes we are the ones who need to be called out. Sometimes we are the ones who stray. Sometimes we are the ones in danger of being cast out of the community. There is not one amongst us who has not hurt someone else, there is not one amongst us who does not stand in need of repentance. For we are all human, we all sin, we all fall short of the glory of God.
Each and everyone of us must let go of the world’s focus on individualism. By virtue of our relationship together we must be concerned with and for each other. For we are all members of the one body, we cannot say to anyone that you do not matter, that you are not needed, every part of the body is need, and if one member suffers, all suffer together with it, to paraphrase St. Paul from the First Letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12:12-26, NRSV).
Being in community is hard work. But the reason we continue to labor together, can all be boiled down to one word – Love. As St. Paul reminds us in his Letter to the Romans, all of the commandments are summed up in these words, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Romans 13:9, NRSV).
We fulfill the law, we fulfill the words of the prophets, we fulfill the Gospel mandates and the very intention of all creation when we love one another. Therefore “let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light,” (Romans 13:12, NRSV) let us “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Romans 13:14, NRSV) let us bathe in the very love of God that Jesus makes incarnate in the world.
It is important for us to be honest about the difficultly of being in community. It is important that we prepare ourselves for difficult conversations, and recognize it is possible we will get hurt along the way. Conflict is inevitable, but what makes us Christian is how we respond when conflict and hurt and pain come about. We must be clear that those who continually harm members without repentance, without genuinely working towards reconciliation, may no longer be able to stay in the community. That sort of bullying cannot go unchecked in Christian communities.
That being said, the doors of our communities are never shut forever.
Jesus says in today’s Gospel passage, of the one who refuses to listen, “let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17, NRSV). It seems to me, that Jesus is saying two things here. In addition to that person no longer being part of the community, Jesus is also saying redemption is always possible. Time and time again throughout the Gospels, Jesus welcomes the Gentile and the tax collector. Jesus is continually reaching out offering the gift of God’s transformative love. If the one who has been removed from the community is able to have a change of heart, there is the possibility of regaining that one to the household of God.
It seems that Matthew is on to this hope as well. Today’s passage is sandwiched between the parable of the lost sheep and the unforgiving debtor – it is framed by stories that demonstrate God’s desired that the sinner be saved not condemned (Hare, Interpretations, 214). When the time comes for us to do this hard work of reconciliation in community we can do so knowing that God’s desire is the salvation of all. That the ultimate gift of God’s love is that redemption is always possible. We can journey through the heartache and pain of human sinfulness trusting that if there is hope for that sinner over there, there is hope for you and me, sinners as well.
As we go forth continuing to grow as a community let us take up the words of the psalmist as our own. Let us pray that God teaches us the way of God’s statues that we might keep them to the end. Let us pray that God gives us understanding that we might keep God’s laws with our whole hearts. Let us pray that God makes us go in the paths of God’s commandments. Let us pray that God inclines our hearts to God’s decrees, that through our longing and in God’s righteousness, God will always preserve our lives.
Amen.