September 25, 2011
Pentecost 15
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 18:21-35
(prayer)
The parable that Jesus tells to the Chief Priests and the Elders about the two sons, could be summed up by the ageless axiom: “Actions speak louder than words.”
They always do. Nothing threatens a person’s character or reputation as much as hypocrisy.
ranker.com has posted a top fifteen list of anti-gay activitsts who have been caught being gay: lots of social conservative politicians and evangelical clergy on that list (like Bishop Eddie Long [slide] and Rev Ted Haggard; former US senator, Larry Craig and former “friend” of congressional pages, Mark Foley). It’s no problem that these people are gay. It’s that the spent years preaching and legislating with an explicit anti-gay emphasis.
“Woe to the hypocrites” Jesus was know to have said.
Now, I am a pretty liberal guy, as you might have guessed. [slide] But I have to admit that I am so disappointed that the Obama administration’s inspiring words have been followed up with less-than-inspiring actions. Now I know that the US political gridlock has a lot to do with the split between congress and the Whitehouse and a very stubborn economic slowdown that is well-rooted in the pre-Barack years. But, still... the speeches were so good...
I have to laugh at the Daily Show with John Stewart, as he is sometimes forced to accept as possible future: [slide]
“OMG, Rick Perry is going
to be our next president”
Actions speak louder than words!
Most churches profess a desire to grow their congregations. [slide] It is part of our ethos as Christians. The gospel of Matthew ends with (what is called) Jesus’ Great Commission: 28:19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
It’s also part of our culture which admires and requires growth and expansion to be successful. It’s not enough for corporations to make a profit, they have to increase profits.
And, for a lot of churches, as one generation of active church folk age, new and younger congregants are seen as necessary to keep the church a going-concern into the future.
It is a common to hear places of worship describing themselves as “Open Door Churches”
Of course (too often) some of these open door churches really don’t want “them” unless they become like us. They profess an open door, but they want to control who comes through that door and what kind of influence they might be able to have once they come inside.
Churches are not safe from hypocrisy.
// [slide]
That brings me to the topic for today – authority. Some authority is 'ex-officio' - by virtue of office. A person who achieves a certain position is given authority. Parents, police officers, teachers, bosses, ministers(?). Unless you are the kind of person who naturally challenges authority, you probably give these people a certain level of automatic respect and reverence. Ex-officio authority can quickly be destroyed if hypocrisy rears its ugly head. And the effect can be transferred to others with similar ex-officio authority who had nothing to do with the hypocrisy. For example, if your experience is with a police officer who breaks the law, you might not trust other police officers. Or a child who has been abused by a parent or teacher or minister, may not be able to trust others in those positions.
Even in honourable and honest circumstances, ex-officio authority can only take you so far.
True authority is known when people acknowledge and respect that authority. That kind of authority is earned. This can be added to some ex-officio authority or it may result in a person being respected as authoritative without the credentials.
//
In Jesus’ day, the ex-officio political authority lay with the soldiers and puppet leaders of the Roman Empire. The religious authority lay with the temple leaders: the priests, the scribes, the elders and members of the Sanhedrin Council.
Jesus was a non-land owning peasant from Galilee. He was trained as a carpenter, but even turned his back on that to hang around with fishermen. And yet...
Jesus was a revered leader to his followers: the priests and elders couldn't figure out why. ‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’
This question is a mix of jealousy and outrage. Why do your followers listen to you more than us? And, wait a minute, who do you think you are, anyway? You are just a northern peasant!
To the priests and elders, there was no real place for “earned authority”: authority could be demanded from people; its part of the style of dictatorial leadership that was almost exclusively the case in the ancient world.
A respect for authority could be demanded and (what were seen as) false-claims of authority could be quashed: often violently.
//
So, the temple authorities demanded answers about Jesus’ authority. Jesus (as he often did) did not answer the question directly: instead he answered the question with a question: Where did John the Baptist’s authority come from? The elders and priests did NOT seem interested in actually finding an honest answer to Jesus’ question; they tried to think of the politically correct answer – saying ‘from heaven’ might open the door for Jesus to say “mine too” and saying ‘from people’ might angrily incite the crowd who clearly held John in high esteem – proclaiming him to be a prophet of God. So, they said, ‘we don’t know’.
Jesus followed that up with a parable (a teaching story): [slide] a father has two sons and tells them both to go into the vineyard and work. One says ‘yes’ but doesn’t go; the other says no, but later changes his mind and goes. ‘Which one of these sons’, Jesus asked ‘did the will of the father?’ Of course, they answered that the one who actually went into the vineyard to work respected the authority of the father. Even in Jesus’ day actions speak louder than words.
Our reading from Matthew ended this morning with Jesus chastising the temple leaders for being witnesses to John’s work and not giving it the authority it deserved. 32For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax-collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.
The priests and elders were like the lazy son in the parable. And the ones who are shunned in society were like the obedient son: maybe even better than the son in the parable – some recognized John’s authority right away, without having to change their minds later.
The truth is that the Temple leaders were threatened by John, just as the were being threatened by Jesus. To change their minds would force them to call into question their own authority.
//
That’s the Challenge of Authority – in reality, Authority can’t be claimed – it must be given.
It can’t be claimed, it must be given!
And we tend to give authority to those we believe have earned it.
//
[slide]
To Jesus’ followers he was greatly authoritative. And that authority came from God and was witnessed in how Jesus lived his life.
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the believers in Philippi, we have one of the oldest Christian texts. In Philippians chapter 2, Paul seems to be quoting what appears to be words that he expects his audience to already know (perhaps an early Christian hymn):
6 Though [Jesus Christ] was in the form of God,
[he] did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus’ authority was not lived out in political or religious domination. He did not cling to power with violence or intimidation. Jesus preached servant hood (‘the last shall be first’; the greatest among you must be servant of all’) and he lived out his servant hood – seen most clearly in the post-easter era as his humble acceptance of the cross. Jesus’ actions matched his words. That’s honest authority.
Jesus’ authority was authentic. Of course the words authority and authentic have the same root meaning: auto = self. To be authentic is to be true to oneself. It is the opposite to hypocrisy.
//
The Challenge of Authority is to work hard at being authentic.
//
That is how we can live out Jesus’ great commission – how do we spread the gospel; how do we grow the church? By living the gospel; by being the church. In our UCC Creed we say that “we are called to be the church: to celebrate God’s presence, to live in respect in creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen , or judge and our hope.”
To be an open-door church (one that welcomes in and reaches out), we must honestly welcome the blessings that others bring to our community: to let them change us because they carry their own divine spark that can ignite the faith of others. That’s authentic. That’s authority that makes a difference in the world.
Live the gospel.
Be the church.
Follow Christ Jesus. (END)
Let us pray:
Holy God, you empowered Jesus to show us your vision for this world. Guide us and encourage us to follow his example. Amen.
#154MV “Deep in Our Hearts”
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
THE CHALLENGE OF FAIRNESS
September 18, 2011
Pentecost 14
Exodus 16:2-15
Matthew 20:1-16
(prayer)
The prophet Micah says that God requires humility, compassion and justice from us (Micah 6:8). We usually speak of justice as how we might respond to what someone has done.
Justice is about setting things right based on some action done or spoken or enabled by someone (or some group, or some entity or corporation or institution, etc.).
Part of this is our criminal justice system, which compares the actions of this person (or group or entity or corporation or institution, etc.) to societal standards enshrined in the written and common law and upheld by the constitution. We have developed patterns of what our society has declared “Just”. Public opinion clearly dictates that we don’t have universal agreement on what is just within our criminal justice systems. // I notice that the Leduc County’s Prayer Breakfast is coming up in less than two weeks (Oct 1st) and that Rev Don Schiemann is the guest speaker. You may recall that Rev Schiemann’s son Peter was one of the RCMP officers killed by James Roszko near Mayerthorpe six years ago. The poster for the breakfast says that Rev Schiemann “continues to lobby, along with other victim’s groups, for changes to the justice system to restore peace and public safety in our country.” [if you want to go to the County’s Prayer Breakfast, you can tickets from the County Office by this Friday, the 23rd.] It is a hot topic in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion: ‘just’ how well is justice served?
//
We also use the word Justice to speak of how well people live relative to each other. Church organizations have always led the society in advocating and action so that we all are encouraged to see that all people are able to live in dignity and equality.
One of the founding partner denominations of the United Church of Canada was the Methodist Church of Canada. Methodists were champions of The Social Gospel – Social Justice is still one of the hallmarks of how the United Church is known in Canada and in the world.
//
Jesus lived a compassion for the outcast and forgotten – Jesus’ followers are people of justice.
//
One way or another Justice is all about Fairness. We want all involved to be treated with honest fairness. As we heard in the reading from Matthew, chapter twenty today – it appears that (for Jesus) fairness has more to do what people need rather than what they have done: fairness/justice has more to do with what people need rather than what they have done!
Because we usually tend to focus on what has been done, this new perspective can cause some problems for us. How will our desire for Justice and Fairness be motivated - by the needs of those involved or simply a reaction based on the actions that have occurred?
That’s the Challenge of Fairness.
//
//
When Moses led the Hebrew people away from their slavery in Egypt, they ventured out into the Sinai wilderness. People quickly realized that, in a strange way, slavery had its advantages: sure you have no real control of your life, but you did have a settled place to live; you had access to food – at least enough food to make you a useful indentured servant of the Pharaoh and his kingdom. Out in the wilderness beyond the Red Sea, home was where you pitched your tent and food was what you managed to scavenge or kill. And water was an exceedingly valuable resource – increasingly in this wilderness, it was harder and harder to find.
Today, we read from Exodus chapter 16, but the story in chapter 17 is connected as well. The specific reading today was Moses’ and God’s attempt to deal with the people’s grumbling about a lack of food. We didn’t read it, but chapter 17 is very similar, but the issue is the need for water: remember they brought with them many livestock who needed water as well!
//
In both chapters 16 and 17, the pattern is the same. The people complain that they don’t have the food (or water) they need. They begin to look back on life in Egypt, where they had enough to eat (and drink). Moses takes the message to God, who comes up with a novel way for the people to have what they need. It wasn’t going to be the ‘fleshpots’ and fresh ‘bread’ of Egypt, but it would meet the need.
With the morning dew, an edible, flacky bread like substance would be found on the desert shrubbery – this (so-called) manna could be gathered before it melted away in the heat of the day. In the evening, birds (quails) seem to always rest near their camp – they could easily hunt meat for supper. As far as the need for water went from chapter 17, God showed Moses the location of (what must have been) an underground stream. All that was needed was for Moses to smash away the calcifications with his staff to release a steady flow of drinkable water.
//
The needs of the day were met, nothing more. If someone tried to hoard or store up some of the delicate manna, they found that it would spoil by the second day. It was (as Jesus would pray centuries later)...literally, God giving them daily bread!
The solution to the people’s problem was to provide what was fair – all that they needed for the day.
//
That is not really very different from the gospel story of the labourers in the vineyard. I wonder what the people at SUN-TV or FOX news think about this parable.
The landowner needs workers for the vineyard. The normal practice was for labourers and employers to find each other in the village square right after sunrise in the morning. This landowner hires a number of workers in the morning for a days work. The agreed upon pay is a denarius – the normal day labourers wage – enough to provide that workers family with a day’s worth of food, etc.
That all makes sense to pretty much everyone.
But as the day went on, the landowner needed more workers – he returned at 9am and noon, 3pm and 5pm. “Go into the vineyard and I’ll pay you what is right.”
At 6pm the work day ended and they all lined up to be paid, starting with those who had worked the shortest shifts. To their surprise, they received a full denarius. Even though, no one hired them until the last part of the day, they received what they and their family needed.
As the other workers watched the paymaster, and noticed the money given to those who had only worked one hour and expected that they were in for a huge payday – maybe as much as 12 denarii for those who worked the whole day!
But no, they all got one denarius – the daily wage, enough for their needs.
You see, it had nothing to do with what they earned, it was what they needed. How could the final workers who were hired at 5pm be expected to feed their families with 1/12th of a denarius?
To have enough to eat is a basic need. It can’t be rationed further; it is a baseline. The promise made by the landowner in Jesus’ parable was that each person ‘would be paid what is right’. Jesus’ message is that it is fair - it is just - it is right - to make sure that we all have enough for each day! The fairness is based on the need, not what the person has done.
//
Over the past several months, the world has become increasingly aware of the great need for aid in eastern Africa. It is an area that is prone to drought and is also fraught with political turmoil that draws resources away from the basic needs of the people to the desires of militias and dictators.
Some people are tired of helping Ethiopia – didn’t rock stars solve that problem with all-star records (we are the world...feed the world; let them know it’s Christmas time again) and star-studded simultaneous concerts in the 1980s?
These people keep fighting amongst themselves and wasting what they do have on guns and mines, if we help feed them, we’re just part of the problem, aren’t we?
The old axiom that ‘if you give someone a fish, they eat for a day, teach them to fish, they eat for a lifetime’ is certainly true. But if the most immediate need is today’s meal, a denarius is needed. The hungry must survive today if we are help them learn to fish.
//
Jesus’ parable and the experience of Moses and the Israelites speak directly to the issue of daily hunger. And yet, the issues of fairness reach so much broader.
Even a fairness based on need is challenging because (in most situations) there are competing needs. And one of the ways people try to sort through those competing needs is to begin to consider the actions. We add a level of judgement into the mix. We begin to judge a person’s worth. And so often, when we do this, judgement leads to a hoarding of resources that could be shared – a fear of wasting it on ‘the un-worthy’.
//
The Challenge of Fairness is to try and block judgement out of the picture. To see the basic “need” as the only motivator. The vineyard-owner asked the 5pm labourers: “why are you not working? “Because no one has hired us!”
We might be tempted to ask “Why?” again. Why are you unemployable – did you sleep in; are you un-skilled; were you wasting your day away with some other activities? What did you do wrong that caused you still to be looking for work with only one hour left in the day?
We might be tempted to move the conversation to the topic of “what did you do?”, but the landowner doesn’t go there. The labourers are taken into the vineyard and they work what they are able. And they are given what “is right” – what they need.
The vineyard owner is a metaphor for God. This kind of ‘needs-based-fairness’ is a characteristic of the Realm of God: the Kingdom of Heaven (as Matthew puts it).
//
Part of the role of the followers of Jesus (in his day and in ours) is to give people glimpses of the Kingdom of God.
When it comes to the level of basic need, fairness means that all are included – no one is left alone. Judgement has no place in fairness discussions when it comes to the things we all need.
//
This is why the modern social gospel is concerned with:
situations that threaten the environment of the world we share: the earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof...
conditions of poverty and famine and drought that expect people to live without the nourishment to truly allow them to live;
systems that treat the wellbeing of people as a commodity to be bought and sold.
//
Certainly, there are situations where, the person in need works against their own best interests. In those cases, efforts may need to include motivation and transformation.
The Challenge of Fairness is to know when we are behind the line, where judgement has no place; where the need of the moment must trump the lesson for the time to come.
Think of it this way: if someone doesn’t have enough, we’ve got work to do!
//
Moses and Aaron ultimately endured the complaining and grumbling of the people, because they had a real life-sustaining need.
The generosity of the landowner in Jesus’ story highlighted his understanding of the normal lives of those who laboured in his vineyard. Understanding the needs of the others who share this world is key to understanding Fairness from a gospel perspective.
//
May God be with is in our struggle to understand how we can best live out the Kingdom of God on earth.
Let us pray...
Holy and Just God,
Give us the patience to understand the needs of both neighbour and stranger alike. Help us to care as Jesus did.
AMEN
#194MV “Bread of Life, Feed My Soul”
Pentecost 14
Exodus 16:2-15
Matthew 20:1-16
(prayer)
The prophet Micah says that God requires humility, compassion and justice from us (Micah 6:8). We usually speak of justice as how we might respond to what someone has done.
Justice is about setting things right based on some action done or spoken or enabled by someone (or some group, or some entity or corporation or institution, etc.).
Part of this is our criminal justice system, which compares the actions of this person (or group or entity or corporation or institution, etc.) to societal standards enshrined in the written and common law and upheld by the constitution. We have developed patterns of what our society has declared “Just”. Public opinion clearly dictates that we don’t have universal agreement on what is just within our criminal justice systems. // I notice that the Leduc County’s Prayer Breakfast is coming up in less than two weeks (Oct 1st) and that Rev Don Schiemann is the guest speaker. You may recall that Rev Schiemann’s son Peter was one of the RCMP officers killed by James Roszko near Mayerthorpe six years ago. The poster for the breakfast says that Rev Schiemann “continues to lobby, along with other victim’s groups, for changes to the justice system to restore peace and public safety in our country.” [if you want to go to the County’s Prayer Breakfast, you can tickets from the County Office by this Friday, the 23rd.] It is a hot topic in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion: ‘just’ how well is justice served?
//
We also use the word Justice to speak of how well people live relative to each other. Church organizations have always led the society in advocating and action so that we all are encouraged to see that all people are able to live in dignity and equality.
One of the founding partner denominations of the United Church of Canada was the Methodist Church of Canada. Methodists were champions of The Social Gospel – Social Justice is still one of the hallmarks of how the United Church is known in Canada and in the world.
//
Jesus lived a compassion for the outcast and forgotten – Jesus’ followers are people of justice.
//
One way or another Justice is all about Fairness. We want all involved to be treated with honest fairness. As we heard in the reading from Matthew, chapter twenty today – it appears that (for Jesus) fairness has more to do what people need rather than what they have done: fairness/justice has more to do with what people need rather than what they have done!
Because we usually tend to focus on what has been done, this new perspective can cause some problems for us. How will our desire for Justice and Fairness be motivated - by the needs of those involved or simply a reaction based on the actions that have occurred?
That’s the Challenge of Fairness.
//
//
When Moses led the Hebrew people away from their slavery in Egypt, they ventured out into the Sinai wilderness. People quickly realized that, in a strange way, slavery had its advantages: sure you have no real control of your life, but you did have a settled place to live; you had access to food – at least enough food to make you a useful indentured servant of the Pharaoh and his kingdom. Out in the wilderness beyond the Red Sea, home was where you pitched your tent and food was what you managed to scavenge or kill. And water was an exceedingly valuable resource – increasingly in this wilderness, it was harder and harder to find.
Today, we read from Exodus chapter 16, but the story in chapter 17 is connected as well. The specific reading today was Moses’ and God’s attempt to deal with the people’s grumbling about a lack of food. We didn’t read it, but chapter 17 is very similar, but the issue is the need for water: remember they brought with them many livestock who needed water as well!
//
In both chapters 16 and 17, the pattern is the same. The people complain that they don’t have the food (or water) they need. They begin to look back on life in Egypt, where they had enough to eat (and drink). Moses takes the message to God, who comes up with a novel way for the people to have what they need. It wasn’t going to be the ‘fleshpots’ and fresh ‘bread’ of Egypt, but it would meet the need.
With the morning dew, an edible, flacky bread like substance would be found on the desert shrubbery – this (so-called) manna could be gathered before it melted away in the heat of the day. In the evening, birds (quails) seem to always rest near their camp – they could easily hunt meat for supper. As far as the need for water went from chapter 17, God showed Moses the location of (what must have been) an underground stream. All that was needed was for Moses to smash away the calcifications with his staff to release a steady flow of drinkable water.
//
The needs of the day were met, nothing more. If someone tried to hoard or store up some of the delicate manna, they found that it would spoil by the second day. It was (as Jesus would pray centuries later)...literally, God giving them daily bread!
The solution to the people’s problem was to provide what was fair – all that they needed for the day.
//
That is not really very different from the gospel story of the labourers in the vineyard. I wonder what the people at SUN-TV or FOX news think about this parable.
The landowner needs workers for the vineyard. The normal practice was for labourers and employers to find each other in the village square right after sunrise in the morning. This landowner hires a number of workers in the morning for a days work. The agreed upon pay is a denarius – the normal day labourers wage – enough to provide that workers family with a day’s worth of food, etc.
That all makes sense to pretty much everyone.
But as the day went on, the landowner needed more workers – he returned at 9am and noon, 3pm and 5pm. “Go into the vineyard and I’ll pay you what is right.”
At 6pm the work day ended and they all lined up to be paid, starting with those who had worked the shortest shifts. To their surprise, they received a full denarius. Even though, no one hired them until the last part of the day, they received what they and their family needed.
As the other workers watched the paymaster, and noticed the money given to those who had only worked one hour and expected that they were in for a huge payday – maybe as much as 12 denarii for those who worked the whole day!
But no, they all got one denarius – the daily wage, enough for their needs.
You see, it had nothing to do with what they earned, it was what they needed. How could the final workers who were hired at 5pm be expected to feed their families with 1/12th of a denarius?
To have enough to eat is a basic need. It can’t be rationed further; it is a baseline. The promise made by the landowner in Jesus’ parable was that each person ‘would be paid what is right’. Jesus’ message is that it is fair - it is just - it is right - to make sure that we all have enough for each day! The fairness is based on the need, not what the person has done.
//
Over the past several months, the world has become increasingly aware of the great need for aid in eastern Africa. It is an area that is prone to drought and is also fraught with political turmoil that draws resources away from the basic needs of the people to the desires of militias and dictators.
Some people are tired of helping Ethiopia – didn’t rock stars solve that problem with all-star records (we are the world...feed the world; let them know it’s Christmas time again) and star-studded simultaneous concerts in the 1980s?
These people keep fighting amongst themselves and wasting what they do have on guns and mines, if we help feed them, we’re just part of the problem, aren’t we?
The old axiom that ‘if you give someone a fish, they eat for a day, teach them to fish, they eat for a lifetime’ is certainly true. But if the most immediate need is today’s meal, a denarius is needed. The hungry must survive today if we are help them learn to fish.
//
Jesus’ parable and the experience of Moses and the Israelites speak directly to the issue of daily hunger. And yet, the issues of fairness reach so much broader.
Even a fairness based on need is challenging because (in most situations) there are competing needs. And one of the ways people try to sort through those competing needs is to begin to consider the actions. We add a level of judgement into the mix. We begin to judge a person’s worth. And so often, when we do this, judgement leads to a hoarding of resources that could be shared – a fear of wasting it on ‘the un-worthy’.
//
The Challenge of Fairness is to try and block judgement out of the picture. To see the basic “need” as the only motivator. The vineyard-owner asked the 5pm labourers: “why are you not working? “Because no one has hired us!”
We might be tempted to ask “Why?” again. Why are you unemployable – did you sleep in; are you un-skilled; were you wasting your day away with some other activities? What did you do wrong that caused you still to be looking for work with only one hour left in the day?
We might be tempted to move the conversation to the topic of “what did you do?”, but the landowner doesn’t go there. The labourers are taken into the vineyard and they work what they are able. And they are given what “is right” – what they need.
The vineyard owner is a metaphor for God. This kind of ‘needs-based-fairness’ is a characteristic of the Realm of God: the Kingdom of Heaven (as Matthew puts it).
//
Part of the role of the followers of Jesus (in his day and in ours) is to give people glimpses of the Kingdom of God.
When it comes to the level of basic need, fairness means that all are included – no one is left alone. Judgement has no place in fairness discussions when it comes to the things we all need.
//
This is why the modern social gospel is concerned with:
situations that threaten the environment of the world we share: the earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof...
conditions of poverty and famine and drought that expect people to live without the nourishment to truly allow them to live;
systems that treat the wellbeing of people as a commodity to be bought and sold.
//
Certainly, there are situations where, the person in need works against their own best interests. In those cases, efforts may need to include motivation and transformation.
The Challenge of Fairness is to know when we are behind the line, where judgement has no place; where the need of the moment must trump the lesson for the time to come.
Think of it this way: if someone doesn’t have enough, we’ve got work to do!
//
Moses and Aaron ultimately endured the complaining and grumbling of the people, because they had a real life-sustaining need.
The generosity of the landowner in Jesus’ story highlighted his understanding of the normal lives of those who laboured in his vineyard. Understanding the needs of the others who share this world is key to understanding Fairness from a gospel perspective.
//
May God be with is in our struggle to understand how we can best live out the Kingdom of God on earth.
Let us pray...
Holy and Just God,
Give us the patience to understand the needs of both neighbour and stranger alike. Help us to care as Jesus did.
AMEN
#194MV “Bread of Life, Feed My Soul”
Sunday, September 11, 2011
THE CHALLENGE OF FORGIVENESS
September 11, 2011
Pentecost 13
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35
(prayer)
Ten years ago, this date was a Tuesday. By this time of the morning, four passenger jets had been high-jacked, crashed into buildings or the ground, the two tallest buildings in New York City had crumbled, thousands of people were dead and people all over the world had their lives changed forever.
//
[slide] Today, at the World Trade Centre site in lower Manhattan, two memorial reflecting pools (fountains) in the footprints of the fallen towers are being officially dedicated during the 10th anniversary ceremony (probably concluding right about now). Today, the memorial site is open to families of 9/11 victims. Tomorrow, it will open to the public.
//
One of the expectations of ministers in the United Church of Canada is that we engage in patterns of Life Long Learning. The church expects that its clergy will continue to expand their knowledge, to nurture their spirituality and develop new skills well beyond the day we graduate from Theological College. I finished my Master of Divinity degree in May 1990. I was ordained later that month. In the past 21 years, I have attended many courses, seminars and spiritual retreats. I have read dozens of books on topics like theology, history and the future of the church. In 2009, I took a three month sabbatical focusing on Music, Spirituality and the Modern Church.
Over the past couple of years, I have continued to expand my interest in these areas. Twice I have ventured east to attend events about this. One was in North Carolina (in 2010) and the other was in New York (this past May). On both trips, I had a couple of days in New York City. Both times I visited the ground zero site. I have watched the new 1WTC grow skyward (formally called The Freedom Tower). It was about 20 floors high when I first saw it. I see by the news that it is now the tallest building in lower Manhattan at 961 feet (78 floors so far) – eventually, including an antenna tower at the top, it will be 1776 feet tall and be the tallest building in the US.
I have been scrolling some photos and animations (I found on the internet) of the WTC site as it looks today.
This past May, I got a look at the Memorial Site, myself, for the first time. Here is the photo I took with my phone of the south memorial pool three and a half months ago three and a half months ago [slide].
//
You may have read in our church newsletter or in my blog through the church’s website, what I remember about September 11th, 2001. I know each person who remembers that day has their own memories of how they were affected. I am still haunted by the events of that day – especially how my children (even Sean who was six at the time) have no lasting pre-9-11 memories.
They live and move and have their being in a world of intense, big-brother-esque security; anti-muslim sentiments (think of the post 9-11 public debates over head scarves on the soccer pitch and the location of mosques); and of course, the foggy and seemingly never-ending battles in the War on Terror – a war I think has become self-perpetuating: the more we fight it, the people are willing join in.
It may be because 9-11 had such an effect on me that I found myself deeply affected by the design of the Memorial as I was looking at the construction last May.
I really like the subterranean design of the fountain. Water flowing down is an obvious reminder for me of the falling towers – with the water flowing out of sight in the dark centre.
And yet I can not separate that from the rich biblical imagery of water – a symbol of life and movement and welcome – of compassion, commitment and the grace of God.
All of that was going through my mind as I looked the construction at ground zero. At the time, I knew that the second Sunday in September would be the 11th this year and I was conscious that this was the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Even though the pattern at St. David’s is to offer Baptism on most second Sundays, I wasn’t sure it would make sense for this September 11th. I thought that it might feel wrong somehow.
But I made the decision (that day back in NYC as I imagined these memorial pools flowing with water) that water had to flow here today as well! I forgave myself of the negative feelings I was having that continue to be part of this post-9-11 world.
//
//
Last week here in church, we read the first part of Matthew chapter 18 – how should a person respond to someone who has “sinned” against them. Matthew quotes for us Jesus conflict management model:
1) try to work it out one on one;
2) bring in a couple other people to help the two of you work it out;
3) if that doesn’t work, get the whole community involved;
4) and if even that doesn’t work, just don’t deal with each other anymore.” – presumably until you can get along again.
Today, as we heard the next section of Matthew, chapter 18, we can notice that some of disciples were still trying to figure out where the edges of love and compassion are. 18:21Then Peter came and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’
Peter thought he was being very generous by offering a seven-fold forgiveness. That’s his top end (as many as...). Jesus’ response was intended to blow that notion of generous forgiveness out of the water. “Seven? No, seventy-seven times” (some translations have this as seventy times seven – or 490 times).
If we worry too much about the number, we are no different that Peter. Jesus was not setting a limit at which the forgiveness requirement would run out, but was intending to pick such a high number that it could not be reached. If it helps, imagine Jesus saying, “Seven? No! 700 million ka-gillian times.”
To illustrate the point of how important the concept of forgiveness is to understanding the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus told a story.
A servant owed a large sum of money (10,000 talents = 100 million denarii = ~275,000 years’ wages for a labourer). How this servant came to own this extraordinary amount is not known, but it was an impossible debt. The King decided to cut his losses and sell this man as a slave along with his whole family and all his worldly possessions. The man pleaded for his freedom – promising the impossible: that he would pay off the whole debt.
The king’s heart was filled with compassion and mercy and he forgave the impossible debt completely!
The king’s forgiving actions were not based on business or even a sense of justice or fairness (if we assume that the debt was legitimate). This was grace – forgiveness, where forgiveness was not warranted but was given anyway.
To contrast that act of pure grace, Jesus expands the story to say that the recipient of that grace was not so soft-hearted. The servant refused to offer any leniency to a fellow servant who owed him money (100 denarii = about three months wages or one-ten-thousandth of a percent of what he had owed the king).
When the king found out about this, he was enraged – he expected that grace would be contagious: that forgiveness would set the ground for deeper forgiveness.
The moral of the tale as Matthew tells it is: how can we expect to understand the grace of God, if we are unable to see glimpses of that kind of grace in our own lives?
//
When we have been ‘wronged’ in some way – hard emotions can surface in us: anger, disappointment, resentment, sadness. It is natural to want those who make us suffer to suffer themselves.
• Grace is an un-natural response.
• Forgiveness is hard because – we don’t want to act as if the wrong never happened.
• A seventy-times-seven kind of forgiveness does not take into account the nature of the wrong. And that doesn’t seem right or just.
• Shouldn’t forgiveness be earned?
//
Jesus says “no!”
//
It’s hard to live out this commandment to forgive, because forgiveness would be so much easier when I have healed from the pain caused to me, when the other person has repented and worked seriously at restitution and reconciliation.
//
Why does Jesus expect me to forgive – even if the other person is unchanged? Is that right?
Well, that’s the challenge of forgiveness.
//
In the end, in spite of my arrogance and any delusions I have about my ability to influence others, I only have control over one person in this universe – ME.
So, for forgiveness to have any value – it has to be about me. When I allow myself to have a grace-filled heart, the goal is to change me, not the person I am forgiving. If that happens, it is a bonus, but it is not a factor in my decision to forgive.
In fact, maybe the fact that my anger, my disappointment, my resentment, my sadness keeps the ‘sin’ alive is actually a stumbling block for any of those involved in moving forward.
//
//
Over the past ten years, I have had a recurring dream that I am on the roof of the South WTC Tower with my six year son on September 11th, 2001 as American Airlines flight 11 smashed into the north tower at 8:46am ET. I know that I have less that 15 minutes before United Airlines flight 175 hits my tower. I scramble to find the staircase that will lead us down. In my dream I wonder if we have enough time to get low enough in the building before 9:02 (if I can convince my son to move like his life depended on it) and if we are in the right staircase (furthest away from the crash), so that we won’t be bathed in burning jet fuel.
The dream never lasts long enough to find out if we get low enough before the crash or if we get out of the building and far enough away before the south tower collapses at 9:59am.
It feels so real and so personal.
When I awake, I feel helpless and scared and I am filled with a combination of anger and sadness when I think about those who executed this attack. How could they justify to themselves that this violence made sense?
Now, I am a politically minded person, with an open-mind as far as spirituality and religion goes. I seek to understand those people who think differently than me – especially to understand their hard reactions to my viewpoints. But I can’t see any lasting value in any act of violence – on a small or large scale.
And yet, I do find forgiveness very challenging!
//
In the last few months, I have tried a spiritual discipline to begin to address this challenge.
I have tried to imagine allowing all the hard emotions I am feeling getting caught up in the waters of the 9-11 memorial; the blocks to forgiveness are flowing down and out of sight.
Every once and a while as I work with this image in my mind, I am overcome with a sense of contentment and completeness: that I can only describe as the hands of God hugging my soul. In those instances, I think I am experiencing the grace that can change me when I am open to forgiveness.
//
Water is such a powerful image for me.
As we baptised this morning, we imagined the grace of God bathing these two young children as a few drops of water were splashed on their heads. We imagined the worry and struggle that accompanies a feeling of being alone...being washed away, because God-is-with-us. We imagined a spiritual thirst...finding relief.
We experienced Grace.
God’s compassion, not because we are perfect copies of Jesus Christ; not because we have earned anything by our thoughts or actions, but because God loves us not matter what.
//
My hope...is that grace and forgiveness are contagious. That we will be enlivened by God’s love for us that we want others to know what that can feel like on a human-to-human level. That there is a flow to this aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven; that once we are swept up in the current of the healing stream, we know it is a path we want to take.
I know it is a challenge to get close enough to that to feel the possibility and hope that forgiveness can bring.
I hope we are all up to the challenge.
Let us pray:
Holy, Gracious God;
Hold fast to us as we learn to forgive and become vessels of your grace. Amen.
#581VU “When We Are Living”
Pentecost 13
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35
(prayer)
Ten years ago, this date was a Tuesday. By this time of the morning, four passenger jets had been high-jacked, crashed into buildings or the ground, the two tallest buildings in New York City had crumbled, thousands of people were dead and people all over the world had their lives changed forever.
//
[slide] Today, at the World Trade Centre site in lower Manhattan, two memorial reflecting pools (fountains) in the footprints of the fallen towers are being officially dedicated during the 10th anniversary ceremony (probably concluding right about now). Today, the memorial site is open to families of 9/11 victims. Tomorrow, it will open to the public.
//
One of the expectations of ministers in the United Church of Canada is that we engage in patterns of Life Long Learning. The church expects that its clergy will continue to expand their knowledge, to nurture their spirituality and develop new skills well beyond the day we graduate from Theological College. I finished my Master of Divinity degree in May 1990. I was ordained later that month. In the past 21 years, I have attended many courses, seminars and spiritual retreats. I have read dozens of books on topics like theology, history and the future of the church. In 2009, I took a three month sabbatical focusing on Music, Spirituality and the Modern Church.
Over the past couple of years, I have continued to expand my interest in these areas. Twice I have ventured east to attend events about this. One was in North Carolina (in 2010) and the other was in New York (this past May). On both trips, I had a couple of days in New York City. Both times I visited the ground zero site. I have watched the new 1WTC grow skyward (formally called The Freedom Tower). It was about 20 floors high when I first saw it. I see by the news that it is now the tallest building in lower Manhattan at 961 feet (78 floors so far) – eventually, including an antenna tower at the top, it will be 1776 feet tall and be the tallest building in the US.
I have been scrolling some photos and animations (I found on the internet) of the WTC site as it looks today.
This past May, I got a look at the Memorial Site, myself, for the first time. Here is the photo I took with my phone of the south memorial pool three and a half months ago three and a half months ago [slide].
//
You may have read in our church newsletter or in my blog through the church’s website, what I remember about September 11th, 2001. I know each person who remembers that day has their own memories of how they were affected. I am still haunted by the events of that day – especially how my children (even Sean who was six at the time) have no lasting pre-9-11 memories.
They live and move and have their being in a world of intense, big-brother-esque security; anti-muslim sentiments (think of the post 9-11 public debates over head scarves on the soccer pitch and the location of mosques); and of course, the foggy and seemingly never-ending battles in the War on Terror – a war I think has become self-perpetuating: the more we fight it, the people are willing join in.
It may be because 9-11 had such an effect on me that I found myself deeply affected by the design of the Memorial as I was looking at the construction last May.
I really like the subterranean design of the fountain. Water flowing down is an obvious reminder for me of the falling towers – with the water flowing out of sight in the dark centre.
And yet I can not separate that from the rich biblical imagery of water – a symbol of life and movement and welcome – of compassion, commitment and the grace of God.
All of that was going through my mind as I looked the construction at ground zero. At the time, I knew that the second Sunday in September would be the 11th this year and I was conscious that this was the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Even though the pattern at St. David’s is to offer Baptism on most second Sundays, I wasn’t sure it would make sense for this September 11th. I thought that it might feel wrong somehow.
But I made the decision (that day back in NYC as I imagined these memorial pools flowing with water) that water had to flow here today as well! I forgave myself of the negative feelings I was having that continue to be part of this post-9-11 world.
//
//
Last week here in church, we read the first part of Matthew chapter 18 – how should a person respond to someone who has “sinned” against them. Matthew quotes for us Jesus conflict management model:
1) try to work it out one on one;
2) bring in a couple other people to help the two of you work it out;
3) if that doesn’t work, get the whole community involved;
4) and if even that doesn’t work, just don’t deal with each other anymore.” – presumably until you can get along again.
Today, as we heard the next section of Matthew, chapter 18, we can notice that some of disciples were still trying to figure out where the edges of love and compassion are. 18:21Then Peter came and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’
Peter thought he was being very generous by offering a seven-fold forgiveness. That’s his top end (as many as...). Jesus’ response was intended to blow that notion of generous forgiveness out of the water. “Seven? No, seventy-seven times” (some translations have this as seventy times seven – or 490 times).
If we worry too much about the number, we are no different that Peter. Jesus was not setting a limit at which the forgiveness requirement would run out, but was intending to pick such a high number that it could not be reached. If it helps, imagine Jesus saying, “Seven? No! 700 million ka-gillian times.”
To illustrate the point of how important the concept of forgiveness is to understanding the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus told a story.
A servant owed a large sum of money (10,000 talents = 100 million denarii = ~275,000 years’ wages for a labourer). How this servant came to own this extraordinary amount is not known, but it was an impossible debt. The King decided to cut his losses and sell this man as a slave along with his whole family and all his worldly possessions. The man pleaded for his freedom – promising the impossible: that he would pay off the whole debt.
The king’s heart was filled with compassion and mercy and he forgave the impossible debt completely!
The king’s forgiving actions were not based on business or even a sense of justice or fairness (if we assume that the debt was legitimate). This was grace – forgiveness, where forgiveness was not warranted but was given anyway.
To contrast that act of pure grace, Jesus expands the story to say that the recipient of that grace was not so soft-hearted. The servant refused to offer any leniency to a fellow servant who owed him money (100 denarii = about three months wages or one-ten-thousandth of a percent of what he had owed the king).
When the king found out about this, he was enraged – he expected that grace would be contagious: that forgiveness would set the ground for deeper forgiveness.
The moral of the tale as Matthew tells it is: how can we expect to understand the grace of God, if we are unable to see glimpses of that kind of grace in our own lives?
//
When we have been ‘wronged’ in some way – hard emotions can surface in us: anger, disappointment, resentment, sadness. It is natural to want those who make us suffer to suffer themselves.
• Grace is an un-natural response.
• Forgiveness is hard because – we don’t want to act as if the wrong never happened.
• A seventy-times-seven kind of forgiveness does not take into account the nature of the wrong. And that doesn’t seem right or just.
• Shouldn’t forgiveness be earned?
//
Jesus says “no!”
//
It’s hard to live out this commandment to forgive, because forgiveness would be so much easier when I have healed from the pain caused to me, when the other person has repented and worked seriously at restitution and reconciliation.
//
Why does Jesus expect me to forgive – even if the other person is unchanged? Is that right?
Well, that’s the challenge of forgiveness.
//
In the end, in spite of my arrogance and any delusions I have about my ability to influence others, I only have control over one person in this universe – ME.
So, for forgiveness to have any value – it has to be about me. When I allow myself to have a grace-filled heart, the goal is to change me, not the person I am forgiving. If that happens, it is a bonus, but it is not a factor in my decision to forgive.
In fact, maybe the fact that my anger, my disappointment, my resentment, my sadness keeps the ‘sin’ alive is actually a stumbling block for any of those involved in moving forward.
//
//
Over the past ten years, I have had a recurring dream that I am on the roof of the South WTC Tower with my six year son on September 11th, 2001 as American Airlines flight 11 smashed into the north tower at 8:46am ET. I know that I have less that 15 minutes before United Airlines flight 175 hits my tower. I scramble to find the staircase that will lead us down. In my dream I wonder if we have enough time to get low enough in the building before 9:02 (if I can convince my son to move like his life depended on it) and if we are in the right staircase (furthest away from the crash), so that we won’t be bathed in burning jet fuel.
The dream never lasts long enough to find out if we get low enough before the crash or if we get out of the building and far enough away before the south tower collapses at 9:59am.
It feels so real and so personal.
When I awake, I feel helpless and scared and I am filled with a combination of anger and sadness when I think about those who executed this attack. How could they justify to themselves that this violence made sense?
Now, I am a politically minded person, with an open-mind as far as spirituality and religion goes. I seek to understand those people who think differently than me – especially to understand their hard reactions to my viewpoints. But I can’t see any lasting value in any act of violence – on a small or large scale.
And yet, I do find forgiveness very challenging!
//
In the last few months, I have tried a spiritual discipline to begin to address this challenge.
I have tried to imagine allowing all the hard emotions I am feeling getting caught up in the waters of the 9-11 memorial; the blocks to forgiveness are flowing down and out of sight.
Every once and a while as I work with this image in my mind, I am overcome with a sense of contentment and completeness: that I can only describe as the hands of God hugging my soul. In those instances, I think I am experiencing the grace that can change me when I am open to forgiveness.
//
Water is such a powerful image for me.
As we baptised this morning, we imagined the grace of God bathing these two young children as a few drops of water were splashed on their heads. We imagined the worry and struggle that accompanies a feeling of being alone...being washed away, because God-is-with-us. We imagined a spiritual thirst...finding relief.
We experienced Grace.
God’s compassion, not because we are perfect copies of Jesus Christ; not because we have earned anything by our thoughts or actions, but because God loves us not matter what.
//
My hope...is that grace and forgiveness are contagious. That we will be enlivened by God’s love for us that we want others to know what that can feel like on a human-to-human level. That there is a flow to this aspect of the Kingdom of Heaven; that once we are swept up in the current of the healing stream, we know it is a path we want to take.
I know it is a challenge to get close enough to that to feel the possibility and hope that forgiveness can bring.
I hope we are all up to the challenge.
Let us pray:
Holy, Gracious God;
Hold fast to us as we learn to forgive and become vessels of your grace. Amen.
#581VU “When We Are Living”
Sunday, September 4, 2011
THE CHALLENGE OF COMMUNITY
September 4, 2011
Pentecost 12
Exodus 12:1-14
Matthew 18:15-20
(prayer)
The community of Leduc; the Arts community; the Chinese-Canadian community; the Gay community; The Business community; a community of Faith.
Communities can be geographic, racial, social, cultural, faith-based ... almost anything we can think of that draws people together who hold something ‘in common’.
That’s the origin of the word – communities are groups that hold something in common: commonities !
Many communities have clear expectations of what qualifies you to be part of 'that' community: what is it you would have to hold in common with the others to be considered part of that community.
It is interesting that the truth is that in many communities, the thing people hold in common is something they have little or no control over – where you happen to live defines your community, or your cultural background, or your skin colour. In essence, the community is defined for you.
In other cases, like a community of faith, we belong because we have decided it is important to hold these things in common.
When you are part of a community (by circumstance or by choice), part of your identity to the world is tied up with the perceived identity of that community.
//
The Bible tells us that the main reason the people of Israel were forced into slavery in Egypt was because they were perceived to have such a tight-knit community. Pharaoh was worried that they could get together and join with enemies in a time of war.
The Hebrew community was based on a common ancestry and a common faith. Their common identity was seen as a threat. When Moses prepared the people for the final plague aimed at convincing the Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go, they would mark their homes with a sign of community unity. They would share a common food on a common night. They would be in a common rush: a hurried preparedness. And for all times that followed, their descendants would re-tell this common story.
//
//
In the decades that followed the earthly life of Jesus, the groups of disciples were relatively small and dispersed around in many different places. They were no were near as noticeable within the wider society as the ancient Hebrews were in Moses’ time.
Jesus spoke about the value of small communities: where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. We sang those words as we gathered today. It is interesting to look at the context in which those words are shared in the book of Matthew.
Today’s reading was about conflict within the community. “If a member of the church “sins” against you, here’s what to do:
1) try to work it out one on one;
2) bring in a couple other people to help the two of you work it out;
3) if that doesn’t work, get the whole community involved;
4) and if even that doesn’t work, just don’t deal with each other anymore.”
That’s as close as the Bible gets to saying, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
//
The process described in Matthew is all about trying to come to a common agreement.
//
That is the challenge of community – learning to live together with respect. We may hold something significant in common; but we are not identical – the challenge of community is how do we deal with conflict?
When we consider that Jesus calls us into a very wide circled-community, there is bound to be conflict. It’s one of the challenges to encouraging so much diversity.
I guess the question is - Are we up for the challenge of this kind of community? Or do we think that limiting how broadly we think the Spirit should reach would make us more cohesive.
//
But…if we see this entire world and all of its inhabitants as those loved by God and that we are to love with the wide love that Jesus had, can we really avoid dealing with the challenge of community.
//
The final step of the Matthew conflict management process is to “walk away from the conflict and not deal anymore with the person you believe had wronged you.” Ironically the passage draws a line at edge of the community – let this one be as a gentile or tax collector to you. I double checked the degree of ‘you’ here. The Greek word in this passage is singular, not plural. Hint: you don’t have to know Greek, just go to the King James version – for singlular yous, they use thee or thou. Matthew 18:17 uses ‘thee’ - the text is not telling the whole community to shun this person, just the one who can’t resolve the conflict. There is no indication in the passage that either person is to be expelled from the community – they are just given time-outs from each other.
Now that would be challenging! It would be so much easier to just leave ourselves or work for the ouster of the other. But to ‘live and let live…together’ that might take a depth of character many of us would have to work on!
//
“Love your neighbor as yourself”
It’s in Leviticus (chapter 19: verse 18); Jesus famously quoted it.
And yet, how often we can react like the scribe did in Luke’s gospel, “Ah, but who is my neighbor?” How far does this community go; when do we hit the wall?
Well, if you know the story Jesus told in response to the scribe’s question, you can see that he never bothered to answer the ‘who is my neighbor’ question. Jesus just told them about someone 'they think lowly of' behaving more nobly than all others and Jesus said 'do what the good Samaritan did!' “Who is my neighbor?” “Just be a neighbor!” Jesus refused to move the conversation about Leviticus 19:18 from discussing love to discussing the definition of neighbor. It’s all about love, it’s all about compassion, it’s all about wide, respectful, loving community.
It’s easier to walk away, it’s easier to expel.
Community is a challenge.
Are we up to it?
Let us pray:
Holy God, hold us together, especially when we are having trouble doing that. Give us a love like Jesus’ love. Amen.
*offering*
Pentecost 12
Exodus 12:1-14
Matthew 18:15-20
(prayer)
The community of Leduc; the Arts community; the Chinese-Canadian community; the Gay community; The Business community; a community of Faith.
Communities can be geographic, racial, social, cultural, faith-based ... almost anything we can think of that draws people together who hold something ‘in common’.
That’s the origin of the word – communities are groups that hold something in common: commonities !
Many communities have clear expectations of what qualifies you to be part of 'that' community: what is it you would have to hold in common with the others to be considered part of that community.
It is interesting that the truth is that in many communities, the thing people hold in common is something they have little or no control over – where you happen to live defines your community, or your cultural background, or your skin colour. In essence, the community is defined for you.
In other cases, like a community of faith, we belong because we have decided it is important to hold these things in common.
When you are part of a community (by circumstance or by choice), part of your identity to the world is tied up with the perceived identity of that community.
//
The Bible tells us that the main reason the people of Israel were forced into slavery in Egypt was because they were perceived to have such a tight-knit community. Pharaoh was worried that they could get together and join with enemies in a time of war.
The Hebrew community was based on a common ancestry and a common faith. Their common identity was seen as a threat. When Moses prepared the people for the final plague aimed at convincing the Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go, they would mark their homes with a sign of community unity. They would share a common food on a common night. They would be in a common rush: a hurried preparedness. And for all times that followed, their descendants would re-tell this common story.
//
//
In the decades that followed the earthly life of Jesus, the groups of disciples were relatively small and dispersed around in many different places. They were no were near as noticeable within the wider society as the ancient Hebrews were in Moses’ time.
Jesus spoke about the value of small communities: where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. We sang those words as we gathered today. It is interesting to look at the context in which those words are shared in the book of Matthew.
Today’s reading was about conflict within the community. “If a member of the church “sins” against you, here’s what to do:
1) try to work it out one on one;
2) bring in a couple other people to help the two of you work it out;
3) if that doesn’t work, get the whole community involved;
4) and if even that doesn’t work, just don’t deal with each other anymore.”
That’s as close as the Bible gets to saying, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
//
The process described in Matthew is all about trying to come to a common agreement.
//
That is the challenge of community – learning to live together with respect. We may hold something significant in common; but we are not identical – the challenge of community is how do we deal with conflict?
When we consider that Jesus calls us into a very wide circled-community, there is bound to be conflict. It’s one of the challenges to encouraging so much diversity.
I guess the question is - Are we up for the challenge of this kind of community? Or do we think that limiting how broadly we think the Spirit should reach would make us more cohesive.
//
But…if we see this entire world and all of its inhabitants as those loved by God and that we are to love with the wide love that Jesus had, can we really avoid dealing with the challenge of community.
//
The final step of the Matthew conflict management process is to “walk away from the conflict and not deal anymore with the person you believe had wronged you.” Ironically the passage draws a line at edge of the community – let this one be as a gentile or tax collector to you. I double checked the degree of ‘you’ here. The Greek word in this passage is singular, not plural. Hint: you don’t have to know Greek, just go to the King James version – for singlular yous, they use thee or thou. Matthew 18:17 uses ‘thee’ - the text is not telling the whole community to shun this person, just the one who can’t resolve the conflict. There is no indication in the passage that either person is to be expelled from the community – they are just given time-outs from each other.
Now that would be challenging! It would be so much easier to just leave ourselves or work for the ouster of the other. But to ‘live and let live…together’ that might take a depth of character many of us would have to work on!
//
“Love your neighbor as yourself”
It’s in Leviticus (chapter 19: verse 18); Jesus famously quoted it.
And yet, how often we can react like the scribe did in Luke’s gospel, “Ah, but who is my neighbor?” How far does this community go; when do we hit the wall?
Well, if you know the story Jesus told in response to the scribe’s question, you can see that he never bothered to answer the ‘who is my neighbor’ question. Jesus just told them about someone 'they think lowly of' behaving more nobly than all others and Jesus said 'do what the good Samaritan did!' “Who is my neighbor?” “Just be a neighbor!” Jesus refused to move the conversation about Leviticus 19:18 from discussing love to discussing the definition of neighbor. It’s all about love, it’s all about compassion, it’s all about wide, respectful, loving community.
It’s easier to walk away, it’s easier to expel.
Community is a challenge.
Are we up to it?
Let us pray:
Holy God, hold us together, especially when we are having trouble doing that. Give us a love like Jesus’ love. Amen.
*offering*
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