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.

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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.

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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.

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The process described in Matthew is all about trying to come to a common agreement.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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“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*