Sermon for September 7, Pentecost Ezekiel 33:7-11; Psalm 119:33-40; Romans 13:6-14; Matthew 18:15-20 by Jim Neal

Transcription

1 Sermon for September 7, Pentecost Ezekiel 33:7-11; Psalm 119:33-40; Romans 13:6-14; Matthew 18:15-20 by Jim Neal Opening prayer: Let us pray: Jesus, help me to open my heart and my mind to each person and to treat them with compassion and respect. Amen. I struggled with this sermon for two reasons: 1. I spent a lot of time with Wes and Helen s son and daughters this week; and 2. I don t like conflict with others and I know at times I have not handled it well. I guess I am a wimp, but I admit it. But, as I reflected on today s lessons the topic of conflict in church communities kept staring me in the face. With the help of several commentaries, I have learned how I might change. But will I? I hope these words help me and also help you to reflect on past or current situations in new light, the light of Jesus. Several weeks ago, Dick preached on the importance of Living in Community. We are social beings and throughout our lives we live in many communities. This concept is very important to Jesus, to Paul, and to you and me. What community or, more probably, what communities do you live in: family; fraternal organizations; neighborhood; work environment; your church community? Whatever communities you consider being important to you, they have some common characteristics: they involve two or more persons; they exist because of some common purpose, activity or belief; and there will, at times, be conflict. Jesus might have said if two or more are gathered together in my name there will be conflict. So, church conflict is nothing new. Sometimes people think there should be no conflict in church, as though by virtue of being Christians, we can and should cover over all disagreements with niceness. Jesus in his teaching in our gospel lesson today seems to proceed on the baseline assumption that conflict in Christian community is normal and natural, and should be dealt with honestly and with compassion. Have I always done this? No! Have I at times? Yes! Will I in the future? I hope so! Think about some past or current conflict situations you have handled well. Or not!

2 2 As we may know, honesty and compassion are all too rarely the watchwords of our church conflicts. Many times anger, hurt feelings and lack of clear communication drive us toward either sweeping everything under the rug to keep the peace, or to openly hostile dialog and actions. The result can be a Body of Christ squeaky clean on the outside but filled with resentment and anger on the inside. There must be a better way. Today s Old Testament Lesson requires us to warn the wicked to turn from their ways or we will have their blood on our hands. Today s Psalm encourages us to follow the path of the Lord s commandments, and we will delight in them: Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Today s Epistle lesson from Romans encourages us to embrace the commandment to love one another: For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. But is loving our neighbor the answer to every conflict? Jesus provides us a way to deal with church conflict in our gospel lesson today that can be applied to any interpersonal conflict. First, he asks us to use direct and respectful communication. If we are struggling with something a person has said or done, we are not to talk behind his or her back. Nor are we to stage a dramatic public confrontation at coffee hour. We are to take them aside, after the initial rush of emotion has subsided, and engage in dialogue with that person one-on-one. Hmmm, I have done that, once in awhile, but I can think of situations when I haven t. If that conversation does not yield fruit, we create a small group of all parties involved to discern and pray together. If no progress is made, then we let transparency be our guiding principle and search for a solution as a whole church community, bearing one another s burdens and seeking reconciliation. This is tough! I know, at times, I haven t done this well. Some disagreements are so deep that even these steps cannot ease them, and so Jesus says, If the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. Now we breathe a sigh of relief. If we ve checked all the boxes for responsible church conflict resolution and still have gotten nowhere, we can shun and push aside these troublemakers. Hooray! But it turns out that we are not off the hook at all. Why? Because of how Jesus treated tax collectors and gentiles! What can we learn from his words and actions toward them that we can then apply to our fellow church members? Zaccheus was not just a tax collector but a chief tax collector and filthy rich. But he is so eager to see Jesus that he climbs a tree to get a better view of him.

3 3 What does Jesus do? Wilma, do you have something to add? (Wilma sings:) Zaccheus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the Lord came passing by He looked up in the tree; And He said: Zaccheus! You come down! For I'm going to your house today; For I'm going to your house today. Jesus calls Zaccheus down and invites himself to dinner at Zaccheus home. How then can we treat a fellow church member differently then Jesus treats Zaccheus? We can invite this member to share their gifts with the church in some way, just as Jesus did with Zaccheus. And most importantly, we can share table fellowship together, in the parish hall, at the altar, in one another s homes. When Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple, he emphasizes the Pharisee s showboating pride and self-satisfaction versus the tax collector s pained and private acknowledgement of his own sin. Jesus says this tax collector went home justified and forgiven. Could we not look for the hidden self of the person with whom we are in conflict and have our compassion awakened? Could we not realize that we ourselves might be in danger of praying like the Pharisee, proud and certain of our own righteousness? Matthew, one of the 12 apostles, was a tax collector, and Jesus called him right from his money table to follow him. When Jesus tells us that we are to treat our most stubborn and contrary church members like tax collectors, he is telling us to treat them like members of his inner circle, disciples who are key to the spreading of the Word. That is how Jesus treats tax collectors with mercy, with invitation, with curiosity and with an eye toward their potential for growth and service to the Kingdom. What about gentiles? If we are to treat church members with whom we disagree as gentiles, how does Jesus teach us by example to behave toward them? One of Jesus most famous encounters with a gentile was the healing of the Syrophoenician woman s daughter. She was a gentile and he initially refuses, saying that the food for the children of Israel cannot be given to the dogs. Her clever and persistent response, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table, convinces him to change his mind. If our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who was perfect and without sin, can be persuaded to soften his position and change his mind about someone, can we not do the same? Are

4 4 we really paying attention to the argument our opponent in the church is offering? Jesus was not afraid to really listen and be changed by what he heard. We have the opportunity to do the same. We see Jesus relationship with gentiles in another story: the healing of the centurion s servant. The centurion seeks Jesus out, admits that he is not worthy of Jesus coming under his roof, and says that he knows that if Jesus says the word, his servant will be healed. Jesus immediately extends healing to the servant, and marvels at the depth and purity of the centurion s faith. Notice that Jesus heals the servant not in person, but over a distance. For the church, or personal, conflicts in our past, the ones that drove us or our neighbors to leave the church, this story proves that healing can occur over distance, a geographical distance or the distance of time. All it takes is, like Jesus, recognizing the faith of the gentile. And so it is worth revisiting old broken relationships with our brothers and sisters and spending time in prayer for our faith and the faith of those from who we are estranged. It might be a path to healing we never expected. And so we see that this gospel lesson, in fact, does not give us license to get rid of people we don t like, to ostracize troublemakers and let silence and distance be the result of church conflict. Jesus instruction to treat the ones who seem to be the most far gone and uninterested in reconciliation, like tax collectors and gentiles, opens to us a whole array of creative and surprising paths toward reconciliation, toward seeing the best in one another, toward achieving healing even years after we no longer remember what got us so angry in the first place. In the imitation of Christ we find that treating others like tax collectors and gentiles is a path of gentleness, hope, and potential. All of this is so important not just because of the simple reality that there is no such thing as church, or life, without conflict. It matters because of how Jesus concludes his instructions: Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. The translation in The Message says it this way: "Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there." Forgiveness, compassion, and a willingness to really listen are often difficult, but they are much better than the alternatives that cause broken relationships. In the verse following today s lesson from Matthew we find: Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive; as many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven. Oh, come on Jesus, get serious!

5 5 My brother sent me a poem about the truth of God s ever present forgiveness. I was shocked, confused, bewildered As I entered Heaven's door, Not by the beauty of it all, Nor the lights or its decor. But it was the folks in Heaven Who made me sputter and gasp-- The thieves, the liars, the sinners, The alcoholics and the trash. Bob, who I always thought Was rotting away in hell, Was sitting pretty on cloud nine, Looking incredibly well. I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal? I would love to hear Your take. How'd all these sinners get up here? God must've made a mistake. There stood the kid from seventh grade Who swiped my lunch money twice. Next to him was my old neighbor Who never said anything nice. 'And why is everyone so quiet, So somber - give me a clue.' 'Hush, child,' He said, 'they're all in shock. No one thought they'd be seeing you.' Jesus, help me to open my heart and my mind to each person and to treat each persons with compassion and respect. Amen. Material for this sermon was extracted from a sermon found on Sermon s that Work by The Rev. Whitney Rice of St. Luke s Episcopal Church, Shelbyville, Ind., and St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Franklin, Ind.