Dave Johnson Sermon: The Elevator Door is Open (Matthew 5:23-24) February 13, 2011

Transcription

1 Dave Johnson Sermon: The Elevator Door is Open (Matthew 5:23-24) February 13, 2011 All month on the Turner Classic Movies channel they are showing movies that have won various academy awards. Last week I watched the powerful 1979 film, Kramer vs. Kramer, which netted the Oscar for Best Picture as well as Oscars for Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffmann, who portray a couple, Ted and Joanna Kramer, whose marriage ends in divorce and a bitter custody battle over their son, Billy. The film includes a recurring metaphor of a closing elevator door. Near the beginning of the film Joanna leaves Ted, and while she is on an elevator he begs her not to go, to which she replies, I don t love you anymore, and the door closes. Later in the film after a brutal day in court as Ted boards an elevator Joanna tries to apologize to him for her lawyer raking him over the coals during the custody hearings he looks at her and says nothing as the door closes. Although Joanna wins the custody battle she decides Billy would be better off with Ted, and in the final scene of the film Joanna boards an elevator as she goes to tell Billy goodbye. She has been crying, and her make-up is running, and she asks Ted, How do I look? Ted smiles and replies, Terrific. The elevator door closes and the credits roll. The film never shows Ted and Joanna riding the elevator together. There is no reconciliation. The film Kramer vs. Kramer resonates because it rings true with our experience. Sometimes in our lives relationships lack reconciliation, and this lack of reconciliation can create feelings that ricochet between hidden resentment and open hostility. It s not the way it s supposed to be but it s the way it is. We live in a world in which marriages sometimes end in divorce, grown children sometimes refuse to have anything to do with their parents, and best friends become estranged. This lack of reconciliation can feel like a burden or a dark cloud hanging overhead. In today s passage from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus speaks right to this: When you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-24). Reconciliation matters to God. A few weeks ago I was pulling up to a stoplight and in front of me was a large pick-up truck with a bumper sticker with Jesus in large letters followed by 1

2 something else. I inched closer and saw that it said, JESUS loves you but everyone else thinks you re a jerk. It s very funny but also true. Scripture tells us that God loves us all the time, even when we re jerks, and the truth is all of us act like a jerk to other people sometimes. But although this is true it doesn t make it right, and it is not God s best for our lives. Jesus makes it clear that if we remember that someone has something against us that we are to go to them and try to be reconciled. Apparently Jesus considers reconciliation more important than worship: Leave your gift there at the altar and go, he says, first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Our reconciliation with others is in response to being reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. As Paul wrote in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, (God has) reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation (5:18); and as the Anglican scholar Michael Green puts it: Reconciliation with others flows from reconciliation with God (The Message of Matthew, p. 94). The good news of the gospel is that we have been reconciled to God, and therefore can be reconciled with others. Reconciliation with God is a recurring theme in the letters of the Apostle Paul. In his Letter to the Romans we read: For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:10-11). In fact, in the fifth chapter of Romans Paul emphasizes that reconciliation with God is something that is done for us, not something we do ourselves. In other words, we don t reconcile ourselves to God we cannot but God reconciles us to himself through the death of Jesus on the cross. This reconciliation is a gift we receive through faith, through trust in Jesus Christ. Moreover, Paul stresses that God took the initiative to reconcile us to himself when it was the last thing on our minds, when the elevator doors were closing and we did not want them open again. Paul tells us while we were still weak Jesus died for us, while we were still sinners Jesus died for us, while we were enemies Jesus died for us. In his book, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, Leon Morris describes how Jesus death on the cross gives us complete reconciliation with God: No true reconciliation can take place unless the cause of the estrangement is truly faced and dealt with. If it is ignored or glossed over, then a species of uneasy truce may result, but there can be no real restoration of fellowship, no true reconciliation But in the death of Him whom God made sin for man the cause of the enmity was squarely faced and removed. Therefore a complete reconciliation results, so that 2

3 man turns to God in repentance and trust, and God looks on man with favor and not in wrath (p. 249). In other words, the good news of the gospel is that when it comes to being reconciled with God, the elevator door is open. And that means reconciliation with others is possible, that we can leave our gift at the altar and first be reconciled with those who have something against us and then worship God. Reconciliation with others flows from reconciliation with God. We see this in the Holy Communion service. First we confess our sins to God and receive anew his forgiveness, then we pass the peace with others, and after that we give our gifts to God and receive communion. What does it look like to be reconciled with others? It s important to remember that Jesus said, be reconciled to your brother or sister, not reconcile your brother and sister to you. Many years ago I heard a preacher suggest the following three sentences for seeking to be reconciled with others: I m sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me. (When it comes to reconciliation with others this tends to be more helpful than: I m not sorry. You re an idiot. Get out of my life ). I m sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me no excuses, no disclaimers, no passing the buck, no blaming extenuating circumstances or lack of sleep or the weather, no I really didn t mean it or I m just really stressed right now just a humble, simple, straight-up apology. I m sorry. I was wrong. Please forgive me we can say these things to those with whom we wish to be reconciled because we have been reconciled to God. While Jesus had nothing to be sorry for, he paid the penalty for our sins anyway; while Jesus did nothing wrong he died for our wrongs anyway; and while Jesus had nothing to ask forgiveness for, he died for us anyway so that we could be forgiven. Father forgive them, he prayed as he was nailed to the cross, for they do not know what they are doing. But like so many things, apologizing to others is easier said than done. The truth is our apologies are often riddled with excuses and disclaimers, and we often misread those who have something against us. I ve been reading American Pastoral, Philip Roth s moving 1997 Pulitzer-Prize winning novel. He describes how sometimes we are simply wrong about others: You fight your superficiality, your shallowness, so as to try to come at people without unreal expectations, without an overload of bias or hope or arrogance, as untanklike as you can be, sans cannon and machine guns and 3

4 steel plating half a foot thick and yet you never fail to get them wrong. You might as well have the brain of a tank. You get them wrong before you meet them, while you re anticipating meeting them; you get them wrong while you re with them; and then you go home and tell someone else about the meeting and you get them all wrong again The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It s getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That s how we know we re alive; we re wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that well, lucky you (p. 35). In observing that we are often wrong about others, Roth gets it exactly right. That s why we need grace from God, especially when it comes to being reconciled with others. Earlier in this service we prayed in the collect for the day: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you (Book of Common Prayer, p. 216). Sometimes when we apologize we are forgiven. We are reconciled with that person the burden is lifted, the black cloud is no longer hanging overhead. When I was in grade school there was a kid in my grade named Sean. In 2 nd, 3 rd, and 4 th grades we were not in the same class but often competed and argued at P.E. and recess. We were fierce rivals and couldn t stand each other. On the first day of 5 th grade, to our utmost dismay, we found ourselves in the same class. Things regressed and a couple weeks later we got in a fistfight at recess. We were sent to the office, lips swollen and faces bruised. While awaiting our doom at the hands of the assistant principle we apologized to each other and were reconciled. From then on we were best friends, and spent many hours playing basketball after school with Van Halen blaring from a boom box. Life was good. Sometimes reconciliation happens after many years, when those involved thought it would most likely never happen. One of the most moving stories in the Old Testament is that of Joseph and his reconciliation with his brothers (Genesis 43-45). Joseph was the favorite of Jacob s twelve sons, evident by Jacob s gift of a coat of many colors. Out of jealousy Joseph s brothers sold him into slavery, and then dipped his coat into animal blood so that it would look like he had been slain by a wild animal. Then they gave the bloody coat to their father. Joseph s brothers watched their father Jacob suffer from grief, and not a single one of them ever confessed it to Jacob. God preserved and prospered Joseph, who eventually became second only to Pharaoh over all Egypt. Seeking relief from 4

5 extreme famine Jacob s brothers eventually went to Egypt for food and were later reconciled with Joseph. Guess how long it was between Joseph s being sold into slavery by his brothers and their reconciliation? Twenty years. (Talk about family dysfunction ). I imagine neither Joseph nor his brothers ever thought they would see each other again, let alone be reconciled, but God s grace made it possible in time. (I also imagine Joseph s brothers had some explaining to do with their father, Jacob ). But unfortunately when we try to be reconciled with others it doesn t always end like it did with me and Sean or Joseph and his brothers. Sometimes when we apologize we are not forgiven, there is no reconciliation, and the burden and black cloud remain. Some people simply enjoy nursing grudges. Some people would rather keep the elevator door closed. But there is grace in this case as well, for Scripture tells us, If it is possible, so much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all (Romans 12:18). In other words, by God s grace we can keep the elevator door open for those with whom we wish to be reconciled, and God will work that out in His time. Scripture tells us that in (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:19-20). We can be assured that because of the death of Jesus on the cross not only have we been reconciled to God, we can rest in the hope that someday God will reconcile all things in our lives, including bringing reconciliation with those with whom we wish to be reconciled. What about you today? Perhaps there are people in your life with whom God is calling you to be reconciled, or perhaps you ve already tried to be reconciled with these people and reconciliation has not yet occurred. The good news is that in Jesus death on the cross we have been reconciled to God, fully, 100%. The burden has been lifted, the black cloud has vanished. By God s grace we have been reconciled to him, by God s grace we can be reconciled with others, and by God s grace we know that one day everything will be reconciled once and for all. The good news of the gospel is that by God s grace the elevator door is always open. Amen. 5