"And if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." -- Our reading from Matthew deals with a subject which many of us would prefer to avoid. I suppose, on the one hand, it is human nature to want to avoid conflict. Many of us, when confronted with a conflict, choose either to avoid it as much as possible or to "punch back" way too forcefully. We seem not to be good at handling conflict. Of course, on the other hand, the spirit of the age, that "there is no such thing as truth with a capital t" or that "everything is relative" attitude, makes it even harder to determine an offense. What might seem perfectly fine to you may offend me greatly; and that which offends you mightily may seem perfectly fine to me. Who is to say which perspective is correct in this age?
Adding to the complication this week, seemingly, is the fact that both parties are member of the church. People often join churches because they expect church to be the one place where they can get away from conflicts. Families, offices, schools, and the rest of the world has plenty of opportunity for conflict. Church ought to be that place where we find solace from those behaviors. After all, do not church members love the Prince of Peace? Do not all church members try to love God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind?
Yet, here is Jesus instructing His disciples and us how to handle conflict in the church. This is not conflict between a pagan and a Christian; this is not conflict between a non-disciple and disciple of Christ. No, Jesus is telling His disciples and us quite clearly that there will be conflict in the church. Why? Mostly it is because we have one foot in His kingdom and one foot in this world. As St. Paul would say, we sometimes make too many provisions for the flesh for there not to be conflict. As a pastor, I am often amazed at how one sentence in a Bible study or sermon can feed a listener like a heavenly feast and how that same sentence absolutely starve and drive away another listener. The words are the same. They are heard simultaneously. How can there be such a difference in response?
Still, Jesus predicts that there will be conflict. And rather than leaving us wallowing in our conflicts, Jesus tells us how we should handle them. First, we should talk privately. If both parties are followers of Jesus, such a discussion should cause no dread, no fear. If both have the same Lord, each should be willing to listen to the other so as not to become a stumbling block to anyone.
But, in those cases where the two cannot reconcile themselves, Jesus commands the offended party to go to others in the church. Usually, we interpret this to be leaders, particularly spiritual leaders. This is done for a couple obvious reasons. One, the leaders can tell the offended whether he or she should be offended. They can provide a perspective and a loving ear. Sometimes, their advice may be for the offended to let it go. At other times, they may agree that such an offense needs an intervention. The leaders are called to go with the offended party to hear both sides of the dispute, to serve as mediators, and to serve as witnesses.
Finally, if the offender refuses to listen even to the leaders, the offense is to be taken to the whole church. The body of Christ then goes to the offender and tells the offender what needs to be done in order to restore the relationship. Amazingly, as we might not want to believe, some offenders will not listen even to the church. They will ignore the council of everyone in the church and continue to ignore the need for repentance. Jesus instructs us that we should let such a one be to us as a Gentile or a tax collector.
Naturally, when an offender is a leader in the church, they are removed from office, be they lay or clergy. To us this only makes sense. But should we treat them as a Gentile and a tax collector? As I remarked this weekend, a couple commentators were convinced that Jesus never uttered those words. "Matthew," they argued, "penned those instructions to deal with recalcitrants in a new and struggling church." "Jesus," these same commentators continued, "would never exclude anyone." Leaving aside for a moment Jesus' numerous teachings on the last judgment, where He and His angels separate the sheep and the goats and the wheat and the tares, consider the author of this narrative. What was Matthew's job prior to His call from our Lord? He was a tax collector. As much as we hate the IRS today, tax collectors were despised even more in Jesus' day. They were Benedict Arnold's and thieves all rolled into one. Think of a tax collector as a modern Johnny Taliban who could use the armed forces to take your money from you to support his lavish lifestyle. And, oh, by the way, if you did not pay, you could be sold into slavery to pay your debts. Appeal? What appeal? Tax collectors had a writ from Caesar. Nice guys these tax collectors. They were utterly hated by the people of Israel.
Yet Jesus' command to treat unrepentant offenders as tax collectors and Gentiles ought to give us pause. What was He thinking? And why would a former tax collector ever tell his brothers and sisters to treat unrepentant sinners like his former fraternity of thieves? Why remind people who you were if it was not Jesus' instruction? And what would Jesus mean by such a statement?
Sometimes, I think scholars often miss the trees for the forests. When the scholars read of Jesus excluding anyone, they immediately reject such statements out of hand because of their preconceived notions of how they think Jesus thought and acted. Yet, those very notions keep them from seeing how Jesus acted. What does Jesus do to tax collectors and Gentiles? Does He avoid them like the plague, as the Pharisees and Sadducees demand? Does He treat them as unclean, as the temple elites and priests do? Does Jesus mean by this instruction that we are to ostracize an unrepentant member? Of course not! Jesus hung out with the tax collectors and Gentiles. Jesus partied and feasted with the very people whom He seemingly rejects in our statement from this week. Why? Jesus' goal was to incarnate God's love to a broken and battered humanity. Jesus brought people to God by loving them into the kingdom. Jesus, more than any human being who ever lived, understood the pain and isolation that we can heap on ourselves because of our sins. And Jesus, as fully God, also understood the love which God feels for us. Though He could have justifiably left us to wallow in our sin and condemned us to death, God chose to send His Son to restore us. Each of us, before accepting the offer of salvation from Christ, was a Gentile and like a tax collector to God. We were His enemies. We were traitors to Him.
Thankfully and mercifully, He sent His Son to where we were. Jesus met us in those least likely of places. He met us in our hurts, in our pains, in our fears, and in our sufferings. He did not stay only in the synagogues. He did not stay in an ivory tower isolating Himself from the world. Jesus engaged those living in the world. And He engaged those living in the world with love and joy and compassion! So, what does Jesus mean by instructing us to let offenders be as a Gentile and tax collectors? He means for us to need to share God's love with them. We must treat them as they once were and now are, unrepentant sinners, and show them the radical servanthood that was first and best incarnated by Him. With that love and with some patience and with God's grace, we may well love that offender back into the kingdom! And then the angels and the whole body of Christ can truly rejoice!
Peace,
Brian+
Monday, September 8, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Our fascination and faith about the end times
Our readings this past weekend were pretty straight-forward. God reveals Himself to Moses in the burning bush. Paul reminds the church in Rome, as well as us, of how we are to behave towards one another and towards our enemies. And Jesus reminds us that we all, at times, slip into the comfortableness of the Pharisees and describe the Messiah as we would have Him, not the way that God has invisioned Him. What to preach and teach on?
Then came Thursday morning. One of the real joys of my ministry here has been the Thursday morning Eucharist and Bible Study. Mostly, it is populated by women. Mostly it is populated by discerning and prayerful women who are not afraid to speak their mind about whatever comes up in our discussions, be it an Old Testament lesson, contemporary news, or a fabulous new recipe. And these women have been doing this for many years now, so there is a real sense of trust built up between them. No one is required to apologize for what is about to be said because each of them knows from where the speaker is coming from. And the laughter. This group has been together so long that they simply revel in one another's presence. And the joy is usually so pervasive that relative newcomers like myself or Pat can slide right in and feel a part of the group way sooner that we should. But this past Thursday, a number of questions popped up mostly about Paul's letter to Rome, but also about Jesus' teaching on the Last Judgment and justice. Why? What amazed me was just how much the ladies' questions seemed to have captured one of those problems with which society is fascinated. After listening and talking with the ladies on Thursday, I noticed that "End of Days," "Constantine," "The Devil's Advocate," "Contact," and a few other similar movies were playing on the cable channels this weekend. Society, it seems, struggles with similar questions. Is this all that there is? Or is there more happening than meets the human eye? All of those movies did ok at the box office, and each gets run on cable tv from time to time, so the questions would seem to resonate in our culture's psyche.
I made the statement this weekend that centered around the belief that our faith is best tested by our understanding of the Last Judgement and God's vengeance. It must have given a few spiritual wedgies because it generated a great deal of discussion. What prompted that statement was our Thurday discussions about how hard it is not to seek revenge against those who wrong us. Now, understand, we are not talking about not bringing the court system into play for criminal or civil acts which abridge our rights as citizens, though some may choose to live an ethic that radical. What we are talking about are those acts which harm us and for which we want to be the executors of judgment: when somebody uses us as a rung on the corporate ladder, stealing the promotion and benefits that should have been ours; when that sibling or other family member throws us under the bus so that we look bad in how we handled or dealt with a particular situation; when that bully threatens us for our lunch money or Wii game or whatever; when that idiot drunk driver who has no license or no insurance crashes into us; when that friend stabs us in the back; when that first love inevitably breaks our heart; when anything happens which causes us to want exact revenge on someone else. It is precisely those situations into which Paul was speaking to the Romans. "Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads."
Can you imagine? Were the backstabber who stole your rightful promotion and blew the money on whatever nonsense to come to you hungry, God expects you to feed them! Were that family member who made you look unfairly bad to your loved ones to come to you with hand out, God expects you to clothe them! Is He trying to make it impossible for us? One of our hopes as Christians is that God will keep His promises and come to judge the world. And that final judgment is important because it is at that time that God will repay all the injustices. Christ will have paid the penalty and born the wrath for all those who accept His work and offer of salvation. But there will be punishment for those who have rejected Him and His offer. That belief in the final judgment and our faith in Christ, however, can often be tested when we are the victims of an injustice. Our nature cries out that we "have to get even." Yet God consistenty instructs us that He will get even. And when He judges, there will be no mistakes, there will be no errors, and there will be no further appeals. He will have His justice in the end! Why can't we get even; why can't we seek revenge?
Part of it, of course, is that we make mistakes. How many times have we been absolutely furious with someone, only to realize that the other either was unaware of the hurt or that the other unintentionally harmed us? How many times would our temper cause us to seek an exhorbitant punishment for recent hurt that far outweighs the injury to us? How long do we carry grudges and then seek to pounce on the other when given the opportunity, giving no thought or consideration to the injury which we may cause? But part of it is that remembrance that you and I and all who have now accepted Christ and His offer of salvation were once enemies of God. Like the "ites" of the Promised Land, the citizens of Nineveh, the Pharisees, the Romans, and whoever else ignored God's will, you and I each were once God's enemy. Only His grace, His mercy, and His patience gave us the time to seek a right relationship with Him. Only His Son made that right relationship, as a beloved son or daughter, possible.
What is more amazing is that He has called you and I into a relationship where you and I are meant to be His incarnations in a broken world. You and I have become part of His nations of priests who are called to be a light to a dark world. How we treat our enemies, in light of the wrongs done to us and of what society expects us to do in retribution, can have a profound effect upon the world. When we act as if we believe that God will repay the wrongs done to us, the world takes notice. If I flip off an idiot who first flips me off after running the four-way stop in front of church, the world laughs. Worse, were I to punch the one in the mouth for their lying to the cops when their selfish behavior caused them to injure another innocent, law-abiding driver by running those same signs (don't laugh, there have been at least 7 injury accidents in front of church since I arrived), the world chuckles and revels in such behavior. The world mocks us because I am no different than them. For all my profession of Christ cruicified and resurrected, I felt the need to seek vengeance and belittle my enemy. Where is my trust in God's promises to repay?
Yet God calls us to love the enemy. Just as He loved us while we were still His enemy and sent His beloved Son, you and I are called to love the enemy. We are called to feed the enemy, clothe the enemy, and pray for the enemy. You and I are called to meet the needs of the enemy as we are given resources so to do. Why? Is it a cosmic farce? Was Al Pacino's Satan right when he said that God was playing mind games with humanity, "Look but do not touch. Touch, but not taste. Taste, but do not enjoy." Should He have added, "Have enemies, but do not battle them?" And loving our enemies is incredibly hard. How can we ever love someone who intentionally causes us harm? As I said, it is a question of faith. When we realize that we were once His enemies, loving our enemies is not quite as challenging. Once we begin to pray and think on His promises, we begin to be challenged by His instruction. Once we give up our perceived right to vengeance to His will, we can become amazing tools in His great plan of salvation.
Thursday, the ladies and Pat were drawn back to the Amish schoolhouse murders from a couple years ago. Each of us remarked how hard that must have been for them to forgive that man who murdered their children. If any group of Christians ever had a right to execute their own judgment, surely it was them. Yet, to a person, the Amish forgave that troubled man. The hurt did not go away; the anguish is likely still there. Yet each trusted that God will repay, that vengeance is His. And what did the world talk about for a news cycle? The world did not talk about how the Amish had tortured the young, troubled man. The world did not laugh at the Amish's gestures toward the man when a couple actually hugged their child's murderer. No, the world wondered how they could ever do such a thing. Why are they not furious with the man and pressuring the prosecutors to seek the death penalty? No, the Amish lived into the biblical ethic and caused the press to scatter seeds to the end of the earth.
Brothers and sisters, how we face death and how we face life may be the best sermon any of our friends and neighbors ever hear. Do we live as if we believe in His resurrection and His promise to return to judge? Or do we live like the world expects us to live? Do we incarnate that mercy He so wondrously bestowed upon us? Or do we still seek our ways instead of His? Whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, the world is always watching us; our enemies are always watching us. How will we treat them and so love even them into the Kingdom? By the world's ethic, or by God's.
Peace,
Brian+
Then came Thursday morning. One of the real joys of my ministry here has been the Thursday morning Eucharist and Bible Study. Mostly, it is populated by women. Mostly it is populated by discerning and prayerful women who are not afraid to speak their mind about whatever comes up in our discussions, be it an Old Testament lesson, contemporary news, or a fabulous new recipe. And these women have been doing this for many years now, so there is a real sense of trust built up between them. No one is required to apologize for what is about to be said because each of them knows from where the speaker is coming from. And the laughter. This group has been together so long that they simply revel in one another's presence. And the joy is usually so pervasive that relative newcomers like myself or Pat can slide right in and feel a part of the group way sooner that we should. But this past Thursday, a number of questions popped up mostly about Paul's letter to Rome, but also about Jesus' teaching on the Last Judgment and justice. Why? What amazed me was just how much the ladies' questions seemed to have captured one of those problems with which society is fascinated. After listening and talking with the ladies on Thursday, I noticed that "End of Days," "Constantine," "The Devil's Advocate," "Contact," and a few other similar movies were playing on the cable channels this weekend. Society, it seems, struggles with similar questions. Is this all that there is? Or is there more happening than meets the human eye? All of those movies did ok at the box office, and each gets run on cable tv from time to time, so the questions would seem to resonate in our culture's psyche.
I made the statement this weekend that centered around the belief that our faith is best tested by our understanding of the Last Judgement and God's vengeance. It must have given a few spiritual wedgies because it generated a great deal of discussion. What prompted that statement was our Thurday discussions about how hard it is not to seek revenge against those who wrong us. Now, understand, we are not talking about not bringing the court system into play for criminal or civil acts which abridge our rights as citizens, though some may choose to live an ethic that radical. What we are talking about are those acts which harm us and for which we want to be the executors of judgment: when somebody uses us as a rung on the corporate ladder, stealing the promotion and benefits that should have been ours; when that sibling or other family member throws us under the bus so that we look bad in how we handled or dealt with a particular situation; when that bully threatens us for our lunch money or Wii game or whatever; when that idiot drunk driver who has no license or no insurance crashes into us; when that friend stabs us in the back; when that first love inevitably breaks our heart; when anything happens which causes us to want exact revenge on someone else. It is precisely those situations into which Paul was speaking to the Romans. "Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads."
Can you imagine? Were the backstabber who stole your rightful promotion and blew the money on whatever nonsense to come to you hungry, God expects you to feed them! Were that family member who made you look unfairly bad to your loved ones to come to you with hand out, God expects you to clothe them! Is He trying to make it impossible for us? One of our hopes as Christians is that God will keep His promises and come to judge the world. And that final judgment is important because it is at that time that God will repay all the injustices. Christ will have paid the penalty and born the wrath for all those who accept His work and offer of salvation. But there will be punishment for those who have rejected Him and His offer. That belief in the final judgment and our faith in Christ, however, can often be tested when we are the victims of an injustice. Our nature cries out that we "have to get even." Yet God consistenty instructs us that He will get even. And when He judges, there will be no mistakes, there will be no errors, and there will be no further appeals. He will have His justice in the end! Why can't we get even; why can't we seek revenge?
Part of it, of course, is that we make mistakes. How many times have we been absolutely furious with someone, only to realize that the other either was unaware of the hurt or that the other unintentionally harmed us? How many times would our temper cause us to seek an exhorbitant punishment for recent hurt that far outweighs the injury to us? How long do we carry grudges and then seek to pounce on the other when given the opportunity, giving no thought or consideration to the injury which we may cause? But part of it is that remembrance that you and I and all who have now accepted Christ and His offer of salvation were once enemies of God. Like the "ites" of the Promised Land, the citizens of Nineveh, the Pharisees, the Romans, and whoever else ignored God's will, you and I each were once God's enemy. Only His grace, His mercy, and His patience gave us the time to seek a right relationship with Him. Only His Son made that right relationship, as a beloved son or daughter, possible.
What is more amazing is that He has called you and I into a relationship where you and I are meant to be His incarnations in a broken world. You and I have become part of His nations of priests who are called to be a light to a dark world. How we treat our enemies, in light of the wrongs done to us and of what society expects us to do in retribution, can have a profound effect upon the world. When we act as if we believe that God will repay the wrongs done to us, the world takes notice. If I flip off an idiot who first flips me off after running the four-way stop in front of church, the world laughs. Worse, were I to punch the one in the mouth for their lying to the cops when their selfish behavior caused them to injure another innocent, law-abiding driver by running those same signs (don't laugh, there have been at least 7 injury accidents in front of church since I arrived), the world chuckles and revels in such behavior. The world mocks us because I am no different than them. For all my profession of Christ cruicified and resurrected, I felt the need to seek vengeance and belittle my enemy. Where is my trust in God's promises to repay?
Yet God calls us to love the enemy. Just as He loved us while we were still His enemy and sent His beloved Son, you and I are called to love the enemy. We are called to feed the enemy, clothe the enemy, and pray for the enemy. You and I are called to meet the needs of the enemy as we are given resources so to do. Why? Is it a cosmic farce? Was Al Pacino's Satan right when he said that God was playing mind games with humanity, "Look but do not touch. Touch, but not taste. Taste, but do not enjoy." Should He have added, "Have enemies, but do not battle them?" And loving our enemies is incredibly hard. How can we ever love someone who intentionally causes us harm? As I said, it is a question of faith. When we realize that we were once His enemies, loving our enemies is not quite as challenging. Once we begin to pray and think on His promises, we begin to be challenged by His instruction. Once we give up our perceived right to vengeance to His will, we can become amazing tools in His great plan of salvation.
Thursday, the ladies and Pat were drawn back to the Amish schoolhouse murders from a couple years ago. Each of us remarked how hard that must have been for them to forgive that man who murdered their children. If any group of Christians ever had a right to execute their own judgment, surely it was them. Yet, to a person, the Amish forgave that troubled man. The hurt did not go away; the anguish is likely still there. Yet each trusted that God will repay, that vengeance is His. And what did the world talk about for a news cycle? The world did not talk about how the Amish had tortured the young, troubled man. The world did not laugh at the Amish's gestures toward the man when a couple actually hugged their child's murderer. No, the world wondered how they could ever do such a thing. Why are they not furious with the man and pressuring the prosecutors to seek the death penalty? No, the Amish lived into the biblical ethic and caused the press to scatter seeds to the end of the earth.
Brothers and sisters, how we face death and how we face life may be the best sermon any of our friends and neighbors ever hear. Do we live as if we believe in His resurrection and His promise to return to judge? Or do we live like the world expects us to live? Do we incarnate that mercy He so wondrously bestowed upon us? Or do we still seek our ways instead of His? Whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not, the world is always watching us; our enemies are always watching us. How will we treat them and so love even them into the Kingdom? By the world's ethic, or by God's.
Peace,
Brian+
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