Our Exodus
reading today gives precise instructions about the Passover meal. This was the
meal eaten by the Israelites prior to fleeing from Egypt. The Epistle to the
Romans gives us what sounds like instructions about how to live and relate to
one another. And then we have the Gospel reading where it seems Jesus gives us
minute instructions to follow when someone has done badly by us. Even Psalm 149
starts, “Sing to the Lord a new song,” and moves to inflicting judgment on
others.
So what are we to make of all
this?
The longer I read and think about
these lessons, the more it seems to me they are descriptive rather than
prescriptive. Instead of being instructions about how to please God, these
readings are about how to live in Christian community. They are how to eat
together, how to view life together and how to treat one another. Not necessarily
literally how to treat one another but the many ways in which we can choose to either
destroy our Christian community, or to build up our Christian community.
Today’s gospel has been
interpreted frequently as permission to act as judges over others. We have
interpreted the “instructions” about how to get along with one another in the
church as a way to write off those with whom we disagree.
I suspect what most of us would
do by following these instructions to the letter would be to self-righteously
speak to the person with whom we disagree. Preparing our remarks along the way,
we convince ourselves, even before we get there, that the person will not
listen. We also convince ourselves of our rightness. We follow what we believe
to be the “instructions” from today’s scripture. “If another member of the
church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are
alone.”[1] We
simply follow this, not thinking much about the fact that we have used one
small piece, from the enormous set of books known as the Bible, as the basis of
our behavior.
May I suggest, that there are
other things present in scripture that might expand on how we are to approach one
another? Can you and I, if we read and study, find ways in which Jesus tells us
how we might approach someone with whom we disagree? Can we find examples in
the behavior of Jesus about how we might treat someone with whom we disagree?
We might
first look again at our Exodus story. We might examine how these instructions
for a meal and the reminders of God’s protection would weave a community
together. We might decide that perhaps what the Exodus story refers to as “a
day of remembrance for you,” could be the reopening of a relationship to the
larger body of the church. And, that larger body might be better served in its
own Exodus by a community that worships and works, weeps and laughs, eats and
drinks together.
Perhaps, if we find ourselves in
the midst of conflict, we might first ask ourselves, “What would this situation
look like from the perspective of the other person or people?” Perhaps Jesus
asks us – if we look at other parts of scripture than just today’s gospel – to imagine
the mind and heart of the other person before we do any confronting. To imagine
what might happen if we consciously took action to repair rather than to
destroy.
If we fail
to do this, then the result is often that we begin to treat one another in the
way the scripture seems to suggest. “(I)f the offender refuses to listen even
to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and tax collector.”[2] (Long
pause here.)
If you
suspect by now that I have set you up, you are absolutely right. Let me ask you
a question, “How did Jesus treat Gentiles and tax collectors?” (Another long
pause.) Think back to other scriptures about Jesus. Recall those with whom he
spoke. Recall those with whom he ate and drank. Recall those whom he healed. (Pause)
Is it possible Jesus is saying to us that even if the person refuses to listen
to us and to the church, treat them the way Jesus treated tax collectors,
gentiles, and sinners? And just how did Jesus treat tax collectors, gentiles,
and sinners? (Pause)
The next verse we hear in
Matthew’s gospel is this, “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.”[3] It is
here that Jesus tells us why we need to mend the fabric of the Christian
community, to heal and bind up, rather than to let it go out the door. It
sounds to me as though Jesus is asking us to provide a radical welcome to even
the people we don’t much like or with whom we can’t seem to get along. It
sounds to me as though Jesus is asking us to keep hold of even the people who
are different from us because the behavior of the community may make a
difference to their and our salvation. That we may draw one another into
community and bind ourselves together and thus bind ourselves to God and heaven
in some way we cannot even imagine.
The final
verse of this scripture speaks to what else we can do to help mend the fabric
of Christian community. “If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask,
it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are
gathered in my name, I am there among them.”[4] These
verses are not about a kind of instant gratification that gives us candy when
we pray for something sweet. Instead it’s a call to engage the power of God’s
people working together to be the hands and feet, and the hearts and mind of God
for those who are hurting. It’s a call to gather in Christ’s name to pray and
go out and do.
In the midst of this, God touches
and gives us what we need even when we don’t know we need it. God gives us the
ability to hold someone we dislike or can’t get along with gently and
prayerfully. God gives us the blessing of accepting those we cannot understand.
God gives us the blessing to endure what without God would be unendurable. God
gives us the blessing to face what without God we could not face. Because, “For
where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”[5] AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2017
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