25 September 2011 “Showing up” Matthew 21:23-32
The story is told of a missionary who was scheduled to speak about his mission work at a distant church. He got up before daybreak that Sunday morning and spent the afternoon speaking with members of the congregation. As he was leaving that evening, the treasurer of the church gave him an envelope, which he tucked in his pocket. It was very late when he made it home. As he undressed, he remembered the envelope. He turned on the light in the bathroom and opened it. Out fell a check with his name written on it in bold letters. Under his name were the words: A million thanks! It was signed by the treasurer. While I am sure the “A million thanks” was sincere, sometimes words are not enough.
In this morning’s gospel, Jesus is asked rather bluntly by the scribes and Pharisees who in the world he thought he was. He had just entered into Jerusalem, he had cast the moneychangers from the temple, cursed the fig tree and asked the religious officials if they had accepted John and the baptism he brought. The stories they heard about Jesus were of a man who was performing miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead and challenging the established churches authority. They wanted to know who he possibly thought he was coming into their temple trying to teach them this way.
Knowing sometimes words are not enough, Jesus tells them a parable, a story which will explain who he is if they will live their life like the parable says they must. Living this new way they will know who he is because mere words cannot tell them. Knowing who he is, they will discover, is not about head knowledge. They will know who he is when they act, when they live their lives in a certain way. Then and only then will his identity be known to them.
Of course this is Jesus’ message to us too. We can do all the bible study in the world for all the days of our lives yet we will not know who Jesus is until we actually live what we believe. When we live what we believe our lives change, our views about life change, our expectations for life change.
Jesus told the scribes and the Pharisees a parable about a man who had two sons. First, he sent his older son to work in his vineyard, but his son refused to go, then later, he changed his mind and headed for the fields. Not knowing this, the father sent his second son to do the work his older brother had refused to do. This son said he would go, but then changed his mind and never set foot in the fields. “Which son did the will of the Father?” Jesus asked. Which of the two boys obeyed?
It is easy to see that the son who obeyed his father is the one who went into the field to work the vineyard. This was the first boy. Even though he said he would not go, when he changed his mind and went to the vineyard that is when he was being obedient.
Having told this teaching parable Jesus makes crystal clear to these priests and elders from the temple the lifestyle they must lead if they are to know him and under whose authority he acts.
Then, he tells them which brother they were. They were not the one who obeyed their father. They were the ones who said they would go and do the work their father asked them to do but never set foot in the fields. They said all the right things, believed all the right things, stood for all the right things, but would not do the right things God asked them to do.
And lastly, because they would not live their lives doing what God asked them to do prostitutes and tax collectors would enter the kingdom before them. Why so harsh? Because as religious leaders, the priests and scribes were known for their words, but were short on deeds. The Danish theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, “Jesus wants followers not admirers.”
We hear all too often of people whose actions do not match their words. They sound great, they say all the right things yet they fall far short of doing what they say they will do or being who they think they are. When I am honest with myself and listen to myself, and assess my actions I am certainly guilty of the same thing.
Perhaps you are too. We pray,” I love you Lord, I give my life to you Lord, and I will follow wherever you lead me Lord.” Yet how quickly do these words of faithfulness to discipleship become defensive when we try to explain our inaction, when we try to justify why we have fallen short of what God asks us to do. Who among us has not been like the second son, saying we will be faithful and then forgetting or ignoring our very own promises. We all know how hard it is sometimes to keep the promises we make.
As Elisabeth Elliot has observed, “The problem with living sacrifices like us is that we keep creeping off the altar.” We know about the creeping. This creeping, this sliding away from faithfulness may be conscious or unconscious.
Consciously we know when we say one thing and do another, when we promise we will love each other on Sunday and then find ingenious ways to take advantage of one another on Monday. This consciousness is not the real problem for most of us. It is the unconscious that is most problematic, the way many of us substitute our beliefs about God for our obedience to God, as if it were enough to say “I go Lord”, without even tensing a muscle to get out of our chairs. It is easy to get beliefs mixed up with actions.
There are many people I know who believe they love their families but spend very little time with them. There are even more who believe they are against violence in movies but stand in line for the next “Die Hard” sequel. There are sadly greater numbers who believe in the American way but are not even registered to vote.
There is this peculiar gap between what we believe and what we actually do. The theological word for it is sin – missing the mark – which is both inevitable and forgivable but never tolerable for those who say they love Jesus. When Jesus is the mark we are missing the result is deeply damaging. We see it tear up families, friendships, communities, even our world when we say we will love and instead we are indifferent, when we say we will do right and do wrong, when we say “I will go Lord” and go nowhere at all.
What we believe, you see, has no meaning apart from what we do about it. There is no creed or mission statement that is worth more than one visit to a sick friend, or one handout given to someone homeless, without a job, or a crumb to eat.
It becomes clear to me every day here at Genesis, there are faithful souls in this church whose actions do match their words. We do care for one another, for our community, our country, and our world. We do not have to look far to know there are people who do what they can do. There are ones among us who take casseroles in times of need, who write a note when someone needs it the most, who take folks who don’t have a car to the store, who make an encouraging phone call or give a gentle squeeze of the hand to say “I am praying for you.” Some living sacrifices do not slip off the altar.
In Isak Dinesens book, “Out of Africa”, she tells the story of a young Kikuyu boy named Kitau who appeared at her door in Nairobi one day to ask if he might work for her. She said yes and he turned out to be a fine servant, but after just three months he came to her again to ask her for a letter of recommendation to Sheik Ali bin Salim, a Muslim in Mombasa. Upset at the thought of losing him, she offered to raise his pay, but he was firm about leaving.
He had decided he would become either a Christian or a Muslim, and his whole purpose in coming to live with her had been to see the ways and habits of Christians up close. Next he would go live for three months with Sheik Ali to see how Muslims behaved and then he would make up his mind.
Aghast, Dinesen wrote, I believe that even an Archbishop, when he had these facts laid before him would have said, or at least thought, as I say, “Good God, Kitau, you might have told me that when you came here.”
You know, God is always watching, if we think God will tell us ahead of time when he is looking to see if our actions match our words we are in for a rude awakening. You see, God has been telling us all along to be on the lookout, we will not know the time or place God will call us to account for our lives. There are plenty of people who say, believe, or stand for all the right things. What God is short of are people who will go where God calls them and do what God gives them to do.
A Baptist minister in Birmingham Alabama named Roger Lovette tells about his son sending him a bulletin from the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. One Sunday his son stood in a long line of visitors to listen to Jimmy Carter teach Sunday school. He stayed for the worship service and sent the bulletin for that Sunday to his dad.
Reverend Lovette discovered this notice in the bulletin: “Rosalynn Carter will clean the church next Saturday. Jimmy Carter will cut the grass and trim the shrubbery.”
It is not always the one who talks or preaches or teaches who reflects the will of the Father. Sometimes it is the one who shows up on a hot Saturday afternoon to dust the pews, take out the trash, cut the grass, lend a helping hand to a stranger, reach out to pray with someone, letting their actions speak louder than their words.
Letting our actions speak louder than our words is what is most important to God. It is not what our mouths say, it is what our lives say that teach others under whose authority we act. This is how we will know who Jesus is, by living our lives in action, doing his will. This is how Jesus reveals to us who he is. Not in the words we say but in the things we do. This is exactly the model Jesus lived and the clear way we are to follow.
You know, Jesus has learned to tell the difference between those whose actions match their words and those whose don’t, and we can know it too. Even about ourselves. To tell which one we are, look in any mirror. What is moving? Our mouth or our feet? It is so telling isn’t it. Our mouth or our feet?
Clearly one without the other is like a check with God’s name in bold letters and the words, “A million thanks.” Sometimes words are not enough.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. One God, now and forever. Amen.
Additional resources:
“Home By Another Way,” Barbara Brown Taylor, p. 188-191.
“Showing up,” Christian Century, V. 122, No. 19, pg. 20.
092511.gpc
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
18 September 2011 “Begin With the End in Mind” Matthew 20:1-16
18 September 2011 “Begin With the End in Mind” Matthew 20:1-16
I have always been a big fan of Brenham State School. That’s the place in Brenham where people with mental retardation live and work. During my time there I learned so much about human behavior, supervising people, advocating for those who struggle to advocate for themselves, and much more. I felt, and still believe, it is a good place.
As good as it is people are people and some days the job can wear folks down. The staff work hard hours; 6/2, 2/10, or 10/6. They work holidays and weekends. At times the work is highly stressful and difficult physically and emotionally.
I had the advantage of working with the staff a long time. I knew them and they knew me and that was a very good thing for them and for me. But on occasion their job performance did not meet my expectations and we would talk.
Over time I learned who I could talk with easily and who would push back a bit. The push back folks almost always brought our talk to the point where eventually they would say, “That’s not fair,” or “You aren’t being fair,” or “The system isn’t being fair,” and on and on about something being unfair.
I must admit I seldom saw it that way. Being fair, while important in the context of being just, usually meant to the employee I should give them a break. They wanted me to overlook the rule or ignore unacceptable behavior because they believed themselves to be a good person, or they had not intended to break a rule, or there were special circumstances.
And they may have been right. This work discussion involved them and they felt they deserved to be treated fairly according to their definition. “Treat me fair,” they would say. “Don’t punish me.” “Don’t tell me I’m not doing my job correctly.” “Treat me differently if it means I’ll get a break.” Otherwise, I was not being fair.
Working directly with people in any and all settings can produce stress. We all feel it and it is obvious we will never totally eliminate stress from our lives. Even if we change jobs, move to another town, or retire. No matter, stress is just a fact of life.
We do learn over time that we can reduce our stress if we will be honest with ourselves about its cause. But we’ve made decisions and we have commitments and obligations. So our challenge becomes one of healthy vs. unhealthy decision making about the stressors we have and our habits or disciplines or responses for managing them.
When I taught stress management to the people I supervised I was not surprised by what stressed them. Money issues were the most dominant, followed closely by family concerns. Physical problems, addictive behaviors of all sorts were there too. Over and over again I heard the same unrealized expectation about these difficult life issues. Life should be fair, folks would say.
It is certainly clear where we want fairness. We want life and work and school and the law and mom and dad and church and especially God, to be fair.
Life and work and school and the law and mom and dad and church and God should be just and honest and good with all things being equal, impartial, unbiased, with even and equal treatment for everyone. Oh, we know what a slippery slope this can be.
We know full well life is not always fair. Work is not always fair. School, mom and dad, the law, church, those preachers, they are not always fair. There is not one place in the book of life where it says we can expect fairness. Even if we are promised fairness, we would all have a pretty strong self interest in defining what fairness would be and I dare say some folks would be left out of the fairness equation if it were up to us.
We all know life has established rules and laws to govern what is just and expected. Yet those rules and laws differ in different settings and circumstance. No two sets of parents have the same governing ideals. Rules do change.
Going in I naively thought people wanted to be treated the same. Oh, how I discovered that is not the case. We think we do, but we really don’t. If two people walk into work ten minutes late and the rule calls for a certain response they do not want to be treated the same. They want to be given a break and excused for their lateness for they have compelling reasons that should be considered. Oh how the slippery slope of favoritism and unfairness is being greased.
Your see, if we are punished it’s unfair. If another receives what we consider preferential treatment it is favoritism. Even when everyone receives the same consequence the system is seen as unfair. We hear, “Those people in charge should just overlook that. That’s not really that important. People do that all the time. No one gets hurt.”
Jesus tells the story this morning of workers receiving the same wage. It is a story of workers being treated the same. It doesn’t work. There is a cry that the landowner is being unfair. There is a really good reason given. Not all worked the same hours, they say. God is being unfair. God should not be giving the same wage; everyone should be treated according to their good works.
What these workers are saying is we should be treated individually. When justice is being dealt, we want our particular circumstances to be taken into consideration. This seems only fair. But then folks jump to the most outrageous conclusions when that individual treatment appears to show favoritism or ignores perceived justice. That’s not fair. I deserve more or less than those others. So, we go back to the basics. Treat ever one the same.
But we cannot ignore how we are programmed. ‘The early bird gets the worm.’ ‘Get to work early and work hard. That’s a sure path to success.’ On and on.
The vineyard boss should pay attention to the best worker, the first one into the vineyard in the morning and the last one to leave at night. Those first into the vineyard should be the first in line to get their pay. The boss will surely pay them what they deserve.
Only, according to this morning’s gospel, those who get to work last will be first and the first to work will be last! Wait. What happened? The old ways of thinking about early birds, working long and hard will get you nowhere! Seriously! Surely something is wrong. This won’t work. It’s not fair.
And, it gets worse. Those at the end of the line will not only be paid first, they will be paid as much as those at the front. This is just so unfair. What was Jesus thinking? There is really going to be trouble over this!
Then the landowner reminds the workers. First, this is my vineyard. Second, I have paid you exactly what I said I would. Third, what business is it of yours what I pay the other workers? From his perspective, if he wants to be generous with his money should the workers begrudge his generosity?
Yes indeed. They do begrudge his generosity. They have a strong sense of what is fair, what is right and what is not. Equal pay for equal work is fair. Equal pay for unequal work is not fair. Paying top dollar to those who do the most work is fair. Paying top dollar to those who do the least work is not fair. Treating everyone the same when they are is fair. Treating everyone the same when they are not is not fair.
If life and work, mom and dad, the law and school, and church, are not going to be fair at least God should be. God should be the one sovereign authority whom we can count on to reward us according to our efforts, who knows when we have been naughty and nice, who knows how hard we have worked and who keeps those most deserving in the front of the line where they belong and then rewards them accordingly. Life may not be fair, but God should be.
It may be disturbing at first to hear this morning that this is not so. We believe God should reward us according to our efforts, our good works and according to what we believe we deserve. But it will not be so according to this morning’s gospel.
This householder, this landlord, this God puts the same amount of money into the hands of those who arrived last and worked least. And God starts at the end of the line on payday where those who gave the least effort stood.
Can you imagine the cheering, the laughter and back slapping back there at the end of the line when those there realized what was happening? While near the front, with the first and the most, there is loud grumbling and even hostility.
Everyone is paid. They are paid the same. But how it is received depends entirely on what each of us believes we deserve. Those of us who receive more than we feel we deserve are jubilant. Those who receive less are furious.
Not only does our response depend on what we believe we deserve, it also depends on where we are in the pay line. The majority of us would argue we have been short changed, After all, we are the ones who deserve the most, we are good Christians, we work hard at being faithful, we come to church, we give, we say our prayers, our sins are just so tiny compared to most people, we feel sorry for the homeless as we check to see that our door is locked when they walk up to our car asking for a handout. We feel sorry for the poor in areas of devastation as we avoid the alley ways in certain parts of Austin.
It is entirely possible that we are mistaken about where we are in line. It is entirely possible that, as far as God is concerned, we are, at best, halfway around the block from the front of the line and that there are all sorts of people ahead of us. Other folk who are far more deserving of God’s love than we. People who have many more stars in their crowns than we will ever have. They are at the front of the line, and we are near the end of it for all sorts of reasons.
I don’t mean to be pointing fingers here. There are so many things we mean to do and so many we mean not to do. Even when we do our best, things get in the way; people get sick, businesses fail, relationships go down the drain. There are a lot of reasons why people wind up at the end of the line and only God can sort that out.
But suppose for a moment that it is you back there and me too. I know you don’t want to be alone, surrounded by strangers, people who don’t understand you, friends who don’t care for you, loved ones who might abandon you. We are all there. And when we least expect it the paymaster faces the line and says, ‘We are starting at the end of the line today’ and God hands you your ticket and every one of us around you receives theirs and all of us near the end of the line begin to cheer. We begin to cheer for we realize God’s saving grace comes even to sinners like us. No matter the hour, God’s forgives, and God blesses us with God’s grace. No matter when we first went to work and began to believe and give our life to Jesus our salvation is the same as the saints. Our salvation is the same as the death bed converts.
We don’t know why, God seems to love us indiscriminately and seems to enjoy reversing the systems we set up to explain why God should love some of us more than others of us. By our standards, God may not seem fair or just, but for those of us who stand near the back of the line this sounds like very good news. Because then there is a chance we will receive from God much more than we are worth, that we will get far more than we deserve, not because of who we are but because of who God is.
God is fair and God is just. Not by our standards but by Gods. By those standards God is forgiving, loving and generous even to those who are late coming to the vineyard. And God extends that same grace to ones as undeserving as you and me and for that reason there is a very good chance that the cheers and back slapping, the laughter and gratitude will turn out to be directed to the least of these, found by our God, right back here where we belong.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God, now and forever. Amen.
091811.gpc
I have always been a big fan of Brenham State School. That’s the place in Brenham where people with mental retardation live and work. During my time there I learned so much about human behavior, supervising people, advocating for those who struggle to advocate for themselves, and much more. I felt, and still believe, it is a good place.
As good as it is people are people and some days the job can wear folks down. The staff work hard hours; 6/2, 2/10, or 10/6. They work holidays and weekends. At times the work is highly stressful and difficult physically and emotionally.
I had the advantage of working with the staff a long time. I knew them and they knew me and that was a very good thing for them and for me. But on occasion their job performance did not meet my expectations and we would talk.
Over time I learned who I could talk with easily and who would push back a bit. The push back folks almost always brought our talk to the point where eventually they would say, “That’s not fair,” or “You aren’t being fair,” or “The system isn’t being fair,” and on and on about something being unfair.
I must admit I seldom saw it that way. Being fair, while important in the context of being just, usually meant to the employee I should give them a break. They wanted me to overlook the rule or ignore unacceptable behavior because they believed themselves to be a good person, or they had not intended to break a rule, or there were special circumstances.
And they may have been right. This work discussion involved them and they felt they deserved to be treated fairly according to their definition. “Treat me fair,” they would say. “Don’t punish me.” “Don’t tell me I’m not doing my job correctly.” “Treat me differently if it means I’ll get a break.” Otherwise, I was not being fair.
Working directly with people in any and all settings can produce stress. We all feel it and it is obvious we will never totally eliminate stress from our lives. Even if we change jobs, move to another town, or retire. No matter, stress is just a fact of life.
We do learn over time that we can reduce our stress if we will be honest with ourselves about its cause. But we’ve made decisions and we have commitments and obligations. So our challenge becomes one of healthy vs. unhealthy decision making about the stressors we have and our habits or disciplines or responses for managing them.
When I taught stress management to the people I supervised I was not surprised by what stressed them. Money issues were the most dominant, followed closely by family concerns. Physical problems, addictive behaviors of all sorts were there too. Over and over again I heard the same unrealized expectation about these difficult life issues. Life should be fair, folks would say.
It is certainly clear where we want fairness. We want life and work and school and the law and mom and dad and church and especially God, to be fair.
Life and work and school and the law and mom and dad and church and God should be just and honest and good with all things being equal, impartial, unbiased, with even and equal treatment for everyone. Oh, we know what a slippery slope this can be.
We know full well life is not always fair. Work is not always fair. School, mom and dad, the law, church, those preachers, they are not always fair. There is not one place in the book of life where it says we can expect fairness. Even if we are promised fairness, we would all have a pretty strong self interest in defining what fairness would be and I dare say some folks would be left out of the fairness equation if it were up to us.
We all know life has established rules and laws to govern what is just and expected. Yet those rules and laws differ in different settings and circumstance. No two sets of parents have the same governing ideals. Rules do change.
Going in I naively thought people wanted to be treated the same. Oh, how I discovered that is not the case. We think we do, but we really don’t. If two people walk into work ten minutes late and the rule calls for a certain response they do not want to be treated the same. They want to be given a break and excused for their lateness for they have compelling reasons that should be considered. Oh how the slippery slope of favoritism and unfairness is being greased.
Your see, if we are punished it’s unfair. If another receives what we consider preferential treatment it is favoritism. Even when everyone receives the same consequence the system is seen as unfair. We hear, “Those people in charge should just overlook that. That’s not really that important. People do that all the time. No one gets hurt.”
Jesus tells the story this morning of workers receiving the same wage. It is a story of workers being treated the same. It doesn’t work. There is a cry that the landowner is being unfair. There is a really good reason given. Not all worked the same hours, they say. God is being unfair. God should not be giving the same wage; everyone should be treated according to their good works.
What these workers are saying is we should be treated individually. When justice is being dealt, we want our particular circumstances to be taken into consideration. This seems only fair. But then folks jump to the most outrageous conclusions when that individual treatment appears to show favoritism or ignores perceived justice. That’s not fair. I deserve more or less than those others. So, we go back to the basics. Treat ever one the same.
But we cannot ignore how we are programmed. ‘The early bird gets the worm.’ ‘Get to work early and work hard. That’s a sure path to success.’ On and on.
The vineyard boss should pay attention to the best worker, the first one into the vineyard in the morning and the last one to leave at night. Those first into the vineyard should be the first in line to get their pay. The boss will surely pay them what they deserve.
Only, according to this morning’s gospel, those who get to work last will be first and the first to work will be last! Wait. What happened? The old ways of thinking about early birds, working long and hard will get you nowhere! Seriously! Surely something is wrong. This won’t work. It’s not fair.
And, it gets worse. Those at the end of the line will not only be paid first, they will be paid as much as those at the front. This is just so unfair. What was Jesus thinking? There is really going to be trouble over this!
Then the landowner reminds the workers. First, this is my vineyard. Second, I have paid you exactly what I said I would. Third, what business is it of yours what I pay the other workers? From his perspective, if he wants to be generous with his money should the workers begrudge his generosity?
Yes indeed. They do begrudge his generosity. They have a strong sense of what is fair, what is right and what is not. Equal pay for equal work is fair. Equal pay for unequal work is not fair. Paying top dollar to those who do the most work is fair. Paying top dollar to those who do the least work is not fair. Treating everyone the same when they are is fair. Treating everyone the same when they are not is not fair.
If life and work, mom and dad, the law and school, and church, are not going to be fair at least God should be. God should be the one sovereign authority whom we can count on to reward us according to our efforts, who knows when we have been naughty and nice, who knows how hard we have worked and who keeps those most deserving in the front of the line where they belong and then rewards them accordingly. Life may not be fair, but God should be.
It may be disturbing at first to hear this morning that this is not so. We believe God should reward us according to our efforts, our good works and according to what we believe we deserve. But it will not be so according to this morning’s gospel.
This householder, this landlord, this God puts the same amount of money into the hands of those who arrived last and worked least. And God starts at the end of the line on payday where those who gave the least effort stood.
Can you imagine the cheering, the laughter and back slapping back there at the end of the line when those there realized what was happening? While near the front, with the first and the most, there is loud grumbling and even hostility.
Everyone is paid. They are paid the same. But how it is received depends entirely on what each of us believes we deserve. Those of us who receive more than we feel we deserve are jubilant. Those who receive less are furious.
Not only does our response depend on what we believe we deserve, it also depends on where we are in the pay line. The majority of us would argue we have been short changed, After all, we are the ones who deserve the most, we are good Christians, we work hard at being faithful, we come to church, we give, we say our prayers, our sins are just so tiny compared to most people, we feel sorry for the homeless as we check to see that our door is locked when they walk up to our car asking for a handout. We feel sorry for the poor in areas of devastation as we avoid the alley ways in certain parts of Austin.
It is entirely possible that we are mistaken about where we are in line. It is entirely possible that, as far as God is concerned, we are, at best, halfway around the block from the front of the line and that there are all sorts of people ahead of us. Other folk who are far more deserving of God’s love than we. People who have many more stars in their crowns than we will ever have. They are at the front of the line, and we are near the end of it for all sorts of reasons.
I don’t mean to be pointing fingers here. There are so many things we mean to do and so many we mean not to do. Even when we do our best, things get in the way; people get sick, businesses fail, relationships go down the drain. There are a lot of reasons why people wind up at the end of the line and only God can sort that out.
But suppose for a moment that it is you back there and me too. I know you don’t want to be alone, surrounded by strangers, people who don’t understand you, friends who don’t care for you, loved ones who might abandon you. We are all there. And when we least expect it the paymaster faces the line and says, ‘We are starting at the end of the line today’ and God hands you your ticket and every one of us around you receives theirs and all of us near the end of the line begin to cheer. We begin to cheer for we realize God’s saving grace comes even to sinners like us. No matter the hour, God’s forgives, and God blesses us with God’s grace. No matter when we first went to work and began to believe and give our life to Jesus our salvation is the same as the saints. Our salvation is the same as the death bed converts.
We don’t know why, God seems to love us indiscriminately and seems to enjoy reversing the systems we set up to explain why God should love some of us more than others of us. By our standards, God may not seem fair or just, but for those of us who stand near the back of the line this sounds like very good news. Because then there is a chance we will receive from God much more than we are worth, that we will get far more than we deserve, not because of who we are but because of who God is.
God is fair and God is just. Not by our standards but by Gods. By those standards God is forgiving, loving and generous even to those who are late coming to the vineyard. And God extends that same grace to ones as undeserving as you and me and for that reason there is a very good chance that the cheers and back slapping, the laughter and gratitude will turn out to be directed to the least of these, found by our God, right back here where we belong.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God, now and forever. Amen.
091811.gpc
Monday, September 12, 2011
11 September 2011 ‘Judgment Set Aside’ Matthew 18:21-35
It is not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives despite their shortcomings in mathematics. I know many of you are skilled in the areas of math. Many did just fine in high school algebra or college calculus or some other twisted mind numbing formulaic learning.
But there are some of us who just don’t understand beyond simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. My first arithmetic nightmare was in elementary school. It stopped being fun when I tried to learn the multiplication tables? The nines just about did me in…
I shuddered with this memory, and others, when faced this morning with more math. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how often should I forgive my brother and sister who sins against me? Seven times? No, he says, and then we have this really bad flashback as Jesus responds with a geometrically progressive figure, not seven times, but, seventy-seven times.
It is also not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives despite struggling to try and understand the moral to every story found in scripture. This mornings’ parable of the unforgiving servant is an example.
There is this king who wants to settle accounts with his slaves. One in particular owes so much he deserves to be sold to pay his debt. The king is ready to give him what he deserves then changes his mind when the slave talks the king into feeling pity for him. The king changes his mind and actually forgives the entire debt, clearly not what the servant deserves. Then, you guessed it, the king changes his mind again, becomes angry with the servant and turns him over to be tortured until he would repay his entire debt.
Wedged in the middle we read of this slaves’ refusal to return the same mercy he had just received to a fellow slave who owed him money. Once forgiven, his mistake was to not return the favor.
Next in the scripture we read this, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Brennan Manning has written an interesting book titled, “The Ragamuffin Gospel.” In it he tells a personal story, “On a blustery October night in a church outside Minneapolis, several hundred believers had gathered for a three-day seminar. I began with a one-hour presentation on the gospel of grace and the reality of salvation. Using Scripture, story, symbolism, and personal experience, I focused on the total sufficiency of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on Calvary. The service ended with a song and a prayer. Leaving the church by a side door, the local pastor turned to his associate and fumed, “Humph, that airhead didn’t say one thing about what we have to do to earn our salvation!”
The author goes on to say, “I hear in his fuming the clear impression that the pastor believes salvation is something we earn. And if we ignore this truth, we will get exactly what we deserve.” It is not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives who would agree completely.
At the beginning of the gospel story, when the king initially decided to sell his slave to pay his debt, I didn’t want to see the servant go to jail. Like me, you may have felt sorry for him. Poor little slave being ruined by the big powerful king. But, by the end of the story, when this once forgiven servant socks it to his fellow slave, we are delighted to see him led off to get what he deserves. Where we once would have appealed for clemency, for generosity even, we now applaud with vengeance in our hearts when the slave is punished for his own injustices.
By the end of the story, there is actually no difference between the selfish little servant and the big forceful king. At least the king showed he had a soft side. The servant on the other hand had no nice side in him at all. In the end, they both are the sorts of person who repay injustice with punishment. Many of us would be ok with this story. We could easily explain, this is just the way the world works.
Perhaps this is the point the pastor was making in the story from the Ragamuffin Gospel. We know about grace and salvation, we just need to know what we have to do to earn them!
Then again, it seems obvious, to earn something we have to do something. And if we don’t do something, we won’t get paid. We will then get what we deserve, nothing. We know the slogans, “There is no free lunch”, “You want money, work for it”, You want mercy, show you deserve it”, “Do unto others before they do unto you”, “God loves good little boys and girls”. Oops, did I sneak that last one in?
If we must be a good little boy or girl before God will love us, well, we may be doomed. This may be a formula none of us will ever live up to. Clearly, if it is up to us, we will get what we deserve and it won’t be pretty.
Yet, we try. Even in this morning’s gospel, Peter asks Jesus for us about being a good little boy or girl. “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-seven times.” Jesus’ answer is clear. There is to be no magic formula, no limit to our forgiveness. Forgiveness is to become for us a way of life that never ends!
Ouch! I wonder, has Jesus gone too far with us this time? The world is a rough place. The news is not filled with stories of justice and forgiveness. This world is often a bloody, exceedingly dangerous, and revenge filled place. We remember 9/11. We know all too vividly, terrorism has no limits. Genocide has occurred during our lifetime, this very moment groups of people live in eternal cycles of vengeance and violence, Arab-Israeli, rich-poor, brown-white, have-have not.
The harsh truth of Jesus’ story this morning is that in our secret satisfaction as the servant is led to get what he deserves, we are probably no worse, but certainly no better than he. From this moment forth, however, we know the moral of the story. And that should make all the difference. It is clear from verse thirty -five, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” How many times? That’s right, the days of playing the “I don’t like math” card are over. Jesus is proposing a new response to a common place story of seemingly deserved judgment. Jesus is offering forgiveness as a new model, a new formula, one that has no limit.
Jesus is actually offering much more. Forgiveness is not the end all. Forgiveness is a small example of a much larger gift from God; Jesus is offering us hope, eternal grace, eternal salvation, and eternal joy.
These past few Sundays we have heard Jesus in the scriptures talking at length about what relationships in the Christian community are like. By now it should be obvious, Jesus is making the point over and over again, the most important thing in the world is the life of this community. In this community, if we want to be members of it, we are called to do everything in our power to nourish and strengthen the bonds of love within us, and between us.
We cannot do that if we are like the rest of the world, repaying injustice with punishment, being the ‘give them what they deserve” police. Scripture is clear, life is not about being a good little boy or girl to earn God’s love. God doesn’t keep score and we shouldn’t either.
Truth is, some times we have forgotten what it is like to be forgiven – from the heart, to have our record scrubbed clean, our name removed from the ledger with no chance of the score ever being kept again. We forever bury that feeling when we keep score with others or when we search for ways to earn our own forgiveness, our own salvation, our own love.
Truth is, it is just not up to us, it is just not of our own doing. All we have ever been able to do is ask for it, for forgiveness, for salvation, for God’s love – and when it has been given, it has come to us from outside ourselves, from another, from God alone, and most importantly it is, we forget, a free gift. A free gift from someone we have hurt, someone to whom we are in debt, but someone who has decided that what is more important than getting even, is to forgive us and stay always in relationship with us and give us hope beyond ourselves.
The story is told that when the Civil War ended a group gathered outside the White House and President Lincoln came out to say a few words to the crowd. It was a great time of celebration. A band was there. The President talked briefly about the horrors of war and then he joked a little because he had a great sense of humor. The people were delighted and exuberant that they had won the war that had been going on for four years. Lincoln talked about how important it was to get back together and heal the nation’s wounds and let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Then he said, “In a few moments, I want the band to play and I am going to tell them what I want them to play.”
The crowd thought he would get them to play “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that had become their theme song. But Mr. Lincoln said, “I wonder if we, in winning the war, have the right now to play that music again…if maybe that would not be appropriate”. That should have been a clue to what he was going to say. Because he turned to the band and said, “Now this is what I want you to play – I want you to play Dixie.” The band almost dropped their instruments. For a minute they just stood there with the crowd open mouthed. The looked at one another. They didn’t have the music to Dixie. They hadn’t played Dixie in quite a while.
Then after a long pause the band finally got together and they played Dixie. There wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd.
With the wisdom and love of Jesus Christ as our example, having heard him say as he hung from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing”, we are in the unique position this morning to get back together with those we have been separated from, to heal all wounds needing forgiveness, and to let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Forgiving seventy times seven.
It is quite a unique position we are in this morning and what a rare and wonderful God who loves us. For our God never retaliates, our God is always forgiving and remembering our sins no more, and though our God has given us our cross to bear, especially on this anniversary of 9/11, God is praying, that despite ourselves, we too will live a life of forgiveness equal to his.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
091111.gpc
But there are some of us who just don’t understand beyond simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. My first arithmetic nightmare was in elementary school. It stopped being fun when I tried to learn the multiplication tables? The nines just about did me in…
I shuddered with this memory, and others, when faced this morning with more math. Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, how often should I forgive my brother and sister who sins against me? Seven times? No, he says, and then we have this really bad flashback as Jesus responds with a geometrically progressive figure, not seven times, but, seventy-seven times.
It is also not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives despite struggling to try and understand the moral to every story found in scripture. This mornings’ parable of the unforgiving servant is an example.
There is this king who wants to settle accounts with his slaves. One in particular owes so much he deserves to be sold to pay his debt. The king is ready to give him what he deserves then changes his mind when the slave talks the king into feeling pity for him. The king changes his mind and actually forgives the entire debt, clearly not what the servant deserves. Then, you guessed it, the king changes his mind again, becomes angry with the servant and turns him over to be tortured until he would repay his entire debt.
Wedged in the middle we read of this slaves’ refusal to return the same mercy he had just received to a fellow slave who owed him money. Once forgiven, his mistake was to not return the favor.
Next in the scripture we read this, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Brennan Manning has written an interesting book titled, “The Ragamuffin Gospel.” In it he tells a personal story, “On a blustery October night in a church outside Minneapolis, several hundred believers had gathered for a three-day seminar. I began with a one-hour presentation on the gospel of grace and the reality of salvation. Using Scripture, story, symbolism, and personal experience, I focused on the total sufficiency of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ on Calvary. The service ended with a song and a prayer. Leaving the church by a side door, the local pastor turned to his associate and fumed, “Humph, that airhead didn’t say one thing about what we have to do to earn our salvation!”
The author goes on to say, “I hear in his fuming the clear impression that the pastor believes salvation is something we earn. And if we ignore this truth, we will get exactly what we deserve.” It is not unusual in this day and time to find people who lead perfectly normal lives who would agree completely.
At the beginning of the gospel story, when the king initially decided to sell his slave to pay his debt, I didn’t want to see the servant go to jail. Like me, you may have felt sorry for him. Poor little slave being ruined by the big powerful king. But, by the end of the story, when this once forgiven servant socks it to his fellow slave, we are delighted to see him led off to get what he deserves. Where we once would have appealed for clemency, for generosity even, we now applaud with vengeance in our hearts when the slave is punished for his own injustices.
By the end of the story, there is actually no difference between the selfish little servant and the big forceful king. At least the king showed he had a soft side. The servant on the other hand had no nice side in him at all. In the end, they both are the sorts of person who repay injustice with punishment. Many of us would be ok with this story. We could easily explain, this is just the way the world works.
Perhaps this is the point the pastor was making in the story from the Ragamuffin Gospel. We know about grace and salvation, we just need to know what we have to do to earn them!
Then again, it seems obvious, to earn something we have to do something. And if we don’t do something, we won’t get paid. We will then get what we deserve, nothing. We know the slogans, “There is no free lunch”, “You want money, work for it”, You want mercy, show you deserve it”, “Do unto others before they do unto you”, “God loves good little boys and girls”. Oops, did I sneak that last one in?
If we must be a good little boy or girl before God will love us, well, we may be doomed. This may be a formula none of us will ever live up to. Clearly, if it is up to us, we will get what we deserve and it won’t be pretty.
Yet, we try. Even in this morning’s gospel, Peter asks Jesus for us about being a good little boy or girl. “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-seven times.” Jesus’ answer is clear. There is to be no magic formula, no limit to our forgiveness. Forgiveness is to become for us a way of life that never ends!
Ouch! I wonder, has Jesus gone too far with us this time? The world is a rough place. The news is not filled with stories of justice and forgiveness. This world is often a bloody, exceedingly dangerous, and revenge filled place. We remember 9/11. We know all too vividly, terrorism has no limits. Genocide has occurred during our lifetime, this very moment groups of people live in eternal cycles of vengeance and violence, Arab-Israeli, rich-poor, brown-white, have-have not.
The harsh truth of Jesus’ story this morning is that in our secret satisfaction as the servant is led to get what he deserves, we are probably no worse, but certainly no better than he. From this moment forth, however, we know the moral of the story. And that should make all the difference. It is clear from verse thirty -five, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” How many times? That’s right, the days of playing the “I don’t like math” card are over. Jesus is proposing a new response to a common place story of seemingly deserved judgment. Jesus is offering forgiveness as a new model, a new formula, one that has no limit.
Jesus is actually offering much more. Forgiveness is not the end all. Forgiveness is a small example of a much larger gift from God; Jesus is offering us hope, eternal grace, eternal salvation, and eternal joy.
These past few Sundays we have heard Jesus in the scriptures talking at length about what relationships in the Christian community are like. By now it should be obvious, Jesus is making the point over and over again, the most important thing in the world is the life of this community. In this community, if we want to be members of it, we are called to do everything in our power to nourish and strengthen the bonds of love within us, and between us.
We cannot do that if we are like the rest of the world, repaying injustice with punishment, being the ‘give them what they deserve” police. Scripture is clear, life is not about being a good little boy or girl to earn God’s love. God doesn’t keep score and we shouldn’t either.
Truth is, some times we have forgotten what it is like to be forgiven – from the heart, to have our record scrubbed clean, our name removed from the ledger with no chance of the score ever being kept again. We forever bury that feeling when we keep score with others or when we search for ways to earn our own forgiveness, our own salvation, our own love.
Truth is, it is just not up to us, it is just not of our own doing. All we have ever been able to do is ask for it, for forgiveness, for salvation, for God’s love – and when it has been given, it has come to us from outside ourselves, from another, from God alone, and most importantly it is, we forget, a free gift. A free gift from someone we have hurt, someone to whom we are in debt, but someone who has decided that what is more important than getting even, is to forgive us and stay always in relationship with us and give us hope beyond ourselves.
The story is told that when the Civil War ended a group gathered outside the White House and President Lincoln came out to say a few words to the crowd. It was a great time of celebration. A band was there. The President talked briefly about the horrors of war and then he joked a little because he had a great sense of humor. The people were delighted and exuberant that they had won the war that had been going on for four years. Lincoln talked about how important it was to get back together and heal the nation’s wounds and let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Then he said, “In a few moments, I want the band to play and I am going to tell them what I want them to play.”
The crowd thought he would get them to play “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that had become their theme song. But Mr. Lincoln said, “I wonder if we, in winning the war, have the right now to play that music again…if maybe that would not be appropriate”. That should have been a clue to what he was going to say. Because he turned to the band and said, “Now this is what I want you to play – I want you to play Dixie.” The band almost dropped their instruments. For a minute they just stood there with the crowd open mouthed. The looked at one another. They didn’t have the music to Dixie. They hadn’t played Dixie in quite a while.
Then after a long pause the band finally got together and they played Dixie. There wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd.
With the wisdom and love of Jesus Christ as our example, having heard him say as he hung from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they are doing”, we are in the unique position this morning to get back together with those we have been separated from, to heal all wounds needing forgiveness, and to let brothers and sisters join each other once again. Forgiving seventy times seven.
It is quite a unique position we are in this morning and what a rare and wonderful God who loves us. For our God never retaliates, our God is always forgiving and remembering our sins no more, and though our God has given us our cross to bear, especially on this anniversary of 9/11, God is praying, that despite ourselves, we too will live a life of forgiveness equal to his.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
091111.gpc
Monday, September 5, 2011
04 September 2011 “Forgiveness” Matthew 18:15-20
In our travels Janet and I always have an eye out for a bookstore. Usually the antique shops are closed. But bookstores are always open. We can happily spend hours hanging out in bookstores. Actually we do more than just hang out. We buy books on a fairly regular basis. Just ask our kids about the boxes of books they moved for us in the past.
One of our favorite bookstores is in the Heights in Houston near Rice University. It is called Murder by the Book. If you are a mystery lover you would be in mystery book heaven at Murder by the Book.
We also like to watch mystery movies. Hercule Poirot is a favorite, or Miss Jane Marple. We like Brother Cadfile or the newer Jesse Stone mysteries. There are many we enjoy though Janet wasn’t too keen on the new Sherlock Holmes.
Our favorite television channels for mysteries are Masterpiece Theatre and, surprisingly, the Hallmark channel.
One particularly good show from the Hallmark Channel was “Harvest of Fire.” It is the story of an FBI agent, Sally, who is looking into several barn burnings in Amish country. The ending was a surprise to me though not to Janet. She often figures out ‘who did it’ before I have a clue. My impression for the longest was this story was about a hate crime against the Amish. As you will hear, I was lost in my world of assumptions.
There were several plots and twists and turns in the story, which makes for great intrigue. Just what you want in a good mystery. The life of the Amish was portrayed honestly and added a unique perspective not seen in many mysteries.
I was struck by how the Amish way of life meshed with their religion. It was interesting to see their faith centered in their family life and to learn how their life as a community of believers was formed by that faith .
Centrality of faith in family life and especially in the life of the community of believers unfolded for us in Matthews Gospel reading this morning as once again Jesus has something to teach us. His intention, I believe, is to teach a clear ethical and moral truth.
Jesus says, ‘If any member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.’ Apparently Jesus feels we must take our concerns for sin or for fault with another to that person and speak with them. Hardly novel, Jesus believes we should learn to talk with one another. Especially when we have challenges or problems in our relationships.
Isn’t this good advice for being in any relationship whether a problem or not occurs, whether it is personal or corporate, intimate or religious. Isn’t this good advice when miscommunication or hurt feelings occur? Admittedly, it is difficult to gather the strength sometimes to talk things out.
In the Amish home and in the Amish community honesty and truth-telling were essential to being faithful to Jesus’ teaching about how we glorify God. In “Harvest of Fire,” Sally, our FBI agent, was searching for just that, the truth.
She began to notice the affection one particular young man, Sam, had for one particular young lady, Rachael. She learned the young ladies mother had forbidden Rachael to see Sam. Yet they met. They met until Rachael realized her dishonesty and told Sam she could not see him because she did not want to continue to disobey her mother. Her love for him was tempered by her love for her mother and her duty to obey and be honest.
I sense in Jesus’ teaching and in our mystery movie an underlying call to ethical behavior in the role of friendship in telling the truth.
The early Greek philosopher Aristotle saw virtue in friendship and even argued for friendship as the basis for all ethical or moral behavior. Gone wrong, he pointed out, untrue friendship could become the excuse for immoral behavior when friends do not act like true friends.
A true friend, as Jesus says, will go and point out the fault if another member of the church, sins against you. An untrue friend will offer a weak excuse. ‘Who am I to judge?’ ‘If I stay out of your life, you will stay out of mine.’
Jesus is telling us, ‘My friend, this is no friend.’ “If you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you…if the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.”
Our community of the faithful is in jeopardy when we avoid our responsibility as a true friend. There is no friendship without truthfulness. There is no truthfulness without judgment. The act of telling the truth is actually an act of the deepest love.
In the Christian community we need one another. To be family with one another we must work together. Jesus’ message is straight forward, to work rightly as a Church, as a family, we must go to those with whom we are having difficulty and we must talk.
There it is again, we must talk with one another. But, talking can be painful. Personally I will go to great lengths to avoid a verbal fight with someone. I know, just to talk doesn’t mean it’s always going to turn out with tension or shouting. But there is that chance.
Seldom do we find someone who enjoys confrontation and it just seems to us that to go and talk, even with a friend, about a fault or a sin committed is a sure recipe for losing that friend. How often, I wonder, do we avoid telling the truth because we do not want to risk our relationship with the one who has offended us.
Rachael, in “Harvest of Fire,” did not want to tell her mother she had been seeing the forbidden young man, Sam. She did not want to disappoint her mother with her disobedience. She did not want to risk losing her mothers trust. So she kept quiet about it.
Sam, we soon discover, is not being completely truthful with Rachael. He had something to hide too. His father, Jacob, had been shunned by their church for being prideful. In the past Jacob had built a barn that was not in compliance with the Amish way for barn-design restrictions and his actions were deemed prideful and unacceptable to the elders.
Obedience to the ruling elders, in things both great and small, was essential for the survival of the Amish faith community. If Jacob would not follow one rule they felt there was the danger he might not follow others and thus contaminate them all with disobedience. So he was shunned. Sam was angry with the elders as was his father. Their strained relationship with the church community was also tearing them apart.
Sally, the FBI agent, had been watching for clues to the identity of the barn burner. She was learning about the Amish by actually living in one of their homes. They were teaching her a lot about love and duty and commitment to family and to community. And they were teaching her about the need to be a true friend when someone like Jacob disobeyed their rules, sinned against them, and needed to hear the truth. In their community, for sin, for fault, there were consequences.
What the community expects and deserves at this point is repentance, repentance from the one who has sinned and fallen away from the community. What the community does not need is defiance. Defiance hampers forgiveness, and worse yet, may lead to the death of the community.
In the midst of this chaos relationships are lost, real relationships. If the church is a place of truthfulness, and I think it is, the church is the place where keeping the family together and maintaining relationships is worth the risk of being truthful.
There is no doubt that to tell the truth may risk a relationship. But to not tell the truth may risk the loss of the family, the community, or the church. It is with this fear of loss before us that we discover the path to restored relationships begins when we seek repentance.
In our barn burning mystery it came out that Sam, the young man whose father had been shunned, had set the barn fires in retaliation for the injustice he felt the church elders had done to his family. When the FBI investigator , Sally, confronted him and his father with their sin she unknowingly made the first step to repentance possible. She helped them begin to restore their relationship with their faith community. The restoration took on meaning when Sam went before everyone and confessed his sin and asked for forgiveness.
Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, an international federation of communities for people with mental or physical disabilities, once said, “Community is a continual act of forgiveness.”
At first when the investigator accused him of burning the barns Sam denied it, but then his moral beliefs took over and he confessed to his bishop before the entire congregation as they were raising a new born in place of one of the ones he had burned. And then the miracle, by God’s grace, the community did not abandon him. Their bishop defined God’s grace when he said, “Despise the sin, not the sinner.” In solidarity they accepted his cry for forgiveness and as community they all stood to be with him and walked with him as he was being taken away to trial.
There is a great lesson in this young man’s response to having his sin made public. He did not defend himself against the charge regardless of the cost; he did not forsake his relationships in favor of nursing his own hurt feelings or wounded pride.
No, our lesson this morning is to know that the reason to take Jesus’ advice is to learn our talking things out is the first step to winning back a relationship that is in danger of being lost. The reason Jesus teaches us to be truthful to our friends is to help us restore our relationship with them. Our goal is reconciliation not retribution. Community is a continual act of forgiveness.
With a goal to gain or regain our sister or brother in Christ our actions require a specific response. Jesus’ is clear about that. Our truth lived in forgiveness will reveal the true nature of our relationship with our friends in Christ. If we are a true friend that is.
I sense two things in Matthew this morning that I saw in those Amish people. First in shunning they took a stand and told a member of their flock, “ No, you have done wrong against God and against your church family.” There is a consequence for that. They told the truth about sin.
Secondly, they teach us about forgiveness when one repents. The Amish did not learn this by themselves. They learned it from Jesus. Jesus Christ tells the truth about our sin and, when we are contrite of heart, he forgives us as we are to forgive one another.
Jesus also promises that where two or three are gathered he is there with us. Jesus gathers with us for he expects that when we tell the truth we will risk relationships. Knowing the danger, Jesus stands with us. As we seek repentance over punishment, as we offer and receive forgiveness, Jesus is our ever present help. He made that clear up there on the cross as he said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Dear friends, community is a continual act of forgiveness.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Additional helps:
Barbara Brown Taylor, “The Seeds of Heaven.”
090411.gpc
One of our favorite bookstores is in the Heights in Houston near Rice University. It is called Murder by the Book. If you are a mystery lover you would be in mystery book heaven at Murder by the Book.
We also like to watch mystery movies. Hercule Poirot is a favorite, or Miss Jane Marple. We like Brother Cadfile or the newer Jesse Stone mysteries. There are many we enjoy though Janet wasn’t too keen on the new Sherlock Holmes.
Our favorite television channels for mysteries are Masterpiece Theatre and, surprisingly, the Hallmark channel.
One particularly good show from the Hallmark Channel was “Harvest of Fire.” It is the story of an FBI agent, Sally, who is looking into several barn burnings in Amish country. The ending was a surprise to me though not to Janet. She often figures out ‘who did it’ before I have a clue. My impression for the longest was this story was about a hate crime against the Amish. As you will hear, I was lost in my world of assumptions.
There were several plots and twists and turns in the story, which makes for great intrigue. Just what you want in a good mystery. The life of the Amish was portrayed honestly and added a unique perspective not seen in many mysteries.
I was struck by how the Amish way of life meshed with their religion. It was interesting to see their faith centered in their family life and to learn how their life as a community of believers was formed by that faith .
Centrality of faith in family life and especially in the life of the community of believers unfolded for us in Matthews Gospel reading this morning as once again Jesus has something to teach us. His intention, I believe, is to teach a clear ethical and moral truth.
Jesus says, ‘If any member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.’ Apparently Jesus feels we must take our concerns for sin or for fault with another to that person and speak with them. Hardly novel, Jesus believes we should learn to talk with one another. Especially when we have challenges or problems in our relationships.
Isn’t this good advice for being in any relationship whether a problem or not occurs, whether it is personal or corporate, intimate or religious. Isn’t this good advice when miscommunication or hurt feelings occur? Admittedly, it is difficult to gather the strength sometimes to talk things out.
In the Amish home and in the Amish community honesty and truth-telling were essential to being faithful to Jesus’ teaching about how we glorify God. In “Harvest of Fire,” Sally, our FBI agent, was searching for just that, the truth.
She began to notice the affection one particular young man, Sam, had for one particular young lady, Rachael. She learned the young ladies mother had forbidden Rachael to see Sam. Yet they met. They met until Rachael realized her dishonesty and told Sam she could not see him because she did not want to continue to disobey her mother. Her love for him was tempered by her love for her mother and her duty to obey and be honest.
I sense in Jesus’ teaching and in our mystery movie an underlying call to ethical behavior in the role of friendship in telling the truth.
The early Greek philosopher Aristotle saw virtue in friendship and even argued for friendship as the basis for all ethical or moral behavior. Gone wrong, he pointed out, untrue friendship could become the excuse for immoral behavior when friends do not act like true friends.
A true friend, as Jesus says, will go and point out the fault if another member of the church, sins against you. An untrue friend will offer a weak excuse. ‘Who am I to judge?’ ‘If I stay out of your life, you will stay out of mine.’
Jesus is telling us, ‘My friend, this is no friend.’ “If you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you…if the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.”
Our community of the faithful is in jeopardy when we avoid our responsibility as a true friend. There is no friendship without truthfulness. There is no truthfulness without judgment. The act of telling the truth is actually an act of the deepest love.
In the Christian community we need one another. To be family with one another we must work together. Jesus’ message is straight forward, to work rightly as a Church, as a family, we must go to those with whom we are having difficulty and we must talk.
There it is again, we must talk with one another. But, talking can be painful. Personally I will go to great lengths to avoid a verbal fight with someone. I know, just to talk doesn’t mean it’s always going to turn out with tension or shouting. But there is that chance.
Seldom do we find someone who enjoys confrontation and it just seems to us that to go and talk, even with a friend, about a fault or a sin committed is a sure recipe for losing that friend. How often, I wonder, do we avoid telling the truth because we do not want to risk our relationship with the one who has offended us.
Rachael, in “Harvest of Fire,” did not want to tell her mother she had been seeing the forbidden young man, Sam. She did not want to disappoint her mother with her disobedience. She did not want to risk losing her mothers trust. So she kept quiet about it.
Sam, we soon discover, is not being completely truthful with Rachael. He had something to hide too. His father, Jacob, had been shunned by their church for being prideful. In the past Jacob had built a barn that was not in compliance with the Amish way for barn-design restrictions and his actions were deemed prideful and unacceptable to the elders.
Obedience to the ruling elders, in things both great and small, was essential for the survival of the Amish faith community. If Jacob would not follow one rule they felt there was the danger he might not follow others and thus contaminate them all with disobedience. So he was shunned. Sam was angry with the elders as was his father. Their strained relationship with the church community was also tearing them apart.
Sally, the FBI agent, had been watching for clues to the identity of the barn burner. She was learning about the Amish by actually living in one of their homes. They were teaching her a lot about love and duty and commitment to family and to community. And they were teaching her about the need to be a true friend when someone like Jacob disobeyed their rules, sinned against them, and needed to hear the truth. In their community, for sin, for fault, there were consequences.
What the community expects and deserves at this point is repentance, repentance from the one who has sinned and fallen away from the community. What the community does not need is defiance. Defiance hampers forgiveness, and worse yet, may lead to the death of the community.
In the midst of this chaos relationships are lost, real relationships. If the church is a place of truthfulness, and I think it is, the church is the place where keeping the family together and maintaining relationships is worth the risk of being truthful.
There is no doubt that to tell the truth may risk a relationship. But to not tell the truth may risk the loss of the family, the community, or the church. It is with this fear of loss before us that we discover the path to restored relationships begins when we seek repentance.
In our barn burning mystery it came out that Sam, the young man whose father had been shunned, had set the barn fires in retaliation for the injustice he felt the church elders had done to his family. When the FBI investigator , Sally, confronted him and his father with their sin she unknowingly made the first step to repentance possible. She helped them begin to restore their relationship with their faith community. The restoration took on meaning when Sam went before everyone and confessed his sin and asked for forgiveness.
Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, an international federation of communities for people with mental or physical disabilities, once said, “Community is a continual act of forgiveness.”
At first when the investigator accused him of burning the barns Sam denied it, but then his moral beliefs took over and he confessed to his bishop before the entire congregation as they were raising a new born in place of one of the ones he had burned. And then the miracle, by God’s grace, the community did not abandon him. Their bishop defined God’s grace when he said, “Despise the sin, not the sinner.” In solidarity they accepted his cry for forgiveness and as community they all stood to be with him and walked with him as he was being taken away to trial.
There is a great lesson in this young man’s response to having his sin made public. He did not defend himself against the charge regardless of the cost; he did not forsake his relationships in favor of nursing his own hurt feelings or wounded pride.
No, our lesson this morning is to know that the reason to take Jesus’ advice is to learn our talking things out is the first step to winning back a relationship that is in danger of being lost. The reason Jesus teaches us to be truthful to our friends is to help us restore our relationship with them. Our goal is reconciliation not retribution. Community is a continual act of forgiveness.
With a goal to gain or regain our sister or brother in Christ our actions require a specific response. Jesus’ is clear about that. Our truth lived in forgiveness will reveal the true nature of our relationship with our friends in Christ. If we are a true friend that is.
I sense two things in Matthew this morning that I saw in those Amish people. First in shunning they took a stand and told a member of their flock, “ No, you have done wrong against God and against your church family.” There is a consequence for that. They told the truth about sin.
Secondly, they teach us about forgiveness when one repents. The Amish did not learn this by themselves. They learned it from Jesus. Jesus Christ tells the truth about our sin and, when we are contrite of heart, he forgives us as we are to forgive one another.
Jesus also promises that where two or three are gathered he is there with us. Jesus gathers with us for he expects that when we tell the truth we will risk relationships. Knowing the danger, Jesus stands with us. As we seek repentance over punishment, as we offer and receive forgiveness, Jesus is our ever present help. He made that clear up there on the cross as he said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Dear friends, community is a continual act of forgiveness.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Additional helps:
Barbara Brown Taylor, “The Seeds of Heaven.”
090411.gpc
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