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Good morning. Wonderful to see
you—always a fun day. I’ve been enjoying
your Facebook updates and Instagram snapshots all summer, from Maine to
California, Canada to Florida, even England and Europe and beyond. St. Andrew’s always kind of a “free-range”
congregation, wandering hither and yon over the global landscape. But especially so in summer. Now that vacations are mostly past and the
kids in school things seem to settle down a little, and the routine patterns of
our more ordinary life give us a chance to settle in. Time to “Round Up” the herd. Len
Wiegand gave me this hat to wear at my first “Round up” back in 1994, and every
year when I put it on now there’s a very tender association of memory both with
him and with all the St. Andreans we have known over the years who are joining
us this morning on another shore, in the heavenly picnic grounds. Our extended family, you might say. As I just
said as well, our Vestry has also designated this Round Up Sunday as something
of a “soft opening” kick-off for our 2018 stewardship Campaign, and with an
invitation this year for us to respond with gratitude for all the ways this
particular congregation and parish family has been and continues to be a
blessing in our lives. An overarching
theme of gratitude, that’s the key word, and actually perfect for our gospel
reading this morning. In any case I do hope it has been a good summer for
you, whether you were galavanting around the world or simply sipping an iced
tea and reading a novel on the porch. And
it’s great to be here today.
In this section of Matthew’s gospel, as Jesus and his disciples are
drawing near to Jerusalem, Jesus is thinking about the future, talking to his
disciples about his church-- how they are to live together in the new reality
that is about to dawn upon them after Holy Week and Easter and Pentecost and in
years and centuries to come. A lot here
to think about appropriately as we think about our own church family on a
Stewardship Kick Off and Round Up Sunday .
How to be “the Church.” “His
Church.” We remember just a couple of
weeks ago at Caesarea Philippi with the Confession of Peter Jesus had declared,
“on this rock I will build my church.” That’s
what Jesus is doing here. Jesus knows and has promised that through the gift
of the Holy Spirit he would never be far away.
But even so he wants to plant seeds now, so that in the days to come
they and we will find the resources to live faithfully and to await with a
confident eagerness his triumphant
return. Jesus with care and love accomplishing that
work, to build a church of supernatural character and strength. Beginning with as motley an assortment of unlikely
characters as you’ll see anywhere. Reminds
me of what I like to say about St. Andrew’s.
If you’re trying to find your way here from across town for the first
time, just follow the signs to the Zoo!
So the passage this morning has two connected parts. First, some straightforward practical
pastoral directions for how to manage conflict in the congregation. How to deal with the kinds of stresses and
strains that will inevitably arise and still maintain a wholesome common life
capable of witnessing to the gospel. And
the second a reminder of the spiritual character and spiritual authority that
is and will be truly present in the church that Jesus is building, to
accomplish this--to bring about true communion and fellowship, securely rooted
in the knowledge and love of Christ. To
know that this is no ordinary human society, but something more, something
higher.
So to begin in verse 15 this morning, with the practical and pastoral
note, (page 9 of the leaflet) --“If your brother sins against you, go and tell
him his fault, between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” This seems to be the simplest thing, perhaps
we even think it seems obvious, to go without saying--yet I think it shows
actually extraordinary care both for the dignity of the individual and for the
care of the larger community. All too
easy at times to think about occasions when an offense has been given, and when
the first response of the person offended has been to broadcast the news far
and wide. Sometimes at high volume. Or maybe the response, to whisper in a dark
corner. Either way. “Do you know what she said to me? Can you imagine anyone doing what he did to
me?” “I hate the way he did that.” And on and on. A kind
of gossip. Bellowing a grievance, or
subversive backchannel murmuring. What
someone has called the “parking lot” conversation. We don’t have a parking lot at St. Andrew’s,
of course, so this sort of thing could never happen here. But I’m sure at least hypothetically someone
could figure out some alternative venue at one time or another for the after
service or after meeting conclave. And the
fact that Jesus didn’t mention e-mail and Facebook here doesn’t mean they don’t
fit in. I’m not a psychologist, but I
suppose when I do this it’s some kind of an effort to reward myself and ease my
own pain by garnering sympathy, or perhaps to recruit an ally, create some
spin, find somebody who will take my side, see things from my point of view, in
whatever the difference or dispute may be. An
opportunity to build myself up at the expense of another. Wherever that comes from. And it also can be somewhere on the range of
sociopathology: to hit back, to hurt the
other, to damage her reputation, to shame him in front of others. To score points. It raises the stakes anyway, insists that
there will need to be both a winner and a loser. A line in the sand: allies and enemies. “You’re
on my side, right?” And the point is, of course, that no matter
who is in the right or who is in the wrong, however those would be measured,
the result is a stain in the fabric of the common life of the community, the
fellowship. All this toxic business about “taking
sides.” When it gets to be something
about winners and losers, ultimately everybody ends up losing, at least in the
big picture. Sometimes a stain that will
take a long time to fade away, and sometimes an indelible mark.
When a lot of this stuff goes on in a business office or a PTA meeting
or for sure in church newcomers can usually pick it up about 30 seconds after
they enter, even if nobody says anything to them about it. Body language, maybe, or just a kind of
shadowy atmosphere. It will be in the
air. This is just what Jesus is talking
about. If you are offended, Jesus says,
if you have a problem with someone in the fellowship, a disagreement, a
grievance—don’t take it to Twitter or Facebook or the coffee klatch. Instead, first
go quietly, privately, before saying anything to anybody else, and make every
effort to see if you can’t work it out between just the two you. To say
that reconciliation is important, that it is of high importance that both of us
continue to live and flourish in a good way in our relationship with each
other, and that we both will be able to contribute together, together, to the good life of the congregation. Let’s not start off by forcing others to
choose between us or have their focus and lives and ministries disrupted by our
disagreement. Even small cracks like
that in the pavement over time can become huge and dangerous fissures of
division.
But then, Pastor Jesus says, if that initial one-to-one initiative
doesn’t bring peace and reconciliation and a renewal of friendship, the next
step is to bring in a small circle of respected fellow church members, and
offer to submit yourself with the one who has offended you to their judgment
and discipline. Not to bring in your allies to gang up on the other, but we might
say to say in modern judicial terminology, to submit your concern to third
party binding arbitration. You can
explain what has gone wrong, from your point of view, and the other then can
explain in full his or her perspective.
And then, without reservation, you agree to accept whatever judgment
these “arbitrators” provide. No matter
how certain I am that I am in the right, if these witnesses tell me that I am
on the wrong track, I agree in advance to set the grievance aside forever.
And only then, finally, if your grievance is with one who will not
settle things with you one-on-one, and who will not submit him or herself to
the discernment of the neutral witnesses—then and only then open the issue to
the congregation. Jesus doesn’t give us
a specific mechanism for this, but it is clearly to be the case that none of us
are free to continue to hold a grievance privately or secretly, or to attempt
some kind of “retaliation” of our own design.
We must find a way to speak it honestly and with clarity, transparently,
and then to let it go freely into the church.
The church will decide in its common mind and common life, guided by the
Holy Spirit, and then the consequences of the offense will be up to the church
as a body to determine. I don’t get to
decide those consequences. Maybe I’ll be
happy with the result, or maybe not. It’s not about me anymore. Because at this point the offense has become
one that is shared by the whole body, and now must be responded to by the whole
body.
So theses first few verses, a specific set of instructions about
conflict resolution and interpersonal relationships, framed by the overriding
value of care for the well-being of the whole body. If I win, but the congregation is harmed,
then I really don’t win anything at all but instead bring dishonor and discord
to everyone, dishonor to Christ himself.
Then briefly, in the second part of this reading, Jesus steps back and
reminds his disciples that as his living body, the church, the spiritual gift
of discernment , the authority of divine justice and divine mercy, rests in
them together. The binding and loosing of sins. We heard before in scripture that only God
could forgive sins, but now in this miraculous new life, Jesus shares this
sacred ministry of judgment and mercy and grace with those who are to be his
new Body. This church isn’t just a
random collection of people who happen to share some common space for an hour
or two a week. You may have 100 people
in a movie theater to see the latest Hollywood feature, or gathered at the
Giant Eagle in the Waterworks to buy groceries, but that’s not what the church
is like. A bunch of people in the same place at the same time. The church instead is a sacramental and supernatural and precious
mystery, in which many different individuals, different sizes and shapes and
ages and backgrounds, every breed of cat in the zoo, are drawn together through the proclamation of
the word and the sharing of the sacraments to be one Body, Christ’s body. Even a little group like the first 12, even a
little place like St. Andrew’s Highland Park: a precious mystery. Jesus cared enough for this Body the church,
to go to the cross for it, for us. To
pay the highest price that could be paid for our redemption, that through his
life we might have life.
Be very careful with this church, Jesus is telling his disciples. Take care of it. That’s the Stewardship Sunday, Round Up
Sunday take-away. There’s nothing else
that we have—not the porcelain vase grandfather brought back from China, not heirloom
jewelry, not anything else in all creation that is more valuable than this
precious Body. Even a little place in an
out of the way neighborhood like St. Andrew’s.
For all our eccentricities.
Treasure it. Love it with all our
heart. Because in loving it, we are
loving him. And be thankful for it every
day. Overflowing gratitude.
So, again—Blessings on the day, friends here. Something about the spirit of gratitude that
our vestry is inviting us to reflect on in the fall campaign. Whether this is our first Round Up, or
whether we’ve been around so long we’ve begun to feel like somebody might post
a historical plaque on the front of our shirt.
Just enjoy the service, the music, hear our choir now sing this
wonderful Vaughan Williams setting of the 84th psalm, reflecting together on the Word of life, and
have fun watching the kids play out on the lawn at the picnic, and consider for
a minute along the way how much Jesus loves this place, you and me and all of
us together, so precious to him—each of us individually, all of us together,
with his prayer, his prayer, that we would never for a minute take any of it
for granted.
Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering
and a sacrifice to God.
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