Romans 13:8-14
(8) Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (9) The commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet'; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (10) Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
(11) Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; (12) the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; (13) let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. (14) Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Matthew 18:15-20
(15) 'If another member of the church {a} sins against you, {b} go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. {c} (16) But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. (17) If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (18) 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. (19) Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. (20) For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.'
Getting Along
So much has happened since we gathered last Sunday morning. A horrific stampede killed almost 1,000 Shiite mourners making their way to the shrine of a saint. Last Sunday we prayed for those in the path of Hurricane Katrina…today we pray for those whose lives have been shattered and destroyed by that storm. Once again we gather wondering how to make sense of the world and events in the world. Beliefnet.com ran a poll that asked people what role they thought God played in natural disasters. Six percent thought God was punishing us. Eleven percent thought God was testing us. Disasters are sent by God, but we don't know the purpose of them came in at 29 percent. Eight percent polled simply feel that God doesn't exist and disasters are just forces of nature. The majority of those responding to the poll…46 percent felt that although God exists, the supernatural has nothing to do with specific disasters. One commentator stated that none of those questions covered her understanding of God; and I have to agree with her. Once again in these times we bump up against some fundamental understandings of our faith and know that God is in our midst…that God is not detached from the events in Baghdad, God is not detached from the catastrophic suffering of those on the shores of our Gulf Coast.
The scenes of thousands of people with no place to go is a scene from another world…we are creating what are known as IDP camps. Internally displaced persons are those people who cannot stay in their own homes and cities due to war or disaster. Shelters and sports stadiums have become the IDP camps we are used to seeing in developing nations. For me the most wrenching images are the newscasts posting the pictures of the missing for families looking for loved ones. As we approach the fourth anniversary of 9/11 I am drawn back to doing the very same thing as we searched for my brother…of posting his picture on the streets on New York City; putting out messages on the internet. I know the desperation of those pictures of the missing.
All of that forms the setting of our lectionary texts this morning. The apostle Paul says pay attention to the time. Paul, like many of the writers of his time was deeply concerned with the shortness of time. Matthew, where we are going to focus tells us to figure out how to live together as the church. For you see, the good news is that each of us who gather together this morning as the church…people who have heard the Good News and intend to live accordingly. The not so good news is that every one who gathers together can be as difficult as we ourselves can be to get along with. The gospel writer knew that. And if we question how we can focus on internal relations when such devastation surrounds us today…almost asking how dare we complain about the minor inconveniences that we face as a church, remember that Matthew's community was faced with its own devastation and threats and yet, still this issue is dealt with as a crucial one. As the early church community struggled for place and identity in its larger context it also needed to pay attention to its inner workings. We all know how easy it is to play the blame game when things are difficult. Worse for the early church community there are internal struggles going on as what had once been a cohesive unit was breaking down as the realities of Jewish-Christian relationships were becoming more difficult. By the 90's the Pharisees had banned Jewish Christians from participating in the synagogue. Maybe we are seeing some of that struggle detailed in this morning's text.
John Wesley spent a lot of time on this text. He writes about the sin of gossip and evil speaking as being one of the more seductive and difficult sins to avoid. In his sermon "The Cure of Evil-Speaking," he too writes about church relationships in a difficult time for the Methodists: "O that all you who bear the reproach of Christ, who are in derision called Methodists, would set an example to the Christian world, so called, at least in this one instance! Put ye away evil-speaking, talebearing, whispering…If ye must be distinguished, whether ye will or no, let this be the distinguishing mark of a Methodist: He censures no one behind his back: By this fruit ye may know him…How would our 'peace flow as a river,' when we thus followed peace with all! How would the love of God abound in our own souls, while we thus confirmed our love to our brethren! And what an effect it would have on all that we were united together in the name of the Lord Jesus!" (The Sermons of John Wesley 1872 Edition)
You begin to get the idea. The issue of relationships within the church is crucial. And not a trivial matter to discuss even in the face of the terrible scenes we have witnessed this past week. It isn't even trivial to say that it starts here-what we say and do, how we behave towards one another, how we resolve our differences matters more than we know. The gospel gives us some very straightforward ways of dealing with our differences so that we might know the power of "where two or three are gathered." We are called to do what we need to in working out our conflicts and differences. Perhaps to do so in ways that are sacramental. Your church council has been working on ways to model this style. You may remember in the beginning of the year that we read the behavior covenant they adopted for working together. At the beginning of each church council meeting that covenant is read. It is perhaps time to bring that covenant further into the life of the congregation, and you may be seeing more of it.
The ways that we live and work together offer something the world is desperate for. When a friend of mine's daughter was just learning to talk, I taught her to say as a greeting: "Be real, girlfriend." For Lydia it came out more as "Be re, g'friend." In writing about the ways of the world and the false promises of advertising Jim Wallis compares the lure to a desert mirage: "Desert mirages appear to be water, which is desperately needed. But they are an illusion-a trick of sun, heat and sand. When you see a mirage, you head toward it, moving faster and faster, until finally, you plunge headlong right into it! But all you get is a mouthful of sand." (Jim Wallis, "The Soul of Politics" p. 168) We as the church offer much more than a mouthful of sand…we offer the chance to be real. And, again, how we live and work together is where it starts. Together we have found the Good News of Jesus Christ…together let us reach out to the world in love and compassion, knowing that God is with us, knowing that God gives us the courage to look into the faces of people streaming from flood ravaged homes and cities and dare to offer hope. "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."