A Sermon preached on 10th September
2017, Pentecost XIV at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Ezekiel 33:7-11, Romans
13:8-14, Matthew 18:15-20
In his sermon last
week, Rev. Douglas Robinson gave you some homework to do. He asked you to go
through the list of practical "good deeds" in Romans 12:9-21 and to
choose just one thing you should during the week. They were: “love one another
with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal,
be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering,
persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality
to strangers. Bless those who persecute you …… Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty,
but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not
repay anyone evil for evil …. Never
avenge yourselves…”
So, how did it go?
Hands up who associated with the lowly or who did not claim to be wiser than
you are!
Even if you had done
your homework, as I’m sure you did, and even if you were to follow Paul’s advice
in today’s extract from Romans, to owe no one anything, except to love one another,
you would not always be successful. Last week we heard Paul say: “if it is possible
live peaceably with all, as far as it depends on you.” We do not always achieve
what we aim for. And it does not always depend on us.
Today’s Gospel reads
a bit like Jesus’ advice on what to do when this is not possible, when the other
does not want to live at peace with us, when it goes wrong, when there is the quarrelling
and jealousy Paul warned against, and when we feel very wronged. Jesus describes
a process of mediation and reconciliation, a best practice for dealing with conflict.
What does it entail?
First, we deal with conflict, we do not ignore it and let it fester, gradually poisoning
a relationship and a community. Also, Jesus clearly knew all about the dangers of
triangulation. Triangulation is a manipulation tactic where instead of communicating
directly with the other person I have a problem with, I use a third person to
relay my message to the second, thus forming a triangle. It only leads to further
conflict, and never solves the underlying problem. Jesus will have none of this.
“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault
when the two of you are alone,” he says. (Matthew 18:15)
The process that follows
is open transparent and open, not secret and hidden. If the first stage doesn’t
work, “take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be
confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” (18:16) I think that the role
of the two or three companions is not just to witness, but perhaps to moderate and
mediate … we may think the other has sinned against us, but we might also have got
the wrong end of the stick!
Finally, we involve
the whole community. Not as a tribunal, but as an attempt to reach a resolution
and to make sure that the decision is made by the whole community, and not just
small group or cabal. Our decisions are best taken prayerfully and collectively.
When Jesus says, “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among
them” (18:20) he is not just referring to worship, or study, but also to our process
of decision taking.
Only if and when this
final stage is not successful are we told to “let such a one be to you as a
Gentile and a tax collector.” (18:17) This rather strange phrase, also a little
ironic when we remember that Matthew after whom the Gospel is named was originally
a tax collector, just means that the person is to be treated as an outsider, as
no longer belonging to the community. Even this is not the final step. Reconciliation
is always possible. The power of binding and loosing that Jesus now gives to all
the disciples, previously just to Peter, is the power to forgive by releasing someone
from what is still chaining them to their past and condemning them to repeat their
past.
The purpose and the
aim of the process is reconciliation, not punishment or exclusion. We are poorer
for every person we lose. Jesus places a very high value on unity. He knows we are
better together, he knows that we are more effective and authentic witnesses to
him if we are united, he constantly reminds us that we are all one family. That
is why in his final prayer in John’s Gospel (17:21) he begs “that they may all
be one.” Whenever Christians fight and condemn each other – whether in a local church,
within a denomination, or between denominations – we detract from Christ’s message
of reconciliation for us all and we distract from him. That is why I am so glad
that we are remembering the Reformation anniversary this year ecumenically, together
… not ignoring our differences, but still emphasizing what we have in common and
what we do together as followers of Jesus Christ.
As Christians, we are
called to model reconciliation, which we can only do when we set a good example
within the Church. According to our Catechism, which you will find at the back of
your Prayer Book (p. 855), the “ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ
and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to
the gifts given them, to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the
world.”
One of the books we
read from during the Night of the Churches was Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s “No Future
without Forgiveness.” It is all about his experience as chairperson of the South
African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Nelson Mandela chose Tutu because he
was an authentic witness to the power of reconciliation and Tutu describes how his
Christian and Anglican theology informed his and the work of the commission. “Theology
said they, (the Apartheid regime’s torturers and killers), still remained children
of God with the capacity to repent and to be able to change.” “In this theology,
we can never give up on anyone because our God was one who had a particularly soft
spot for sinners.” Archbishop Tutu also writes about the victims: “And, mercifully
and wonderfully, as I listened to the stories of the victims I marveled at their
magnanimity, that after so much suffering, instead of lusting for revenge, they
had this extraordinary willingness to forgive.”[1]
Jesus knew that the
community he left behind, that became the church, was a human association in which
personal conflicts were inevitable. Even when he was with the disciples, they quarreled.
That is one reason why we have these detailed instructions. The other reason is
to enable us to carry on his work of reconciliation in the world – as good examples.
Our world needs active bearers of the message of reconciliation now more than ever.
There are plenty of old wounds that need healing, there are far too many new conflicts
that require a voice of reason and moderation, there are many people in power, and
their supporters, who need to be reminded that we are one world, one family, and
that we need one another.
Any power we have comes
not from us, but from God. Jesus gives the disciples, and us their successors, the
power and authority to bind and loose on earth and in heaven. It is the power we
gain when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Or in Paul’s words in the Second Letter
to the Corinthians (5:18-20):
“All this is from
God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry
of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of
reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his
appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
That is what we are
sent out to do in the world, every week: to be ambassadors for love, for forgiveness,
for reconciliation or, very simply, for God.
Amen.
