Are you feeling uncomfortable right now? I know it was hard for me to work with this passage. I don’t want to hear about being cast out from my church like a tax collector or a Gentile. I don’t want two or three people confronting me with my faults. I think I’d be OK with one person taking me aside and sharing how I had wronged them, if they did it gently. Talking to a friend about this sermon, she asked why I was preaching on it. I said because I feel called to preach on the hard passages. We need to find the message for us today.
Did you hear about the new policy in the LA School district? It came about in response to so many students being cited by police for minor offenses which often led to higher dropout rates and more criminal involvement. Michael, a 17 year old student said, “So often students are just thrown to the cops and put in handcuffs without getting to the root of their problems” (LA Times 8.19.14) Now the school police will stop giving citations for fighting, petty theft and other minor offenses. Counselors and administrators will handle these smaller infractions seeking to keep kids in school rather than getting them connected to the criminal justice system. “We are about graduation, not incarceration,” L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy told the crowd in mid-August when the second largest school district in America changed its policy. There is almost a sense of reclaiming the student rather than casting him or her into the justice system. This shift seems to be a move away from punishment towards reconciliation.
If we are honest, society says, “I am not my brother’s keeper”, and what church members do is none of my business. Or, I certainly don’t want anyone judging me, so why in the world would I judge them and their behavior. Maybe we think that way because we are so influenced by the criminal justice system rather than our faith community. Christ is love; St. Andrew is our community of Christ called to love. The criminal justice system is about punishment while the Christ is about reconciliation.
Reconciliation, not punishment, is the point of both passages. Paul speaks of us owing love when faced with sins. He speaks of many of the big sins: murder, theft, adultery and jealousy. I don’t think we will be calling each other out on these, but maybe on gossiping, being hurtful, or not caring for our brother or sister in Christ. If a brother or sister, if we are inclusive, sins against you. You see the word church member, is really “brother” in the Greek. For Paul, church is a family, a place of mutual interdependence, where each member is incomplete without the other, where the suffering of one is the suffering of all and where the honor of one leads to rejoicing of all. We are all fine with members of our families letting us know when we have wronged them, because that is how we can endure as a family. The same is true in the body of Christ. We are Christ’s body so when there is conflict we all suffer together. The same way we try to help and guide our family members we are to support and guide our faith community. The purpose of speaking with a person who has sinned against you is to regain that person, reconcile them with God and the community, not to punish. Because like it or not we are responsible for each other in God’s family, much like we are responsible within our own families.
Paul takes it further, much like we owe taxes and bills, we also owe respect, honor and love. Now you and I have many bills we pay. We have a water bill, phone bill, mortgage (unless you’ve finished with that) and of course taxes. When a bill comes in the mail we will pay it, meet our obligation. We have received water and phone service and a place to live so it is only fair to pay these bills. Paul reminds us to pay all that we owe; taxes and bills. But we are also to respect and honor those who have earned it. How can we honor and respect people if they do not share with us how we have wronged them? Do you respect those who gloss over things? Are we honoring people when we lie and say everything is fine? I don’t think so. Finally, Paul says we owe love. The word owe is not a debt, but more like obligation. There is no obligation greater than to love and we should stand under no obligation except love because love will fulfill the law. That’s why we start with a one on one conversation so we reduce the chance of shame or embarrassment. And the person can respond and make amends. Remember the goal is to restore, heal and love the person right back into the family of God. Even though we do not get a bill for love we owe love just the same. Have you ever gotten a bill in the mail to love the people in your life??? Wouldn’t it be great to have a regular reminder to hug your kids, to call your family, to pray to God because we love our Creator?
Last night, the boys had two friends over and I made dinner. Our kitchen table only seats four so I sat in another room while the four boys laughed and ate. I enjoyed hearing their joking, but I also felt a little left out. I was not at table with my family and their friends. We will soon come to Christ’s table and I know no one wants to be left out, not included. Jesus is teaching us about being reconciled with each other and to God before we share in this meal. Speaking up when a person wrongs you is a way of setting things right in your life, in this church family and with God. Then you will be in a fuller communion with Christ at table. Then we can live in Christ’s presence- “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them”, Jesus said. We have heard that passage many times but I never connected it to speaking up, being united in a family, and sharing when someone has wronged you. If we see speaking with our brother or sister in Christ as a loving act then the whole thing shifts. Our love is restoring our neighbor, not judging them. You love your neighbor as yourself. This also means we get to be gracious when we are confronted with our wrong doing. We get to show respect, honor and love when we are shown to have fallen short.
The point is reconciliation. So even when it says treat someone who does not repent as tax collector and a Gentile, meaning don’t have anything to do with them, we need to hear the very next verse. Peter asks, “Lord, how often shall my brother (notice that same word again) sin against me, and I forgive him?”… Jesus said, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” We are to speak up when someone wrongs us, we are to forgive well past anything we think is fair, we are to join in communion of God when we come to table reconciled in love with each other and with God.
We will soon gather at this table. Jesus has promised us where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. Amen.
