sermon notesA collection of resources, background information, and periodic reflections on the scripture readings in worship from Pr Josh Ehrler. Archives
July 2018
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Our reflection for this week is on Matthew 18.15-20
Our reading for today has long been used as a model for congregations to live out their polity, especially in the midst of conflict. Matthew 18 is regularly brought to the pulpit and to council meetings when there is a disagreement between disciples of the church and lifted high as our definitive way to find resolution. This model sometimes gets extended out and watered down in our communities at large. Clearly, since it comes from Jesus, its not a bad method. At least, not when we are considering the nature of sin in our relationships. Sin is separation, it is an active movement away from another person that forms a rift between the two people, creating two isolated individuals. Sin is turning from God, carving the chasm between us. God mourns our loss and strives to regain our relationship. Not that God gets lonely up there or out there or over there (wherever God dwells), but that we are formed in God’s likeness and we are designed to be in community. Sin destroys community. That is the weight of the argument and the heart of the matter that Jesus is getting us disciples to in this reading. He is not referring to Chevy and Ford fans disagreeing over performance numbers, Jesus is pointing to the sin that slips in between us. Every single one of us. The sin that permeates our worship and pushes us away from each other and away from Christ’s table. The sin that drives our budgets to care more about buildings and stuff than any human who might want to use them. And beyond our churchy realms, we're talking about the sin that build border walls and declares immigrants and the children of immigrants disposable and deportable because they’re not from around here. Our human sin convinces us that some of God’s people with more tone in their skin are inherently different and must be treated as such. That brothers and sisters must be judged by the ones they love. That neighbors can be marked by type by their ability to find work and pay their health costs. We know all the ways we sin. We know all the paths we trod to get ourselves out of relationship with our community. We know all the words we use and our people use to push each other as far from our lives as we can. We know sin. Jesus knows sin. He’s about to confront the heart of our sin on the cross. However, he’s not there yet in Matthew. Its only chapter 18, after all, we’ve got a little time. Before Good Friday casts the pall of death upon our lives, Jesus wants us to remember the cost of our sin. It destroys lives. It executes innocent people. It rips families and churches and neighborhoods and nations apart. No wonder Jesus is clear in his caution when he says, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (18.18) Our sin has long ranging consequences the end of which we cannot and may never realize. Because Jesus is talking about the depth of sin in our lives, his model of reconciliation is all the more intolerable for it requires us individuals to talk to each other. Meaningful, active listening conversations in which both parties can speak their peace and keep their mouths shut to hear the other perspective. This is about sin and shame and conflict and damage that has been inflicted. It will be painful and challenging and as Jesus notes, necessary. Communication and mutual respect is the path toward community. And as much as we want to walk this world alone, we are made by God to live in community. The fact that we are engaged by God and believe in Christ is rooted in a communal experience. Warren Carter in Fortress Commentary on the Bible:The New Testament, reminds us that accountability for each of us comes through our relationships. As much as we need to hold our own understandings of God and question unmerited group consensus, we still are part of a greater whole and we inherently share values. We don’t get to walk alone and we can’t, because even in the valley of isolation, our thoughts have been shaped by others (p.157). Jesus is bringing us back together to see our need for each other. He is pointing out the fruitless damage we have inflicted on African American, Muslim, and immigrant people (God’s people) because of fears and stereotypes that are baseless. We are being called on by Christ to reconcile ourselves with our people whom we have harmed, begging for forgiveness. Because as much as we want to be the accuser in this text, sin knows no boundaries and it gets all over us. Often, more often than we’d care to confess before God, we are the one inflicting the sin upon another. Ultimately, as we know because we are faithful followers of Christ, we’re not going to willingly reconcile ourselves to anyone. We humans are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We don’t need anyone. Yet Jesus needs us to be in relationship with him, that we can be in relationship with God’s people. Thus, Jesus comes to us as the accuser and when we do not relent, he brings the rest of the Trinity. When we still refuse to give up our posture, he brings us before the entire Law of faith. And when we still do not stop in our sin, he lifts the cross and becomes an outsider, bearing our sins in order for us to be placed back in communion with him. Our reading for today is not so much about church polity as it is our human experience. We do everything we can to break each other and Jesus breaks himself to heal us. We pout and protest and use our worst words and Jesus speaks the Word over us to make us new. As often as we wander off, he draws us into community and drags us kicking and screaming to his communion table, where our lives are reconciled to him. And to each other over a body broken and poured out for us. We know the cost of our sin. Jesus reveals the cost of his love for Creation. He makes us right with him, that we can follow his wisdom and make ourselves right with God’s beloved. We’re not meant to walk alone. We are created to care for each other.
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