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Pentecost 16 Pastor
Peg's Sermon on Matthew 18:15-20 |
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Pentecost 16 Pastor
Peg's Sermon on Matthew 18:15-20 |
This past week has been
about what happens when levies give way in cities below sea level.
The stories are heart breaking. Perhaps
you read of the woman in her mid-fifties who nestled herself in a pecan tree
amid the floods. She had admired
these trees from a distance, but now was dependent on their embracing arms.
For thirteen hours she clung on until a neighbor came by with an inner
tube. But what amazed her was the
miracle of her physical strength. She
never felt fatigue through those thirteen hours – and the miracle of kindness.
She had never known such kindness in all her days.
There are many ways for
us to show kindness. The bulletin
contains details of how to give through the Lutheran Disaster Response. 100%
of your contribution goes to the cause. There’s
also a letter from Presiding Bishop Hanson www.elca.org
We’ve also been asked
to reach out to the Lutheran congregations whose members are now homeless.
We will have opportunity to respond in various ways in the weeks ahead.
For now it is our task to
listen to the Gospel before us. The
Word of God is a Living Word, so it always relates to our lives if we listen
with our hearts. In today’s Gospel
Jesus advises the Christian community of what to do when another kind of flood
breaks in – the flood of community destroying sin.
And that is no exaggeration.
Late Lutheran theologian
and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in his book Life Together that whole Christian communities have been destroyed
when they developed out of a wish dream, for example, where demands for a human
ideal compromised the gifts God was offering.
Christian community is
not about finding or making an idyllic community out of us.
Community, even when it’s Christian, is never perfect and whenever we
lay expectations of perfection on communities we are at risk of destroying them.
Christian community is the amazing gift of life together with other Christians
bound together by the Word of God on our good days and our bad.
What Jesus is telling the church is that we are responsible for managing
the store, so to speak; for caring for the health of our life together.
Just because the church
is a Christian community does not make it immune to sin. Jesus
knew that. Matthew knew that.
Surely we know it too. Community
in Christ is precious and worth whatever safeguards it needs.
Given today’s Matthew
text, it seems timely to finally make good on those stories we said would be
forth coming about our vacation in
As per our vacation, it
took no more than a day for one of our sons to twist an ankle on our backpack
trip, not so badly we had to end the trip, but badly enough to require a day’s
rest. Then, as the other son was
pumping water through our backpacker’s water pump, the pump broke. But
being prepared, we pulled out the water purifying tablets.
When we bought these tablets they came two bottles to a package, so we
left one bottle at home as we weren’t going to be gone very many days.
But upon reading the fine print, we now found one purifies the water.
The other makes it taste better. We
had brought along the tablets that made it taste better. The purifying tablets
were still on the kitchen counter!
But, there was still one
more possibility! Boil the water! Reg had patiently fussed over the backpacking
stove before we left and it had worked fine, so we were surprised when it too
chose to add to the challenge. It
slowly worked, but so slowly that the boiling water method was not feasible.
So, with the pump broken, the pills at home and the stove limited, Plan D
emerged. Two hiked out the miles we
had hiked in to go buy another water pump and bring the car a little closer
around. The other two set up a camp.
But lest you think
otherwise, we still had a grand time! Some
of the best moments happened along side the worse.
The two who stayed behind located a superb camping spot along a secluded
lake with an island in the middle with deer, a nesting bird with babies we got
to watch it feed, pollywogs and frogs enough to delight any camper. And
the two who hiked out reveled in their success made more exciting by the close
call of arriving at the camping store just minutes before it closed!
A trip to remember!
Mishaps happen!
Life brings challenges laugh over and others to grieve through, but how
important it is to try to resolve problems that would inflict injury if left
unattended. It would have been
easier, more convenient to forego a water pump, but the consequences could have
been far reaching.
Jesus knew the community
he called into being was vulnerable. Christians
are not immune to brokenness. The
Bible does not assume an ideal world. Jesus
draws together real people, not perfect people.
Sin was never a surprise to Jesus and nor should it be to us.
What’s important is to know ahead of time what to do when sin’s waves
run rough shod upon our shores.
Jesus offers a three fold
process directed not to individual grievances that annoy us, but rather to
practices and choices that can harm a community as a whole.
There are things that destroy
communities. Antagonism, when
unchecked, has broken down more than a few communities.
Boundary violations are one of the most subtle destroyers of communities.
Wish dreams was the
problem Bonhoeffer railed against the most.
Wish dreams for perfection that keep us dissatisfied with the gifts God
is always giving. As Bonhoeffer
says, gifts that seem trivial to us may be grand and glorious to God, and until
we are thankful for the little things God cannot give us the big things.
In this three fold
process Matthew’s Gospel encourages first speaking directly to an individual
who is thought to be putting the community at risk.
If that isn’t fruitful, we are to bring a few others into caring
conversation, always for the purpose of growth.
Only when these efforts fail are tough decisions made to protect the
community. The picture in Matthew 18
is like the proposals to secure the levies ahead of time.
There is no comparing the cost of prevention with the ravages of grieving
and clean-up.
But Matthew 18 also
concerns having safeguards so false judgments aren’t made by a few who think
they know what the problems are. Great
harm has been done by rumors and gossip and by scapegoating others – placing
blame where blame should not be placed.
Bottom line, as
Bonhoeffer writes, in the church we have one another through Christ where the
sinning brother or sister remains a brother or sister, forever.
Sin does not break that eternal promise.
But sin can alter our ability to live and work together this side of
heaven.
The body of Christ is
worth wise attention to good structures and healthy patterns.
That’s why we ask you to pray for your Church Council.
They have been entrusted by all who voted them into their positions to
see that we care for the health of our community in all our practices and
relationships.
Jesus entrusted the
church – us – with the precious gifts of Word and Sacraments and if the
church becomes unhealthy the consequences are huge. The distribution of these
gifts becomes at risk. God gives
gifts through earthen vessels. That’s
why it’s so important to remember the church is not a social ideal where wish
dreams can be exacted, but is a precious gift that depends in part on our coming
as thankful recipients and humble servants.
Sin happens, as the
saying goes. But so does grace.
Sin does not rule in the long run. God
rules with forgiveness and resurrection and by modeling healthy love.
Thank you for all you are doing and have done over the years to care for
the health of Christ’s church. And
thanks be to God for the wisdom and guidance of Jesus.
May we rejoice in God’s promises and rise to the gift and
responsibility of being Christ’s body in the world.
May we care for this body as if it was our very own– for that indeed it
is!
Amen.
+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson,
to the glory of God
Faith