Communicate

Pentecost 13A, 9/7/14
Matthew 18:15-20; Romans 13:8-14

Teach us, O Lord, the way of your statutes, give us your understanding, lead us in the path of your commandments, and in your righteousness give us life. Amen. 

Love is the fulfilling of the law.

Owe no one anything except to love one another.

You know that song, I love you just the way you are…

That’s a wonderful description of human love – of the kind of love that we are supposed to have for one another.

God’s love for us is different from that.

God loves us just as we were created to be.

That means that, when we stray from who we were created to be – when we make mistakes, or take wrong turns, or focus on the wrong priorities, God will come in and correct us.

“That’s not who I made you to be,” God says to us. “You’re better than that.”

You know what I’m talking about. We’ve got a lot of faithful people in the room today, and I know that many of you have felt the guidance of God as you make decisions in your lives… and some of you have probably felt the correction of God when you’ve made a mistake.

Jesus does this to people a lot.

“You’re making some pretty big mistakes,” Jesus says sometimes, “but I know you are better than this. So do better. Try to be the best you can possibly be, and then you’ll be getting close to the person who God created in God’s own image.”

Think of all the times when Jesus corrects his disciples, for example.

The disciples argue about who is the greatest, and Jesus rebukes them.

They fear death in the storm at sea – remember? the storm that Jesus sleeps through. They complain about expensive oil being wasted when the woman pours it on his feet. They fall asleep while Jesus is praying in the garden.

He chastises them each of these times and tries to show them a better way. O you of little faith! Why couldn’t you just believe in God’s love?

The disciples try over and over again throughout the Gospels to convince Jesus that the Messiah doesn’t actually need to suffer and die, like he says he will, and Jesus rebukes them every time.

Our very salvation is based on the fact that Jesus was able to rebuke – to correct – his closest friends and followers when they were wrong, and when they were trying to dissuade him from being the savior he came to earth to be.

Our church is also based on the fact that Jesus guides us and comes to correct us when we need correcting.

Out of love, Jesus shows his disciples a better way.

That’s what the Gospel reading is about today – a better way for us to live together as a church.

Let’s start at the end of the reading.

Jesus affirms that the church is the place where God is present.

Wherever two or three are gathered, Christ will be there.

If the Christian community agrees on anything, God will support that decision.

This is the real presence of Christ.

Different churches disagree pretty strongly about the real presence of Christ.

Real presence is a really church-nerd phrase, that usually refers to Communion. Is Christ really present in the bread and wine? Do the bread and wine actually become flesh and blood? What happens to Christ’s presence when the meal is concluded?

Denominations have been formed and have split over the different ways to answer these questions.

Today’s Gospel gives us a definitive answer regarding the real presence of Christ – not in Communion, but in our world.

God is truly present in the gathering of the Christian community.

That’s what the word “church” means in Greek, you know.

Ekklesia, which we translate “church” was a common word long before the church existed – it was a word meaning “assembly,” a gathering of people.

Our church    is a sacred gathering    in which God promises to be present.

And that is why Jesus starts off in “rebuking” mode today.

If someone in the sacred assembly sins against you – he could just as well say “when” someone sins against you, since that’s the nature of any community, right? People are bound to offend one another eventually – so, when you are hurt by someone else in this sacred assembly, go talk to them about it!

Don’t do what you’ve been doing, Jesus says.

Don’t go talk about this person behind their back. Don’t start spreading rumors. Don’t cut them off from all future communications based on one mistake. Don’t assume the worst of them.

Go talk to them about it. It’s entirely possible that your differences can be worked out very simply in just one face-to-face conversation.

Maybe they’ve been regretting their words or actions, and will be happy for the chance to apologize. Maybe you misunderstood what they said and you’ll realize the offense was just a misunderstanding. Maybe they had no idea that what they were doing could be interpreted in a negative way and will feel sorry once you tell them.

And if not? If you don’t get an apology, or some clarification, or something life-giving in your one-on-one conversation? Go see the person again, and bring someone else with you. A third party can help offer some perspective, and mediation if it’s needed.

Engaging just one more member of the sacred community can be a way of protecting the existence of the entire community, protecting the church from the fallout of your personal conflict.

When someone else sins against you – when you feel offended – when you think you’re being mistreated – these are the steps you’ve got to take first.

Because the ekklesia, the sacred community, is so important    that it’s not worth putting at risk through unhealthy means of conflict resolution – or the lack thereof.

That’s really what Jesus’ instructions today are all about, the importance of living together in community.

The community – this community! – is where God chooses to live.

Where two or three are gathered, God is present with them.

So when one of those two or three sins against another, it is critical that the situation be handled well, with maturity, with clear communication, and with grace, so that the place where God lives will remain safe.

What’s at stake if you don’t follow Jesus’ instructions?

Nothing less than the tearing apart of God’s house, shattering the image of God and creating a place in which God can no longer dwell.

Those are high stakes.

God is with the church community, and God honors the decisions made by the church community. Any time we do something to pull that community apart, we’re playing tug-of-war with God.

So don’t do it! Don’t engage in gossip, don’t hold grudges, and don’t be afraid to speak directly with another sister or brother in Christ.

Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Love each other… just the way they are.

You know, everyone loves the Jesus who welcomes the children and heals the lepers and feeds five thousand people miraculously.

But remember… that same Jesus also scolds his disciples, he corrects them when they make mistakes, and he tries to show them how to become the people they were made to be – how to grow closer to the image of the God in whom they were created.

As Jesus’ disciples, we have to accept both sides of the equation.

We don’t get the feeding of the 5000 without Jesus calling Peter “Satan.”

We don’t get the Resurrection without the rebuke at the Garden of Gethsemane.

Our church communities are sacred ground, which is precisely why conflict needs to be addressed and precisely why divisive sisters or brothers cannot be allowed to tear God’s people apart.

How we relate to one another in Christian community is of great concern to God.

 (Eric Barreto, WorkingPreacher.org, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2164)

Churches are places where God is present! That’s the good news from today’s Gospel reading! But that good news comes with great responsibility.

Because churches are places where God is present, we cannot allow disagreements and dissent, quarreling and jealousy, to tear God to pieces.

Instead, we must work hard to find the image of God in other people, to speak with them directly, to search for resolutions for our conflicts.

We know that conflicts will arise. That’s just what happens when people live together in community.

But our response to those conflicts must be based in love for one another.

Those of you who are married – when you have an argument, do you complain about your spouse to your father or your sister or your child? Of course not!

Or you might, but eventually you’d need to talk to your spouse directly.

Your marriage is never going to last unless you love the other person enough to address your conflicts directly, to admit when you’re wrong, and to work hard to make things right.

It is the same in the church. Our very existence as a community depends on our ability to resolve conflict.

If we agree to disagree with one another – then we have agreed on something, and God will bless that agreement!

Our goal as a sacred community must always be reconciliation – or if not reconciliation, at least compassion for one another.

That’s what today’s rebuke from Jesus reminds us.

If both parties seek reconciliation and compassion – if we agree to put our own self-interests aside for the sake of the community – if we honestly believe that we have the potential to reach the image of God in which we were created – if all those things are true, then we have agreed on something, even in the midst of conflict.

And God will bless that agreement.

Today’s Gospel lesson isn’t about how to expel people from the church community, though sometimes folks interpret it this way.

Removing someone from the church community is the last possible option, when all other options have been exhausted and they refuse to listen to the other members of the sacred community.

         No, today’s Gospel lesson is about inclusion and reconciliation.

It is about how to be good disciples. It’s about how to live well with one another. It’s about grace and forgiveness and love.

And that’s what the Christian community is all about, also.

Following Jesus means loving the God who came to earth as a baby, who welcomed the outcast and who gave sight to the blind – and following Jesus also means listening to his instructions even when they’re hard to hear.

So let us love one another. And prioritize the community. And seek to speak directly to one another when conflicts arise.

God help us become the image of God that we were created to be.

Amen.

Gifts

Pentecost 11A, 8/24/14
Romans 12:1-8

Jesus, Messiah, Son of the living God, guide us as you guided your disciples. Help us to grow in faith, and to grow closer to you and to one another. Amen.

There is an art to good camping.

If you’ve ever been camping in the wilderness – not car camping, where you just drive up to the site and pitch your tent, but real backwoods camping where you have to carry everything in that you’re going to need for your whole adventure, and you end up a day’s travel or more away from pavement and refrigeration and hospitals – if you’ve ever been wilderness camping, you know that there is an art to it.

A good camper can find dry wood in a forest, even the day after a rainstorm. She knows what to do when you run out of toilet paper. He can read the wind and know where to stash all the gear so that it stays where it’s supposed to all night long. A good camper knows whether the plants along the side of the trail are wild strawberries or poison ivy or something else.

When I led camping groups into the Boundary Waters, we had a system when we got to the campsite each night. There were jobs that needed to be done. There were usually nine people in a group, so we’d delegate out the jobs among the group.

Two people would set up the tents.

Two people would take a canoe out on the lake, and fill up all the pots with water for cooking.

One person would find somewhere to hang a rope so that we could hoist the food pack up on it at night to keep it away from the bears.

One person would secure the rest of the gear around the campsite – throw the paddles and lifejackets under the canoes and put the packs with clothes and whatnot over by the tents.

Two people would go gather firewood for the evening.

One person – usually me – would start preparing the food for dinner.

It was important that you picked the right person for each job.

If you sent out two people in the canoe, and neither of them knew how to steer, you’d eventually have to send out a rescue party to bring that boat back in.

If the wrong person was setting up the tents, you could end up trying to sleep on a hill, or in a puddle.

Depending on who you sent to get firewood, you might end up trying to cook dinner over a grass fire – I don’t recommend it! – or a camper might end up with a hatchet wound in his leg. Yeah, the camp changed its policy regarding who could use a hatchet on trail after that incident.

If you had anyone other than the guide as the primary chef, the group usually ended up going hungry for the night.

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.

Some of us have a knack for knowing about the plants and animals we might encounter in the wilderness.

Some can light a fire with one match, every time.

Some are better at cooking over an open fire than over a kitchen stove.

Some of us are really good at steering the canoe while others are really good at tipping it over.

For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

We used this passage from Romans a lot with groups from camp.

Every person in the group was important to the success of the camping trip.

But not everyone had the same role to play during the trip.

I remember one particular group of high school campers. There were two tall girls, who were both in track and field at school. They carried the canoes on every portage, and they were also good at helping with food prep. There were two boys, Eagle Scouts, who always set up the tents… and taught everyone else everything they had ever learned about camping. There was one younger, smaller boy who basically served as the comic relief all week, and kept everyone in a good mood.

Our small group of campers had to function together, like a single body. But each one of us had our own gifts to offer. And where some of us had weaknesses – like the time I freaked out because I had somehow ended up with a mama leech and 100 of her babies stuck to my leg – someone else’s strength was able to shine through, like when the comic relief boy yanked mama leech off my leg and made some funny comment about no one else going swimming in that part of the lake.

It is similar in the church.

God has given all Christians the gift of faith, which is what allows us to believe in Jesus and follow him to begin with.

But the ways in which we live out our faith vary widely from person to person.

Some of us are good at reading in front of a group of people. Some of us have gifts for keeping things organized. Some are good listeners and some are good writers. Some of us can look at a project and see every step that needs to be completed along the way. Some can look at a person and read their emotions and guess at what’s going on in their life.

Not everyone is good at all of those things.

But all of those things are necessary functions of the body of Christ.

We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

So when we need to recruit a new lector to read the lessons in worship, it’s not a matter of looking around the sanctuary and saying “who hasn’t done anything to contribute to our worship service lately?” It’s a matter of paying attention to how people communicate, and finding the articulate one in the group, and asking them whether they might consider serving the congregation in a new way.

It’s important that people understand the words of Scripture – those are the words of our faith.

But people will never understand the meaning of Scripture unless they can first understand what the actual words are.

So we need lectors who are lips and tongues and mouths.

We don’t want to have the big toe trying to scrawl something in the dirt for us to read – we need the mouth to proclaim the words of our faith.

The big toe is important! The entire body would be off-balance without the big toe! But the big toe simply wasn’t made to read things in public.

Is the analogy working for you? Do you understand what Paul was trying to say in the letter to the church in Rome?

Each one of us has something important to contribute to the life of the community.

But none of us should try to do something that God never created us to do. There are certain things that we just aren’t good at – and that’s why God keeps us in community with one another, so that we can cover each other’s weakness and learn from each other’s strengths.

The church isn’t a perfect representation of what humanity ought to be.

Many of us have experienced that first-hand.

The church is full of sinners. We were created in the image of God, but we have strayed from that image and      we’re not so impressive sometimes.

The only reason why the church ever has anything to offer each other and the world is that we sometimes, in our best moments, by the grace of God, we figure out how to work together and compliment one another’s shortcomings and work together as the body of Christ.

Each of us has been granted a spiritual gift or two – or three if we’re lucky – and when we recognize those gifts in one another, and when we help each other to thrive, then we are living out God’s purpose for our lives as the church.

Actually, I’d like to take some time in worship right now to reflect a bit on our spiritual gifts.

Like I said, things like finding a lector for worship, or a person to serve on Council, or a choir member or a Sunday School teacher, is not dependent on just whoever might happen to be available. It’s all about finding the person with that particular spiritual gift.

So I’m going to ask you all to do a little project with me.

I have a Spiritual Gift inventory here.

And I’ve got enough copies for one for everyone.

There are 60 questions. It’s not meant to be a high-stakes test, just a tool to help us figure out what kind of spiritual gifts we might have been given by God, that we can share with a community of other Christians.

So the ushers are going to pass out this inventory now. I’m going to ask you all to fill it out as faithfully as you think you can.

If you’re a member of this congregation, or if you worship here regularly, please put your name on the inventory.      I’ll have our new secretary figure out the results for you, and we’ll discuss them sometime later this fall.

See, this is one of the nice things about having a secretary on staff who isn’t a member and who can help with some of these confidential projects!

If you are not a congregation member, please still complete the inventory. You can figure out your own score on the website for the ELCA, our denomination, just by searching for spiritual gifts on their homepage. Or if you want a copy of the entire inventory, please see me after worship – I have a couple of copies printed out.

Now congregation members – if you complete this inventory, it doesn’t mean you’ll be recruited to be a Council member next year, or an assisting minister or a Sunday School teacher.

It means that we will try to help you find a way to use your spiritual gifts for the benefit of the entire body of Christ. So we can help you do those things that you find life-giving already – and we can help you avoid those things that are draining and that suck the life out of you.

Everyone has those things, you know.  

Just because you don’t like something, doesn’t make you a bad person.

In fact, it’s entirely possible that when you don’t like doing something – even in service of the church – it’s because God simply didn’t grant you that spiritual gift. You weren’t made to do that particular task.

But you were made to do something else. And I’m hoping that today, we can each get a better picture of what God has called us to do as individuals, and how to use those gifts to serve the community.

So take a few minutes, fill out this inventory, and place it in the offering plate when you’re done. The organist will play a little music, and then we’ll move into the hymn of the day. We’ll stay seated for that one today, in case anyone is still finishing up their inventory.

And we’ll spend some time later, this fall, figuring out who is a mouth and who is and ear, and who is a big toe. And we will find a place for each person to serve, sharing the gifts that God has given to them.

Amen.

Boundaries

Pentecost 10A, 8/17/14

Isaiah 56:1-8; Matthew 15:21-28

Lord, bring your salvation and reveal your covenant. Gather us to you on your holy mountain. Amen.

I’ve seen a lot of articles in the past several days about insiders and outsiders – about who counts and who doesn’t. The news has been full of tragedies, and just about every story describes people who have some kind of power controlling other people who don’t.

White people verses black people.

Police officers versus civilians.

Rich people verses poor people.

Mainstream media outlets and the way they tell a story versus social media and grassroots attempts to tell a different story.

On Thursday night, as a way to escape from all the craziness in the world, my mom and I got together to watch a Lauren Bacall movie.

We searched on Netflix and the only film of hers that was available for instant streaming was How to Marry A Millionaire.

In case you haven’t seen this one, here’s a quick plot summary. Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe, and Betty Grable are all models, and they move in together to a fancy apartment in New York. Their goal is for each of them to find and marry a millionaire, so that they can live the lifestyle they’ve always wanted and that they think they deserve.

Bacall’s character has some pretty strict guidelines on who the girls can bring in to the apartment – on what kind of men are worth their time.

To start with, no one is allowed who doesn’t wear a necktie.

Also, Bacall apparently has a thing for bad boys – for gas pump jockeys, she says – so she tries her hardest to keep away from anyone who reminds her of the guys she’s fallen for in the past.

You can imagine where the story goes from there.

But the point is, there are strict rules about who is in and who is out.

This is a story of exclusion and inclusion.

So are all the news stories we’ve been hearing lately.

So are today’s Bible stories.

The readings we heard from Scripture today tell us how God responds to people who lie on the edges of society – those bad boys that Lauren Bacall warned her cohorts against.

God welcomes outcasts.

In the first reading, from Isaiah, God is talking to Israel about foreigners, about people who are living on the margins of Hebrew society. God promises to welcome the   outsider      in.

 “These I will bring to my holy mountain,” God says, “and make them joyful in my house of prayer; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. … the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, …will gather others to them besides those already gathered.” (56:7-8)

God has a plan to make outcasts included – to fix the things that separate them from the general population and give them standing in society.

This is a radical, miraculous, rule-breaking plan.

You may have noticed that a few verses are left out of the first reading today. We heard Isaiah 56, verse one, and verses six through eight.

This passage gives us a great overview of God’s plan to welcome all people, including outcasts and foreigners.

In the missing verses, we get a specific example of God’s overwhelming attitude of welcoming.

Listen to what those verses say: …do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. (56:3b-5)

OK, as you probably know already, eunuchs were men who had been castrated so that they could serve as trusted slaves for wealthy families. Eunuchs would pose absolutely no threat to the women in the household, or the lineage of inheritance in a family.

These eunuchs are the epitome of outcast people in Isaiah’s time. They were not allowed to enter the assembly of the Lord, according to a law in Deuteronomy – they were outcast from the faith community. And they were had no standing in society, because not only could they have no families of their own, but their family line would die with them, ensuring that their memory would be forgotten.

In verse 5 God promises the eunuchs an everlasting name – but one’s family name can only continue if someone has children. Impossible! In a radical, game-changing move, God grants the promise of children to the slaves who have been castrated!

We don’t get details – maybe the eunuchs will miraculously be granted children, or maybe God has another way to give them an everlasting name.

But the point is, God promises to fix the very things that separate outsiders from society. God will make the distinctions that we draw between each other completely irrelevant.

This reading seems to be saying, expect the unexpected!

God welcomes outcasts, in ways we could never imagine.

So it seems from this Isaiah reading that we’ve got an answer to the question, What Would Jesus Do? Of course, Jesus would welcome the outcast.

Right?

Well, maybe it’s a little more complicated than that. Let’s look at what happens in the Gospel lesson.

A Caananite woman approaches Jesus in today’s story. She would have been outcast in Jewish society in at least two ways – first, she was a woman, a female in a male-dominated society where men made all the rules. Women didn’t count as full citizens in that society.

Second, this woman was Caananite, not a Jew, not a member of the tribes of Israel but an enemy. She may have been considered a foreigner in the land promised to the Hebrew people.

And yet this woman comes to Jesus for help, asking him to heal her daughter.

The first thing Jesus says to the woman is, “you’re not my problem.” Helping the woman doesn’t fall into his job description, he says – it’s not part of his mission statement.

You’re not in my family, not from my community, you don’t belong to my church, you support the wrong policies… pick your insult.

Jesus calls the woman a female dog. That is not a flattering name, even in today’s society. Think about it. She’s not his problem and he tries to get rid of her with name-calling.

But the woman is persistent. She brushes off his name-calling. In fact, she embraces it. OK, I’m a dog, she says. And you treat dogs with a certain level of care and respect. Can’t you do the same for me?

Jesus is impressed with the woman’s faith. He responded at first like any human would do, but then the woman asked for more.

She reminded Jesus that God treats outcasts differently than humans do. She helped him remember and demonstrate that his mission as son of God is more than a human mission, his mission is to live up to the actions of God.

Jesus is fully human, and he shows it today by designating the boundaries of insider and outsider. But Jesus is also fully divine, thank God, and the Caananite woman reminds him of this.

First Jesus tries to pass the woman off as an outcast, but she won’t just be brushed aside. She won’t go away until she’s been recognized and had her needs met.

Outcasts can be like that in our society, too. We can’t just ignore them and hope they’ll go away. They have needs that must be met, and our calling to help them is divinely inspired.

So Jesus accommodates the Canaanite woman. He gives her what she asks for. He welcomes her as an outcast – cares for the person on the margins of society.

The disciples don’t understand it. As one author writes, “For the disciples, one should conduct one’s ministry by acting in a way that would avoid anything that could displease people; one should avoid disquieting confrontations. But, for Jesus, this is precisely not the way of conducting one’s ministry.”

Daniel Patte (The Gospel According to Matthew: A Structural Commentary on Matthew’s Faith)

Jesus’ ministry, when he’s doing it the best he possibly can, is to embrace all the people of the world as if they are God’s chosen people – just like we heard God promise to do in Isaiah.

There’s enough grace for all people, not just the “insiders.”

Do you remember the miracle of the feeding of the 5000? At that meal, feeding 5000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, there were 12 baskets of crumbs left over once everyone had been fed.

There is enough food to feed thousands, with baskets leftover… enough crumbs fall from the children’s table to feed the dogs as well… there is no limit to God’s grace.

Perhaps healing the Canaanite woman’s daughter was outside of Jesus’ calling, but doing so didn’t take anything away from the people Jesus was sent to.

Today’s Bible passages warn against an “us versus them” mentality.

It may show up all over the news, but it’s certainly not what God intends for our relationships with one another. Today’s lessons show us that grace extends to the outsiders in society.

People who are different than us can be included in our communities.

Welcoming others crosses all divisions and boundaries.

God will find a home for all people, so they have somewhere they belong.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.