Loading...Have you ever lived in a small community? Maybe in a bunker or in a small ship? Or, at the South Pole in McMurdo station.... Anyone, anyone?
Probably not there! Or, even just a small town?
Several years ago, I lived in Holden Village
– an intentional Christian community – for a year.
Over the winter season, we had weekly “community meetings”. Sometimes we’d make decisions (although that was normally done by the directors and their advisory committee) – especially about non-critical things that impacted the whole Village. The meetings were also to share announcements and information. For example, in the year I lived there, the most dramatic topic of conversation was the warning about the cougar which had been prowling around the Village: don’t let your children out alone, and don’t bend over to fix your snow shoes or ski bindings because you’ll suddenly become a cougar-sized snack!
But, the previous year, the huge topic of debate and conflict was all about ...
orange juice. And, in other years, the community needed to deal with people who had acted badly and hurt one another.
No matter what the conversation was about, the driving question and motivation was: how do we relate to each other as part of this intentional Christian community, centered in faith, and living out the mercy, grace, and reconciliation of God in Christ?
That was NOT EASY!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When faced with conflicts and difficulties,
church communities often turn to these verses from Matthew 18;
these verses are held up as a model for solving the conflict.
But, putting Matthew 18 into practice is hard unless the community is already shaped by the theology behind it.
In other words, if you do what it says:
if you’re hurt by another, go to that person and confront them,
well, that can go haywire pretty quickly;
if that one-on-one doesn’t work, then bring in another?
Except that people start to feel ganged up on.
Then, we’re supposed to include the whole community?
Everything can go from bad to worse.
If all of this started because of a misunderstanding,
it is now so much worse.
If hurt truly has happened,
there are other mechanisms and processes for working through that hurt to reconciliation and health.
But, theologically speaking, Matthew 18 is brilliant. It is stellar.
Jesus may not have been giving a systematic approach to solving interpersonal problems that can be used in every situation,
but he was (and is) putting love and compassion at the center of it all.
This is not just the kindness and love that we might show for another person (especially the kind that’s forced, like when Mom makes you say “sorry” to your sibling; or, my favorite, when young siblings who had been fighting were made to stand face to face inside one of their dad’s extra large t-shirts and slow dance together!)
So, no, that’s not what Jesus is pointing us toward!
Jesus is reminding us that HE is in the midst of every. single. relationship.
“Whenever two or three are gathered..., I am there.”
This is not just a reminder that church can happen
even if most everyone is on vacation or at home sick!
This is a statement of the reality that God is with us and
part of every relationship –
grounding it,
loving everyone in it,
and reminding us to both remember the image of God
in the other and in the relationship,
AND to choose love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
St. Paul, in his letter to the Christian community in Rome, reminds them to choose love. We don’t know all the ins and outs of the Roman Christians and how they got along with one another. But we can guess by reading between the lines and by extrapolating from what we’ve experienced that there was strife and conflict. It wasn’t easy.
He writes in his letter to them:
“Love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments ... are summed up in this word ‘love your neighbor as yourself.”
If you love your neighbor – you serve, care about, consider the feelings of, work to help and protect, give the benefit of the doubt to – then you are fulfilling the commandments. Naturally. In what you are doing.
Even the prophet Ezekiel in our perplexing first reading is calling us to choose love!
God is reminding the prophet that
he (and the whole community) are both responsible for their own selves AND accountable to each other.
We are, if I may put words in Ezekiel’s mouth,
neither Lone Rangers,
nor can we fix other people.
We are interdependent and connected in and through faith.
~~~~~~~~~~~
This past week, I was about as pessimistic as I’ve ever been.
The pinkish-grey clouds of doom descended:
Hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, fires, fires! Climate change!
Racism, bigotry, hatred, a humanitarian crisis in Burma.
North Korea posturing, and no uniting leadership in Washington DC.
The apocalypse was upon us, I was convinced.
I predicted that within 20 years, the world would crash around our ears.
That is, if it didn’t happen earlier.
Lord, have mercy!
I wish I could say that I put on a halo,
took responsibility, served others, loved others,
spoke honestly and directly, and was generally all saintly-like;
and that doing all those things worked and
both turned my attitude around and solved all the world’s promise
(a little like Miss America).
But, nope. None of the above. No saintliness, no turn around, no solving.
I just did what I had to do (with a somewhat crabby attitude)
until the winds blew the smoke away and
I could breathe clearer air again and see blue sky.
Yet, despite the clear air over Spokane, there are still fires, the hurricanes were still gigantic and wreaking havoc; bigotry, genocide, hunger, and war are all still happening.
Heartache is still real.
Yet, despite my horrible attitude,
God was present in the midst of it all.
Despite the callousness and even hatred that rears its head in society and the world,
God is present, here and resisting.
Despite the natural disasters that have human-caused exponential damage factor,
God is present, here and weeping.
Despite all the darkness that covered the land and our hearts (and will again),
God is present, in the darkest and most “god-forsaken” places,
to be the light of hope and possibility and courage for you and for all.
~~~~~~~~~~
We can be accountable to one another and responsible to each other
as we speak the love, grace, and justice that the world
(and your neighbor and your family member)
needs to hear
and may even be dying to hear.
Love one another, and in so doing, you are bringing to bear the fullness of God’s love in the world for all people and all creation!
Amen
