Reconciliation: Christ Centered Love Lived
As a Church and as a Society and a Nation, there may be only
one thing we all agree on: that we all disagree about almost everything these
days. So, we self-identify as Red or Blue people; young or old people;
conservative or liberal people; the listing goes on and on and is exhausting
for us all. We seem to be in a true test of what President Abraham Lincoln
meant when quoted the gospel saying a house divided, a nation divided, a church
divided, cannot stand. Today we hear about a process of reconciliation as
Matthew’s Jesus lays it out, and it sounds so simple.
Yet, when one lives a life spending time in one parish
church and diocese after another, one might conclude that this sensible bit of
advice on the need for reconciliation in Christ Centered Communities in Matthew
18:15-20 has never been read before. Or, if read, not heard. We are surprised
to be reminded that it is front and center once every three years in our
rotation of lectionary readings for Sundays. And amidst the detailed
instructions on how to approach reconciliation, it’s easy to miss two things. 1)
the risk of failure is written into the script – failure resulting in someone
being kicked to the curb; a kind of giving up altogether that ought to strike
us as being at odds with the Good News of God in Christ have tasked ourselves
to exemplify in all that we say and all that we do. This giving up on
reconciliation often is the result of thinking that gospel and gossip are
somehow related – for more failures at reconciliation are the result of gossip
in the community of Christ than any other possible cause.
The second thing we tend to overlook is the recognition that
wherever two or three are gathered in Christ’s name, Christ promises to be
there with us. Reconciliation is a we-thing. We might notice that step one,
which might be paraphrased, “If you have a problem with someone, speak directly
to that someone, not someone else,” results in there being two people, which
Christ says constitutes enough of a quorum, or minyan, for him to be present.
Which is true if, and it is a mighty if, if the two gather “in the name of
Christ,” not in the name of some cause, opinion, or self-centered sense of
self-righteousness. Then in step two, go to speak with that someone with one or
two other “witnesses,” it now constitutes more than a new quorum or minyan of three
or four people having the conversation – three or four people seeking some
sense of reconciliation.
Step three suffers from translation issues – it seems it’s
always a translation issue. Steps one and two failing, our NRSV translation
insists we take it to “the church.” The word in the text of Matthw is ekklesia,
which means “a summoned group,” originally in Ancient Greece, an assembly of
summoned citizens in the agora, that is a public meeting in an open
space. Quite possibly in a market place. Imagine! Hauling someone who has somehow
offended you into the local Shop Rite or Safeway to sort things out! Over time ekklesia
has come to mean “church,” and indeed our Book of Common Prayer does allow,
concerning someone who may be a “notorious sinner,” to be ex-communicated. That
is, no longer able to receive Holy Communion, or even harsher, not even attend
church any longer. This practice, however, is immediately tied, by Matthew’s
Jesus, to an ancient practice of “binding and loosing.”
This is where we make the most consequential
misunderstanding of what is being said. Binding does mean to restrict or remove
someone or something from the main body of an assembly. But binding as a
practice does not exist, nor have meaning, unless accompanied by “loosing,”
which is to restore that someone to the life of the summoned assembly. My
understanding is that binding is not to be imagined as a permanent state of
removal or isolation, but rather more like a time-out period in which to return
to steps one and two so that the ekklesia can be fully restored.
All of which, we must remember, must be practiced in the
“name of Christ,” and with the understanding that Christ is present to all such
attempts to reconcile differences notorious enough to be considered sinful,
that is missing the mark of what it means to live a Christ-like love with one
another. Reconciliation can be construed as Christ-Like Love Lived.
Let this percolate for a moment. And then try to remember a
time when differences in the ekklesia have been successfully reconciled
either by steps one and two, or, a successful return of someone has been bound
from being a part of the assembly – all done both in the name of Christ, and
everyone behaving as if Christ is right there as reconciliation is being
sought? It’s not easy
Experience suggests that most often the person who feels
wronged, person number one as Matthew’s outlines the process, leaves in a great
huff, and making sure everyone knows they are leaving. Or, they simply
disappear. And it is easy to understand why. The church historically does not
do a great job of teaching this process of reconciliation. And in places where
it does, people are often not willing to attempt to resolve things either in
the name of Christ, and even less likely honoring the fact that Christ promises
to be here with us even when there are only two or three of us, let alone the
entire summoned assembly! It is an inherently risky business, this
reconciliation thing. And yet our Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer lists
it as a primary ministry of us all: “and according to the gifts given to them
[us], to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world…” (BCP 855) Not
only between two people. Not only within the Church itself. But in the World! A
world which we all agree is in serious need of reconciliation.
To make any of this work, I find I need to remind myself of
several things. All people are created in the image of God. We are all living
icons of the living God. We are all to seek and serve Christ in all persons. Not
some people, not a lot of people, but all people. For the good of the world,
the church, and ourselves, we need to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation
in the world. Or, else. Or, else we all end up bound. If we don’t forgive one
another, we carry the burden of division. All of us. Every single one of us. Forever
and ever.
The highlight of my week in three parishes I have served was
to lead pre-school chapel for three and four-year-olds. We sang a lot. We sang
all the time. As I pondered all of this, a song I learned for chapel at Church
of the Good Shepherd, Ruxton came to mind it’s a kind of anthem of
reconciliation proclaiming that by all that we do and say we can show that not
only does God love us we love God too.:
God loves me, and I love God too
God loves you, and I love you too
God loves us, so everything we do
Will show God that we love God too
This is what it means to Live Christ-Like Love. People can
see that we are Christ’s. This is not only who we are, but whose we are.
Everything we do and say must show others not only does God love us, but that
we love God too! Reconciliation: Christ-Centered Love Lived!
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