Psalm 119: 33-40 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Matthew 18: 15-20 (Common English Bible)
It has been said that Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship. And that is true. Christ did not come to earth to start a new religion, but to create a better relationship for all humankind. It was described as the “Way” because at the heart of our faith is the belief that God, who created us and everything else, wants to have a real, life-giving relationship with us.
The heart of faith is not a set of teachings of what God is, but instead a relationship with God. A relationship that is made possible by the gift of God’s grace when the Christ took human form as Jesus of Nazareth. It was the greatest gift ever sent.
Think about the 10 Commandments. It’s all about our relationship with God and people. Jesus abridged the Commandments by only two rules, “Love Yahweh your God and love your neighbor as yourself.” Following that, you’re still obeying the 10 Commandments if you really think about it. It’s all about our relationship with one another. If our relationship with God is not healthy, all relationships will suffer.
But God had a plan to bring humankind closer to God. During the evolutionary cycle millions of years ago, our primeval ancestors only existed through what anthropologists call the “reptilian brain” which consisted of only three survival modes, eating, procreation and aggression. Unfortunately, it seems we have too many politicians today in Congress and elsewhere whose minds are still on overdrive with reptilian brain thinking.
So what did God do during God’s evolutionary plan for humans? First God sent the Holy Spirit to enlightened people. And some of these people are not mentioned in the Bible. One was actually a Pharaoh named Akhenaton, whose very short reign was from 1353-1336 BC. Whether this was before or after the time of Moses is hard to figure because some Bible scholars date the Exodus as early as 1400 BC or as late as 1200 BC. Pharaoh Akhenaton worshiped only one God he called Aten, advocated peace and was a pacifist who opposed war. Of course this did not make him popular. Egypt’s military leaders hated him and priests wanted their canopy of multiple gods back. Akhenaton died under mysterious circumstances, probably poisoned and all records of him were stricken and destroyed from Egyptian history.
Later God sent the Spirit to the prophets mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. But God’s ultimate gift to humankind was sending a part of himself in human flesh for the most personal kind of relationship. God was saying if you really want to know what I’m like, talk and listen to Jesus.
But faith depends on our response to that gift called Jesus. We receive this gift in faith, trusting God’s promises to us. God in return expects us to be truly human like Jesus. That is why Jesus is called the Human One or Son of Man. That is the holistic human we’re supposed to be, very much evolved from the small selfish and aggressive reptilian brain.
A good example of being truly human like Jesus, is within a faith community that cares for one another and shares their gifts and blessings to the world. But unfortunately too many churches around the world are doing the opposite. They are arguing and disagreeing on what to believe. The Methodist Church is splitting apart over an issue that Jesus never even talked about. That’s crazy.
I’ve been a member of both conservative and liberal churches, and it seems conservative churches are more intolerant of what you believe than liberal churches. And liberal churches seem to be more welcoming. And that means a lot to first-time visitors.
But this exclusion and arguing is just not confined to churches. It’s happening in schools, workplaces and certainly families. Just a few days ago I received a phone call from a cousin living in Florida who I haven’t talked to in 10 years. She told me her son, her only child, has cut off his relationship with her. That’s very sad and hard to deal with. Reconciliation is needed.
One of the conservative churches I used to be a member of, one member took another member to court, instead of following what Jesus said in Matthew 18, verse 17. That action struck me as strange considering they called themselves the Church of Christ. But I rarely heard any preachings from the gospels, except around Easter and maybe Christmas. Perhaps that was their problem. They should’ve called themselves the Church of Paul, because that was all I ever heard preached there. After about five years, I was outta there. I had enough of their malarky.
According to Matthew’s gospel, if a church member has wronged you, the first step is to go and talk to that person, as it says in Matthew 18:15. If that doesn’t succeed, it’s time to ask for help. Keep looking for ways to bring about reconciliation and healing.
Now there are times when a church member is so stubborn and unrepentant that the entire faith community needs to be involved. Jesus said, if a member refuses to listen even to the entire church, treat that person as a Gentile or tax collector.
Now, this does not mean shunning the person as some denominations like the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses do. After all, Jesus did have positive encounters with Gentiles he met. And of course, Matthew, the writer of this gospel, had been a tax collector. We should still care for the offender and hopefully the offender returns to the faith community, after the wrong is made right.
Jesus promises to be with us wherever we try to be reconciled with our sisters and brothers in Christ. When we gather in Christ’s name, when we pray in Christ’s name, Christ promises to be with us. And why is that? Because Christ wants all our relationships to be healthy and whole. I view this reading from Matthew chapter 18 as a micro version of the gospel, but within human situations.
Psalm 119 was written to address the righteousness of God’s Law. The same righteousness that can be shared with other people. Although the Psalms were written several centuries before the time of Jesus, this Psalm is relevant in relationships with God and each other.
One person who really lived the Christ theology of reconciliation and forgiveness was a woman named Corrie ten Boom. She was a Christian living in Holland when Hitler’s Nazi army invaded that nation, also called the Netherlands, in 1940. Corrie assisted the Jewish people there by trying to help them from being sent to the concentration camps. For that act of mercy, the Nazis arrested Corrie and sent her to the Ravensbruck concentration camp. More than 95,000 Jewish women were murdered there.
After the war Corrie was speaking in a church in Munich, Germany, and after the service, she saw one of the cruelest guards of the Ravensbruck concentration camp coming toward her to speak to her. He had his hand outreached and told Corrie he had become a Christian. He also told Corrie, “I know God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did, but can you forgive me?”
Corrie hesitated. The Spirit of God urged her to forgive, but the spirit of bitterness urged her to turn away. “Jesus help me,” she prayed. Then she did what she must do. “I can lift my hand.” “I can do that much.”
As their hands met it was as if warmth and healing broke forth with tears and joys. Later Corrie wrote, “it was the power of the Holy Spirit who had powered the love of God into that day.” What Corrie did would be almost impossible for any person to do, especially with the background of this true story. But with Christ, anything is possible. Read the book “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom.
The Holy Spirit lives in each and everyone of us. And it’s up to each person on how they respond to it. But Jesus promises to be with us in a unique and special way, when we gather in his name for worship and mutual encouragement. He is in our midst when we gather together to right wrongs. Forgiveness and social justice should be the goal of every church. If they do, good people will notice something unique about the church and might even feel Christ is actively doing what was once considered impossible, very possible.
AMEN
