Our collect tells us we are to trust God with all our hearts – when we are proud and confide in our own strength, we are not trusting in God – but if we boast of his mercy and trust in him – he will never forsake us.
Our lesson from Romans tells us to love one another and in that way, we fulfill the law. Paul sums up the commandments quoting Jesus, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And he says, “Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Then he tells us to “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
And Matthew tells us if another sins against you… I think we have to be very careful when we accuse someone of sinning against us. So often there is no clear cut right or wrong. Greed, misunderstandings, accidents, different world views have all led to disputes of various kinds. That’s the reason we have courts and judges and juries to decide on cases. That’s the reason that in this country a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, in recent times, people start drawing lines in the sand and refuse to even listen to a viewpoint other than theirs.
It appears that Matthew is presupposing that the second party is guilty – and I say Matthew rather than Jesus because the words that he puts in Jesus’ mouth talk about the “church” – not the synagogue or the temple – which are the things that Jesus would have talked about. This is written after the establishment of the Christian church in those areas around the Mediterranean Sea where the disciples had gone to spread the good news of Jesus.
And I find it really interesting because he goes through this progression – which is really a good progression – you go first and talk one on one to try to resolve your problems. If you don’t get satisfaction, then you take two or three witnesses with you. In Jewish legal procedure, everything had to be established by at least two witnesses.
Robert Heinlein wrote a book called “Stranger in a Strange Land,” And in that book, there was a character called “a fair witness.’ Once a fair witness put on their official robe, he or she could not tell a lie, could make no assumptions, and went only on the facts that could be verified.
Their “testimony” was legally binding – something like a notary on steroids. At one point in the story, a fair witness was asked the color of a house on a nearby hillside. The fair witness replied, “The side facing us appears to be white.” They were asked, “so the house is white?” The fair witness replied, “The other sides may be a different color. I can only speak for the side I see.”
We hope that witnesses would always tell the truth, but that is not always the case. There is an apocryphal story of Daniel called “Susanna.” It is the 13th chapter of the Greek version of the book of Daniel. In this story, two elders bore witness accusing Susanna of impropriety. They were lying, but thought that they could get away with it since they constituted a “legal” two witnesses and Susanna’s witness (being female) didn’t count. But Daniel believed Susanna and caught the elders out in their lie and saved her life.
The truth of the matter is that different people see things differently. It’s dangerous to draw lines in the sand in personal disputes, because like the witness in Heinlein’s story, you may have only seen one side of the house – and unlike the witness, you may be drawing conclusions from one view. In other words, what I see (or hear) may seem to be one thing, but what you intended might be something entirely different. We see our own faults most clearly when we see them in someone else.
When we live in close proximity to other people, we are bound to rub up against them and irritate one another from time to time. Even when we are together even for a short time, things can happen that cause discord. Even at times, an innocent comment can hurt and cause division:
(insert story about Rob at Camp Allen)
Bishop N. T. Wright writes: Forgiveness doesn’t mean saying ‘it didn’t really happen’ or ‘it didn’t really matter’. In either of those cases, you don’t need forgiveness, you just need to clear up a misunderstanding. Forgiveness is when it did happen, and it did matter, and you’re going to deal with it and end up loving and accepting one another again anyway.
The new thing that seems to be very prominent in today’s society is condemning people without ‘trial’ and believe me, it is rampant today. “Look what he did! Did you see that?” Sometimes its true and sometimes it’s not. What we often don’t understand is what is behind the action. What are the circumstances in that person’s life that has brought them to this place? When we see people behave in certain ways, we are quick to condemn. I offer up the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and her interaction with Jesus. He offered salvation to her - without condemnation. He stated the facts about her life – you have had 5 husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.
Since women were not allowed to have property, and they couldn’t inherit, they were sometimes desperate for survival. They would do whatever it took to stay alive. Most of us don’t know what it is to be that desperate – for shelter, for food – to believe that someone cares. Jesus did not condemn this woman for her ‘sin.’ He didn’t even call it ‘a sin.’ Like the fair witness, he simply stated the facts – without commentary. We need to leave off the commentary when we talk to people, because it most often is conjecture and that is where the real harm comes from in our interactions with other: the conjecture, the commentary by which we judge people.
Our lesson from Romans says to lay aside the works of darkness – those works that condemn others – and to put on the armor of light. It tells us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ and that means to do as Jesus himself would do. The flesh in us wants to be hurt by others – the flesh in us wants to compare ourselves to them and come out on top. It wants to condemn those who are not like us, who want to do things in a different way.
So how did Jesus treat the tax collector and the Gentile? With dignity and with love. He greeted them as friends, and his friendship was so powerful that their lives were transformed. Jesus calls us to do the same – to everyone - to be a transforming agent. He calls us to greet them as friends, and to allow the power of that friendship to transform them and to transform us, over time, into new creations of his love. Don’t expect instant results.
Yesterday I gave a talk at Camp Allen mostly concerning angels and I said that the demonic influences seem to be winning through out the world today. When we look at the divisions such as political situation, terrorism, genocide, wars and the rampant hatred that has plagued the world in recent history, it is hard to see how our world will survive. It is sad to see how far down our world had come. And then there is Harvey, the fires burning in Oregon and Montana, the earthquake in Mexico, Irma bearing down on Florida - and people wanting to comment - these are punishments from God. No! Those are not punishments. I believe these are tools that God is using to allow the good in people to shine through and teach us to pull together and unite for a common cause.
Our gospel ends with Jesus saying, “For whenever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Whatever you bind or loose on earth will be bound or loosed in heaven. What you reap here on earth, what you transform for the glory of God, will be credited to you in heaven. When you gather with the tax collector or the Gentile, in the name of Jesus, without condemnation and allow that friendship to grow so that the love of Jesus shines through it, then and only then will you have put on Jesus Christ and the armor of light.
Amen
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