We are in this thing together

Matthew 18:15-20 We are in this thing together 13th Sunday after Pentecost Year A Disharmony in Worship There was a church where the pastor and the minister of music were not getting along. As time went by, this began to spill over into the worship service. The first week the pastor preached on commitment and how we all should dedicate ourselves to the service of God. The music director led the song, "I Shall Not Be Moved." The second week the pastor preached on tithing and how we all should gladly give to the work of the Lord. The director led the song, "Jesus Paid it All." The third week the pastor preached on gossiping and how we should all watch our tongues. The music director led the song, "I Love to Tell the Story." With all this going on, the pastor became very disgusted over the situation and the following Sunday told the congregation that he was considering resigning. The musician led the song, "Oh Why Not Tonight?" As it came to pass, the pastor did indeed resign. The next week he informed the church that it was Jesus who led him there and it was Jesus who was taking him away. The music leader led the song, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Of course I can be grateful that I have a wonderful relationship with both of our music directors. And they always try to match the songs with the message of the sermon. But I think that every now and then, that it is important for us to think about who we are in life. To take account of who we are as a community. And to check our thoughts and actions up against the bible. A church is a community of people. What makes us different from others, is that we order ourselves, not according to what people think. But what Jesus thinks. Yes we have the book of discipline, that tells us what it means to be a united Methodist church. But we don’t gather every Sunday to read and review what the book of discipline says, we gather to see what the bible says. Today I want us to look at the gospel of matthew, and what Jesus says about what it means to be the church. Some people question chapter 18, because they wonder, how can Jesus talk about the church, when the church was not fully formed. And we have to remember that the church was formed according to Jesus word, not the other way around. We are the church because Jesus calls us the church. In his words he gave us special powers as the church to do the work of God on earth. And that special power is the power to forgive and to reconcile. Every community has things some type of conflict going on. We would not be a community if we didn’t. I am sure that there are some rumblings going on now, as quiet as it is kept. But the problem is that those rumblings can be a result of unresolved issues. And those unresolved issues start to fester into wounds. And what do we tend to do when we are wounded. We blame, we point fingers. Instead of dealing with people, we avoid them. Nothing get done, because we have decided that we don’t want to work with that person. I guess I have been on roll in using C.S. Lewis as an example. He was an interesting person. He didn’t not become a committed Christian until his wife died. And in dealing with that grief, he also struggled with God, and what it means to live a godly life. He came out with a good inner understanding of what it meant to be human and Christian at the same time. Are You Willing to Live in Hell? In his book The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis, the great Christian apologist, draws a stark picture of hell. Hell is like a great, vast city, Lewis says, a city inhabited only at its outer edges, with rows and rows of empty houses in the middle. These houses in the middle are empty because everyone who once lived there has quarreled with the neighbors and moved. Then, they quarreled with the new neighbors and moved again, leaving the streets and the houses of their old neighborhoods empty and barren. That, Lewis says, is how hell has gotten so large. It is empty at its center and inhabited only at the outer edges, because everyone chose distance instead of honest confrontation when it came to dealing with their relationships. “Look, she’s the one who said that about me. Let her come and apologize!” “We may go to the same church, but that doesn’t mean I’ve got to share a pew with that so-and-so!” “It’ll be a cold day in July before I accept his apology.” That’s all well and good, I suppose... if you don’t mind living in hell. Are we really so willing to give up our relationships with others – relationships that have come about and been forged by our desire to follow Jesus? Nowhere, and I do mean nowhere, in the New Testament gospels will you find Jesus saying that the first order of things is always to be right. But he does have a great deal to say about forgiveness, about relationship, about reconciliation, about service and humility and vulnerability. He makes it sounds like family, doesn’t he? Randy L. Hyde, Two or Three That is the problem with this model of reconciliation in the church. Jesus says that if we have a problem with someone, that first we should go directly to them, not to our friends and supporters, but to them and to correct the issue. If that does not work, then bring two or three other church members with us and discuss the issue. If that does not work, then band them from the community. We never get to the third step, because people would rather walk away, then experience forgiveness. They would rather stand in the periphery than reconcile. We lose our power as a special community, because we lose our people. The blessing of God are in our ability to forgive one another. In order to have a relationship with anyone, you have to be able to forgive. We have to be able to reconcile with one another and to move forward. The secret to being a church, a special community is that we are a forgiven people who have worked to forgive others. Any relationship requires a time of understanding and forgiveness. We have to pray for those who have walked away, and work with those who are still with us. A congregation is not to be like the secular world. Instead of suing or chastising, the faithful are to give the offender a chance. Yes, they are to be confronted, but not humiliated in public. Rather than be judged or prosecuted they are to be given a chance to repent. The church is to avoid embarrassment and help people feel less ashamed. This requires great sensitivity. The way of the church is through reconciliation. For to be redeemed means to help a person return to wholeness and to be at peace with one’s self and one’s neighbors. Therefore, the church is to make every effort to give those who stray an opportunity to right their wrongs. Yes, we have standards. Yes, there are things that people do to one another that are harmful. Yes, even some behavior can damage the life of the church. Nevertheless, the church is being faithful when its people make every effort to offer love, forgiveness and support. In Matthew, Jesus describes a process that is different from the tradition of the times. Instead of casting stones, rushing the accused off to a local authority and making a person’s shameful act front page news, the faith community makes an intentional effort to give the offender a chance to turn their life around. Keith Wagner, Living Without Shame When Bill Clinton met Nelson Mandela for the first time, he had a question on his mind: "When you were released from prison, Mr. Mandela," the former President said, "I woke my daughter at three o'clock in the morning. I wanted her to see this historic event." Then President Clinton zeroed in on his question: "As you marched from the cellblock across the yard to the gate of the prison, the camera focused in on your face. I have never seen such anger, and even hatred, in any man as was expressed on your face at that time. That's not the Nelson Mandela I know today," said Clinton. "What was that about?" Mandela answered, "I'm surprised that you saw that, and I regret that the cameras caught my anger. As I walked across the courtyard that day I thought to myself, ‘They've taken everything from you that matters. Your cause is dead. Your family is gone. Your friends have been killed. Now they're releasing you, but there's nothing left for you out there.' And I hated them for what they had taken from me. Then, I sensed an inner voice saying to me, ‘Nelson! For twenty-seven years you were their prisoner, but you were always a free man! Don't allow them to make you into a free man, only to turn you into their prisoner!'" You can never be free to be a whole person if you are unable to forgive. Our prayer for those who are not here, for those who are on the sidelines, those who are not ready for reconciliation, for those who are blaming others, for those who cannot accept forgiveness, is that they will be free to become whole and complete persons. And we cant be whole unless we are forgiven and reconciled. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Salvation is dependent upon our relationships, with ourselves, one another and God. The relationships that we form on earth, will last in heaven. What we bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what we free on earth will be free on heaven. Is it worth taking any burden with us when we go to heaven. We Must Be Saved by Hope Reinhold Niebuhr, in The Irony of American History, writes, "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime: therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone, therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness." Jerry L. Schmalenberger, When Christians Quarrel, CSS Publishing Company, Inc. Whenever we come together, even if it is only two of us, Jesus comes with us. When we agree in integrity as a community, God agrees with us. Let us remember to be the church at all times, to love one another, God is present in our love. Let us pray…. Children’s Sermon…… On Picking Your Battles by King Duncan Passage: Matthew 18:15-20 • Lectionary: Proper 18 Item 2 of 22 | Back to Results Object: a smoke detector with battery (might want to test it beforehand) Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you have seen one of these around your house? Can you tell me what it is? That's right, it's a smoke detector. A smoke detector can sense if there is smoke in the air. Usually, if there is smoke in the air then that means there is a fire nearby. And a fire can be a very dangerous thing. So we keep smoke detectors around the house to let us know if there is a fire starting somewhere. If smoke gets around a smoke detector, it makes a loud noise. You might want to cover your ears for this, okay? (Wait until the children and congregation have covered their ears, then push the little test button on the front of the detector to set off the alarm) Wow, that's loud! That noise lets us know that there is smoke in the air, so we need to check and make sure nothing is on fire. The smoke detector is there to protect us, to let us know about a fire early enough that we can stop it. Don't you wish we had something like a trouble detector in church? Just like a smoke detector warns us that there might be a fire starting, a trouble detector would let us know if problems were about to start in church. Sometimes, people in church hurt one another's feelings, or say bad things about each other. Sometimes, people in church argue with one another or get mad at each other. That's how trouble starts in the church. And God doesn't want that kind of trouble in the church. God wants us to love each other, to treat each other with kindness. God wants us to listen to one another and to work together. The best way to keep trouble from starting in the church is for us to love one another, and to talk about our problems with each other. Then we won't need a trouble detector in our church, because we'll be doing what God wants us to do. Collected Sermons, King Duncan, Dynamic Preaching, 2005, 0-000-0000-20 Extra sermon illustration…….. Corporate Effects of Sin A man is on a boat. He is not alone, but acts as if he were. One night, without warning, he suddenly begins to cut a hole under his seat. The other people on the boat shout and shriek at him: "What on earth are you doing? Have you gone mad? Do you want to sink us all? Are you trying to destroy us?" Calmly, the man answers: "I don't understand what you want. What I'm doing is none of your business. I paid my way. I'm not cutting under your seat. Leave me alone!" What the fanatic (and the egotist) will not accept, but what you and I cannot forget, is that all of us are in the same boat. Elie Wiesel, Parade Magazine.