14TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Lessons & Meditation
14TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 09-06-2020
FIRST READING: Ezekiel 33:7-11
It was a time both of international upheaval and of God’s hard judgment upon the people of the covenant. The Assyrian Empire that had previously conquered the northern Jewish nation of Israel (in 722-721BC) began to crumble under the blows of a rising Babylonian Empire. Egypt reached out to assist Assyria in order to reassert its own influence in the area, but its armies would ultimately be defeated by Babylon. The southern Jewish nation of Judah, which had not fallen to the Assyrians, was perhaps an ally of Babylon but lost both a battle and her king against the Egyptians. Then, as the Babylonians were finishing off the Assyrians and pushing back the Egyptians, Judah decided to rebel against its pledge of allegiance to King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar invaded the city of Jerusalem in 597BC and deported the current king of Judah and about 10,000 other inhabitants, including the priest Ezekiel. By 586BC, both the city and the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed.
Ezekiel the priest was initially called to be a prophet to those Jews who were in exile with him and to those who were still back home. He faithfully announced God’s harsh, hope-crushing word of divine judgment to a covenant people who had broken their promises and grieved God’s heart. Years later, once news was received that Jerusalem had fallen, Ezekiel’s message transformed into delivering the Lord’s consoling word of hope to his people – revival, restoration, and a glorious future. No longer was it just anger and threats.
Chapter 33 begins that message of comfort and hope with a description of the watchman’s responsibility to warn a village of approaching danger (verses 1-6). Note that the watchman is not responsible for the reaction of the people to the warning. Ezekiel’s responsibility has been to warn the house of Israel (really, the southern kingdom of Judah) whether or not the people repented.
But also note verses 10-11, where Ezekiel’s role is transforming into delivering that message of hope: God’s basic intention for his people is life, not death. The watchman giving warning is now a herald of encouragement.
Is God perhaps calling every Christian to be a watchman like Ezekiel, to speak up and to speak out, to “tell it like it is” and to live it “how it oughta be”? Will God hold you accountable for failing to warn the people?
For failing to encourage the people? Can you think of a situation where you discovered a God-given reservoir of courage to risk proclaiming necessary “bad news”?
SECOND READING: Romans 13:8-14
Paul continues to offer a description (Chapters 12-15) of the new life in Christ. Here he says that the main quality of being a Christian is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Paul – who was once a Jewish Pharisee so caught up in memorizing and following the 613 written commandments of the Law of Moses along with all of the oral and written interpretations, extensions, and additions of law and tradition – has come to understand as a converted Christian that this one obligation to love one another fulfills the heart and the goal of the Law. We owe it to one another to love one another! We please God when we put in the hard work of loving action on behalf of others!
Because Paul believed that Christ would return before he died, that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers”, Paul says that it’s time “to wake from sleep”. He urges Christians to “lay aside the works of darkness” and lists some of them. He encourages his readers of every time and place to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” as if dressing ourselves in a new garment. To put Christ on is to live in a way that follows him in humble love of God and servant love for humanity. How would your life change if you consciously tried to “wear” Jesus Christ each day? What must change to insure a better fit?
The word “woke” has recently emerged in our society as a byword for social awareness. “Being woke” in today’s times refers to being aware of and typically feeling outraged by the suffering of the marginalized in society for the benefit of the privileged. Having knowledge of the effects of racism, classism, homophobia, paternalism, and sexism are examples of “woke” behavior. Are you “woke” or still “asleep”? Is it enough to be aware, or should there also be some sort of concrete response? Having just read Paul’s emphasis on the obligation to love,
how might you determine the parameters for a “woke” response that is not hateful, harmful, or violent?
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 18:15-20
Jesus is making that journey toward Jerusalem. He expects that he will suffer and die there, and he accepts this approaching reality as his mission in obedience to God. He trusts that God is going to bring victory out of the sacrifice of his life. He anticipates that – somehow, some way, by the grace and power of God, by the presence and power of God’s Spirit – there will be a community of believers, THE CHURCH, to continue bearing his name, his spirit, and his mission… to replace his own earthly physical existence as the BODY OF CHRIST.
Jesus speaks words of encouragement to a community that has not yet been founded, not until after his death and resurrection. These disciples who are following along – Jesus already knows that they will be part of THE CHURCH when it comes into being. These disciples that are following Jesus – he’s tried to train them for “kingdom of heaven” living. He’s already challenged them to love – to love the least and the lost… to love even your enemies! And each other.
Jesus in this Sunday’s Gospel reading is speaking a word to his disciples about how to handle conflict in THE CHURCH. Matthew, Chapter 18 is full of teachings on being a caring community. Here Jesus suggests a process that seeks to return a sinner to the community of faith, that seeks to restore good relationship between brothers and sisters.
Remember always that Jesus died and rose to reconcile us with God. Remember always that we are adopted into the family of faith by baptism, through God’s grace, not by what we earned or deserved. We were each forgiven. We were each reconciled with God through Christ Jesus. It was a gift to us, this reconciliation with God. Reconciliation is the family business. Love is the action verb in our relationship to Christ and our relationships with one another. It is Christ’s will… it is Christ’s command, repeated over and over again to us. So what we need to do – when there is sin – is try to speak the truth in love, with gentleness, with the goal of correcting a brother or a sister and healing the connection. YOU start the healing process, one-to-one, small, sincere, personal, honest, with humble love.
If this doesn’t work, Jesus suggests taking one or two other Christians who might assist in the process. Perhaps they might help us express the truth of the wrong we have experienced while also helping us to watch what we say and how we say it. That fellow Christian, one or two honest and loving persons, might help facilitate the wrongdoer’s willingness and ability to listen. And that fellow Christian brother or sister, one or two persons, can serve as a safeguard if the conflict is not resolved… he or she or they might serve as witnesses of the differences, the difficulty, the pain that continues.
If you try that and it doesn’t work, expand the circle once again, maybe as large as the entire CHURCH community. Remember, the goal is to help correct a sinner, to help create the opportunity for repentance, to reconcile relationships, to bring health and wholeness and healing to the BODY OF CHRIST. If you try that and it doesn’t work, now Jesus says, “Treat that person as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Please try to understand what Jesus is NOT saying. He is NOT calling upon you to denounce, condemn, spit upon, yell at, rip the clothes off of, beat up, throw out, pronounce eternal damnation, and permanently exclude that sinner – and every friend or relative of that sinner – from your CHURCH community forever and ever, Amen. In some times and places, by the way, THE CHURCH has not only done these things but imprisoned and even executed those within their own ranks that they considered sinners. Let me repeat: That’s NOT what Jesus is saying to do – throw them out, wipe them out. In fact, Jesus is suggesting in this Gospel passage that if the sinner is not willing to change, then she or he is, in effect, excluding herself or himself. Jesus understands, I believe, that sometimes there must be some “social distancing” to protect the BODY OF CHRIST from infection and further distance and disease. But the love by the Christian community doesn’t stop. Its care and concern doesn’t end. It continues to pray for that person, to reach out to that person. When Jesus says, “Treat them as a Gentile and a tax collector”, we must remember that he ate with Gentiles and tax collectors… he ministered to them… he called them to be disciples… he embraced them with God’s love. Jesus was often accused of associating more with tax collectors and sinners than the “righteous”. He never gave upon individuals, he never cut them off – not even that Canaanite woman of several Sundays ago once Jesus got “woke” from his own cultural barriers.
When we have been unsuccessful those three or more times at reconciliation, then Jesus tells us it is time to treat that person like someone needing the forgiveness, love, and new life of Jesus. And he assures us – even when we are still working at listening to one another, forgiving each other, trying to love each other and to reconcile and restore our relationships – “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Jesus has forgiven each of us so much. Knowing that, and claiming his promise to be with us through both the joys and conflicts of relating to one another, we will find the strength to love and forgive!
A PRAYER
Let us pray.
O Lord, St. Paul writes that the main quality of a Christian is this:
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
God loved us to save us, and God saved us to love others.
Help us to live for God and for others rather than for ourselves.
In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
A LABOR DAY THOUGHT AND PRAYER
Labor Day weekend is a time when Christians might celebrate the dignity, passion, and purpose of work and remember the achievements and rights of all workers… a time when we might take the opportunity to reflect on what we have done or plan to do with our own precious lives here on earth in order to experience deeper meaning and satisfaction beyond just making a living or storing up treasures… and a time when we might grasp onto the challenge to act on behalf of the most vulnerable, including migrant workers, enslaved laborers, those who seek employment to supply basic needs, and all who live in poverty. God wants each of us, not just to have a job, but to have a vocation – a calling – through which we can serve the world and help create a beloved community.
Gracious God, we thank you on this Labor Day for the blessing of work. Help us to realize how interdependent we are in our living and our laboring. Help us to understand that, job or no job, we all have worth as human beings. We ask for strength to complete each day. We ask for rest when we are weary. We ask your guidance for all who are seeking employment. We pray for those who are overworked and underpaid, those who have dangerous jobs or poor health care. Whether we are being compensated by paycheck or just by the satisfaction of an unpaid job well done, help us all to labor for your goodness and your glory in our daily living. “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) Amen.