Charles Campbell, professor of homiletics at Duke University, when commenting on today’s gospel reading, shares this memory and amusing thought. He writes:
A few years ago, while channel surfing, I paused and watched part of an interview with television psychologist and celebrity Dr. Phil. At one point the interviewer asked Dr. Phil, “If you could interview anyone in the world, past or present, who would it be?” Dr. Phil replied, without hesitation, “Jesus Christ. I would really like to interview Jesus Christ. I would like to have a conversation with him about the meaning of life.” As soon as Dr. Phil spoke, I remember thinking, “Oh no, you wouldn’t! You would not want to sit down with Jesus, treat him like an interviewee, and ask him about the meaning of life. You would be crazy to do that. He would turn you upside down and inside out. He would confound all your questions and probably end up telling you to sell everything you own, give the money to the poor, and come, follow him. No, Dr. Phil, you do not really want to interview Jesus, and I do not want to either. It would not go well.”
Dr. Campbell’s point in telling this story is that conversations with Jesus are dangerous conversations. They are very dangerous because Jesus is always going to twist and turn your thinking, leave your head spinning, take you to new places, and leave you feeling confounded. Jesus cannot be captured or made to fit into our preconceived notions or perspectives. Jesus is always going to be moving us beyond the safety of our preconceived notions, perspectives, and ideas about God. And, quite honestly, when one of these dangerous conversations takes place, the participants will rarely leave the encounter singing a hymn like, “Safe in the Arms of Jesus!”
As we encounter Jesus today, it is the final week of his life. Just one day earlier, he had entered Jerusalem accompanied by shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David,” as people were proclaiming him king. He then went to the temple and literally turned the tables, knocking them over as he drove out the money changers. He said the temple itself had become “a den of robbers.” It had been an eventful day, to say the least. Things are becoming intense and there is growing, even violent controversy between Jesus and the temple leadership. So, as we enter today’s reading, it is the morning of the next day, and Jesus has returned to the temple. As he enters, he is confronted by the chief priests and elders of the people who try to trap him with a question about authority. They think they are the ones who are in charge and they have ultimate authority at the temple. And, they demand to know, “By what authority are you doing these things?” Believing they have control and are in charge, they are ready to challenge whatever Jesus says.
Well, the chief priests and elders discover that challenging Jesus results in some very dangerous conversation. What they are not prepared for is hearing that Jesus’ authority comes not from another human being but from heaven. Jesus avoids their trap and figuratively turns the tables on the religious leaders with a thorny question of his own, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin.” This is a very dangerous question because, in making a commitment about John’s authority, the religious leaders would also make a commitment about John’s witness to Jesus – and thus Jesus’ authority.
Oh yes, the tables have really been turned and the interviewee has now become the interviewer! Jesus outwits the religious leaders, places the question back on them and unmasks their deepest priorities and concerns. You see, the religious leaders are not really interested in Jesus’ true identity, and they are not interested in discovering how God would have them respond to Jesus. No, what they are really interested in is maintaining their privilege, power and control and they want to keep their current order intact. They want to keep Jesus in their tidy little box or have nothing to do with him.
Yes, this was a dangerous conversation indeed! The religious leaders are left speechless and the interview appears to have ended. But, Jesus does not stop. He knows they are off balance and confounded and so, he tells them a story – one of his favorite teaching tools. He tells of two sons. When the father directs the first son to go and work in the vineyard, the mouthy and rebellious son emphatically answers, “I will not go.” But then, he changes his mind and goes anyway. The second son, who appears dutiful and obedient, answers that he will go, but then he does not. When Jesus asks his questioners which of the sons did the will of his father, they say, “The first.”
Again, this is a very dangerous conversation, indeed! According to this parable, those who are seemingly “in the know” (the religious leaders) are not the ones who are doing the will of God. Wow! The tables are again turned. You see, Jesus’ stories and questions are seldom about right answers; rather, they are about calling his followers and his hearers to be transformed. The question really is not “What is the will of God?” It is a much, much deeper question of who belongs in God’s realm or kingdom. And, through this exchange and his questions, Jesus convicts the scribes and elders of their lack of belief, and finally asserts that the despised, tax collectors and prostitutes will enter heaven before they will. Talk about dangerous conversation! This whole exchange begins with the “in the know” religious leaders authoritatively questioning Jesus, and it ends up with a pronouncement that they will be the ones who follow reviled tax collectors and shunned prostitutes into heaven.
Yes, conversations with Jesus are dangerous conversations! Jesus is not interested in simply talking with us about the meaning of life. He is always confronting us with the issue of his identity and the call to faith in him. Again today, Jesus is really asking the central question of the gospels: “Who do you say that I am?” And, Jesus is not about small talk or beating around the bush. Jesus wants our very lives, and he is going to do whatever it takes, even going to the extreme measure of ultimately dying on a cross, to unmask our deadly priorities, and call us to faith in him.
Friends, that call to faith is always a call to turn from the futile, deadly priorities in the world around us, to repent and turn back toward God, because then we find life that truly matters. God desires that we live into life that truly matters. Such life is the ultimate point in our reading from Ezekiel when we hear these words, “Turn, then, and live.” When we do this, we discover that our world and our lives become changed, so changed that we will likely face some kind of disruption, find our preconceived notions shattered and our heads spinning. But we also find that, when we turn toward God, we discover we are grasped by grace. We then respond to God’s call and grace as St. Paul says, by “letting the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus.” And, we find God is truly at work within our lives.
Yes, conversations with Jesus are dangerous, indeed. We do not begin by interviewing Jesus, but by believing in him, trusting in his authority, and following him to the places where he goes. And, in the process, our world is always going to be turned upside down and inside out, our heads left spinning and our tongues stammering. We also discover that no matter how much we think we are in control and in charge, whether it be our own lives, the circles in which we function and live, or even the community of faith, we are not. It is God alone who is in charge.
Yes, conversations with Jesus are dangerous indeed. Friends, just like the privileged religious leaders, we are always going to discover that our preconceived notions and perceptions of who Jesus is will always be shattered. Jesus will never be captured or controlled or fit into our little boxes. He is always going to disrupt the ways in which self-righteousness and privilege and piety and power try to control and manage. Jesus will always elude our grasp so that we may be grasped by him and by God’s immeasurable grace and boundless love for all. And, when we realize that we have been grasped by God’s grace, the tables have truly been turned. Then, we can truly celebrate and live into a love that is indiscriminate, boundless in mercy, and life-giving for all.
This is a special musical presentation of Majesty by Addie Thompson and Deb Borton-McDonough on handbells.
This is a special musical performance of The Lord's Prayer by Tammy Heilman at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
This is the Gospel and Sermon for Sunday, September 20. Bishop Elizabeth Eaton is reading Gospel this week and Rev. Dr. Barbara Rossing provides the sermon.
Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, there was a businessman who owned a small vineyard in Napa Valley. As the economy changed and larger corporations were increasingly taking over the market, he began to see the writing on the wall. These larger vineyards were gradually squeezing out the smaller businesses, competition was becoming increasingly challenging, and he knew he would be facing major difficulties in the foreseeable future.
Therefore, he finally decided to sell while his business was still doing rather well. However, he wanted to give his workers one last holiday bonus. Ever since he first started the business, he had given his workers a holiday bonus based on the company’s yearly profit and each individual’s time on the job. And, the past year of operations had been a reasonably good one, so he decided to do something wild and crazy and give everyone a very generous bonus. Not only would everyone receive more than they had during the previous few years, each would also receive equally the same amount. There would be no differentiation based on the time each person had spent working for his company. In other words, if you were simply on the payroll as of December 22nd, the day the checks were written, you got the bonus!
When the envelopes were first opened, it seemed everyone was thrilled to see the amount of his or her bonus. However, as people began to slowly share information and compare checks, guess what happened! Voila!!! It was today’s gospel story in Matthew, chapter 20, all over again!!
The business owner could not believe it. He had tried to do something good for everybody and now he was getting angry phone calls from people who had just received larger bonus checks than they had ever gotten before, but were upset that everyone received the same amount. Envy and greed had become more important than what they had received. The long-time workers thought they had not been treated fairly. And, the business owner had to ask, “Are you envious because I am generous?”
Well, the truth of the matter is, yes. Not only are we human beings greedy and envious, as I mentioned last week, we are also great scorekeepers and bookkeepers. In fact, we love to keep score. And, when it comes to a person’s just reward for actions, work or whatever, we turn into some top-notch bookkeepers. We love to keep score and we are oh so good at it!! We keep score of day to day relational stuff that goes on within our families, wanting everyone to be treated fairly, yet quite often acting as though there is not enough love to go around. We keep score of the stuff that happens at work. We not only want everyone to be treated fairly for their efforts, but we also do not want to lose out on any rewards for ourselves. And, when it comes to fairness and score keeping between businesses, organizations, communities and countries, well…..all we need to do is take a look at the news headlines and the world around us. Yes, we want to be treated fairly, especially if we can benefit from that treatment.
In today’s reading, Jesus again tells a story about the reign of God, the household of the community of God’s people. He tells of a crazy landowner who treated his laborers equally, regardless of the disproportionate hours they worked. And, Jesus’ story seems to suggest that when it comes to life in the kingdom of God, there is an element of what we would consider unfairness. His words to us today are unsettling and they shatter our perceptions of fairness. His words cut right through the ordered world we try to create.
Yes, we want an ordered world in which everybody gets what we consider to be their just reward, what we consider fair. Friends, this perceived order and desire for what we consider fair is as old as humanity itself. When looking at our other readings for today, we discover that even Jonah struggled with his perception of what he considered fair and not fair. God forgives the people of Nineveh, but Jonah begrudges forgiveness for his enemies. And, in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Paul also addresses this issue. When we are deeply divided and see others as undeserving enemies, Paul reminds us that only because of God’s unending forgiveness for both sides of every quarrel or disagreement, can we really accept one another and live in unity.
Friends, the truth of the matter is that Jesus invaded this world to create a new order, an order that replaces our order, our individual, cultural and social assumptions of what is fair and not fair. The disciples have been struggling to understand this in-breaking reign or kingdom of God, this new order Jesus has been talking about. They have been operating out of the existing social framework and mindset with which they had grown up and were so familiar. They, like each one of us, have assumptions and understandings of the way the world should work, assumptions that include keeping score of rich and poor, superior and inferior, those who are in and those who are out – a list that goes on and on and on…. Then, Jesus goes and messes it all up by telling a story that again unsettles us. His story undercuts and interrupts our assumptions. But, through his words, he creates the possibility of something very new. Jesus gives us words to “envision the new order of God and unmask the deadly spirits and inequality of the old order.” (Feasting on the Word, p. 95)
Jesus holds before us God’s vision and desire for this world, a vision where all are treated equally. Jesus holds before us a new reality that undermines the old distinctions and the competitive struggle with which we are all so preoccupied. Theologian Warren Carter, describing Jesus’ story and the landowner’s surprising payment to the workers, says:
Instead of maintaining differentiation among the laborers based on performance, instead of reinforcing the superiority of some at the expense of the rest, the landowner has evened out the distinctions and treated them in solidarity as equals. Instead of using wages to reinforce distinctions, he uses [wages] to express equality and solidarity. (Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading, p. 394.)
Yes, Jesus describes a new social order and his words painfully expose the suppositions of the existing social order that has shaped us. I love what Professor Charles Campbell writes when describing Jesus’ words. He says:
[Jesus’ story] exposes the fundamental metaphors that so often structure social relations: winner and loser, superior and inferior, insider and outsider, honored and shamed. It unmasks an order that often encourages us to pray, ‘Give me this day my daily bread,’ rather than, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’” (Feasting on the Word, p. 97.)
While Jesus’ story makes us face some of our individual, social, and cultural assumptions, the biggest truth about today’s gospel reading is that this story is NOT about us. Well, surprise, surprise, surprise!!! Ultimately, Jesus’ story is not really about us at all! Jesus’ story is really all about the endless generosity and amazing graciousness of God! His story is really about a God who, like the crazy landowner, bestows unmeasured grace and mercy to all people, regardless of how deserving or undeserving we think people to be.
The reality is that God’s generosity and grace disrupts, undercuts, and violates our assumptions and opinions about the way this world should be ordered. The good news is that the grace of God is showered upon all in equal measure. The good news is that with God, there is no such thing as “partial benefits!” The good news is that God’s love never runs out and it comes to us as an inexhaustible supply! In fact, the good news is that God is a lousy bookkeeper! The good news is that, in the cross, we see a God who loves us so much that we can let go of all our bookkeeping and scorekeeping efforts, and live into the love and grace that has been poured upon the world, in fact poured upon the cosmos! And, when that happens, we will find much greater joy in living.
This is Special Music by Tammy Heilman, accompanied by Deb Borton-McDonough at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
This is a special musical presentation of Written in Red sung by Bob Nelson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
When preaching on today’s gospel reading, my friend, Bill Uetricht, has shared a story which addresses a practice all of us are so very good at executing – scorekeeping. And, with his permission, I want to share that story:
In the beginning, God didn’t make just two people; he made a bunch of us. Because he wanted us to have a lot of fun, and he said you couldn’t really have fun unless there’s a whole gang of you. At first, we did have fun just like he expected. We rolled down the hills, waded in the streams, ran in the meadows, frolicked in the woods, and acted silly. We laughed a lot.
Then one day this snake told us that we weren’t having real fun because we weren’t keeping score. Back then, we didn’t know what score was. When he explained it, we couldn’t see the fun. But he said we should give an apple to the person who was best at all the games and we’d never know who was best without keeping score. We could see the fun of that, of course, because we were all sure that we were the best.
It was different after that. We yelled a lot. We had to make up new scoring rules for most of the games. Others, like frolicking, we stopped playing because they were too hard to score.
By the time God found out what had happened we were spending 45 minutes a day actually playing and the rest of the time working out scoring. God was angry about that – very, very wroth. He said we couldn’t use his garden anymore because we weren’t having fun. We told him we were having lots of fun. He was just narrow-minded because it wasn’t exactly the kind of fun he originally thought of.
He wouldn’t listen. He kicked us out, and said we couldn’t come back until we stopped keeping score. To rub it in, he told us we were all going to die and our scores wouldn’t mean anything anyway.
He was wrong. My cumulative, all-game score is 16,548. And if I can raise it to 20,000 before I die, I’ll know I’ve accomplished something. Even if I can’t my life has a great deal of meaning because I have taught my children to score high and they’ll be able to reach 20,000 or even 30,000.
Really, it was life in the garden that didn’t mean anything. Fun is great in its place but without scoring there’s no reason for it. God actually has a very superficial view of life, and I’m certainly glad my children are being raised away from his influence. We were lucky. We’re all very grateful to the snake. (Ann Herbert)
Yes, friends, we really are in bondage to the mathematical practice of scorekeeping. We keep score in just about everything we do. Education is built around scorekeeping. Sports are built around scorekeeping. Our finances and financial systems require bookkeeping, a form of scorekeeping, as we constantly focus on credits and debits. If we look at today’s political climate and our political leaders, scorekeeping is the name of the game. After all, you must keep score so you can get even with others, get retribution, and win. Quite honestly, I think we would be hard pressed to find an aspect of life in which scorekeeping was not present in some shape or form. Our passion for scorekeeping influences just about every facet of the way we live in relationship to others. It even influences our ability to live into the forgiveness we have been given in Christ.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is teaching about forgiveness, and we discover that even Peter was into mathematical scorekeeping. We find him asking Jesus how many times he should forgive a sister or brother who mistreats or takes advantage of him, and he almost seems magnanimous as he asks, “Seven times?” Well, Jesus was not impressed with such a generous offer of forgiving a person seven times, and he gives Peter a different mathematical formula for his scorekeeping efforts: seventy-seven times. In other words, so many times that you need to stop counting! Don’t keep score! You can never forgive enough!
The issue is not how much or how often we are asked to forgive or should forgive. For people of faith, the act of forgiveness is already a limitless, measureless act. Forgiveness is never not present in our lives and in our relationships. That’s the issue. Forgiveness is part and parcel of the Kingdom of Heaven and, as Christians, it is an aspect of our identity. It’s a constant. It’s not optional. It’s not a choice. However, far too often we want it to be a choice — and that is what is at the heart of Peter’s question.
Anyway, to help Peter and all of us better understand, Jesus again shares a story to emphasize what he is saying. Now, we need to remember that Jesus’ stories often contain a lot of hyperbole and exaggeration. This story is no different. Jesus tells about a king who ponders his own scorekeeping when looking at his accounts receivable. This king discovers that a certain slave owes him about a gazillion dollars. Jesus said the amount was 10,000 talents which was the equivalent of 150,000 years of labor. It is such an outrageous amount we might as well say it was more than the combined national economies of all the G7 nations! Well, the slave is summoned to appear before him. The slave falls to his knees and begs for mercy, for time to do something that would be utterly impossible, for time to repay what is owed. Inexplicably and without so much as a word, the king relents. The king as much as shrugs and says, “Okay. I forgive the debt.”
And just like that, the slave is free. His utterly unpayable debt is vaporized, whoosh, like the sound of thousands of e-mails being deleted and sent to the trash bin. His unpayable debt has been totally deleted and wiped from the books.
Well, we might imagine this slave’s response. Just picture him, walking away from the castle, standing a little taller, shoulders back, whistling a merry tune. If this were a musical, we might see him do a little jig. As he struts along, he then sees a fellow slave, one who owes him a measly sum, so the slave stops in his tracks. And, he lapses back into bondage, back into the bondage of scorekeeping and spreadsheets and accounts receivable and into a blind allegiance to what he sees as fair.
So, he says to his fellow slave, “Hey man. You owe me five bucks. Pay up now. Right now.” The fellow slave falls to his knees. “Patience, man, patience! Friday’s coming. I will get right with you.” But no. That is not good enough. The slave whose enormous, unpayable debt has just been forgiven is then extremely hard and cruel and mean to the other guy, his fellow slave. Immediately, he throws the fellow slave in prison. Really? Set free from an impossible debt, this man cannot look past a debt that would equal the cost of a cup of Biggby coffee and a doughnut? The guy who had been forgiven a debt the size of the combined national economies of all the G7 nations could not find it in his heart to forgive the guy who owed him five bucks!?!
The difference between what was owed by the first slave and the fellow slave was astronomical! When hearing this aspect of Jesus’ story, Peter and all the others had to have been stunned! Everyone listening would have been shocked by Jesus’ words, shocked to even imagine such forgiveness. And, we should also be stunned!
Friends, the scorekeeping job is not ours. Revenge and vengeance after being wronged is not our job. Evening the score is not our job. Our job is to forgive. Jesus shocked his listeners with the use of these absurd amounts regarding scorekeeping to show them that God’s forgiveness is limitless. And so, again, when talking about the life Jesus calls us to live, Jesus turns our “normal” expectations upside down and inside out.
Jesus ends his story by saying that when the king found out what the first slave had done, he handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. I like how Richard Rohr describes the end of this story. He says:
The greedy and selfish debtor, who is owed a mere five dollars, throttles his fellow servant, ignores his attempts and promises, and throws him into prison (as if that is going to help). And in his attempt to imprison the other, he ends up being “tortured” and imprisoned himself. This is a classic Middle Eastern wisdom story. It is both a gracious statement about what we can always expect from God and an honest warning about how any refusal to forgive actually destroys and imprisons the very one who refuses to forgive!
The parable ends with the invitational one-liner: “Each of you must forgive your brother [or sister] from the heart!” This is what the Master/God has just done. Jesus invites all of us in this rather easy-to-understand story into God’s nonsensical loving “from the heart” which is the final staccato phrase.
Friends, we follow the one whose nonsensical loving heart is most fully seen in the cross. On the cross, God does away with scorekeeping! On that cross, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And, as Nadia Bolz Weber says,
God’s forgiveness is like giant bolt-cutters, setting us free. And then God says go and do likewise. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Cut others loose too. Jesus commands it. It’s not actually a suggestion. He commands us to forgive just as he commands us to love.”
This is a special musical presentation of Balm in Gilead sung by Christopher Lewis at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan
There is an old story about two men who lived in a small village. They got into a terrible dispute which they could not resolve. So, they decided to talk to the town sage. The first man went to the sage's home and told his version of what happened. When he finished, the sage said, "You're absolutely right." The next night, the second man called on the sage and told his side of the story. The sage responded, "You're absolutely right." Afterward, the sage's wife scolded her husband. "Those men told you two different stories and you told them they were absolutely right. That's impossible -- they can't both be absolutely right." The sage turned to his wife and said, "You're absolutely right."
That little story is rather humorous, and it helps to describe life within community when people do not want to face conflict. Too often, disagreements and differences just simmer below the surface and people are never honest with each other. And, as we think about life within the church, many people tend to think there should be no conflict within the faith community. However, Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel lesson seems to proceed on the baseline assumption that conflict in Christian community is normal and natural and should be dealt with honestly. It should be addressed with compassion, forgiveness, and reconciliation. And, from Jesus’ teaching today, we discover the community of faith is always called to bear witness to the forgiveness and reconciliation Christ is bringing into the world.
Today’s gospel reading has been a difficult passage to digest in the Western church. In the western world, we have been deeply influenced and shaped by the Enlightenment philosophy of John Locke, so much so that the dominant understanding of the local church in the modern world has been that of a voluntary association of autonomous individuals. This is especially the case in America, where toxic individualism, with its emphasis on independence, self-reliance, and individual authority, is held in such high esteem. In our culture, church is often a place of self-sufficient individuals who gather for worship on Sunday, as their calendar permits, then leave to do their own thing throughout the rest of the week. But, at the time of the early church, the faith community was a place of mutual interdependence, where each member was incomplete without the other, where the suffering of one was truly the suffering of all, and where the honor of one led to the rejoicing of all. This reading from Matthew assumes a close-knit community of committed people of faith. And, in comparison, few churches in today’s culture can claim that assumption as we live in an age of radical malignant individualism.
As we approach this reading, we need to recognize these different cultural contexts. And, in a polarized society such as ours where we are often defined by our differences, in a climate of anger and violence, in a context of toxic individualism run rampant, we must recognize that this gospel reading has tragically and too frequently been used and interpreted as a legalistic weapon to clobber others. Far too often, this passage has been used to provide rules of engagement for combat rather than the rule of Christ to love, forgive and reconcile.
As we all know, honesty, forgiveness, compassion, and reconciliation are rarely the watchwords of our church conflicts, let alone conflicts in the greater community or in our country. Within faith communities, far too often anger, hurt feelings, and lack of clear communication drive us toward either sweeping everything under the rug to keep peace, or openly hostile entrenched positions that lead to explosions with people permanently leaving the church. But, Jesus says there is another way.
First, he asks us to use direct and respectful communication. If we are struggling with something a church member has said or done, we are not to talk behind his or her back. Nor are we to stage a dramatic public confrontation during fellowship time. We are to take time aside, after the initial rush of emotion has subsided, and engage in dialogue with that person one-on-one. If that conversation is not fruitful, we create a small group of all parties involved to discern and pray together. If no progress is made, then we let transparency be our guiding principle and search for a solution as a whole church community, bearing one another’s burdens and seeking reconciliation. Now, as we are all aware, some conflicts and disagreements are so deep that even these steps cannot ease them. So, Jesus says, “If the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Well, with these words, we tend to breathe a sigh of relief. Too often, we find these words enable us to feel justified, and then we simply shun and push aside the supposed troublemakers, making ourselves feel comfortable again. Hooray!
No!! That is not what Jesus is saying. We are not off the hook at all. Why? Because of how Jesus treated gentiles and tax collectors. What can we learn from his words and actions toward them that we can then apply to our fellow church members? Well, remember that, when Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple, he emphasizes the Pharisee’s grandstanding pride and self-satisfaction versus the tax collector’s pained and private acknowledgement of his own sin. To treat a fellow church member like a tax collector would then be to realize that beneath the outer façade, that person might be hiding a great deal of pain and regret over his or her own actions in the conflict. Jesus says this tax collector went home justified and forgiven. Could we not look for the hidden self of the person with whom we are in conflict and have our compassion awakened? Could we not realize that we ourselves might be in danger of praying like the Pharisee, proud and certain of our own righteousness?
Jesus treated reviled tax collectors and sinners with mercy, with invitation, with hospitality, and with love. When Jesus tells us that we are to treat our most stubborn and contrary faith community members like tax collectors, he is telling us to treat them as he did, disciples who are God’s beloved children. And, remember, Matthew himself was a tax collector!
And, what about those despised gentiles, any of those we consider “other?’ Well, again we can look at Jesus’ example. One of Jesus’ most famous encounters with a gentile was the healing of the despised Syrophoenician woman’s daughter. He initially refuses her request saying the food for the children of Israel cannot be given to the dogs. Her clever and persistent response, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table,” convinces Jesus to change his mind. Now, if Jesus, himself, can be persuaded to soften, become more understanding and change his mind about someone, can we not do the same? Jesus was not afraid to really listen and be changed by what he heard. We are given the opportunity to do the same!
Jesus’ instruction to treat those with whom we disagree as tax collectors and gentiles opens to us a whole array of creative and surprising paths toward reconciliation. All of this is so important not just because of the simple reality that there is no such thing as church without conflict. It matters because of how Jesus concludes his instructions saying, “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” How we choose to treat one another when the going gets rough has consequences that far outlast questions like the theology of sexuality or that knock-down drag-out fight over the carpet color in the narthex. We have the power to bind and loose. With our choices, we can bind each other even tighter into our separate camps and polarized positions, or, we can loose ourselves from our pride and our ever-present need to be right. We can loose one another from assumptions and stereotypes and bitterness. Having been freed in Christ, we can then do as St. Paul says in our reading from his letter to the Romans. We can put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We can put on the clothes of Christ and be bound together with the unbreakable love of the crucified, risen Christ – a body tested, refined, healed and flourishing with new life.