Valois United Church

Ezekiel 33:7-11
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-17 (NRSV)

18:15 "If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.

18:16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

18:17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Welcome back
Welcome for the first time

Whichever it is, we’re here today. If someone asks us this afternoon what we did this morning, we may naturally answer something like “I was at church” or “I went to church”

Well, for the next several weeks we’re going to be talking about church, but I want to be clear from the start: we’re not talking about any building. Yes, I know, we probably already know that, but I want us all to feel it, to have a deep sense of it.

Perhaps, if we had that sense deep within us, we would not say we “were at” church, but that we were “with church” this morning; or instead of “went to” church, we might say that we “were a part of” church this morning.

Especially when we’re talking about Jesus’ teachings - he is never speaking of an institutional church, because church hadn’t even started as an organized thing at all. No, Jesus was speaking of a gathering of faithful people, a community of faithful people. And for years there were no buildings.

So, when I speak of church this week and in the next weeks, I am speaking of the fact that we gather and we connect, that we are a community of faith, among other communities of faith, and connected with one another, being a far larger community of faith that stretches across the country and around the world.

Let’s not just go to church, nor be at church.
Let us be church, let us do church!

And how?
Well, there’s no way to cover everything all at once. But we can deal with a bit at at time. This week Jesus is talking about one element of how to get along as church.

The following is from the Gospel reading, but is from a translation, or interpretation, called The Message:
15 "If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell him - work it out between the two of you. If he listens, you've made a friend. 16 If he won't listen, take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep things honest, and try again. 17 If he still won't listen, tell the church. If he won't listen to the church, you'll have to start over from scratch, confront him with
the need for repentance, and offer again God's forgiving love.
Now, this ancient directive can be applied to all disagreements in the community of faith. The steps are clear.

But we often don’t follow those steps.
Often in the church, if we are hurt by another believer,
or if we have a disagreement,
we find one of three solutions.
One is that we leave.
Or the other is that we grumble to five other people in the church, and maybe a few others outside the church - letting people inside and outside the church know that we don’t get along very well.
Or we do absolutely nothing, but feel lousy.

That’s not Jesus’ way. None of it.
Jesus’ directive is to:
1) talk to the other person directly, alone.
2) if that does not resolve things, have witnesses along
3) and if that does not work, have the community of faith speak together
4) and if that does not work, then start from scratch.

Part of the problem is that Canadian culture tends to be non-confrontational. I was reading this past week about the debate between creationist and evolutionist. Canadians have sat on the sidelines as Americans have had huge debates about this issue. So some figured it wasn’t an issue here in Canada. But then a museum in Ontario wanted to set up an exhibit on Darwin - and all the usual corporate sponsors backed away because they did not want to get involved in the lurking potential for controversy here as well.

No, we’re not a confrontational people. Which is not bad in some ways - it is good to love peace - but it is bad when there are important issues lurking, and we don’t deal with them.

We ignore them. Until they explode.
Or we try to leave them behind. Dividing one from another.
Or we grumble in all the wrong directions, creating deep dissent.

And none of those is Jesus’ will.
And none of them show as much love as Jesus wants us to show, one to another.

After all, if we have a disagreement with our children, do we not speak to them in love and concern? Can we not act in the same way in community?

But churches have their taboo topics.
Woe to the minister who walks unaware onto one of the landmines of a congregation - or denomination.
Perhaps it is the landmine of who plans the Christmas candlight service.
Maybe it is the landmine of who can serve on committees or who can serve communion.
Maybe it is the landmine of language - be it the use of another language, or the issues of inclusive language and more.
Woe to the minister who does not recognize that there are things such as what hymns to sing, what words to use, what order of worship to use; issues such as gay marriage, topics such as amalgamations and internal re-organizations, subjects such as past conflicts – that bring reactions, often surprisingly strong reactions.

The minister - or other person - may get it in the ear for bringing up such things.
But the individual moves on.
We’re not focussing on individuals this week, though.
We’re focussing on community.
And Jesus’ message reminds us, as part of community, that if we can’t talk about all this stuff, if we can’t talk about all this stuff again and again if need be, then we are not being as loving and as wise as he, Jesus, wishes.

And the other scriptures head us in the same direction.
The reading from Ezekiel speaks of the sentinal on the walls of the city.
When the sentinal sees something wrong happening - an army approaching, for example - the sentinal is to not to remain silent, but to make known, to make well know what is seen, out of concern.
In the same way, we are all called to be sentinal in the way of the prophet - if we see something that we think to be wrong, inappropriate, amiss, then we must speak. Not to alienate, but out of concern.
And the sentinal is also the one to see good things first too - approaching rains after a drought, re-inforcements in time of war.
As people called to speak the truth in love, we are also to announce the good that we see within our community of faith, the possibilities for our community of faith.

But wait........ What if we all get up after church today and start to talk.
And if no one listens....
No use having a sentinal if no one listens.
No use having truth spoken in love, if we don’t listen.

You see, we all have our moments.
Our moments to speak. And our moments to listen.
Two ears. Only one mouth.

But as Norman Vincent Peale notes:
The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise
than saved by criticism.

We have to be willing to listen.... even if it doesn’t boost our egos.
We have to give the other space to speak....
even when – especially when – we disagree.
And that can be hard.

Johnny Dean, another minister, writes: Several years ago, a good friend and colleague in ministry came to visit me at the church I was serving in Memphis. After we exchanged greetings, he put his arm around my shoulders and said, "Johnny, you know I love you. That's why I have to tell you this." And he proceeded to gently, lovingly scold me for the way I had been handling a particular situation in the church. And he was absolutely right. I knew that the way I had been dealing with that situation was not the right way to handle it. My motivation was good, but my actions were wrong. And after he left, I knew that here was a friend who would stand beside me in tough times, because he loved me enough to risk damaging our friendship by confronting me with my mistake. Loving confrontation, which is what Jesus calls his followers to practice, is never easy.

And he is right.
Loving, respectful speaking, and loving, respectful listening - that is what Jesus calls us to today. That is what Jesus calls us to do as we begin our fall season.
So that we might be a community of believers. Together.