10 September 2023 - Proper 18, Year A

 

Theme

This week’s lectionary readings warn against wicked living and encourage God’s people to live together peacefully and respectfully, especially when conflict arises. In Romans, Paul explains that all of God’s Laws can be summed up by the command to love your neighbour. Jesus explains how to deal with conflict in community life. Ezekiel is called to warn God’s people to turn from their wicked ways and follow God.

Scripture Readings

  • Exodus 12:1-14 - God instructs the Israelites to sacrifice a young goat or sheep every year and smear some of the blood of the animal around their doorframes. God will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male in the land, but the blood on their doorposts will serve as a sign and the plague of death will pass over them. This day marks the Passover of the Lord and must be celebrated every year as a special festival to God.
  • Psalm 149 - A Psalm of praise to God, encouraging God’s people to sing praises to the Lord.
  • Romans 13:8-14 - Paul says that all the commandments of the Law are summed up in one commandment: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others so it fulfills the requirements of God’s Law. The day of salvation will soon be here so we must remove our dark deeds and put on the shining armour of righteous living. Don’t indulge in evil desires but clothe yourselves with the presence of Jesus Christ.
  • Matthew 18:15-20 - Jesus instructs that if another believer sins against you, you should confront them privately. If you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with. If they still refuse to confess their sin, take your case to the church. If they still won’t accept the church’s decision, they should be treated as a pagan or a tax collector. Jesus says that whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. Also, if two agree on anything on earth, God will do it for them because where two or three gather as Christ’s followers, Christ is there among them.
  • Ezekiel 33:7-11 - Ezekiel is told that he is being made a watchman for the people of Israel. He is to listen to what God says and warn them accordingly. If he fails to announce that some are wicked and must change their ways, they will die in their sins and Ezekiel will be held responsible for their deaths. If he warns them to repent but they don’t, they will die in their sins, but Ezekiel will have saved himself. God then instructs the Israelites to turn from their wicked ways so they can live.
  • Psalm 119:33-40 - The psalmist declares that God must teach them God’s laws so they can keep them to the end. They desire to obey God because that is where life is found and sin is avoided.

Personal Application

At surface level, it may seem that this week’s readings from Matthew and Ezekiel are encouraging Christians to confront other people about their sins. They have certainly been interpreted this way by many. After all, if Ezekiel was commanded by God to tell other people to turn from their wicked ways, why can’t we? And didn’t Jesus tell us to confront other people so that they might confess their sin? Unfortunately, there is an underlying assumption with both of these questions that is not true: We are right while others are wrong; we are righteous while others are wicked; we are holy while others are sinful. Therefore we believe that we have the right to confront others about their supposed sins, but we don’t feel the need to do the same introspection ourselves.

Furthermore, when we take this approach, we neglect the context of the passages themselves. In Ezekiel, the people of Israel were in the middle of a challenging time of infighting and conflict. In fact, throughout the Old Testament, Israel’s greatest sins were often to do with not treating each other as they should and not caring for their neighbour and the foreigner. Paul is addressing a similar issue in Romans where Christians were so caught up in trying to determine the best ways to obey all of God’s Laws that Paul just sums it up for them in one commandment to follow: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” This is the most important thing. In Matthew’s Gospel, readers seem to forget that Jesus is speaking about a very specific scenario in this passage. He says that, “when a person sins against you,” you should follow the steps that provides. He is not talking about confronting people about their beliefs that you disagree with or the parts of their lives that you might deem to be wrong or inappropriate. Let us be careful of taking the words of the bible out of context and using them for our own purposes.

Rather than presuming that we are the heroes of these stories (Jesus and Ezekiel), what if we put ourselves in the shoes of the Israelites and Jesus’ followers whom they were speaking to? What might we discover if we do some introspection and ask ourselves where we may have wicked hearts? Where have we been mistreating our neighbours? Where might we need to repent of our sins against others?

Communal Application

Anyone who has served in a Church will tell you that unfortunately the Church is not immune to conflict. Just try to move your church’s organ, change the bulletin or do three hymns instead of four at a service, and you will discover how quickly conflict can arise with venom. Unfortunately, we human beings have developed some unhealthy ways to deal with conflict. Many of us tend to avoid conflict. So instead of dealing directly with those who have wronged us, we talk to others about it, gathering support and escalating the issue until it one day explodes. On the other hand, some people rush into every disagreement with guns blazing and nostrils flaring. In marriage counselling, we refer to these two types of people as rhinos and hedgehogs. The ironic thing is that they often end up marrying each other!

Fortunately, Jesus has given us some helpful tips to deal with conflict in today’s Gospel reading. He says that rather than gossiping about the person who has wronged us, let us approach them privately; not to shout at or attack them, but to express our grievances and see whether the matter can be resolved respectfully. Second, Jesus says that if no solution can be found, let us take one or two others with to try and mediate the situation for us; not so that we can gang up on the other person, but so they can bear witness to our conversation and help to keep it civil. Finally, as a last resort, we should take the matter before our larger community. I love Jesus’ instruction here. He doesn’t say that we must gather up people who are on our side or agree with our point of view. He says to take it to the whole community where there is bound to be a diverse array of opinions and beliefs. By doing this, the situation can be dealt with appropriately and by taking it to the whole community, the desire is always for the community to be reconciled and restored to one another. It is only as an extreme last resort that an unrepentant person should be excommunicated from the community. Even then, Jesus says they should be treated like any other gentile or tax collector. While this might seem like a condemnation to many, for those of us who read our bibles, we know that this is not a condemnation but another reminder to practice love. Like Paul instructs in Romans, Jesus loves and treats gentiles and tax-collectors in the same way he loves God and himself.

How have you experienced conflict in your church community? Has it been dealt with in healthy, lifegiving ways or has it been avoided or even blown up disproportionately? How might Jesus and Paul’s instructions help us to deal with conflict appropriately in our churches, families and workplaces?

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