Year A
Ezekiel 33:7-11
Psalm 119:33-40
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20

May the words of my mouth… O God… speak your Truth…

I once attended a gathering of about three-thousand people… we met in a convention center in Washington DC… in a large auditorium… with stadium seating… sweeping down to a large stage… and at the end of one particular break… the speaker was trying to re-establish order… to herd cats as it were… and assisted by a very effective sound system… she called from her podium for everyone… wherever they were… to please stop what they were doing… and settle down… and be seated… and be quiet… so we could continue…

But for many more minutes… for what seemed like far too long… from one end of the room to the other… people kept on chatting… or walking to wherever they were going… or doing whatever they were doing… and it was almost as though I could hear each person thinking to themselves… Oh… everyone else should stop chatting… or walking… or doing… what I’m talking about… where I’m going… what I’m doing… is important… everyone else should listen to her… everyone else should settle down… everyone else should fall in line… what I’m doing won’t take long… won’t interfere… won’t disturb…

But the woman at the podium wasn’t in a hurry… she was patient… she could wait… there was an agenda… but we weren’t bound by an overly strict schedule… and in some ways… the conference agenda was less about doing… and more about being… so there was patience… there was grace you might say… there was only a little bit of interest in imposing the will of the few on the will of the many… they could wait until the collective energy in that space became more coherent… and the leaders could discern the right moment to continue…

I think we might call this God-waiting… it’s like how God juggles the difference between our free will… and God’s will… there’s a tension of sorts… a push and pull… a give and take… between our plans… and God’s plan for all of creation… there’s chronos and kairos… our time frame and God’s time frame… and like the woman at the podium… God has an agenda… but isn’t necessarily in a hurry… like the woman at the podium… God knows that people will sometimes assert their sense of agency… insist on doing what they want… even when it’s opposed to what God wants… because God knows… that in God’s time… God’s plan for all of creation will be realized… and God is not in any kind of hurry… whatsoever…

In the convention center… the goal was to establish community… but not everyone was quite ready to be a part of that community… they would… in a few minutes… but in the moment… they didn’t quite want to be held accountable… they had their own very good reasons thank you… to do what was at odds with the consensus of the community… believed perhaps deep down inside… that their goals justified what they were doing… that the ends justified the means…

I am convinced though… that we can’t have community… without some degree of accountability… we can’t expect predictability… if too many others think to themselves… Oh… everyone else should stop chatting… or walking… or doing… what I’m talking about… where I’m going… what I’m doing… is important…

And then of course… questions arise… what kind of community do we want… what’s the role of grace when it comes to accountability… the role of forgiveness… what kind of stressors can the community withstand without dis-integrating… without falling apart… how does one community’s expectations integrate into another community’s expectations… and can you be forgiving and still hold others accountable at the same time…

In the three verses immediately preceding today’s Gospel… Jesus has just told the parable of the Lost Sheep… he has just talked about the importance of going after the one who is lost… perhaps who has been misled into going another way… and today… Jesus says… If another member of the church sins against you… go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone…

Jesus might have added… I know the idea of contending with someone else really pushes your buttons… and you didn’t take that workshop on conflict resolution… but go… don’t point fingers… don’t gang up on him… don’t attack… the goal is not to win… to be right… to prove him wrong… but to reconcile… to be restored… to come together again… so when you’re alone… make yourself vulnerable… tell him how you felt when he did or said… what he did or said… make “I” statements… and be open to the possibility that you may have had a role in the conflict… and if he listens… you have regained him… you have maintained… or restored… that relationship…

And if you’re not listened to… don’t post it on FaceBook… don’t tweet about it… take one or two others… let them simply observe… let them be silent witnesses to what each of you have to say… because maybe you need to express yourself more graciously…and because where two or three are gathered together in my name… I will be there with you… and I will be a witness too…

And we must also ask… what kinds of communities are we talking about… and how smoothly do we want them to function… a family is small enough to be somewhat flexible with accountability… and is small enough to withstand some chaos without falling apart… a worshipping community… which is a little bit larger… which may have more voices vying for prominence needs to be more accountable to it’s members… and can likely withstand less chaos… a city or state requires more accountability and less chaos to maintain community… and on the national level… there’s less tolerance for chaos and a higher need for accountability… so it can function in a way that serves all of its communities in the best possible ways…

Yet on Friday night… the president said that if people vote by mail… they should also attempt to vote in person as a way to check that their vote is counted… which risks causing chaos at the polls and undermining confidence in the election… and is illegal…

Valerie Bridgeman… Professor of Homiletics and Hebrew Bible at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio writes… it calls us to examine our Christian debt… to “do no wrong” in a world where wrong stalks so many… and it means we have to figure out how to “right those wrongs”… what can it mean to “owe no one anything but love” when this nation robbed Indigenous Peoples of land and livelihood… it would be easy to say… that was so long ago… except the effects of that robbery extend into our present time… what does “love your neighbor as yourself” mean in this Black Lives Matter moment of our culture… as we grapple with centuries-old sin against black humanity… if we in fact owe one another love… then we also owe one another justice… which includes repairing the damages done… and that literally means reparation…

And Christine Chakoian… Pastor of Westwood Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles writes… the closer we get to November’s election… the harder loving your neighbor as yourself seems… it sounds plausible in a world where everyone sees eye to eye… and agrees on what’s right and wrong… but it gets dicey when these presumptions are stripped away… when one neighbor prioritizes the freedom to bear arms as an inalienable right… and another neighbor cherishes the freedom to wed their same-sex partner… they may not see eye to eye… when one neighbor promotes individual responsibility to earn a living… and another neighbor advocates minimum wage and health care for all… they may not see eye to eye… and it is harder still… when public leaders stoke the fires of distrust and contempt… though it helps to remember that in Paul’s time… Rome was not exactly a homogeneous community… but what Paul asserts is that the power of love is stronger than the power of hatred… corruption… patronage… and darkness….

So if we need reconciliation… we need it because of division in the body… and yes… we know what time it is… it’s the moment for us to wake from sleep… like the woman at the podium… God has an agenda… which is spoken through the prophet… I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked… but that the wicked turn from their ways and live… and God says this because God loves us… and love does no wrong… not even to a neighbor… because love… is the law fulfilled…