Rector's Sermon - Sunday, September 8, 2002

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Exodus 12:1-14	119:33-40	Romans 13:8-14	Matthew 18:15-20

     Last week a parishioner gave me a page from one of those "thought for the day calendars". This particular calendar had thoughts for dads and the thought for this one day was a story about a young boy who was having trouble telling the truth. So the family joined a church and enrolled the child in Sunday School. After the first class, he was asked what he had learned, and the boy eagerly replied that the class had learned about Moses and how Moses was trapped on the shore of the Red Sea with all the tribes of Israel, but that just in time they found some canoes and escaped. The father shook his head and said, "Now son, that's not what they taught you." The boy meekly answered, "I know, but I knew you'd never believe the other story!"

     That is precisely the trouble for people of faith. Most of the pivotal stories in the Bible are really unbelievable. Yet the effect of these unbelievable stories yields unbelievable courage, strength, and blessing.

     Matthew's Gospel from which our reading came today, was a Gospel originally written for a Christian body that was experiencing a lot of dissension and controversy. The make-up of the church was changing. People were divided. Each camp was very sure that its members were the ones who were right and who knew how to carry out Jesus' true intentions and others who disagreed with them were wrong. The compiler of Matthew's Gospel wrestled with the best way to present Jesus' teachings to a wider audience while at the same time suggesting how they might help to heal the conflict in his developing Christian community.

     Today's Gospel is part of a larger section on forgiveness. Matthew cautions the church not to be too hasty about casting people out. He outlines a procedure that first tries to settle disagreements confidentially without embarrassment to either party, then if that doesn't work to try other avenues. The thrust of this procedure is that there is always a real possibility for reconciliation and a way out for both sides to be able to live with each other. Such a possibility should be given every chance.

     However, Matthew realizes that some people are so disruptive and harmful to the community, and become so unreasonable, that separation, though regrettable, has to occur for the welfare of the larger family. If all possibilities for reconciliation and peacemaking have been exhausted, then regrettably some people may have to be asked to leave. Matthew says "Let such people be treated as gentiles or a tax collectors." That is, he seems to say, shun them, treat them as outcasts.

     Wait a minute! What does Matthew really mean? The Matthew for whom the Gospel is named was himself a tax collector when Jesus called him to be a disciple. Jesus ate with tax collectors. Jesus healed gentiles and their children,. He taught them and accepted them as fellow human beings of value. They weren't pushed away or shunned.

     There is no suggestion that Jesus was oblivious to cruelty, indulgent to evil or winked at immorality. Rather, Jesus rarely gave blessing to our quick tendency to separate people into saved and damned. Jesus was reluctant to excommunicate outcasts, and his association and eating with them were precisely the things for which he was severely criticized.

     The Gospels make it very clear that Jesus was seen as a threat to a significant number of those who claimed to uphold traditional values. Jesus wasn't brought to trial simply because he healed people for free or fed huge numbers of people from a tiny picnic basket. Jesus was a threat because he seemed to question the established order of things, an order that kept people in their places.

     So what is the place for a troublemaker and a dissenter, especially in church.? I know what I'd like my answer to be, but Matthew warns us to be careful. Yes there are exceptions and extreme cases. Yet I wonder if in his own, subtle and salty way Matthew is saying, "Don't turn this into a 'canoe story.' God's love for humanity is really unbelievable."

     From a group of foreign slaves came a people who were given a call to spread God's blessing to all nations. From a group of dispirited and confused disciples, came the church. The stories of the saints are not larger than life, but they are unbelievable stories that have come to life.

     The bottom line of today's Gospel is that Matthew believed the Good News and knew that somehow reconciliation was possible; that God would help us bring enemies together and change them.

     Peace is possible over war, honesty over deception, integrity over cunning. For people of faith, the difficult we tackle right away, and the impossible just takes us a little longer. People of faith do not spurn the impossible. We all know of the effect of unbelievable evil, we can also testify to a witness of unbelievable good.

     I wonder if with scandals, and economic uncertainty, and hints of war, against a background of a week of terrifying memories, brave and unselfish heroism, and numbness and shock of our security being breached, Matthew is not offering us as important a gift and he did to his own church community weary with conflict and apprehensive of the future.

The young boy got it right. The Bible is unbelievable, but it also holds true for people of faith.

     And I offer this to you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.