St. George's Episcopal Church
Roseburg, Oregon
The Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 18A
4 September 2005
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Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149:1-9
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA)
“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. 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. 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. 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. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:15-20)
Love Thy Sin
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector
Not long ago I was in a toy store, and saw a little boy about eight or nine years old shopping with his mother for a birthday gift for another child. Mom apparently knew what she wanted, and where to find it. She kept glancing at her watch, indicating that this trip to the toy store was a small part of the day’s activities. Her son, on the other hand, was bouncing off the walls. He was looking at everything, walking – no, running – down the aisles, keeping up a non-stop chatter with his Mom about this toy he had seen on TV, and how much he really needed that action figure for his collection.
Mom kept calling her son to follow her, but aisle after aisle of treasured toys was too much for the boy. He dallied here and there and eventually became separated from her. Exasperated, Mom came back, found her son holding yet another toy in his hands, and before the boy could say anything, in a flash of anger, she swung her arm back and landed a swat on the boy’s backside. “I told you to stop fooling around. Now let’s get going!” The boy dropped what he was holding, and looked at his mother, his face showing nothing but bewilderment. He went limp. I don’t think he had ever been hurt by his mother in quite that way before. Their primal bond was ruptured in that moment, and their relationship was forever altered. The child had lost his innocence.
The Bible of course tells us about the first great loss of innocence: the Fall of Adam and Eve from the grace of God, and their subsequent expulsion from the Garden of Eden.[1] One thing that makes this story great is that it tells the truth about the way things are. For one, the story tells us that we are free to make choices, and that we have to live with them. For another, it tells us that we have an amazing capacity to choose to do stupid, selfish things that are ruinous for us, our family, our town, our school, and for ourselves. Some people label this tendency “sin.” St. Augustine certainly believed that the human tendency to choose evil instead of good was “sin,” and his account of the Fall has become the principal western Christian explanation of sin as an act of individual disobedience to God’s will. But this view of sin is not supported by the Biblical record. Indeed, there are three different words to describe sin in the Hebrew Bible that deal with everything from falling short or missing the mark, to breaking the commandments, to outright rebellion against God. But all three of the Hebrew words refer to actions that go against God’s will. They refer to events that lead to our separation from God.[2]
If we define sin as something that separates us from God, and if we believe that all of us are God’s children, then sin becomes that which separates us from one another. It is also something that separates us from ourselves.
Laurie is a 16-year old ex-cheerleader and honor student.[3] She was the last person you would expect to be in the psychiatric unit of the hospital under 24 hour suicide watch after overdosing on drugs. When questioned about her behavior, she said, “I don’t know. I just didn’t care. I mean, I didn’t care if I lived, or woke up dead. I mean it was like, whatever.”
His Dad told the cops that if his boy got into trouble again, to lock him up; being in jail would teach him a lesson. So when Terry was arrested for the fourth time and was carted off to jail he said, “I was like, whatever. Take me to jail. I don’t care!”
How do we deal with young people – or anyone for that matter – who seems to have such disdain for life and living? Do what you want, say what you want, it’s not like I’m listening to you, or that you’re listening to me. And if you do, what are the chances that you’ll actually understand me. Whatever!
Most of the time whatever seems to come from grunge teens wearing baggy pants and large Tee shirts who are listening to some thumping tunes on the iPod.® They often have some tattoos on their hips, backs, shoulders, or chests, or on the small of their back right above the thong that’s showing above their hip huggers. But feeling whatever is not restricted to the young.
All of us from time to time feel estranged from family members, friends, lovers, spouses, children, or other relatives. Something goes wrong, somebody says something or does something, and boom! It’s like whatever!
I think “whatever” is a modern-day expression of sin. Its two syllables speak volumes about estrangement from one another, from ourselves, and from God. It expresses despondency, aloneness, and despair.
We don’t talk enough about sin in church because it is a hard topic that we don’t want acknowledge, let alone claim.
In her book, Speaking of Sin, Barbara Brown Taylor makes the case “sin” has no meaning for us anymore. For example, some claim that the basic human problems of self-centeredness and willful disobedience are not sins, but sickness. But “when sickness is substituted for sin, then we are given license to shift the blame from ourselves to something else. This is not to say that there are not biological causes of selfish behavior or that traumatic events from childhood do not affect us. But over application of the medical metaphor of sin lets us off the hook of accountability. The implication is that the bad stuff we do is not really our fault. Like Flip Wilson’s Geraldine, “The devil made me do it.”
Another approach to the basic human problem of self-centeredness and willful disobedience is a legal one. In this case, the human problem is a crime instead of a sickness. In the legal system, we are responsible for breaking the rules that govern all human behavior. Regardless of whether we had a traumatic childhood or have a brain chemical imbalance, we are expected to avoid lives of crime. We are not to sin. And if we fail, and do commit the sin or the crime, we will face the consequences. In this model, sin is understood as willful misbehavior, and no situation is considered extenuating. You are either a sheep or a goat.
But the fact is, sin is neither a sickness nor a crime. What it is, is a wrecked relationship with our spouses, our children, our friends, our lovers, the world around us, or with God. But the important thing to remember about sin is that no matter how we cause or get trapped in the wreckage, we are not doomed by it. We can choose to respond to what has happened to us. We might “learn how to live with tragedy or spend our lives dying from them … [We might] decide to forgive our enemies or let our hatred of them continue to run our lives.” Basically, the choice to remain in a wrecked relationship with each other or with God is what I would call “sin.” It is not a violation of laws, but rather it is a violation of relationship. Sin is an unhealthy relationship, and like a festering wound, it needs to be exposed and treated. The process of repairing the wrecked relationship is what repentance is all about.
Sin can also be our ally. Sin is the sensory organ that helps us recognize when something is wrong in our relationship. If we are willing to own our sin, and not place the blame elsewhere, then we have taken the first step toward setting the relationship right again.
The passage from Matthew describes a three step process for repentance, and it begins with confrontation. Matthew does not espouse the kind of phony harmony that leaves wounds untended or sweeps abuse under the carpet in the name of Christian (or domestic) peace. We Christians are particularly good at replacing honest open love with being nice. Matthew recognizes that to initiate the process of reconciliation, direct confrontation is required. By implication, Matthew argues against the strategy of gossiping to someone else about some offense. Every community in every generation needs to learn to deal with the issue where it belongs. Although there may be occasions when one must go directly to the authorities instead of acting directly, it is never right to engage in self indulgent gossip.
In the next two steps, the process of repentance increasingly involves the community to work out a solution. Quiet diplomacy is used to heal wounds in the community before they cause public scandal.
Jesus tells us that if the offender finally refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be as a Gentile and a tax collector. This sounds harsh doesn’t it? It doesn’t sound very reconciling.[4] But wait a minute! Is this not the same person who ate with Gentiles, and welcomed a tax collector as a disciple? It is clear from the whole Gospel that Jesus is saying that even though a sinner may have cut him or herself off from the community and made him or herself into an outsider, the community is to offer them the same kind of relationship that Jesus offered to outsiders. It is not the task of the community to shun the sinner – which unfortunately is something that some religious communities do. Rather is it to love the sinner just like Jesus invited outsiders, outcasts, and sinners to eat with him, to sit with him, to learn from him. Whenever we reach out to others and minister to them like this, we are showing love to one another; we are showing that the separated person is a person of deep worth.
Insult and injury demand justice. But how do we obtain justice in a way that respects the sinner? We do this by using our sin-sensory organ to recognize the need for repentance and reconciliation. It begins with our decision to return to relationship. It begins with an understanding that we are called to do that which increases life for all members of our community. TIt begins when we move beyond "whatever." his will involve painful, but life-transforming change. Sin therefore is not the enemy. Sin becomes our hope.
It helps us recognize that we aren’t perfect, and neither is anybody else. It becomes the alarm that sounds when we have disconnected from ourselves, or distanced ourselves from each other, or separated ourselves from God. It calls us back to the possibility of true repentance. Sin is what propels us to do what we do best: to love one another.
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The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the LORD. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
1 Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful.
2 Let Israel be glad in its Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.
4 For the LORD takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with victory.
5 Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters
and their nobles with chains of iron,
9 to execute on them the judgment decreed.
This is glory for all his faithful ones.
Praise the LORD!
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet”; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
“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. 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. 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. 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. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
[1] I am indebted to the work of Barbara Brown Taylor. Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation. ( Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2000) 41-67.
[2] The three words are chatah, avah, and pasha. Chatah is the most often used and refers to missing the moral mark or going astray. Avah refers to violations of the commandments. Pasha refers to open rebellion against God. See Barbara Brown Taylor. Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation. ( Cambridge, MA: Cowley Publications, 2000) 48-49.
[3] The stories of Lauri and Terry were adapted from Elliot Currie. The Road to Whatever: Middle Class Culture and the Crisis of Adolescence. ( New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2005) as quoted in “The Whatever Culture” Homiletics 17(5):11-15, 2005.
[4] Most scholars believe that these sayings did not originate with Jesus, but represent insertions by the early church to deal with deviant behavior.
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Copyright © 2005, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
2 September 2005
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