Welcoming Sinners Home: sermon from Sept. 7, 2008

Here is a copy of the sermon I delivered on Sunday, Sept. 7th at Maple Grove Lutheran Church. It points to the hard work required of us when it comes to forgiving others.
Peace,
Pr. Durk
Now for a few minutes I invite you to turn with me to Matthew’s gospel reading. When we hear this gospel reading from Matthew this morning we may have several reactions. First, it may sound like a great, but hard method to go through for reconciliation- how could a person of faith pull this off? Second, we might jump to the conclusion that this is a method for getting rid of a difficult member of the church.

In fact, some may see in this reading support for the Amish practice of shunning. If a person in the Amish community commits a major offense such as adultery or murder, they are banned from the community or shunned. Back in the late 1990s an Amish man in Pennsylvania abused three girls. Instead of being sentenced to jail time the judge put the man on six months probation saying that the punishment he was receiving from his church was sufficient. You see the Amish church decided to deal with him by temporarily excommunicating him, taking his house away from him, and then requiring him to enter a daily program where church leaders would work with him to change his life around so that he could eventually be part of the Amish community again.

Well, we may or may not be surprised to hear that Jesus’ teaching takes us in a different direction than the reactions I’ve just mentioned. In our Matthew reading today Jesus is actually teaching us more about restoring church members into the community of the church. Not kicking out, not treating someone as an outsider, but approaching or confronting or working closely with a member to keep them in the church. So, if you are hurt, injured, or insulted in some way by another member of the church, go directly to that person. In doing so you will work out forgiveness in Christ and may regain that member into the church, the body of Christ.

This act of regaining or restoring is expressed in family life in many ways. For example, if I could highlight my family for a moment…In my family with my wife and our two teenage children life is filled with joy and fun along with challenges that come with disagreements. We do have two teenagers after all! There are those times when we celebrate and so thankful for being together as a family, especially when we agree on something. And, then, there are those times when we disagree and times when someone’s feelings are hurt. We try…and we not perfect here…but we try to approach one another in love and grace to make amends, to apologize and have forgiveness. This is, no doubt true, for many families. Regaining and restoring relationships occur on a daily basis.

Here at MGLC we often refer to our congregation as a family. As a family in Christ we have the joy of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and our faith in Christ. We have times of joy and celebration, moments of success as a congregation, ministries that flourish and take off. Yet, as a congregation, as a family, we also face challenging times. Financial challenges or realities of recent staff cuts. The task of managing our land as an investment- the land we are looking forward to selling. When we face these struggles feelings can be hurt. Questions raised. Egos bruised. Relationship broken. People leaving. Unfortunately, our congregation is not alone. This reality is true for churches everywhere throughout the world. Life in the family, life in a congregation is filled with the wonderful times and the challenging times at the same time. At all times, Jesus teaching and example of forgiveness can give us hope. Give us strength and courage.

If you look back with me to the early church at Matthew’s time you will see a church suffering greatly. Faced huge challenges. Endured strife and division. Egos were on the line. Tension grew between Jewish and Gentile Christians. The direction of the church was continually challenged. For example, just before our reading today the disciples come up to Jesus and are wondering who the greatest is. Really…”Jesus, who is the greatest disciple among us? Jesus says you must be humble like a child to live in the kingdom of God. Jesus then addresses the problem of temptation to sin. He warns against anyone who would tempt another to sin or to fall. And then, Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep. The kingdom is like the shepherd who leaves his 99 sheep to go and find the 1 sheep who was lost. He rejoices more over the one who was lost than the 99 who remained. In all his teachings, Jesus gives correction and direction in living together in the church. Humility and, above all, forgiveness.

One of the huge challenges of the early church centered on sin and forgiveness. There were people in the church who sinned. Who offended or hurt other church members. In response to this Jesus teaches that we need to approach the person who has offended, call that person to repent, and offer forgiveness. He even goes so far as to offer a step by step approach to this: You heard the method read: go one-on-one to confront the offender. If this doesn’t work take two or three witnesses with you. If that doesn’t work, take it to the whole church. Finally, if that doesn’t work, treat that person as a Gentile or tax collector- a person who deserves ongoing outreach, love, and care… Then, you may have noticed, right after this teaching Peter walks up to Jesus and asks him how often he should forgive. As many as seven times. Not seven times, but seventy times seven. Completely.

The late Edna Hong, a writer and translator at St. Olaf College, wrote a book entitled Forgiveness is a Work as Well as a Grace. In her book she says that forgiveness is more than saying “I’m sorry or excuse me or don’t worry about it or it’s OK. It is intentional reconciliation between two people

To bad news this morning is this. All to often we fail to do the hard work. We avoid it or run from it or cut ourselves off from each other. By doing do we withhold forgiveness and even rob the forgiveness that another can offer.

The good news is that Jesus has forgiven us for all our sins. Through his blood and death on the cross and his resurrection and our baptism into his death and resurrection we receive the awesome gift of forgiveness. A gift we are called to use with each other in the church and many, many others outside of the church.

Right now, this morning, I ask you to recall the last time someone approached you and let you know that you hurt or offended them. The last time someone walked right up to you and let you know how you wronged them? How did it go? Did you find yourself repenting, letting them know how sorry you are? And, recall the last time you walked right up to someone and let them know that they had offended or hurt you? How did that go or turn out? No matter how it turns out, Jesus does not want us to give up on the relationship. We should continue to try and reach out to the other person. He wants us to restoring sinners back into the church.

So, here is the challenge today. If you are aware of a broken relationship you have with someone here at church, please by grace of Christ, seek them out and talk and seek forgiveness. If you find yourself approached by someone, please by grace of Christ, listen and humbly be open to reconciliation.

After all, we are family here, right?