Pentecost 12

Good Morning and welcome! It’s great to be back in our Collegiate Street Church after a very productive summer. I hope all had a chance to get away and relax and enjoy the summer heat. It certainly was the year of hatch, match and dispatch at our heritage church—we had a baptism, funeral and a couple of weddings.

I’d like to begin this morning by sharing with you a neat little story that was sent to me by Mary Lobb. I’ll read it now:

When I was a kid, my mum liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mum placed a plate of eggs, sausage, and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mum, and ask me how my day was at school.

I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember hearing my mum apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits."

Later that night, I went to kiss Dad good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your mum put in a long hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides... a burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"

You know, life is full of imperfect things... and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other’s faults and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences, is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

So...please pass me a biscuit. And yes, the burned one will do just fine! And please pass this along to someone who has enriched your life... I just did!

Life is too short to wake up with regrets... Love the people who treat you right and forget about the ones who don't.

Enjoy life now - it has an expiration date!

There’s a real truth in that, isn’t there? “Enjoy life, it has an expiration date.” I share the story with you because of its inherent connection to the Gospel passage today. Jesus has just finished teaching about the importance of the one, of how much the individual matters….the parable speaks of the lost sheep and how the shepherd leaves the flock to search out the one missing.

In today’s teaching, Jesus turn His attention to the community, those who are members of the same faith group, those who make up what we know of as the “Church,” or, according to The Apostle Paul, the Body of Christ. The teaching is about forgiveness, and how we treat those in the community when they commit sin against one another.

The particular sin is not described here so you would have to assume it could be anything. In the case of community, though, it may involve a triangle of relationships, where one in the relationship says something to anger or hurt another member. In frustration, one of the two turns to a third and hopes to gain support. Unfortunately, advice can be misunderstood, causing more damage. Often, in the life of the Church, one of the deadliest sins in community is gossip or breakdowns of communication. People may become separated from each other due to inaccurate messages and many times those messages may have been misunderstood. The actual truth is not known or ignored.

And so, says Jesus, 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. Then, Jesus says that if in fact the member does not listen, take along one or two others with you, so there are witnesses. If that is ineffective, Jesus says take it to the Church, the gathered Body. If there is no luck there, Jesus says we are to treat the offender as an outsider. So, it appears, there are three opportunities to restore a relationship, starting with offender and victim.

As one commentator suggested, this is most certainly a problem for the Church, especially if someone is expelled or treated as an outsider. Those familiar with the Book of Common Prayer will recall a rubric dealing with Communion. I quote:

“The Minister shall frequently remind the people of what is required of those who come to receive the Lord’s Supper, as set forth in the Catechism and Exhortations.

“It shall also be his duty to warn individually any whom he knows to be living in grievous sin that they presume not to come to the Lord’s Table until they give evidence that they truly repent; and if they do not heed his warning, he shall refuse to administer the Communion to them.

“He shall deal in the same manner with those between whom he perceives malice and hatred to exist, not allowing them to be partakers of the Lord’s Table until they be reconciled. But if one of the parties is willing to forgive, and, to the best of his ability, to make whatever amends may be proper, and the other party refuses to do so, the Minister shall admit the penitent person to the Holy Communion and refuse him that is obstinate.” (Book of Common Prayer, University Press, Cambridge, 1962)

This rubric is still in force today and you can read it in the preface to the Holy Communion in the BCP ahead of page 67. I must admit this rubric and the Gospel passage from today have troubled me over the years. Usually, if this scenario happens, the offender simply leaves. I have heard of this and while this may be acceptable to the victim, the offender is free to reoffend and may not learn or grow in the process. Yet, for me, the troubling question is “What must we do with the offender in order that the person is restored?” You see, unless something can be learned from the incident, in my opinion only a partial healing occurs and someone, somewhere, has been treated like an outsider. The offending individual has not learned and may continue to reoffend in a new environment, or worse, simply leave the “Church.”

Certainly, in the case of the First Nations and Indigenous community, many individuals did just that after their time at Residential Schools, but many who left were not the offenders but the ones who were offended against. Today, in my conversations with some of them, the Church is perceived to be the cause.

The outsider in this case, the offender, may blame the Church for all that went wrong instead of the important work of looking at himself or herself and the actual reasons for what went wrong…in this case human individuals committing acts of horror—physical, sexual and spiritual abuse. As Paul states in his letter to the Romans, it is important to have a Christian ethic, an ethic of love, as it is love that fulfills the law. This is what students needed to hear in the schools. This is a message we all need to hear.

“Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Paul then goes on to give this advice. “Let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” (Romans 13:13, 14)

Having said all of that we hearken back to the early story of forgiveness…perhaps the cookie is burned, but maybe, just maybe, we need to overlook the faults, the imperfections of others and accept forgiveness when offered and offer it when we have offended. You see, when we do this, we demonstrate that we understand the full message of the Gospel, that no human being is perfect. In fact, there was only one—Jesus, and he became imperfection and took upon Him the sins of all of us, so that we would have a way to the Father, a way to eternity. It is to be a life lived as Jesus lived it, full of unconditional love.

On the surface, this may seem like pop psychology. Yet, it is not. It is not easy work sometimes to forgive. We can harbor resentment and let it build up in us. We can let it build so bad that it alienates us from many people, including family and friends and Church. Our own actions can cause others to stay away from us or avoid us when possible. To be an outsider in the faith is to be one who does not understand the importance of forgiving as Jesus forgave. Just think of the difference it would make in this world if we were able to do just that.

Putting on the Lord Jesus as Paul describes is also work…pleasant work that involves prayer and connecting through the Holy Spirit to the living Lord Jesus Christ in one’s life. It is the same Holy Spirit, working in us, that convicts us of sin. Some may talk of having a conscience…that sense comes from the inner conviction of the Holy Spirit. If we have done wrong, usually, we know it.

In the Indigenous community, we are working at healing that will take many generations. I believe strongly that healing will come to them and to us when the individual first recognizes that Jesus Himself has abused no one. His is the power of prayer and the power of healing. Jesus has not sinned against any. He is without sin. We, as Christians, are a part of Him through our baptisms, which is why Paul refers to the Church as a body. We are all connected. When one hurts, we all hurt. When one rejoices, we all rejoice. The work of putting on Jesus is all about prayer, about reading and studying our Bibles, about growing in faith and about regular attendance and connectedness to the Church, on Sundays and other days.

I have heard it said by those who leave the Church, “I am not Christian anymore.” You may choose to say that. You may even choose the leave the “Church” as you understand it to be. Christ has not left you. Your baptism cannot be wiped out like chalk by a brush. The Holy Spirit within you will continue to work and to nudge you to reconcile, preferably with the Church and certainly with whomever may have offended you or whomever you may have offended. That is what reconciliation is about: a restoration to wholeness.

I am a firm believer in restorative justice. If there is an offender in our midst, let that offender and his or her supporters’ come together with the one or ones offended, and let the community work out a solution. I have seen this happen and it is a powerful thing.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the scriptures call us to reconcile. In fact, we are to be reconcilers. Let us then take the message seriously and be found putting on Jesus Christ and bringing Him to every situation in life. It is through this reconciliation that the world will be saved and come to that peace that passes all understanding. May God bless us and move in us to practice life in Christ, a life of love.