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When I was in my twenties, I lived for a year in an intentional Christian community: five young adults who worked for social justice, shared communal meals, and gathered to pray together. The first few months were quite an adventure; but after a while, the shiny newness began to wear off: mealtime filled with silence and slights, prayer services spoken with stiff words as quickly as we could get through them. We certainly weren’t being intentional Christians.
Here in Matthew’s Gospel, we have the whole of chapter 18 devoted to our life as community. Jesus makes the same point over and over: the life of community – the family of God – is the most important thing because it’s as a community that we participate in God’s Kingdom.
Generally, no one has a problem with that idea: that it’s as a community that we experience living into God’s presence. It's one reason so many people come to church in the first place: we like the idea of belonging. We imagine something out of that old TV show Cheers, “the place where everybody knows your name.” But even in that Boston bar, it was a messy community: they had to deal with cranky, pessimistic Carla and be psychoanalyzed by Frazer.
In last week’s Gospel Jesus tells us “If a member of God’s family sins against you…” He gives us a 3-step process to follow to remain in relationship with each other when conflict arises: speak privately, then bring along someone who can be unbiased and listen to both sides, and finally go back to the beginning and start your relationship anew.
In this week's Gospel, Peter asks how many times are we do go through this 3-step process with someone? Because there has to be a limit to forgiveness, right? Jesus's response: forgiveness is unlimited. We never are to write off another child of God from being in our beloved community. We are always to work at forgiveness.
Forgiveness is one of the hardest tasks for Christians to manage, and yet, forgiveness is at the core of who we are, a people forgiven through the death of God’s Son. I write this knowing that today our country observes the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9-11, that there are millions who are unable to forgive the actions done on that day. I write knowing that everyone of us bears the scars of sins done by others: hurts, abuses, pains that have wounded our very souls.
There is no absolutely no way we can follow Jesus and move forward living in community if we do not practice a life of limitless forgiveness.
Blessings,
Rev. Jill
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In Case You Missed It:
If you would like to hear it again,
here is Rev. Jill's sermon from August 23
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