Ezekiel 33:7-11; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20
Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Prophet Ezekiel
I did something a little bit different on September 10. There was a lot of scripture, so I thought it would be helpful to present all of these texts
because they all speak to the community that is Christ’s Church. These
scriptures remind us that God is in charge, God loves us, and we are to
approach one another with love, just as God loves us. This is the basis for
Christian community. So, I’m going to offer a little bit of commentary before
or after each of these texts, and then I’ll bring them all together in my
sermon.
Ezekiel 33:7-11
7 So
you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear
a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8 If
I say to the wicked, “O wicked ones, you shall surely die,” and you do not
speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their
iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. 9 But
if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their
ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your
life.
10 Now
you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: “Our transgressions
and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we
live?” 11 Say to them, As I live, says the
Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the
wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways;
for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Exegesis
It’s important to remember that the
voice of a true prophet is not always welcome. Prophets call for repentance;
they foretell God’s judgment. They do this when times are good. They call on
the powerful and the rich to change their ways. But in desperate times, the
prophets offer comfort to those who are afflicted. When all hope seems lost,
the prophets remind God’s chosen people, Israel, that God is still with them.
In
this passage, God speaks to the prophet Ezekiel. God calls Ezekiel to be the
sentinel, to warn the chosen people, Israel, that is about to face God’s wrath.
Yet even in the face of impending doom, punishment is never the goal. God says:
“I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” The goal is always
reconciliation. Before that can happen, the people must repent; they must turn
away from their sinfulness and turn back towards God. In this case, it’s
Ezekiel’s responsibility to take that message to the people.
Pre-Exegesis
The next reading comes from Paul’s
letter to the Romans. This section of the letter lays out some ethical
guidelines for living in community with one another; that is, a set of rules to
maintain harmony. Reconciliation and watchfulness are two important themes in
this passage.
Romans 13:8-14
8 Owe
no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law. 9 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.” 10 Love does no wrong to a
neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
11 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; 12 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; 13 let us live
honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and
licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead,
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify
its desires.
Exegesis
The
prophet Ezekiel was appointed as a sentinel, a watchman for Israel. So, too,
the members of the Christian community in Rome must be watchful. They must
refrain from doing the things that could destroy the community, so they have to
be awake to the temptation to give in to their own desires. They must do this
in order to present to the world a vision of the reconciliation that may be
accomplished in and through Christ.[1] That is, they must live in
a way that proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pre-Exegesis
In
our reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus gives the disciples some
instructions for dealing with conflict in the church. Jesus simply knows there
will be conflict. And even with a set of instructions from Jesus, this work is
really hard.
Matthew 18:15-20
15 “If
another member of the church[a] sins
against you,[b] go
and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to
you, you have regained that one.[c] 16 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. 17 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. 18 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. 19 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. 20 For where two or
three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Sermon
Good morning. When I was in seminary, I joined a group
called the Preaching Association. This was a group of students and recent
seminary graduates who were interested in doing pulpit supply. The only
requirement to join this group—really, it was an email list—the only
requirement was that you had to have completed the course called homiletics.
That’s the class where they teach you how to preach. It’s one of the most
important classes you take in seminary, for obvious reasons. And you really
need to have some training in homiletics before you go out on pulpit supply
engagements—also for obvious reasons!
The pulpit supply gigs that I got through the Preaching
Association really helped me to find my voice as a preacher. It also provided
me with some extra income that I really needed in the time between graduation
from seminary and my first call to ministry. And I was much better equipped for
that call because of all of the preaching that I did. I know this was true for
many of my classmates, too. I’m also sure that most of us weren’t brilliant in
our preaching. That was fine. It was the experience that was most important and
it was wonderful that so many congregations invited us in and offered us that
chance.
Most of the time it was wonderful. But sometimes it was a
disaster.
About once a year, an email would go out to everyone in the
Preaching Association. We were cautioned not to be a prophetic voice in the
pulpit. It was a gentle reminder that we were guest preachers and not the
pastors of these congregations. You see, every once in a while, some member of
the Preaching Association would become convinced that there was a message that these
congregations needed to hear. And then that guest preacher would come into the
pulpit and spout fire and brimstone, telling the congregation: “You need to
change!”
It never went well. On Monday or Tuesday, after that
fire-and-brimstone sermon was preached, that email would go out again, reminding
us not to be a prophetic voice. The problem is that there’s a difference
between being a preacher and being a pastor; one is a job, the other is a
relationship. The guest preacher is not in a relationship with that
congregation; the guest preacher doesn’t really know what that congregation
needs to hear.
I offer this story for a couple reasons. First, when I came
here to Rehoboth last October, a number of people took me aside and told me
some version of, “you need to give these people a good talking to!” That is, I
needed to scold this congregation in some way. Nobody ever defined what the
scolding was supposed to be, but I wasn’t going to do it because I didn’t know
any of you well enough, nor do I think that’s a healthy way to treat a
congregation.
Even still, most of us pastors don’t really want to take on
a prophetic voice, either. While I stand here, almost every Sunday, and tell
you to get outside these walls and be the Church, I do it gently. I don’t stand
here and shout, “Repent! The end is nigh!” Should I do that? Should I shout
more? I don’t know.
The truth is, sometimes pastors are afraid of their
congregations. We’re afraid of pushing you too hard. We’re afraid that you’ll
stop coming to worship or that you might withhold your offerings. And
sometimes, pastors are afraid to preach really difficult messages because, hey,
I could lose my job. I have these student loans to repay and if I lose this
job… I imagine it’s even worse for those pastors who live in manses—push the
congregation too hard and you could be out of a job and out of a house.
I don’t mean to stand up here and complain about how hard I
have it. What I’m trying to do is work toward an understanding of how we got
here; how we got to the point where our pews are half full, on a good Sunday.
And also, why it is so difficult for us to change, why we have so much trouble
adapting to the world outside of the church?
The Apostle Paul begins his letter to the Romans with a
very counter-cultural statement: “Owe no one anything, except to love one
another.” Paul is speaking with a prophetic voice; he is telling the
congregations in Rome to set aside all of the rules for relationships in
Greco-Roman society. But I don’t think we hear the radical nature of this
message. When I hear the word, “owe,” I think of monetary debts. Certainly,
that would have been true for the congregations in Rome, but it really cuts
much deeper.
First and foremost, everybody owed their allegiance to the
emperor. Beyond that, there existed a complicated web of relationships among
all levels of society. Everyone owed his or her position in life to someone who
was more powerful. A merchant or a shopkeeper would always have a wealthy
patron. The patron would direct friends and relatives to purchase things from
that shopkeeper. That shopkeeper was obligated to pay rent and pay allegiance
to that patron, no matter what. If the patron offended someone more powerful,
the shopkeeper could also lose customers because he or she was connected to
that patron. And if the patron offended the emperor, he could lose his property
and even his life. Then all of the clients, family members, and shopkeepers who
depended upon that patron would lose their place in Roman society. They would
be without someone to give them protection. So, loyalty was life; everyone owed
some form of debt to the patron.
But Paul throws all of this to the wind; Paul calls for
radical equality among all Christians: “Owe no one anything, except to love one
another.” In Christian community, there is no patron-client relationship. There
are no financial debts, nor are there any debts of honor. Paul is sending this
message to congregations that include wealthy and powerful patrons, middle
class merchants and shopkeepers, and even slaves. He is telling them to live
without any debt obligations to one another. Paul is telling them to let go of
everything that marks their place in society, every bit of identity that comes
from wealth or power, or relationships to people who hold wealth and power:
This is the
transformation of the mind Paul writes about in Romans 12:1-2; it is the way
they are to give witness to the life that has died to sin and participates in
the life of the Spirit as Paul writes in Romans 6-8….
To owe nothing but love
to one another is to own the reality that we all are completely dependent on
God’s grace for not only our forgiveness, but for our very existence, and it
reframes how we live in relation to one another in our everyday interactions.[2]
This makes all of the
old relationships and the old debts much less important. This was a radical
departure from the world as they knew it. In this way, the Church would be the
light of the world.[3]
That is, Christians’ lives were transformed by living into God’s grace. At the
same time, their lives shone like a beacon to non-believers; they showed that
transformation through Christ was available to all.
We are still called to that life in Christian community.
But something changed along the way. The Church was a countercultural
institution, but over the centuries, the Church adapted to the world around it.
The truth is, the Church is too well
adapted to this culture. The church as it is now is a product of this
culture. It’s just one activity out of many in the week.
Our lives have become busy and cluttered. Instead of being
a radical, countercultural community, we want church to be a place of comfort,
a place where everything is nice and neat and we all feel welcome. We want to
feel good about ourselves before, during, and after worship. We want church to
be peaceful and orderly. We don’t want conflict and we don’t want any change
that’s difficult. But we can see the empty spaces in the pews, so we choose
easy changes. We start a praise band, because it seems entertaining. And then
we play Christian catchy praise music—that sounds just like pop music. We seek
entertainment, not transformation.
If this church is to survive, then we have to reclaim the
countercultural nature of the church. We have to live transformed lives where
wealth and status don’t matter. We have to live with the love and joy of Christ
and we have to share that with every member of this community. We have to
support one another in every way that we can. And then we have to reach out to
those people who don’t have community, those who are excluded, those who feel
they’ve been left behind, for whatever reason, and share that love with them.
That won’t be easy.
There will be conflict.
If we reach out to people outside of these walls, people
who are different from us, there will be friction within this community and
there will be friction with the new folks we meet. You know what? That’s fine!
That’s what’s supposed to happen. Jesus knows it will happen. That’s why he
teaches us how to resolve conflicts and be reconciled to one another. If we try
to make this church a place that is free of conflict, then we’re not living
into our call to be the church. Likewise, if we avoid the brokenness outside of
our walls, we’re not living into our call to be the church! So, let us mend the
breaches in this congregation, and then go forth, into the brokenness around
us, and shine with the transformative light of Christ’s love. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Benediction
Now, beloved, as you depart from this place, remember that
we are called to be the Church, the body of Christ in the world, the world
today. We are called to practice love and grace here in this congregation, and
then we are sent into the world to continue practice love and grace. This is what
it means to go forth and be instruments of God’s love and peace and love and reconciliation.
Do not return evil for evil to any person, but know that we are all loved by
God, and that we are called to reflect that love to everyone we meet. Go forth
and be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. In the name of Jesus
Christ, our Lord, let all God’s children say, Amen!
[1]
Kyle Fever, “Commentary on Romans 13:8-14,” retrieved from: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3401
[2]
Fever.
[3]
Fever.
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