A sermon preached September 4, 2011

By the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector

As people go back to school, I hope many of you got your homework done and are ready to indicate (during the Offertory) the areas of mission in which you serve in your daily lives. As I look at the Five Marks of Mission:

·        To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom

·        To teach, baptize and nurture new believers

·        To respond to human need by loving service

·        To seek to transform unjust structures of society

·        To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

I am struck that underlying each one is a deep sense of community and love …for God, for others, for our society, and for all the creation. It makes me aware of how we are called to be “people of peace” and a “community of love”. We’re not just an assortment of individuals, operating independently and in isolation, but we’re called to be a community of God’s people living in relationship with one another, loving one another and all that God has made. We are each unique, necessary parts of the same body, the community of love, and we’re called to use our different gifts to contribute to the common good.

In the Romans reading today, Paul tells us to “love one another” and to “love our neighbor as ourselves”. It’s like if we really are people of peace and a community of love, then we will not break God’s commandments, because (KJV) “love worketh no ill to his neighbor”. The thing is we know it’s really hard not to break God’s commandments. It’s really hard to be a person of peace and a community of love. Sometimes it seems especially hard to be that in the church. God knows that about us, and God knows how destructive it is to the congregation when people in the church are not repentant and reconciled.  

This is why in Matthew’s gospel Jesus gives us such an explicit pattern for reconciliation in the church: First, he says to go privately to the one who has committed the offense and confront them. If the two of you can’t work it out, then take a few others with you to help both parties speak the truth, hear clearly, and act fairly. If repentance and reconciliation still don’t happen, then take the matter to the church. Now here’s the zinger…If the offender still doesn’t repent, “treat him like a heathen and publican”. Some might take this to mean shun him—cast him out of the community. But if we think about what Jesus would do, we must  remember he befriended outcasts and sinners. Perhaps this means we should simply start over in the reconciling process and give the one who offends another chance to repent. Hopefully in the process, we can begin to see our own contributions to the problem, because as the saying goes, “it takes two to tango”.

In any case when, for Christ’s sake, we work at reconciliation and also whenever we’re engaged in mission, we can be assured we’re not alone, because Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them.” With his strengthening presence, we can be people of peace and a community of love. Amen.