Have you been in conversations in which at least one of the parties in the discussion believed they have been wronged, or harmed by another? If we go by our recent record as humans, chances are those conversations have not gone so well. A common response is for those in the conversation to keep distant from each other. That can be useful if that time is used to reflect and regroup, but if the distancing protracts, it can exchange of one kind of harm to another.
In his book The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis describes hell as a vast gray and rainy city, a city where people live only at the outer fringes. At its center sit rows and rows of empty houses. The houses are empty because those who once lived in them have quarreled with the neighbors, and moved as far from them as they could. That, Lewis suggests, is why hell is so large, as they chose distance over connection, because they could imagine no other engagement but confrontation. Remarking on this, Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that we are called to confront and make up, forgive and seek forgiveness, to throw block parties in the deserted center of hell.
Jesus sought to bring this point home to the disciples. If one of you, have a problem with another,go talk about it…just the two of you. If there is no resolution, bring a couple of other loving people along. And then, if there is no resolution, you can take it to the church. And if then, there still is no help, regard the other as a “Gentile or tax-collector.” And that begs the question…just how did Jesus regard “those” kinds of people? There’s much to digest here, and we’ll attempt to do that in worship on Sunday morning in our live stream worship. The sermon is titled, “Binding and Loosing: Building Community, Repairing Harm,” arising from Matthew 18: 15-20, which will be read by Dan and Whitney Sullivan. We’ll have a time for children, hymns, prayers, and we will share in Holy Communion virtually. Music will be provided by our sanctuary singers, directed by Gerry Sousa and accompanied by organist Nara Lee.
We look forward to connecting with you on the livestream at 10:30 am. www.smumc.church.