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Sermon Ecumenical Service for Christian Unity
22 January 2006 Church of the Advent
Crestwood, MO
Dan Handschy
Exodus 40:1-4, 34-38
Psalm 78:1-8
Revelation 22:1-5
Matthew 18:15-22
What a delight to be here. It has been several years since I have been involved in an ecumenical service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. When I arrived in Crestwood 13 years ago, there was a ministerial alliance in this part of South County. We had several services, sometimes for Martin Luther King Day, and sometimes for Christian Unity. But the alliance fell apart over time, and it’s been a while since we’ve done anything like this. Then Pastor Tom Schindler came to St. Thomas/Holy Spirit. We started having joint Thanksgiving Eve services. Or what really happened was that Tom invited us to join STHS for their service.
After a few years, Advent reciprocated by inviting STHS to join us
for an Ascension Day service. Then last Thanksgiving, Fr. Joe saw he sign at STHS, and came in to see what was going on. After the
service, we three talked a little, and Joe said we should do
something for Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, so here we are.
I was delighted when he called and asked me to be involved.
Of course, the service is on the web site for Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity, and it suggests that someone beside the pastor of the host congregation be invited to preach, so I shouldn’t have
been surprised when Fr. Joe invited me. But don’t worry; I’m a
huge Denver Broncos fan, so this won’t be a long sermon.
I always enjoy a preaching challenge, and we’ve got one
today. I’m sure the people who put this service together had
their reasons for chosing the lessons, but they certainly chose a gospel reading that has a difficult history of interpretation.
Matthew includes this saying of Jesus twice in his Gospel: I
assure you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in
heaven. In Chapter 16, it addressed just to Peter, and here it
addressed to all the disciples. In its long and complicated history, the passage from Matthew 16 was used as a defense for the
position of the papacy, and so here we are, reading this passage
in a Catholic Church, and I am in this pulpit at the invitation of my Catholic brother, Fr. Joe. Is that a challenge, or what?
Probably, this passage was chosen because of the saying about
two or three begin gathered in the name of Jesus - Jesus is in the midst of them. And here we are, three or four congregations,
gathered in Jesus’ name, and we can be sure of his presence here.
But medieval theologians and Catholic theologians after the European reformations used this passage to claim that the power to
forgive sins was reserved to the papacy. The pope delegated this
power to the bishops, who in their turn delegated it to the priests. But it is the pope who had the jurisdiction for the
forgiveness of sins. Luther and others didn’t want an
intermediary between the believer and God when it came to forgiveness of sins. And so here we are, right at the heart of
the great disputes between the denominations. Who has the power
to forgive sins? God alone, the priest, the pope? Here I am, an Aglican, a product of the European reformations, preaching in the
pulpit of a Catholic parish at the invitation of my Catholic
brother. How do we deal with the mess?
So, I want to look at this saying in a different way. I’m
not even going to make the argument that in Matthew’s Gospel, it
is addressed once to Peter, and once to the twelve, and that in John’s Gospel, it is addressed to all the disciples. We can argue
all day, and indeed we have been arguing for centuries, about just
what that all means. I want us to look at it as words to live by, rather than a church rule.
This saying comes in the middle of other instructions. If you read the Gospels, you will be surprised to discover that Jesus
does not very often address his disciples with community rules.
This is the only one I can find: If someone in your parish has something against you, go try to work it out between you and them
alone, and if that doesn’t work, take one or two others, so that
every word can stand on two witnesses, and if that doesn’t work, bring it before the whole parish, and if that doesn’t work, then
break relationship. I assure you, whatever you hold onto on earth
is held onto in heaven, and whatever you let go of on earth is let go of in heaven. It doesn’t say, if someone in your parish
has something against you, go talk to your best friend. It
doesn’t say, to talk to the head of the parish council. It doesn’t even say, go talk to the pastor. It says, go talk to your
sister or brother. Imagine how quickly gossip would disappear if
we followed this rule!
But even more importantly, I think it’s just plain good
advice. Whatever you hold on to is held on to. Dear Abby once
said that holding a grudge was like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die! We have to decide what sins (of others)
are worth holding on to and which ones we can let go of -- but the
consequence is for us as much as for them. Peter, of course it’s always Peter who jumps in without thinking things through, asks,“How many times am I supposed to do this? Seven times?” That’s
once a day for a week -- a good round number. And Jesus replies, seventy times seven -- essentially an unlimited number of times.
I don’t think that means we let ourselves get walked on, but it
does mean we have to decide what’s worth holding on to and what we can let go of. If my alcoholic friend rips me off one more time,
I may have to let him be like a Gentile and a tax-collector to me.
But if old so-and-so, the parish grump is just being grumpy, do I want to make an issue of it? Do I hold a grudge? Perpetuating
disputes in a congregation, or even in a denomination or among
denominations, is like holding grudge for a person: we jealously guard our wounded pride, and expect the other party to be hurt.
When Jesus says this very same thing to Peter, he goes on to
say, “On this rock I will build my Church.” Peter’s name, of course, means Rocky, and so it’s easy to think that Jesus meant,
on this rock, Peter, I will build my church. But I suggest that
it is Peter as the bumbling fool, as the one who would deny Jesus that Jesus has in mind, when he says, “On this rock.” The rock is
reconciliation. Lord knows, Peter is going to need it before the
story is over. Jesus is going to have to decide what to hold on to and what to let go of. If he had held on to the grudge, that
first community of disciples would have been split from the
outset.
The rock is the saying, “I assure you, whatever you hold on
to on earth is held on to in heaven, and whatever you let go of on
earth is let go of in heaven.” What a huge responsibility. So, it is up to us. Do we hold grudges or not? Further up the
judicatory ladder, up at the reaches of bishops and theologians
and denominational officials, all the details will have to be worked out -- can we agree on this, and on that? But here, at the
parish level, we have to decide, how many times are we reconciled
to our brothers and sisters in Christ? Seven times, or seventy times seven?
Reconciliation is hard work. It means setting aside things that are very important. Is it something so important that I am
willing to lose my brothers and sisters over it, and if not, will
I be who I was before if I set it aside? Those are hard questions, not quickly answered. But we have Peter’s example. We
have to try not just seven times, but maybe an unlimited number of
times, because our brothers and sisters are that important to us.
The Rock is reconciliation, and that’s hard work. It’s hard
work, but it serves as a good foundation. Better to build our
foundation on rock than sand, better to do the hard work, so we can rejoice in Christ together than just to paper over
differences.
This service is a good step. Like the tabernacle in the
reading from Exodus, since we are gathered here in the divine
name, we can sure of the divine presence in this gathering. The glory of God settles on this place. If reconciliation is hard
work, then our praise and gratitude in this place is the river of
the sparkling water of life that flows from the throne of God, along whose banks grow the trees for the healing of the nations.
What we do here concerns not just us, but all the world. If we
can learn how to release what needs released, we can show the rest of the world what God’s Kingdom looks like.
Be assured that whatever you let go of on earth is let go of in heaven. What a responsibility and what a joy.
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