RCL - Proper 21 A - 28 Sep 2008

Mount Calvary, Monastery, Santa Barbara, CA
Br. James Michael Dowd, n/OHC
RCL – Proper 21 A – Sunday 21 September 2008

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32
Philippians 2:1-13
Matthew 21:23-32


Working Out Our Salvation

In the name of the Living God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” That sentence, actually, it’s a phrase, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, has always disturbed me. I’ve never been quite sure why – until this past week as I’ve been pondering what I was going to say to you this morning. That uneasy feeling, it seems to me, had something to do with the fact that the phrase itself indicates that I have some level of responsibility in my own salvation. That I cannot simply rely on God’s grace and the Redemption of the Cross and the Empty Tomb.

Now theologians have been debating this topic from the beginning of the Christian era and there are so many complex arguments coming from many points of view. So many, that it is easy to get lost in a maze of lofty ideas and pious thoughts. But the Scriptures are always the place to begin, when it comes to hearing God’s voice and gaining an understanding of what it is that God wants for our lives. So, while nothing I do, earns me my salvation – that is a pure gift from God if he so chooses, and he does so choose. But there is apparently an expectation that I will do certain things in response to that gift.

So, let’s look back at our first reading, from the Prophet Ezekiel. I’d like to read to you again those last few verses from the passage:

Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord GOD. Turn, then, and live.

Get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! The Lord doesn’t mince words, does he? There it is – a command - short and to the point. And it seems the first thing to do is to get a new heart. The house of Israel was experiencing a kind of cynicism – remember the proverb that was stated at the beginning of the passage – about parents eating sour grapes and children’s teeth being set on edge? The people of Israel, at the time Ezekiel was prophesizing, were languishing in exile in Babylon. Being in a generally foul mood, they were spending their time blaming their ancestors for all of the sins they must have committed to get them into this terrible situation. Having been carried off into the Babylonian Captivity, they desperately needed to lay the blame for their own sinfulness at someone else’s feet.

But Ezekiel would have none of that. He made it clear that their exile was not the result of their parents’ sinfulness or their grandparents’ sinfulness. No, it was their own sinfulness that had gotten them into this trouble. And he was calling on them to rid themselves of their sinful ways and turn to the Lord and learn, once again, how to live.

Living in a sinful state seems to me a kind of self-imposed exile. It makes me think of one of the great American painters of the Hudson River School in the early 19th Century, Thomas Cole. Cole painted a great deal of the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, and New England, but one of my favorite paintings of his is called the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The focus of the painting is split between Eden, on the one side and the dark, foreboding world on the other side with a tiny Adam and Eve, naked, head cast downward, and shame seemingly weighing down their bodies as they depart Eden. This exile from Eden seems not unlike the Babylonian Captivity, or the exile we often feel when we have separated ourselves from God.

So, the response to this seems first to be: Turn. And that sounds exactly right to me. The concept of repentance found throughout both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures is about turning around and facing God. Turning from our evil ways and turning toward the Eternal. Unfortunately, the Christian Church has sometimes become caught up in what I call the Great List syndrome. Depending on the denomination, each seems to have a list of the really, really, bad things we can do that make God really, really angry. And then, poof, it’s exile time.

But living in a sinful state is actually a little more complicated than that. The Great List seems to have little to do with what God means for us. Because with God, as opposed to humanity, it is always about Love, not Lists, not Laws. And frankly, love is a lot harder than Lists or than Laws.

And that leads me back to St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. Listen, again, to how much God loves us:

Christ Jesus,

Who, though he was in the form of God,

Did not regard equality with God

As something to be exploited,

But emptied himself,

Taking the form of a slave,

Being born in human likeness.

He humbled himself

And became obedient to the point of death –

Even death on a cross.

That’s what love is – totally emptying yourself – giving up all rights and privileges that may or may not be yours - and simply serving your sisters and brothers. Not giving in to the needs of the ego, or the needs of the intellect, or the needs of the heart, or the needs of the body. Simply serving. I believe, this is what Ezekiel was getting at when he called on the House of Israel to live. God does not need or want us to be the living dead. He wants us to be the living. And living is serving, even to the point of dying, if necessary.

This has played out in my own life. Every time I have been selfish, not put someone else first, or offered a hand to someone who needed some type of help, every time I have not emptied myself – I have felt somehow disconnected with the rest of humanity and with God. I walked away, sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively, with my head down and covered with shame – just like Thomas Cole’s depiction of Adam and Eve. I have ended up in my own self-imposed exile from my sisters and brothers and from God.

On the other hand, every time I have risen to the occasion and emptied myself for another, I have felt totally alive, totally connected to all my brothers and sisters and to God himself. And that is because, as St. Paul says at the very end of this passage, “it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Turn then to Christ, for he is Life. That is why St. Paul tells us that we should put on the mind of Christ and do what he did. That is how we are, with fear and trembling, to work out our salvation: turn back around and embrace life, serve others no matter how much is required of us, and become obedient to God, even to the point of death.

And what does that obedience look like? Christ, as always, is our example and our teacher. He tells us in this morning’s parable of the two sons that it does not matter what we say, what matters is what we do. Our presidential candidates this year seem to be throwing around the expression, “you have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” I suppose that would be a way to sum up the parable and the entire lesson of today’s readings.

So, emptying yourself – not making yourself more important than anyone else is to put on the mind of Christ. And if we are walking the walk, it seems to me, Christ has taught us what that walks entails: if someone is hungry – feed them; if someone is lonely – comfort them; if someone is naked – clothe them; if someone is sick – care for them; if someone is mourning – love them. All of this may require a lot from you. It can be a long walk. But if we are obedient – even to the point of death then we have turned back to God, then we have lived. When we choose to live, God welcomes us back home, with his arms wide open, from our own self-imposed exile.

Amen.

RCL - Proper 20 A - 21 Sep 2008

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Mrs. Suzette Cayless, AHC
RCL – Proper 20 A – Sunday 21 September 2008

Exodus 16:2-15
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16


“The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” The Israelites were on their way to the promised land. Moses had led them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. A few verses earlier than today’s reading we find the Israelites complaining when they had no water to drink in Marah. They were then brought to an oasis and camped and refreshed themselves with food and drink. They moved on again and found themselves once more in a difficult place. “Would that we had died ... in the land of Egypt.”

They bewailed the fact that at least in Egypt they had food. Moses points out that their complaining is really against God. He assures them that God has not forgotten them and will provide what they need and soon enough quails appear in the camp and in the morning manna. The word “complaining” is translated as “murmuring” in other versions of the Bible. I like that word - it seems to signify an underlying insidious mutter that infects everyone, and perhaps results in the response to the unknown manna: “What is it?”

In today’s gospel we also have complainers! At the end of a day’s work the laborers are given their wages. Although some have worked the whole day and others for only one hour, each is given the same money. The first hired “grumbled against the landowner,” thinking that they should have received more. The landowner reminds them that he can do what he likes with his money and that he has paid them what they agreed to. Each person requires money to provide food for his family and the landowner gives what is needed.

God is a God of the unexpected. We cannot control God’s actions but should rather look for God to surprise us - as He surprised the Israelites with manna and the one hour laborers with a day’s wages.

In his Rule, Benedict enjoins his monks in chapter 4: “Do not grumble or speak ill of others.” Then in chapters 40 and 41 - concerned with meals and the daily rations of wine - he says:
“... where local circumstances dictate an amount of wine much less than what is stipulated above, or even none at all, those who live there should bless God and not grumble. Above all else we admonish them to refrain from grumbling” and “... (the abbot) should so regulate and arrange all matters that souls may be saved and the brothers may go about their activities without justifiable grumbling.”

Food and drink are basic necessities for human living and they are central to our day to day activities. As we pray together in the offices and Eucharist we say, again and again: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Not an abundance of good things but daily what we need. I am reminded of growing up in Coventry, UK during WWII when often my mother was anxious as to what she could prepare for dinner. It wasn’t that we had no money - just that there was little food to be bought. But day by day a meal was always served. There is an interesting version of the Lord’s Prayer in Anglo-Saxon Spirituality translated by Robert Boenig and I will read it to you:

Holy Father, you who dwell in Heaven,
honored be the joy of your glory. May your name be hallowed
in your works by the sons of the people. You are the savior of men.
May your spacious kingdom come and your will firm in counsel
be raised under the roof of Heaven and also on the wide earth.
Give us for this day just dignity, our continued loaf,
comforter of men, steadfast Savior.
Do not let us be tossed too much in temptation,
but, Ruler of the people, give us good deliverance
from every evil for ever and ever.

That phrase “our continued loaf” catches my imagination. It captures the sense of God’s oversight, with its provision of food from God’s hand. Bread and wine are at the heart of the Eucharist - we do not easily forget such items and Jesus identifies them in a special way for us as we share worship together. The broken bread and shared cup are indeed reminders of God’s provision for our needs.

The Israelites in the wilderness did not just want food - they wanted good things and desired “the fleshpots” they had enjoyed in Egypt. The all day laborers did not just want what they had agreed on, they wanted more. There is an element of greed in all of us that we have to reckon with in terms of our spiritual as well as physical lives. Listen to this story by Arnold Lobel. It is called “Cookies.”

PacMan Cookie 2 - Originally uploaded by pickles5767

Toad baked some cookies. “These cookies smell very good,” said Toad. He ate one. “And they taste even better,” he said. Toad ran to Frog’s house. “Frog, Frog,” cried Toad, “taste these cookies that I have made.” Frog ate one of the cookies. “These are the best cookies I have ever eaten!” said Frog. Frog and Toad ate many cookies, one after another. “You know, Toad,” said Frog, with his mouth full, “I think we should stop eating. We will soon be sick.” “You are right,” said Toad. “Let us eat one last cookie, and then we will stop.” Frog and Toad ate one last cookie. There were many cookies left in the bowl. “Frog,” said Toad, “let us eat one very last cookie, and then we will stop.” Frog and Toad ate one very last cookie. “We must stop eating!” cried Toad as he ate another. “Yes,” said Frog. reaching for a cookie, “we need will power.” “What is will power?” asked Toad. “Will power is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do,” said Frog. “You mean like trying not to eat all of these cookies?” asked Toad. “Right,” said Frog. Frog put the cookies in a box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.” “But we can open the box,” said Toad. “That is true,” said Frog. Frog tied some string around the box. “There,” he said. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.” “But we can cut the string and open the box,” said Toad. “That is true,” said Frog. Frog got a ladder. He put the box up on a high shelf. “There,” said Frog. “Now we will not eat any more cookies.” “But we can climb the ladder and take the box down from the shelf and cut the string and open the box,” said Toad. “That is true,” said Frog. Frog climbed the ladder and took the box down from the shelf. He cut the string and opened the box. Frog took the box outside. He shouted in a loud voice, “HEY BIRDS, HERE ARE COOKIES!” Birds came from everywhere. They picked up all the cookies in their beaks and flew away. “Now we have no more cookies to eat,” said Toad sadly, “Not even one.” “Yes,” said Frog, “but we have lots and lots of will power.” “You may keep it all, Frog,” said Toad. “I am going home now to bake a cake.”

From Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel.

Will power is important - but it has to be directed correctly. Disciplines for daily living have to be learned. Our choices for day to day attitudes and relationships are not to be based merely on what we want and how we feel. St. Paul gives us the clue. In the Epistle he encourages his friends to “live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” This requires that we live out a concern for each other; that we look to the provision of food and drink for all around us; that we pray daily for our own needs and the needs of the community; that we set aside greed, envy, and all that is unworthy of Christ; and that we never forget to give thanks to God for all the blessings he bestows on us day by day.

Let us pray, using words from Psalm 105, verses 1-4:

Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name;
make known his deeds among the peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to him,
and speak of all his marvelous works.
Glory in his holy Name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Search for the lord and his strength;
continually seek his face.

Amen.

RCL - Exaltation of the Holy Cross - 14 Sep 2008

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Adam Dunbar McCoy, OHC
RCL – Exaltation of the Holy Cross - Sunday 14 September 2008

Isaiah 45:21-25
Galatians 6:14-18
John 12:31-36a


"Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."

Cross in sunlight at OHC's
Mariya uMama weThemba Monastery,
Grahamstown, South Africa
From the pictures gallery of Br. Randy OHC

We exalt the Cross because it is the symbol of victory. And in the opening of today’s Gospel reading Jesus tells us what this victory is: the ruling power of this world is put to flight. Christ on the Cross will reunite the human community.

Who is the ruler of this world? A thorny question, perhaps, but let me take a stab at it. The natural human tendency is to seek and honor manifestations of divine power. This is a good thing. This is also not new. The cave paintings of France and Spain celebrate the power of large, beautiful animals and the craft and skill of killing them. Animistic and pagan religions look for and revere manifestations of natural power of all kinds, large and small – sun and moon and stars, springs or water, rivers, lakes and seas, earthquakes, the weather, the cycles of time and growth. They look for and revere manifestations of power in human life as well – in war and in peace, in the genius of cities, in beautiful men and women, in love and lust, in health, in wealth, in the arts of agriculture, metalwork and skills of every kind. Every manifestation of power you can imagine has been the object of worship by our ancestors.

This kind of religion has advantages. In the first place, it’s obvious. Who can resist nature? The irresistible power of love drives storytelling, drama, and song in every age. The love of money drives people in strange directions. We will do almost anything to restore health. In every case we want to find the key to unlock the door that gives access to what we don’t have. If you find yourself in the path of the hurricane, you might find yourself seeking out and consulting the relevant divine authority.

And not only by our ancestors. Think of the components of worship apart from the narrow box we label religion. Substitute the word celebrity for the word god. Then think of the honor and praise we give to movie stars and musicians and politicians, the things of value we dedicate to them as we attend their concerts, see their movies and respond to their appeals, the amount of time we spend thinking, even dreaming, about them. If we cross a certain line, is this not a sort of worship? The worship of their power – their vitality, their beauty, their skill, their intelligence. We worship it because we want it. We want what they have. If I buy the product, If I come near the celebrity, I will in some sense become like the one their power represents. If I see the movie I can enter into communion for an hour and fifty minutes with this wonderful being. It’s worth $12. Well, that’s what it’s worth in New York City now. Perhaps communion comes a little cheaper in Ulster County. I hope so.

I shook Jack Kenndy’s hand. I heard Louis Armstrong on my twenty-first birthday. Fred Astaire once told me he liked my sermon. I sat next to Catherine Zeta-Jones at a preview production of “Hairspray”. Were these nice experiences? Yes. Were they life-transforming, giving me my meaning and purpose? Well, not exactly.

Of course, celebrity is not the only way in which we worship false manifestations of power in our time. Think of all the manifestations of power to which you mgive your money, your time, your imagination. Do you cross the line into worship?

The interesting thing about the worship of the manifestations of power is that it is absolutely natural. The things we worship really are beautiful, desirable, powerful. They evoke deep longings deep down inside us. We want what they promise – beauty, health, skill, wealth, influence. These are good things.

One of the most moving things I can think of doing is to go to a museum and look at the magnificent Greek statues of young men and women. Of course they represent gods and goddesses and heroes, but they are also human beings at the peak of physical perfection. They inspire awe and longing, and as you get older, a kind of affection for what one’s youth perhaps was, or might have been, for a fleeting time. And that’s the point. They are poignant because, if you think about their context for just a moment, you realize that the vast majority of humanity is not like them. Back then, many, perhaps the majority, of infants died in their first year. Their mothers also died in great numbers. Young men died in war, or more likely, from the festering wounds of war. Everybody was subject to malnutrition, disease, the accidents of life. Such a very, very few were like the statues. To look at them is to see the ideal of a human society which was rarely attained, and when it was, for a heartbreakingly short time.

This is where the Ruler of this world comes in. He – it – draws our attention away from our own truth, small and frail and incomplete. If we had beauty, it will fade, or already has. If we had health, likewise. Or wealth. Or political or social power. The trick played on us is to make us think that what counts in the divine scheme of things is that moment of perfection, being at the peak of health, wealth, beauty, influence. Our lives, the Ruler tells us, should point toward perfection, and when if we ever attain it, we should clutch it close and hold on for dear life. Literally. For being the winner in the lotteries of life is the point. Winning is what makes life dear. And if you are a loser? The Ruler of this world would say to you, Get over it. Attach yourself to the winners, bask in their power, serve it, give your life to it. You will share the glory reflected from the golden glow of the one to whom the divine has shown its favor.

This is the Ruler which Christ on the Cross has overthrown. When we say that Christ’s death and resurrection have given us life, we mean it literally. Instead of living our lives as shadows of someone, something else, we find, to our amazement, that our lives, ordinary as they are, have become, through the love of Christ, manifestations of divine power, if we will only let them be.

The title of today’s feast, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, seems a little odd. It is a commonplace of Christian preaching to make a point of this: We exalt the Cross because by dying as a slave on a cross, Christ triumphed over death, death in one of its worst possible forms. That’s why we lift up the cross, that’s why we adorn it in beauty, why we put it on buildings, why we wear it, why it is the universal identifier for Christians. In his death and triumph on the cross we are saved.

In taking the form of a slave and humbling himself to death, even death on a cross, Christ identified the power and love of God with the entire creation. Not just the outstandingly successful, healthy, beautiful and influential show forth the love and power of God, but the lowest and least as well.

The Cross shows us that the love of God is so great that not one created thing escapes his embrace. His love was there, from the first quasars or quarks or whatever was at the beginning, to the stirrings of inorganic matter into life; from proteins to cells to amoebas to organisms; from plants and animals to the world as we see it now. From whatever primordial awareness the universe had of itself from the beginning to human consciousness, God’s love is there. In the birth and reproduction and death of every living thing, God’s love is there. Infinite means without limit. We say with John, “God so loved the world”. That is the affirmation of the Cross, of the Christian faith. That the material universe began, developed and exists in the love of God. And not one single bit of it exists, or can exist, outside God’s love.

The Ruler of this world wants to direct our attention away from the love of God for us, to channel our energies away from our true relation to God into temporary, fleeting, and ultimately illusory goals. The Ruler of this world tries to trick us into thinking that we are the “losers” in life, and as “losers”, we should attach what we have and indeed what we are to the “winners”. The Ruler of this world lies and wants us to live a lie. It is a lie to think that because you are small, weak, unfavored, you are a loser. It is a lie to think that you can derive value for your life from someone or something bigger, stronger, more favored than yourself instead of from the God who made you and loves you.

Christ’s death on the Cross seals God’s solidarity with us all, the weak as well as the strong, and especially with the weak. His resurrection shows the promise of Christ’s victory to God’s creatures when we accept the truth that what we really are is what God loves.

Are you young, strong, healthy, beautiful, wealthy, influential, or some of the above? Give thanks. God loves you. Are you older, weaker, not so well, plain, poor, powerless? Give thanks. God loves you. There is no condition of life God does not love and visit with his power.

If we only let him.

Take up your Cross and follow, Jesus says. It sounds so grim. Actually, it is the path to liberation, joy, fulfillment, and peace, because the Cross is where the truth is proclaimed. God loves not just the best bits, beautiful as some of them may be. He loves us all. All. Right now, right here, you are loved by God. By God who himself took on worse than you are or have probably yet known so that you might find, so that you might know, so that you might live in, the light of his truth, the light and truth that stream from the Cross of Jesus Christ. Be drawn to Christ.

RCL - Proper 18 A - 07 Sep 2008

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Bernard Jean Delcourt, OHC
RCL – Proper 18 A – Sunday 07 September 2008

Ezekiel 33:7-11
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20


Lord, you desire that we turn back from our evil ways. Help us to put on Jesus Christ.
Help us not to be driven by the desires of our flesh.
You endlessly welcome our repentance and You forgive us. May we likewise do to others.
Amen.

*****

Hopefully, what holds an assembly of Christians together is their common love for God and their love for one another. And this love is not meant as “liking” one another; although that too may be involved.

The love that God calls for, in us, is a pre-eminent concern, a preoccupation, for the greater good of the whole community. This is the love that is called “agape” in the original Greek version of the New Testament. It is the glue that holds the assembly of the faithful together.

The good of the community is to be achieved through the well-being of all of its members; no one is to be left behind or sacrificed, not even a sinner. Thank God for that, or we would all be alone in the rain.

*****

Today’s scriptures enjoin us to mind the Christian community’s business. We are encouraged to break the social taboo that we should “mind our own business”.

Too often we see sin as something individual that we have sole responsibility for. What about the sin of closing our eyes on wrong-doing around us and letting it slide?

Of course, we can say that we have no leverage on sin committed in communities so remote or so much larger than our own. We can argue that we cannot see how to do something about that.

But what about shortcomings in our own community though? What about sin in our own friends?

Today’s scriptures ask us to start in our own backyards, in our own communities. Do we see a behavior that hurts the greater good of the community? Do we see a manner of being that hurts one or more of our members?

Call it out says the prophet Ezekiel or you may bear the burden of the sin together with the ones who fall short.

*****

Matthew’s gospel passage was probably written to help his Jesus movement community to manage conflicts in cases where one person’s behavior needed amendment for the good of the community. It sets out a procedure for the in-group, the community, to be reconciled with itself.

*****

Now, I have two warnings to sound about Matthew’s reconciliation process.

First, before engaging in a similar reconciliation process in your own community, I enjoin you to do a bit of homework.

What is at stake? Is this a pet peeve of mine or is this something truly disruptive of community? What are my personal feelings about this? Do I own these feelings? Can I separate them from the needs of the community?

Remember that justice is for God to render, your objective here is reconciliation from the heart.

Second, the community reconciliation process that Matthew writes about does not address sin committed by outsiders towards me as an individual. In this latter case, when a stranger hurts me, I’m still called to love the one who hates me and to turn the other cheek.

Matthew in his gospel exposes a dual response to hurts we may encounter in life. There is one reaction to hurts we may endure from outsiders. And there is another to hurts we may endure from insiders, members of our Christian community.

So today, we are not talking about “lumping it” when a stranger hurts you. That is enough for another sermon, on another day.

*****

For an offense I received at the hand of a member of my own community there is a progressive, three-step procedure of face-to-face interaction.

First, there is Confrontation one-on-one. If that fails, second, there is Negotiation in the presence of third parties. If negotiation fails, Adjudication in the presence of the wider community is called for.

At each stage, mutual love may win the day and help us recognize our fault, repent from it, and turn back to one another and to God. We only progress to the next stage in the absence of repentance.

*****

Let me build an example inspired by a theme touched upon by Brother Randy in his sermon of two weeks ago.

I may confront Brother Cadfael (not his real name) on once more wolfing down the whole cherry pie that was left from lunch. If he recognizes that was a selfish way to provide for the desire of his flesh and he commits to be more thoughtful of others’ needs and desires in the future, we’re done.

Because mutual love and concern is the engine of this process and the objective is reconciliation, each side may be led to come to see its shortcomings and repent from them. Mutual listening with the ear of the heart is called for.

*****

Unfortunately, the gospel text is written as if it describes a unilateral judicial proceeding. Historically, the church often interpreted this passage as a power she had to judge rather than as a duty she had to reconcile.

There is even a temptation to read excommunication in the phrase “…let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector…” But then we have to remember that Matthew who writes this was previously a tax collector himself and so was Zaccheus.

So maybe, we can read that phrase as meaning that for obdurate offenders, we need even more patience and start ministering to them back from square one.

The broader gospel message of Jesus’ ministry must call us to attention that the accusers also might come to recognize the injustice of their own conviction.

And then also, the lectionary unhelpfully deprives us today of the next 2 verses, where Jesus teaches Peter that forgiveness towards a brother knows no limit.
“…Forgive…Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times”.

*****

As I read Paul’s passage of his letter to the Jesus movement community in Rome, I’m reminded that there is no time to play “sin police” in my community. But at the same time, there is urgency in being the corporate body we are called to be.

“…Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near…”
Each one of us are growing one day older today and one day closer to our salvation. This is the time to “Love your neighbor as yourself” and that includes not letting her fall without help, support or advice (even if that means a friendly rebuke).

Don’t be a “sin vigilante” but be a friend of good support along the path of love even if that involves tough love.

*****

Let us pray.

Lord of all life, help us to care enough about each other to offer friendly rebuke where it is needed and to receive such rebuke graciously when we are the one in need of it. Help us always turn our hearts back to you and to one another that we may truly put on Christ and deserve our baptismal name as Christians.

Amen.