Can't We All Just Get Along?

September 10^th, 2017   “Can’t We All Just Get Along?”    Rev. Heather Jepsen

Matthew 18:15-20 with Psalm 149

          After weeks on end of the stories of Jacob in the book of Genesis, this morning’s reading from Matthew feels like a breath of fresh air.  Ahhh . . . here is our old friend Jesus, offering us lessons on how to be the people of God.  Like falling into bed each night, or meeting an old friend for coffee, this return to the gospels feels like a familiar comfort to me.

          We are kind of jumping into the middle of the conversation here, so it helps to look back a few verses so we can get some context.  Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and the paragraph for this morning is part of a longer speech in response to the question, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

          Folks are asking about who is the best among them and Jesus reminds them that the more important issue is how everyone gets along together.  It is not about ranks, he seems to say, rather it is about keeping the flock together.  He talks about being humble in leadership, about protecting the weak ones within our midst, and about searching for that one lost sheep.  And finally then he comes to today’s section about conflict in the church.

          Now we all know how much we wish the church was a perfect place, but we also know that no gathering of broken human beings could ever be perfect.  There is just as much conflict in the church as anywhere else in our world, and it certainly has always been that way.  Why else would we find Jesus himself discussing church conflict? 

          The question is, “how do we correct one among us who has gone astray?”  This has been interesting to watch lately in the big Christian church community with Houston pastor Joel Osteen.  I am sure most of you are familiar with his flawless smile and perfectly coifed hair on the cover of his many books.  I know quite a few folks watch him at home on Sunday mornings when they can’t make it out to church, and he is certainly entertaining.  Well, Joel got into trouble a few weeks ago when his mega church neglected to open its doors as a shelter right away after hurricane Harvey.  Small churches around the area were helping out, but the mega church in the basketball stadium wasn’t. 

          You can hardly blame Pastor Osteen for this mistake since helping the poor and destitute isn’t the gospel he preaches, and that’s not the kind of church he runs.  Joel preaches prosperity gospel which encourages everyone to help themselves to the blessings of God in their life.  While his is a church of small groups and bible studies, it is not a place of food banks and soup kitchens.  And it is most definitely not a shelter.

          Anyway, the point is, the greater church community corrected Joel on his understanding of the gospel and the role of church through the voice of social media.  Chastised on twitter and Facebook, with folks posting photos of a church that clearly was untouched by the floods, he finally changed his mind.  While Joel and I probably still disagree on what the gospel is about, in the grand scheme of things, I think the greater Christian community did a pretty good job of bringing him back into the fold.

          So how do we live out this reconciliation process in the local church?  Well, Jesus seems to be offering a step by step outline in the reading for today.  He starts off by telling us that if someone in the church sins against us, hurts us, does us some injustice or harm, that it is our responsibility to rectify the situation.  The burden is on the person who has been wronged, which is difficult for us.  Jesus tells us to approach the individual who harmed us one on one and see if we can rectify the situation together.  If that doesn’t work, then we are told to “phone a friend” and bring along someone else from the church to help hear the case and find a solution.  Only after we make every attempt at reconciliation are we told to allow that person to leave the faith community.

          Jesus paints a pleasant picture here but I am not sure I have seen it really work out that often.  Most often I have seen churches that look more like the people in Psalm 149.  It’s all singing and music and praise God, for about 6 verses until all of a sudden people have two-edged swords in their hands and they are executing vengeance on the nations and punishing the peoples!  Churches get in knock-down drag-out fights just like everywhere else.  Personally, I have often been hurt by people in churches who disagreed with me about something and I have witnessed folks do it to each other over and over again.  People get their feelings hurt in a disagreement, come out swinging, and before you know it everyone is headed to the church down the street instead.

          Now this congregation in particular is one of the sweetest, most agreeable congregations I have ever seen.  There is something in the air here that makes everyone really value the peace of this particular community.  That is why you have such long pastorates; this congregation is really a gem.  You might not follow Jesus’ exact prescription for conflict management, but you do seem to value reconciliation more than punishment.  And it makes you a pleasure to work with and this calling a true joy, so thank you.

          Even this wonderful church can benefit from Jesus’ message which is that the community itself should work together for its preservation.  If we come at every conflict with a two-edged sword in our hand like the folks in Psalm 149 then we risk cutting the community into pieces.  I have seen it many times in church communities.  But, if we approach conflict with patience and grace, then we are able to hold things together and to keep the community as whole as possible.

          Jesus says to treat the one who disagrees with us, as if they were a Gentile or a tax collector.  At first this seems like a harsh punishment, reducing the one with whom we have conflict to the status of an outsider.  But, if we step back and imagine how Jesus himself treats Gentiles and tax collectors then we find something else.  For these are just the people Jesus spends time with.   Tax collectors and sinners, Gentiles and outcasts, are just the folks that Jesus is so often engaging in ministry with.  So too, if we are forced to say goodbye to friends in the church over conflict, we are called, like Jesus to continue to minister to them in the community.  Once again we find reconciliation as the goal, rather than punishment.

          Today we are gathering around the communion table, and this is the central place for reconciliation within the Christian community.  When it comes to conflict and committing injustices, we must admit that we all stand as sinners before our God.  No one in the church is perfect.  Part of coming to the table is confessing our imperfections, confessing the wrongs we have committed, and admitting our sins before God and the community as a whole.  That is why that Prayer of Confession is so important to our worship service.  We do it at the start of each Sunday, so we can once again share peace as a community confessed and forgiven, a community of reconciliation.

          When we gather at the communion table we gather as a forgiven people.  We know that we have all sinned, and that we all stand equally in need of God’s grace.  We eat of one bread and drink of one cup, reminding ourselves of our one-ness in the Lord.  This is a table of equals, a table of community, a table of peace, and a table of reconciliation.  This meal is the living embodiment of the forgiveness that God extends to us and that we in turn strive to extend to one another.

          As we return to the words of Jesus this week, we return to a reminder of who we are as the church community.  Our goal is not to have all the right answers or to be a perfect uniform place.  Rather, our goal is to try to hold together this band of broken people for as long as we can.  When we hurt one another, which we are bound to do, we are called to work together for reconciliation and forgiveness. 

          Jesus tells us that this should be a community of peace and love, not a place where we are cutting out those who have sinned.  Jesus reminds us that it is only when we are all gathered together, those who are right and those who have been wrong, that we will find Jesus among us.  That is what makes a community of faith.  May we continue to be such a community.  Amen.   

Bits and Pieces

September 3^rd, 2017   “Bits and Pieces”        Rev. Heather Jepsen

Summer Sermon Series: Wrestling with Jacob

Genesis 35:1-29

          This morning we reach the final chapter in our story of Jacob.  This has been a long sermon series, by far the longest I have written.  It has also been one of the most dramatic, exciting, painful, and wonderful stories we have read together.  Much like our own lives, the life of Jacob was one of many ups and downs. 

          For ten Sundays we have charted Jacob’s journey. We began with the story of his birth, as he wrestled in the womb with his brother Esau.  We witnessed as Jacob and his mother Rebekah tricked his father Isaac into giving Jacob Esau’s rightful blessing.  We observed as he fled his home in fear, sleeping in Bethel, and dreaming of a God who promised wealth and protection.  We marveled as Jacob met Rachel and fell in love, only to be tricked into marrying her sister Leah instead.  We watched the women compete for Jacob’s love and God’s blessing as his family swelled to 12 children.

          We followed as Jacob fled Haran and returned home with his uncle Laban hot on his trail.  We saw him wrestle a stranger in the night and then finally reunite with Esau in peace.  Last week we offered testament to the suffering of Dinah and the people of Shechem as Jacob’s sons enacted an unjust vengeance in the land.  And finally today, we collect up the bits and pieces of Jacob’s story. 

          This final chapter is thought to be just that, bits and pieces.  These are the remaining scraps of the Jacob story, stuck here in the final chapter because there was nowhere else to put them.  Jacob begins to move into old age, and after today he is no longer the focus of the narrative.

          (Read Genesis 35:1-15)

          After the horrors of Shechem the time has come to move on into a new place.  God tells Jacob to journey now back to Bethel and to make that place his home.  Jacob takes the opportunity to purify himself and his people.  He calls the people to put away any sign of foreign gods and any temptation to make idols.  He buries these temptations in the ground, burying as well the sin of Shechem. 

          The people of Israel journey in peace to Bethel and once again Jacob builds an altar there.  God appears to Jacob and reiterates the promises made early in his life.  Jacob is now Israel, the father of the nation.  God promises land, wealth, and generations of family to Jacob.  The promises made to Abraham have now fully passed on to the next generation.

          (Read Genesis 35:16-21)

          Sadness once again enters the story.  Rachel, Jacob’s beloved wife, is pregnant again but struggles and dies in childbirth.  As she realizes that death is coming for her, she names her son Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow.”  Jacob cannot bear to have that cloud over what will be his last child and so he renames the boy Benjamin, which means “son of my right hand” or “son of power”. 

          The author offers no comment on this sad chapter, though as readers of the story we can assume that Jacob’s sorrow at Rachel’s death is great.  A pillar is set to mark her grave on the road to Bethlehem, and the image of Rachel’s tears will become a symbol of the suffering of the nation of Israel for generations.  Yet, just like us, Jacob’s life moves on from moments of sorrow.  As the author says “Israel journeyed on . . .”

          (Read Genesis 35:22-26)

          Once again we find one of the sons of Jacob behaving badly.  Jacob’s eldest son, Reuben, decides to make a play for power by sleeping with Bilhah.  You may remember that this is Rachel’s maid and one of Reuben’s many step-mothers, though the author now lowers her status with the term concubine. 

          While we might recognize this as an act of sexual aggression, at the time it was meant to be an act of political aggression.  Reuben is trying to show that Jacob is now old and powerless and that Reuben is the one who should be in power over the tribe.  This act of political aggression will be repeated throughout the scriptures from the book of Judges to the sons of David. 

          The author doesn’t tell us what happens as a result, only that Jacob is aware of the sin.  It does not appear to work out for Reuben though, since Israel is still clearly the head of the tribe.

          (Read Genesis 35:27-29)

          In this final scrap of history, Jacob and Esau are united once again.  Their father Isaac has finally died, at the ripe old Biblical age of 180, and together the sons bury him with his own father Abraham.  The circle is closed, and Jacob, now Israel, is fully the child of promise, the leader of the nation, and the one to walk in Abraham’s footsteps and carry the promise of a chosen people into the next generation.

          Throughout our reading of Jacob’s story we have discovered that in many ways he was just like we are.  Here, in his final chapter, we find that he has changed tremendously in his journey with God.  Reading this text, we would hardly recognize the Jacob we began the summer with.  Gone is the scheming and grasping.  Gone is the hurtful trickery and selfish desire.  As he has journeyed with God, Jacob has been honed into a new man, a man of faith.  At the end of his journey we now find one who puts away other gods, builds altars, worships God, and encourages others to do so as well.  Jacob the trickster is now Jacob the man of faith, Israel the leader of the nation.

          We too, could look back on our lives and see God’s hand at work.  When we were young we were headstrong and full of zeal, charging into life like we knew all the answers and prepared to grab life’s blessings for ourselves.  Once we get older we realize that things aren’t always that easy.  Blessings come from God alone, and the best way to journey through the world is with a patient and faithful heart.  Like Jacob, journeying with God changes us and hones us into new and better people.

          Jacob’s story has been marked with sorrow and joy.  From heartbreak in his early marriages to this final chapter in Rachel’s life, Jacob has had to move through pain.  Rachel’s death while giving birth to Benjamin is a perfect metaphor for the way we experience suffering and joy simultaneously throughout our days.

          In his commentary on Genesis theologian Walter Brueggemann writes;

“The juxtaposition of the birth of the treasured Benjamin and the death of the beloved Rachel is a significant one.  The linking of the two events shows how intensely intergenerational is the faith and life of this family.  Dying always happens in the midst of new life.  Living always happens in the midst of death.  There is, after all, a time to be born and a time to die.  And this time, like every poignant time, is both times.”

          I was so moved by Brueggemann’s observations here because I have seen it so many times in my own life and ministry.  In the midst of our joy we find pain, and in the midst of our pain we find joy.  The cycle of endings and beginnings is constantly being interwoven such that as we say “goodbye” to people and parts of our lives we say “hello” to others.  The cycle continues until our final “goodbye” to this earth, which we believe in-turn is our final “hello” to the world beyond.  As human people, living in the midst of this beautiful and broken planet, we must learn to live in the midst of death.  Like Israel, we must learn to journey on, even in moments when our hearts are broken.

          This chapter is a gathering of the scraps, the bits and pieces, the last little mentions of Jacob and his journey.  This is the end of his time in the spotlight, as Jacob the wrestler and as Israel the leader of nations.  But of course, this is not the end of the story.  The story of the promise, the story of the chosen people, continues on into the next generation. 

          So too, our stories are ones of generations.  We are families, like Jacob’s family, journeying through the wilderness, and journeying with God.  In closing this chapter on Jacob, I feel called to think of my own family generationally.  How would my grandmothers, both women of deep faith, marvel and wonder at my role as a church leader?  I am certain neither one of them could have imagined women clergy, let alone their own granddaughter as a preacher.  So too, I wonder how the promise of faith will pass on into the next generations.  How will my children and their children journey with God, and what will their experience be of the church and the world?  I can only imagine.

          As we close the book on Jacob, we know that the story and promise of the people of God continues.  Next summer we will pick up where we left off, enjoying the dramatic stories of the next generation, through the adventures of Jacob’s son Joseph.  From the bits and pieces of Jacob’s life we have found many connections to our own struggles as people of faith.  Thanks be to God for the wonderful stories in our Bible, and thanks be to God for Israel, the father of nations.  Amen.