Sermon 9/4/05
Community Life - Matthew 18:15-20, Romans 13:8-14
(view lectionary notes for this text)
This week, I spent some time at Watson Homestead, a retreat center in Painted Post, NY. They provide time for clergy men and women to come and have spiritual renewal time, a time to get away from it all, do some personal soul-searching. I went this past week so that I could work on my ordination papers. As most of you know, I am a probationary elder in the United Methodist Church, where I spend three years ‘on probation,’ preparing for the final step in the process, becoming an ordained elder. Part of the process involves a lot of paperwork, responses to theological questions, which is due in November, followed by interviews on these responses, which happens in February. So, I retreated to work on my paperwork, and got a good draft done of my responses. In enjoyed the beautiful surroundings, and the relaxing atmosphere. But I have to admit, I had a hard time staying there, because I needed something more ‘to do’. I could only work on my papers so many hours in a row, and what was I supposed to do the rest of the time? In part, my feelings are a symptom of the pace of our society. We don’t know what to do with ourselves if we aren’t being pulled in ten directions. We long for some peace and quiet, but when we get, we complain, at least inwardly: I’m bored! It is hard for us to take care of ourselves, and take time for ourselves, or time to build our personal relationship with God. But I think another reason it was hard for me to retreat on my own is because we are created as social creatures. We’re meant to be around one another, living in community. We might drive each other crazy, but humans don’t seem to want to get too far away from each other. Even in church history, monastics have lived mostly in community, finding brotherhood or sisterhood even in a more solitary lifestyle. We need each other.
But we don’t need each other just for company or for amusement. We actually need each other for our faith lives as well. Often we say or at least think that our faith is between us and God. We might come to church to worship with other people, but when it comes to the deeper part of our faith lives – when we’re really struggling, or questioning, or confessing, we want things to be one on one – us and God. Any other parties involved are seen as intrusions into our privacy. In part, I think that our society, our American culture, lends itself to this solitary attitude about our faith. We prize individualism in this country. We prize our personal space, our personal property, and our personal freedoms, as well we should. But I think we’ve let this attitude spill into our faith lives in a way that is only hurting our relationship with God and our relationship with our neighbors.
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, said this on the topic, in one of his sermons: “Christianity is essentially a social religion . . . to turn it into a solitary religion, is indeed to destroy it . . . When I say, This is essentially a social religion, I mean not only that it cannot subsist so well, but that it cannot subsist at all, without society, -- without living and conversing with other[s] . . . to turn this religion into a solitary one is to destroy it.” (1) Elsewhere, Wesley wrote, “Holy solitaries" is a phrase no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion, but social; no holiness but social holiness . . . "This commandment have we from Christ, that [the one] who loves God, love [the neighbor] also"; and that we manifest our love "by doing good unto [all]; especially to them that are of the household of faith." And in truth, whosoever loveth [brothers and sisters in Christ], not in word only, but as Christ loved [them], cannot but be "zealous of good works." For Wesley, religion is social in nature, or not true Christianity. Those were the only options in his mind, because the scriptures require us to love God and to love others, and as much as we’d like it to be so, you can’t really practice God’s love for others without interacting with them!
Today, our own United Methodist Discipline upholds Wesley’s teaching. In speaking of the nature of the Church, it reads, “We emphasize the nurturing and serving function of Christian fellowship in the Church. The personal experience of faith is nourished by the worshiping community . . . The communal forms of faith in the Wesleyan tradition not only promote personal growth; they also equip and mobilize us for mission and service to the world. The outreach of the church springs from the working of the Spirit. As United Methodists, we respond to that working through a connectional polity . . . Connectional ties bind us together in faith and service in our global witness, enabling faith to become active in love and intensifying our desire for peace and justice in the world. (3) In other words, we do church best because we do it together. We serve and reach out because we do it together. We grow personally because we worship and service in community.
Our scriptures today bear witness to this idea of Christian community, reminding us that we were meant to live and walk our faith lives together from the very beginning. In Romans, we are reminded of the commandments, but told that they can be summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Paul writes, “love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” In other words, by loving others, and always acting in loving ways toward others, we are following the commandments. Do you wrong someone you love? At least, we try not to. Loving one another – this is a part of community living that we can get behind, even if we’re not always great at it. We can try this, believe that God calls us to live in this way with one another.
But what about our text from Matthew? Here we read about what happens when members of the community sin against one another, and someone is at fault. Can we relate? I know we never have conflicts within the congregation or disputes among us, right? We’ll have to imagine. Jesus says that when a dispute arises, the parties should try to settle it privately, but if the person at fault will not concede, the dispute is taken before a third party, and then before the whole community. If things still can’t be settled, then a person may have to leave the community. But Jesus reminds us, “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Do we like this part of community life as well? How about when walking together in faith means that our brothers and sisters in Christ want to have some input into the way we live? Do we still like social religion? What if some one calls us to accountability? Are we ready for someone else to call us out if they think we are engaging in sinful behavior? In fact, for early Methodists, this accountability, this allowing and expecting others in the faith community to check up on how you were doing spiritually – this was a mark of life together, a characteristic of Methodist Societies. In the General Rules of the Methodist Church, first developed by John Wesley in 1739, and still printed in our current United Methodist Discipline, we read that congregations were divided into classes, which would meet each week, in order to: “(1) to inquire how their souls prosper; (2) [and to receive] advise, [reproof], comfort or [exhortation], as occasion may require.
Wesley’s General Rules included the following guidelines – prohibitions against “the taking of the name of God in vain, the profaning the day of the Lord, either by doing ordinary work therein or by buying or selling, . . . buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity, slaveholding; buying or selling slaves, fighting, quarreling, brawling, brother going to law with brother; returning evil for evil, or railing for railing; the using many words in buying or selling, uncharitable or unprofitable conversation; particularly speaking evil of magistrates or of ministers . . . the putting on of gold and costly apparel . . . the singing those songs, or reading those books, which do not tend to the knowledge or love of God, softness and needless self-indulgence . . . laying up treasure upon earth, borrowing without a probability of paying; or taking up goods without a probability of paying for them.” And commands to “attend upon all the ordinances of God,” including, “the public worship of God. The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded. The Supper of the Lord. Family and private prayer. Searching the Scriptures. (and) Fasting or abstinence.” (4)
Wesley concluded by saying “If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be known unto them who watch over that soul as they who must give an account. We will admonish him of the error of his ways.” (4) As you can see, things were a bit stricter in Wesley’s day. And I’m glad that things aren’t quite the same! Wesley was so methodical in his standards that sometimes I think he went a bit overboard. But I think we see in the scriptures and in the early Methodist societies something that we’ve lost a bit of: a love for a neighbor and a care for our neighbors that goes beyond just sending warm feelings their way. The kind of love Wesley has in mind is love that challenges and love that seeks the best for a neighbor, even if the neighbor can’t see the best on their own. What would it mean to love one another in this way in our community of faith? To what extent are you checking up on your friends here at St. Paul’s, and when do you let them check up on you? I’m not talking about judging one another, but about loving one another enough to want the best for one another, and to help each other make decisions and live lives that are the best that God has for us.
As you look around this community of faith, I hope you will remember that we are here not just to do our own thing, and to worship and go home. We certainly enjoy each other’s company, but I think we also can act to lift one another up in love. We are there for one another in times of loss or crises. We celebrate together in times of joy. And we can encourage one another in our journeys of faith, so that we all can grow more deeply in our love of God, and in our love for one another. For wherever two are more are gathered in Christ’s name, the love of Christ is there, dwelling among us. Amen.
(1) Emphasis added. John Wesley, Sermon on the Mount IV.
(2) Wesley, preface to Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739.
(3) Book of Discipline 2004, "Distinctive Wesleyan Emphases," p. 47-48
(4) Book of Discipline 2004, General Rules