Psalm 149
This past week I
was reading an article in Christianity Today about things that are going on in
the Southern Baptist Convention. A few years ago, you may remember, there was a
lot of news about acts of abuse by pastors that had taken place in Southern
Baptist churches. The victims of abuse were speaking out and the denomination
as a whole was forced to confront it. Last year at their annual meeting they
voted for reforms that would make them more effective in addressing, and
hopefully preventing, cases of abuse. That was a good move.
But it turned
out the move was controversial in its own right. Some protested that it was
unfair, that it was inappropriate, that it was too expensive, or that it was
suspect in some way. It grew into a messy conflict-ridden problem. And this
year at their annual meeting, it was almost as though they had decided to
forget all about the matter. This year they were all about reasserting the
commitment to male eldership, as they call it. Which means enforcing rules against
women in leadership roles. They even removed certain congregations from their
denomination – they call it disfellowshipping – because these churches have
women leaders.
To use a term
that session has been playing with lately, I would call that a squirrel:
something that snatches our attention away from the task at hand. Maybe even a
distraction that we intentionally create for the purpose of avoiding the real problem.
The problem of abuse in the church was something they found very difficult,
understandably. So they dug up an old favorite, dusted it off, and decided it
was the most important issue of the day.
There is much
more I could say about these issues, but today I only want to raise the point
that we are very good at distractions, and we are not very good at dealing with
conflicts. It’s true for Southern Baptists, it’s true for Presbyterians, it’s
true for people, as a rule. We don’t know how to deal with conflict.
Our denomination
has a book of rules, it’s a part of our constitution. We call it the Book of
Order. It covers all kinds of things: how we govern ourselves, how we worship,
how we handle membership, and what we do when a pastor or an elder crosses a
line and harms someone or the church as a whole.
Or, in the words
of Jesus in this passage, when a member sins against you.
This episode in
Matthew is the only place we see Jesus speak about the church. And, actually,
“church” is not the word that Jesus would have used because there was not yet a
church. That came years later when the followers of Jesus moved outside the
realm of Judaism. Whatever word he used when he spoke of these matters, what is
most important is that he was talking about how communities manage conflict.
Jesus tries to
make it simple, breaking it down into three easy steps. First, approach the one
who has caused offense. Let them know how they have caused harm. And if that
works, great. Problem solved.
But if it does
not, go to step 2: bring a couple of other people with you to be witnesses. Sometimes
that will work in bringing an offender to repentance. But if it doesn’t, go to
step 3, which is basically to take it to the authorities. Let the church deal
with this person.
Nowhere do
Jesus’ instructions say: take it out to the parking lot. Nowhere does he say:
go home and yell at the kids, kick the dog, have a few drinks – you’ll feel
better. Jesus clearly tells us: when you have a problem? Deal with it.
He has to tell
us this, because most of the time we are so bad at it. Most of the time we
avoid directly dealing with a conflict as if it were electrified. Most of the
time we would rather put our head in the sand or find a squirrel.
Someone once
told me that if a church says they don’t have any conflicts, that means they
have conflict all the time. Because if they aren’t dealing with it, it’s always
just under the surface.
I think maybe we
avoid conflict so religiously because we are afraid of the harm that could come
from facing it. Explosions, fights, grenades. But then perhaps we are failing
to understand the Jesus method for conflict management. Which is something that
involves patience and love, forgiveness and repentance and reconciliation.
And if you get
to step 3 in Jesus’ operating instructions, and the offender still doesn’t
budge, then he says “treat that one like a Gentile or a tax collector.”
And don’t forget
that Jesus built his church out of Gentiles and tax collectors.
The steps may be
simple but that doesn’t make it easy. The good news is that Jesus is right by
our side through it all. For when two or three are gathered in my name, he
says, I am with them.
Thanks be to
God.
Squirrel! Photo by Maddie Franz: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-squirrel-on-gray-tree-trunk-1571117/
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