A Sermon by The Rev. Merrill Wade, September 8, 2002
This week I was watching a brief video called Witness at Ground Zero, which was produced by the Episcopal Church. The opening scene of the video show the three number 911 on the bottom of the screen. The word Psalm slides over next to 911 and it changes to Psalm 91:1 and then, with stirring music in the background, it begins to project several verses from Psalm 91 on the screen.
91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High,
abides under the shadow of the Almighty.
91:3 He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter
and from the deadly pestilence.
91:5 You shall not be afraid of any terror by night,
nor of the arrow that flies by day;
91:6 Of the plague that stalks in the darkness,
nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid-day.
Now please understand me. The relationship between Psalm 91 and the date 9/11 is sheer coincidence. What is not coincidence is that the words of the Psalm speak to our times. Human living has always been riddled with disagreement, conflict, violence and war.
The Psalmist wrote in a time of conflict and battle. The Psalmist is telling it like it is and is, as well, declaring that God is faithful - in spite of, in spite of the conflict and battle.
A year ago innocent people were attacked and brutally murdered. The response of our government has been to beef up our defenses, to root out terrorists and to overthrow the government of Afghanistan which was in complicity with world-wide terror. These kinds of actions were appropriate and good, though we know they need ethical and moral boundaries that raise our sights above those against whom we defend ourselves.
But there has been another equally important answer to terror. There has been a basic spiritual response. Certainly by this I refer to prayer and social action and a deep unification of purpose for Americans.
I also refer to a certain poignancy - a subtle vulnerability of heart and soul.
Our scriptures show us that in the heart of darkness the People of God pray - but they also sing and dance and write words from the soul. They wrote Job and Lamentations to grasp the meaning of suffering - the Book of Jonah to test the limits of God’s grace -Psalms to sing of faith and trust in spite of----- in those times when the evidence of God and goodness is fleeting.
This is a parish that understands and participates in these poignant human exchanges with God. I want to thank this parish for offering this weekend’s Arts festival to the Northwest Austin community. People with God-given talents danced and read poetry and sang silly and beautiful songs. Children’s faces were painted, art and other works expressing human faith and trust - in spite of it all - were offered and appreciated.
It was a wonderful expression of sharing God’s gifts - of co-creating with God. What the Arts festival says to me is that the spirit of this parish is indomitable. Our creative juices are flowing. The events of September 11, 2001 are sobering. But the spirit of this parish is not broken. Thank you for being alive, for knowing Christ and making his life-giving Spirit known this weekend. Thank you.
The sheer evil of September 11 is confusing to us all. The 19 or 20 terrorists who carried out these actions had families of their own. They each had Moms and Dads, brothers and sisters - flesh and blood persons they knew and loved. It is so complex. We wonder how you can sincerely love your mother and deliberately kill 1,000’s of other mothers with an airplane shaped arrow, as the Psalm says, "that flies by day".
It is too easy to write such people off as 100% evil through and through. Though I am quite tempted to do that very thing. Some Jewish thinkers, in light of Jewish suffering through the centuries, think in terms of the "two inclinations". Rabbi Morris Kertzer, in his book "What is a Jew" speaks of human nature this way:
"We speak of human nature as being composed of two inclinations, called the yetser hara and yetser hatov, literally the bad inclination and the good inclination. We are given, he writes, the free will to choose to follow either of these rival character endowments."
As Christians we would add that the Holy Spirit can and will guide us toward the greater use of the yetser hatov, the good inclination.
In light of the sickening history of violence and war perpetrated by Christian people in every century - it is just plain naïve to imagine that the life of faith eliminates our bad inclination. Sin is sin and it festers at the roots of our character.
I am reminded that priests and other lay leaders around the world have sinned against their congregations, against the most innocent lambs of their flocks. We Christians must take real care not to condemn other religions and people as being 100% evil.
The truth seems to be that conflict is unavoidable. Simply unavoidable. Out of the bad inclination of humanity terrible suffering can ensue. Yet even its twin, or rival as Kertzer sees it, the good inclination, can produce disagreement and conflict when two good ideas compete for attention.
It is with these ideas in mind that we meander to Matthew’s gospel and find conflict and disagreement in the church Matthew addresses in his gospel.
We find Jesus talking privately to his disciples. In earlier verses, he has counseled them to tame their yetser hara - their bad inclination, saying woe to the person who succumbs to the temptation to sin. Then, in typical Jewish hyperbole Jesus says, "if your hand or your foot causes you to sin (if it inflames your bad inclination) cut it off."
Today’s passage continues this deadly seriousness. It is about conflict and disagreement in the community of the disciples. Jesus is attempting to train the disciples to employ their good inclinations in times of conflict. Conflict may be inevitable but its terrible results are not. Conflict does not have to lead to violence and blood shed and blood feuds between families and nations. Conflict does not have to produce winners and losers.
If your brother sins against you, speak to him alone. Jesus says.
Remember that in the Mediterranean Basin of the 1st Century, cultural anthropologists have taught us that honor and shame are core values of the village.
Sinning against another is impugning their honor in the eyes of others. Jesus is saying to his disciples if you are offended by a brother ( a member of the church), if you have been shown dishonor, confront the sinner in private. Avoid being public about this matter. The public eye, the group mentality, will determine the honor and shame for you.
If you humiliate the brother publicly, he is dishonored. He may never recover from his sin against you. You have lost your brother. Help him save face.
This is a remarkable statement of gospel truth - having and keeping a brother is more important that honor.
Then Jesus describes a process of negotiations intending to find a fair solution to the conflict.
If your one on one visit doesn’t bring a solution, bring two or three witnesses to listen and create a binding arbitration to the problem. This is risky because other persons, each with their own bad and good inclinations, are involved. Now honor and shame are beyond the personal control of the two persons.
If that fails - tell it to the church. Tell it to the entire community. The sin against you becomes a sin against the whole community. The problem now is that someone must be honored. Someone must be condemned. How often have we seen this process played out in families, churches, schools, governments? If we can just blame 1 person, the rest of us can consider ourselves OK.
The recalcitrant sinner is to be thrown out. Let him be to you as a sinner and a tax collector.
Then Jesus raises the pressure. If you throw him out, you have thrown him out for good. Heaven agrees with your decision. If you forgive him and free him from his shame, heaven agrees with your decision. What you bind is bound. What you loose is loosed. Be careful in your judgments.
Jesus is asking the disciples to tame their bad inclination. He is asking them to recognize that when they shame a sinning member, that person may lose their consciousness of God and God’s love and forgiveness. You must love him for him to know God loves him. What a tremendous responsibility and burden the church carries. I have to trust that God can still find that shamed one, but he or she may no longer be able to believe that, they are outside the love of the community.
Out of that depth of that deep hole of shame and loss Jesus makes a promise to the church. Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them.
"And when I am in the midst of you, and you respect and honor me," I imagine Jesus saying, "you have power to exercise your good inclination, you have power to forgive. You have power to honor your brother (to recognize with humility that you commit sin as well) even when you are incline to shame him for the sake of your honor."
The Christian gospel is simply revolutionary. Through Jesus God is saying this about our principles of shame and honor. "Though you have strayed from me and are inclined to destroy one another. I refuse to cast you out from my sight. I refuse to abandon you. I have given everything that is precious to me, even my own Son, to honor you even though you often choose to dishonor me."
So today, we can say, if God remains for us, in spite of ourselves, then who, really and truly, has the power to condemn us. So we must take care not to condemn others.
So we work for honor where there is shame. We work for forgiveness where there is conflict. We offer our poetic powers of creative spirit where we are tempted to lapse into hatred. This is who we are at our best.
So we never lose hope because we believe that the Risen Christ is with us - invisibly nurturing us week by week. Taming our bad inclinations and inspiring our good.
I am not, emotionally or otherwise, ready to forgive those responsible for 9/11. Neither am I ready to condemn them forever into eternity. Who am I to declare who is and is not worthy of redemption.
Instead I am encouraged to be more than my feelings, to be more than I might choose to be if left without encouragement to live from my good inclination, so I listen with you to the Apostle Paul as he encouraged the congregation in Rome to be their very best…Romans 12:9-. "Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. …..Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."
AMEN.
