+Our readings this morning are about following God’s commandments, working through disagreements and remembering that Jesus is present whenever we gather in his name. So, just how are these three themes connected? Well, Jesus clearly knew that once the church was organized, institutionalized---whenever 2 or 3 are gathered---conflict would occur. Jesus knows us and he knows that we’re going to fight.
So, instead of telling us that we shouldn’t, he tells us how to repair our relationships AFTER we fight.
We’re to speak to each other directly. That is, we aren’t to gossip or triangulate. Of course, that doesn’t always work, because sometimes the other person won’t speak directly with you, or maybe it feels too risky, too scary to do it alone. In that case we’re to bring one or two trusted people with us to have the conversation. If that fails and we can’t resolve the disagreement, it’s brought to the whole community for discussion, resolution and hopefully reconciliation.
So… why is this important? Why must we reconcile with each other?
Because wherever and whenever two or three are gathered the Divine is present. The essence of God is activated when we are in relationship with one another. It's why the Godhead is made up of three parts—- Creator/father God, Jesus/Son God and Holy Spirit God. The fullness of the Divine, the fullness of God cannot be experienced in the singular. Sure, each of us are in relationship with God, but if we really dug into that relationship we’d discover that our relationship with God has a little God the father, a little Jesus the son and a little Holy Spirit mixed in. To experience the Divine completely? We need to be in community. Just like the holy and undivided trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a relationship, so is the expression of God most fully felt when we are in relationship with each other.
I know this may sound convoluted, but hear me when I say that the glory of God is best experienced when we are in good and holy relationship with others. This is what Jesus is saying in today’ s gospel—-wherever two or three are gathered, He will be in the midst of them….and he doesn't want to be in the midst of rancor and discord, so he gives us a guidebook for how to make our relationships whole and healthy, for when our relationship with each other is whole and healthy, our relationship with God is as well.
We humans are built to be in community—- it is when we are at our best! Why? Because as Paul said in our epistle two weeks ago, we are, each of us, blessed with unique gifts; a variety of skills, talents, viewpoints. When we work together, with our own unique gifts, we create a community that is altogether new and wonderful.
But, as I said earlier, when two or three are gathered there is bound to be disagreement and conflict. Jesus gets that…. he isn't telling us we shouldn't have conflict, he knows we will— he's telling us to admit the conflict and work to resolve it.
More damage is done in our world when people ignore, hide or deny conflict. That breeds resentment and increases the volatility of anger a hundredfold. You know that old adage for married folk—- “never go to bed angry?” Well there's wisdom in that. For when we go to bed angry the anger settles in and festers. Soon that festering turns into an infection and what was a little disagreement becomes a civil war.
This is why diplomacy is such a vital part of national security. When two sides are speaking to each other, face to face, eye to eye, it is a lot more difficult to start a war. I think it is why some of the more seasoned diplomats in Washington get a little worried when the President tweets things---hard to be in relationship when you only use 140 characters!
The bottom line is that our job, as followers of Jesus Christ, is to, in all things, love. We are to love each other enough that when we disagree, we can talk about it, work it out, reconcile.
If there is one thing we need in this world, so especially apt as we remember the darkness of Sept 11 2001, it’s the ability to work out our problems without guns, bombs or airplanes turned into weapons. So let’s take a lesson from Jesus and show the world that even though conflict is bound to happen, we can, through the lessons of loving relationship given to us through the Holy and Undivided Trinity, resolve our conflicts and move forward in Love. For when we lead with love others will follow and soon the anger and darkness of this world will be taken over by the light and love of the next! Amen.
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