Community Ethics

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH September 4, 2011 Rev. Mark R. Miller Matthew 18:15-20; Romans 13:8-10 “Community Ethics” Communion Meditation When it comes to morality and the church it seems that there are basically three approaches. However, the first two are the most common. The first one is fairly basic. The rules for conduct are clear and any breach of those rules requires discipline and removal. The second style is a community where the rules are much less clear. In this second type of community, the rules are communicated in less direct ways. You have to guess at the rules of conduct. You learn the rules by breaking them unintentionally. The discipline often comes through silent exclusion. This discipline, like the rules are difficult to discern. What usually happens is that the one who breaks the rules is left to guess at what happened. Eventually the transgressor will simply drift away from the community once the love has been quietly withdrawn. I am convinced that these two forms are representative of most churches whether liberal or conservative. They message is the same – do things our way or you are not welcome here. I am also sure that this type of community discipline and control was not unfamiliar in the early church. As they sought to sort out Jew and Gentile the easiest thing to do was to turn cultural expectations into divine mandates from God. Fortunately, Jesus expects more from his followers than they expect of themselves. Jesus’ teaching about community rules and reconciliation came when he was responding to the disciples’ question about which one of them was the greatest. Because of our human need to exert dominance over other people and compare ourselves as greater or lesser than our neighbor, Jesus had to speak. When this impulse gets too strong we are bound to hurt someone else. The reality of life in community is that we are going to be in conflict at some point. This is why Jesus lays out a very detailed plan. This is unique since most of Jesus’ teaching is not this direct. The first step is to go directly to the person with which you have an issue. How many late night phone calls or parking lot conversations would have been saved in doing this? Notice that this is intended to be an empowering action. It does not matter whether the person is rich, white and has power; Jesus says any member in the community has the authority to hold them accountable. No one needs to, “remember their station.” What happens if the person does not listen? Step two is to take one or two people with you so there will be no hearsay or church gossip. But the ethic remains the same. Deal directly with the person and seek reconciliation. The goal is not to get even, make them pay or to get your own way. The goal is for the person to admit their wrongdoing which can make forgiveness and reconciliation possible. So what happens if the person still will not listen? Then it is time to bring in the whole community. While this can seem heavy handed, it shows that an issue between two members of the community can impact the whole community. How often has private matters between two members had implications for the whole community? We have seen it happen here. It happens everywhere. So what happens when all this does not work? What if reconciliation does not happen? Is it finally time to shun and remove? Not quite; in fact, not at all. “Treat them as Gentiles and Tax Collectors.” Jesus does not say, ‘There comes a time when you have to cut your losses.” Instead, he says we are still called to love. After all, Jesus spent a lot of time with tax collectors and gentiles. He spent his life telling them to come and follow. They are to be treated as neighbors, not enemies. If reconciliation is not possible the best we can hope for is to treat our estranged neighbor with love. But how are we to love our neighbors? The commandment begins with: love your neighbor as yourselves. But what if you do not think all that highly of yourself? What if, deep down, you do not feel worthy of love? Then, the way you treat your neighbor will reflect this. If you look at the world through purely critical eyes, it is probably because you find yourself so worthy of critique. People who harbor self hatred are incapable of truly loving their neighbors freely and without manipulation. And, this is why reconciliation is not always possible. Love yourself. After all, if God loves you, why would you question that? While love of neighbor does begin with love of self, it does not end there. This is because treating others the way you want to be treated assumes everyone thinks, acts, and believes like you do. The most loving thing to do is to treat someone the way they want to be treated. And, in a community of diversity, this is a critical mistake most of us are susceptible of making. Because Westminster is a community which seeks to witness to the beloved community we can no longer be content with our homogeneous enclaves. We will not thrive if we are truly content with segregated Christian education and segregated close friendships. If this continues it will slowly erode what has been built. But, if we decide that God’s vision is worthy, we will forgo our personal preferences and comfort. We will seek out someone we do not know well each week. We will look for opportunities to create new ways of building this community. And, the reward for doing this will actually be an increase in conflict. Jesus knows this is the way it works. Anything worth doing is worth the struggle. This is why he presented a roadmap. The choice is between Westminster as a truly multiracial community and Westminster as a gathering of cliques who do not know one another but tolerate the differences. Amen!