August 16, 1998
In the Letter to the Hebrews, the writer of that letter says to us, "lay aside every weight, every sin which clings so closely. Aim at peace and the holy life." What a wonderful phrase! "The sins that cling so closely." Sort of like your own skin. The sins that we want to give up before we die; hang onto; we would rather not give up; the abiding sin. He goes on to say "look to it. See to it that there is no root of bitterness among you.
Throughout this chapter in the letter to the Hebrews the writer is talking about and calling for Christian unity. To give up the things that separate us, that divide us, and to look instead for the things which unite us. To give up bitterness and grudges and all those things which draw a line in the sand and instead find unity and peace. Yet, Jesus Christ comes to us today and says, "I did not come for peace; I came for division. I came to bring division and from now on you will find it." Then, he goes to that litany of division which we know only too well in our own lives. Some would look to the Scripture and say, "After all, Jesus said it was the right thing, so that is why we do not get along."
I submit that is an inappropriate use of the
Gospel. Division between those who accept Christianity and those
who do not. It reminds us that those who do not
accept Christianity are not the people Jesus threw out, but the
people to whom Jesus went. They become subjects for evangelism
and welcome. So as we see division brought about by the light
of the Gospel, we must also remember that our purpose as Christians
is to heal those divisions and to bring others to Christ Jesus.
We seek, as the writer to the Hebrews would say, "peace."
Peace in the body of the church is a fruit
of the spirit. "The gifts of the spirit are these... and
you will know you have those gifts," he says, "when
you find unity in the body." Paul reminds us that the unity
in the church is like the unity in the
human body, where every tissue, every organ, every system works
together, in all of its division, for the common good. Without
any system, you are not as healthy. Without some systems you cannot
even live. Some organs are absolutely required, others are nice.
No one wants to give up any of them. They are all important for
the proper working of the human body.
Paul would remind us that it is not in our
divisions that we find the richness of God's gifts. If we seek
to find out how each of us fits into the whole, and what God's
purpose is in calling us together, then we will find His purpose
for us as a community. We need to remember that any time we get
people together who
believe intensely, we will find the potential for conflict. If
we lose sight of Paul's analogy then there will be frequent divisions
around what the most important
elements are; what the most important pieces of the Gospel are;
what the most important parts of the spiritual life are; we argue
back and forth.
Some years ago the General Convention proclaimed that stewardship is the most important work of the church. Now any time you have to explain a slogan you have the wrong slogan. It took a long time for the church to explain what it meant by stewardship; which is, after all, the use of everything God gives us - not just money, but time and space; the creation of each other and all the rest of it. It had to be explained. Not a good slogan.
Some would say the one thing we do that is unique is our worship of God, so that is the most important. Certainly it is important. There are even some who would say that within worship, music is the most important part. After all, no one ever left the church humming the sermon! Others would say that the most important thing we do is spiritual renewal -- our prayer fellowship. Whenever we use the word "most" we are probably treading on very thin ice. In fact it is all of it, working together within this community of faith that builds us up and gives us a common purpose _ the purpose of the kingdom of God.
We aim at peace and a holy life, as we are charged to do this morning. The sin that clings so closely is frequently the sin of bitterness, as the letter says. Bitterness _ the holding of grudges, the striking out simply because we are upset, regardless of the appropriateness of the strike. We all know what a cobra is _ a particularly nasty little snake. If a cobra is backed into a corner and it has nothing else to strike at, it will strike at itself and hurt itself. More often than not, when we as a church are upset about what is going on in the church, what is going on in society, while we may sometimes hurt other people, we will more likely than not hurt ourselves. It is vitally important for the well-being of the church, if not of the world, to free ourselves from the resentments and bitterness. It is absolutely necessary if we are to find peace and unity and a holy life.
The old comic strip character, Pogo, is correct
when he said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
He was not the first to come up with that. Leonardo da Vinci who
painted The Last Supper, included his own face among the
men gathered around the table. Da Vinci's face is the face of
Judas in that painting. Da Vinci, too, knew that his own worst
enemy was himself. We in the church are so often our own worst
enemy because we hold to institutional, as well as individual,
bitterness and anger and grudges.
We are called today to empty ourselves of those things. To empty ourselves of the sin that clings so closely, that creates so much danger to us, and creates so much havoc among us. Not by saying it is no sin. That will not work. Not even by saying, "Well we understand how it is." Real forgiveness is to say, "I am not going to let what you did create a barrier between you and me. Nor will I allow what I did create a barrier between you and me. Let us empty ourselves of bitterness and grudges."
It is like trying to empty a glass of air.
Think about it. How would you take a glass of air and empty it?
It is easy. Simply fill it with water. The love of Christ is the
water to fill our glass of bitterness and will dispel bitterness.
Bitterness will imprison our lives; the love of Christ will release
them. Where bitterness will
paralyze us, the love of Christ will empower us. Where bitterness
will sour us, the love of Christ will sweeten us. Where bitterness
sickens us, the love of Christ heals life. Where bitterness blinds
us, the love of Christ heals us and anoints our eyes, so we may
see again.
As we build our church, as we build the kingdom
of God into the next
millennium, let us as a community of faith continue to strive
for reconciliation within ourselves, within our church, within
our community. Let us displace
bitterness and resentment and estrangement with the much more
powerful and
wonderful love of Jesus Christ and let us run with perseverance
the race that is set before us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ
on whom our faith depends.
AMEN.
The Rev. Dr. Robert Certain
rgcertain@stmargarets.org
16 August 1998