Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
August 10, 2022
The Invitatory
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
The earth is the Lord’s for he made it: Come let us adore him.
Reading: Matthew 18:15-20
‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
Recently, I read an interesting interview with David Axelrod. He was the strategist behind Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. Since then he has assumed diverse roles, veering from raconteur to philosopher to armchair psychologist to pundit. Last week, Axelrod celebrated the 500th episode of his podcast, “The Axe Files.” He lives by this journalistic maxim: “if you probe people’s stories, it’s harder to hate.” Included among those whom Axelrod has interviewed that have given life to this maxim are John Bolton, Liz Cheney, Kellyanne Conway, Lindsey Graham and Karl Rove. “It is our stories that reveal us as human beings.”
Whenever two or more are gathered … It can be really hard to get along.
It is not Covid but all the isms, social and political, that establish hierarchies of human value that infect our interactions. Conflicts develop, fester and may explode thanks to fear or misplaced loyalty. People talk more about one another than they talk with one another. Add to this already dangerous cocktail divided loyalties and power dynamics—not to mention the challenge of discerning what actually counts as sin and it is tempting to despair of prospects for resolution, in spite of the three-step process outlined in this passage.
Much of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew’s Gospel makes the prospects seem even more challenging. He often sets virtually unattainable expectations and he does not let his followers off the hook. But his pledge to be present with them through whatever comes is a promise that empowers them to live into their calling.
Jesus encourages his followers to be those who nurture honest dialogue and refuse to keep silent in the face of harmful behavior to others. Heard in this fashion its primary function then is less to define a universal, three-step process of conflict resolution (as if following the steps will produce guaranteed results), and more to engage with one another as human beings in conversation: that we might find more in common with one another; that we might speak about and treat one another with more and more generosity.
I imagine that all of us can recall the destructiveness of secrets and hushed conversations when people refuse (or are unable) to speak honestly to one another about their interactions. Small issues consequently become big; big issues become catastrophic. One solution is clear and open communication, but that requires as much listening as it does speaking. It certainly requires humility, honesty and generosity of spirit. Listening is hard. Perhaps that is why the process outlined involves hearing or listening at every step. Jesus repeatedly makes reference to listening or refusing to listen. The repetition suggests that the call to hear one another, to listen closely to the truth of the other, is vital.
For many, it is easier to identify harm done to them than it is to recognize the ways their actions can harm others, even if unintentionally. Perhaps one of the most difficult truths of this passage is a reminder of the human capacity to cause harm to others—both in the systems in which we participate as well as in our personal actions. Nonetheless, Jesus promises not to desert his disciples as they face that difficult truth. After all, he is present wherever two or three are gathered in his name, a name that means “God with us,” who came to reconcile us to God and each other.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
