2011-09-04–Passing The Peace
Passing the Peace
In just a few moments, after the prayer of confession and the pronouncement of absolution, we are going to do something that can strike visitors as quite odd. We are going to walk around the church shaking hands, or even hugging, and saying things like, “The Peace of the Lord be with you.” Of course, some of us are in always in a hurry. We might say “The Peace of Christ,” “God’s Peace,” or even “Peace.”
Have you ever stopped to think about how strange that might look to visitors? You’ve seen it in their eyes, I’m sure. It’s the expression that combines “What is going on?” with “Please no more than a handshake!”
What’s worse, it’s not confusing only for visitors! Sometimes even regular parishioners have forgotten just what it is we’re doing. Now, I’m sure this wouldn’t happen here at the Epiphany. But I was chatting with Fawna Andrews, +Stephen’s wife when they were up for the Celebration of New Ministry. She told me about overhearing one parishioner giving directions to a local Swiss Chalet to another at the peace. “The Peace of Christ and here’s where to go for good chicken. . . .”
What are we doing when we ask for Christ’s peace to rest on our fellow members? Well, that’s a good question to ask whether we’re new or not so new to parish life.
And it is a question that drives us into our Gospel lesson today.
The passage opens with these words. “If another member of the Church sins against you. . . .” Well, that’s hardly a hypothetical situation is it? Perhaps Jesus would have been better to start out with, “When.” It is simply the unfortunate result of being a community of redeemed sinners that we will from time to time sin against each other. Conflict produced by our own sin is a very real part of our life together. Whether we are talking about the 1st century or the 21st, the relevance of Jesus’ teaching here is immediate.
The teaching of Jesus is not only immediate, but it is also local. Look at how our passage opens again. “If another member of the church sins against you. . . .” This is a tortured piece of translation. What Jesus said was, “If a brother sins against you.” Further, Jesus later on makes clear that he is talking about our life together—our life in the community—by using the word, ekklesia. It is often translated “church,” as it was in our lesson this morning. The problem is “church” is now a word that now comes with a lot of baggage, a history that actually obscures what the text is talking about. We would closer to what Jesus is talking about if we translated “ekklesia” as “local assembly.”
What is the point of the grammar lesson? The point is, Jesus is talking about conflict that is immediate and local while our translation has the potential to keep things anonymous or far away. “If a member of the church sins against you,” we may be talking about a bishop in a different diocese doing something wrong. Or another province that has parted ways with us. Something that might vex us, but really, we can’t do much about it.
But what Jesus really said is closer to this: “If a brother or sister in the local assembly sins against you. . . .” Ouch! Now, we don’t have the comfort that comes from complaining from a distance. Now we’re talking about the pew behind or ahead. We’re talking about first names. This brother. That sister. When they sin against you, what do you do? That is what Jesus is talking about.
Well, when this situation happens, what are we to do?
Jesus now lays out a method of reconciliation that is to define how his followers will conduct themselves in their life together. It’s almost a kind of 1st century flow-chart. Here’s step one. Go to that brother. Go to that sister. Explain the situation. Aim to be reconciled.
If reconciliation is not possible, see step two. Go again with one or two witnesses. Jesus here is calling to mind the legal “rules of evidence” that are found in both Deuteronomy 19 and Leviticus 19. But as Jesus does throughout Matthew, he redefines how the law is to be applied. The one or two are not to be brought as witnesses against the sinning brother or sister (as they would be in the Old Testament legal code), but brought to attest to the reality of the conversation. They are there to affirm and confirm that what is taking place is a genuine attempt at reconciliation.
If this second occasion fails, here’s step three: bring it to the entire community and repeat the process a third time. Do you see the movement here from local to communal? At each stage, the community of witnesses gets larger. Why? Because, quite simply, the health of the whole community hinges on the brothers and sisters pressing toward reconciliation with each other. As far as Jesus is concerned, no conflicts are finally private. All have implications and repercussions that will eventually involve everyone.
Now comes the hard part. If reconciliation still has not occurred, Jesus says, the community is to treat that person as a Gentile or a tax-collector. We need to camp on this one a little longer.
We do because throughout their histories, churches have done a very good job of getting this last piece of instruction only half right. It’s the half that says, as long as reconciliation is not possible, a boundary—very real, and often very painful—has been erected. And this reality needs to be recognized. There’s no point in pretending the boundary isn’t there, for that is denial. The solution to lack of repentance and reconciliation is not pretending that repentance don’t need to take place.
Where churches often err is in their response to the recognition of this boundary. We often think that the boundary is there to be enforced by us. It is our task to maintain the purity of the community. To make sure that outsiders stay outside. The Scriptures, as we have read them in previous weeks, show that this is to get the good news of the Gospel dreadfully wrong. And we are wrong if we read that into Jesus’ words here.
Here’s why. First, notice that Jesus’ teaching on reconciliation comes sandwiched between the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the unforgiving servant. In the first parable, Jesus likens his Father to a shepherd who will search for the one lost sheep who, for whatever reason, has left the safety of the fold. In the second, the disciples are graphically warned that because forgiveness is what they have received from God, forgiveness is to be a hallmark of how they live together.
Not only that, but we have already seen in this Gospel how Jesus treats Gentiles—remember the Canaanite woman with great faith? And tax collectors—he called one to be a disciple!
So, treating someone like a tax collector and a Gentile does not mean shunning. It means, even as we recognize that reconciliation hasn’t taken place, that our task is to keep on seeking it. To search for the lost sheep; to keep on forgiving.
In short, being a member of the church—or better, being a brother or a sister in this local assembly—means you have a responsibility. I have a responsibility. One commentator I read this week put it this way: “If a sheep gets lost you don’t look for an hour and then call it quits. You get out there and find that sheep. If your brother sins against you, you keep on forgiving. The onus is not on the sinning brother or sister to work it out and then come back. The onus is on us to refuse to let them go.”
Do you see how Jesus calls on both moral extremes here? On the one hand, to those who want to enforce the boundaries, he says, treating that which divides as permanent is not an option. There are no irreconcilable differences. To those who want to obliterate boundaries, he says, they are a fact of our lives as long as our lives are touched by sin. To deny them is as bad as to approve of them. Both make reconciliation impossible; both diminish our common life as the ekklesia—as those who have been called by Jesus into his new community.
That life, after all, is to be marked by agreement.
When my kids were younger, we would schedule play dates with other children. And it was interesting to see how their play would evolve as they grew. At first, they just played by themselves, side-by-side. Each was concerned with his or her own toys; each was oblivious to the presence of others. But eventually, they noticed, and when they noticed they fought, they made up, they played together. Our common life is not to be a grown up version of playing beside others. It is to be more like playing with others. That means fighting is inevitable, as is reconciling.
But Jesus’ point is not simply that communal life marked by continuous reconciliation is better—though it is. More than that, such a common life actually has cosmic implications. “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. If two of you agree on earth about anything, it will be done by my Father in heaven.” I confess to you that I don’t understand the full import of those words. But at the very least, they mean that there is more to the continual striving for reconciliation than just, “it’s better this way.” This behaviour is part of God’s mission to the world! And as such, transcends the boundaries of this world and helps to unite heaven and earth.
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” And so our reading ends. The Gospel of Matthew is a Gospel about the ongoing presence of Jesus. At the outset, Matthew tells us that Jesus will be called Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus last words at Matthew’s conclusion are “And remember I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And here between the beginning and the end, Jesus’ ongoing presence is again made plain. Where two or three are gathered, there I am.
Well, it has taken us a while, but we can now return to the question with which we began this morning. Why do we share the peace? Well, certainly, not to give directions to Swiss Chalet, no matter how succulent the chicken and ribs are.
We share the peace because Christians take seriously Christ’s call to be reconciled. In passing the peace to each other, we are demonstrating in a ritualized way, what should mark our lives from Monday through Sunday—the continuous attempt to be reconciled to each other. To show to the brothers, the sisters, and to the world that there is peace between us.
But again, there is more to it! Passing the peace is not merely a chance to say, “Look at us lovely friendly folks!” For the peace that binds us together is Christ’s peace. It is the peace which has been achieved first with God, a peace accomplished on the cross. And as such, Christ’s peace is the ground of the peace that we now share. Christ’s peace is the foundation upon which we are reconciled to each other. His presence in our midst is the glue which keeps us from falling apart and compels us to seek the lost sheep and forgive those who wrong us.
It is a presence that is given to us through created things—and as such is very tangible. What do we do when we gather in the name of Christ? We open the book and hear it read and proclaimed. And in grace, the Living Word, takes those human words and makes them His. By His Spirit, He is present. In a few moments, we will break the bread and pass the cup. And in grace, the Bread of Life takes those human creatures and makes them His very life. By his Spirit, He is present. In grace he has tied his presence with us to human things so that we can know he’s really here.
We have gathered in his name; we have heard his Word read and proclaimed; we are about to come to his table. Our host is here. Let us share in his peace.