“With an Open Heart”

September 7, 2008

Exodus 12:1-14, Psalm 149; Romans 13:8-14;

Matthew 18:15-20

The Hebrew text of Exodus, the Epistle to the Romans and the Gospel from Matthew seems related: In Exodus God didn't simply "spirit" the people out of their awful circumstances in Egypt; In the Gospel Jesus adds an explanatory addition about how human decisions shape the quality of heaven; and from Romans Paul harps not only on love but also on behaving respectably. Each of these texts suggests that our relationship with God is inseparable from the way in which we interact with one another.

The Exodus story is probably the one most familiar to the Jewish people.  Likely recorded and shaped during the Israelites’ later exile in Babylon (587–536 Bce), it is retold each year as part of the cycle of reading from the Torah.  It reflects how Israelite priests regulated worship through ordinances (v. 14).  The ways to select and prepare the lamb, and dispose unusable parts, are detailed. Directions about cooking the meat and making sure everyone participates are very particular. Instructions about using the blood are specific.

Each year in the spring the Jewish people from all over the world retell, reenact, and relive this story through the Passover Seder, a multisensory experience – engaging all of the senses as the ritual allows.  In telling the Passover story Israelites remember their identity. Ritual and worship work together to renew and restore the people.  Blood painted onto the frames of the house doorways was a sign of hope for a restored relationship with God. Blood did not save. When God saw this sign, the tenth plague passed over that household.  God’s liberating justice revealed who God was. God saved. The deaths of Egyptians were due to Pharaoh’s persistent injustice. God does not require life to be taken in order to give life.

In his letter to the Romans Paul encourages everyone to love neighbour as self.  Some theologians have referred to this portion of Paul’s letter as Paul’s Beatitudes.  A large part of Paul's message to the church in Rome, and to most of the churches was to encourage the people in how to live, how to behave, and in what to do in response to God's gracious gift to them. It seemed clear to him that if you live your life as if you are going to meet God face to face anytime, if you live your life confident that God's kingdom has begun, if you live your life knowing that the relationship you have with God is more important than any other thing in your life, if you live your life that way, then your behavior ought to reflect that this is what you believe. It wasn't about doing something right in order to win God's approval. It was about faith, faith in God's actions, faith in God's love, and faith in God's promise of steadfast relationship with us! But faith is not just believing. Faith is also about doing, acting, and working in God's kingdom here and now, doing the work of Christ in the place where we are, responding to that free gift of God's love that we can do nothing to earn, but that we can do everything to show off.

These readings are the kind of messages that should make us sit up and take notice and realize that being a Christian isn't a lark; it's a serious commitment to a radical new way of life.

As people of God, we have great responsibility to determine, in the day to day of our lives, how to love. Simply being nice isn't going to cut it. Real love in a down and dirty world requires informed deliberation and sometimes tough choices. Jesus' remark from the Gospel about "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" is a state of being. How we love or fail to love affects our relationships both to others and to God. Maybe, as Jesus suggests, in our dealings with others, we are not only learning to love, but we are also constantly shaping heaven.

There is a story of a woman who was a person of integrity, deep faith and sincere commitment to the church, she had been hired to be a pastoral assistant, and in that role she had contributed substantial time and amazing gifts to the congregation. As she worked with the congregation, her roots in the faith grew, as well as her knowledge and experience. Her voice gained clarity and authority. So when she noticed a problem, in her case it was the pastor’s misuse of power, she confronted the situation and challenged him. The senior pastor tried to silence her and ignore her. Reluctantly, she asked the executive council to hear her concern, but council members refused. The pastor had told them that the discussion must remain between the two of them. He quoted Matthew 18 in support of this decision: "If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone." By complying with the pastor and his use of a biblical directive, the council members allowed him to protect himself and them from the truth.

Matthew 18:15-20 is one of many scripture texts that have been used to harm others. These six verses are not meant to be a declaration of power, nor do these verses mean that if two or three people agree on something, then they can ignore others and do whatever they want. These six verses are about listening and accountability and about a larger vision of God’s kingdom.

Chapter 18 begins with the disciples coming to Jesus with the question, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" I imagine Jesus being wide-eyed at what he was hearing. Were they seriously asking this of Jesus, whose ministry had always focused on the least?

Yet he doesn’t dismiss their self-centered and self-righteous question. He takes them seriously, listens carefully and then responds, not with a direct or literal answer, but with several teachings and with exaggeration. Jesus pushes the disciples to think, to listen and to be accountable to others for the power they hold. The exaggeration allows the disciples the opportunity to learn without being embarrassed and to listen without becoming defensive. Jesus points them back to the "children," the "little ones," "the one that went astray," "the one not listened to" and "the fellow slave." The kingdom of God is not concerned with "who’s the greatest," Jesus teaches; the kingdom of God is about using power to care for the least and most vulnerable.

Matthew 18:15-20 can be used to set up a vulnerable person to be even more vulnerable, as in the story of the woman. By the power of his role and by his misuse of scripture, the pastor disempowered the woman, denied her the process of being heard, protected himself and silenced the truth. Hiding behind their reading of this text, the pastor and the executive council avoided listening, stopped conversation and the possibility of healing, and joined their voices with the disciples in asking, "Who’s the greatest?" Is that what Jesus is pointing us to in this text? Or is that what we point to when we think we’re the greatest?

I encourage you to listen to and read these texts carefully and honor the questions and tensions they raise for you. If we listen with "new ears" we always will hear something different from what we expect. Jesus uses exaggeration to help the disciples hear the gospel of God’s love indifferent ways, through different experiences, with different language and images. If the Bible is a closed word and merely an answer book, then we’re in trouble. We’ll continue to use scripture to attack others and thus perpetuate violence against one another and justify such harm in God’s name. In this, we will limit God. That’s not an exaggeration.

Jesus could have used his power to tell the disciples exactly what he thought of their question, but he chose to listen, to open up conversation and to teach. The Bible invites us to enter into an ongoing conversation of Christians who struggle with what it means to live faithfully in relationship and to look beyond ourselves.

I started out by saying that the Hebrew text of Exodus, the epistle to the Romans and the Gospel from Matthew seems related.  In each one we have the privilege of glimpsing the great “I Am Who I Am”, the God of justice, liberation, of love and of hope.  We are to move beyond the tokenism of inclusiveness to a radical inclusivity where we take the other seriously, welcome one another as sisters and brothers, listen to the other, and dare trust that he or she belongs in God’s love as much as we do.  Amen.