Conflict, Resolution, and Celebration

 

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Club

 Jeanne Canny, Lurlie Bickford, Ginny Boschen, Betty Astle, Carolyn Alexander

 

One more Birthday Lunch!

Carolyn Alexander with Sondra Kellogg at the Bread Lounge.

Thank you, Sondra!

 

Rotary Club

Friday morning at 7:00

Our speaker was Jim Johnston, our District 5450’s District Governor.

Of course, we had to greet him Evergreen style.

 

What a way to start a Friday morning!

 

Bottom’s Up!

 

Adam, Nikki, and Gloria Chodur

(Young Rotarians)

 

Engagement Party

 

 

Abbi said, “YES!” to Will Vickstrom.

 

Will’s parents, Anne and Mark Vickstrom

 

Sally Hopper, Anne’s mother

 

Chris Krieg, Evergreen Arts Person of the Year, 2023..

 

Painting by Chris Krieg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* The actual quote by Gandhi (Thank you, Pat Foster):

 

https://www.genesisca.org/single-post/2019/06/17/be-the-change#:~:text=We%27ve%20all%20heard%20the,We%20but%20mirror%20the%20world.

 

 

Two or Three

Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein

Agnus Day appears with the permission of www.agnusday.org

  

Verse 12:  “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, 

will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?

 

 

The First Passover

 

 

 

 

LECTIONARY

Exodus 12:1–14 

Psalm 149 

Romans 13:8–14 

Matthew 18:15–20

 

Summary

Jesus’ practices for reconciliation and discipline ought to be understood as pertaining to very serious matters of notorious sin where the health of the community is at stake, and it is not to be understood as a license for the church to resolve any conflict without the involvement of civil authorities when appropriate.

Still, membership in the community of faith is a matter of eternal significance, for “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (v. 18). Jesus is speaking about keeping earthly order within the heavenly community of faith. His process is one that avoids escalation, seeking to correct and reconcile without shaming or embarrassing the person in error, and seeking the offender’s repentance and return. The final measure of excommunication is to be taken only if the person persists in sinful behavior even against the will of the entire local community. Such a level of willful recalcitrance makes exclusion the only available step to remove the threat of a malign influence influencing others in the community to sin.

https://www.preachingtoday.com/lectionary/

 

THE WORD:

Chapter 18 of Matthew’s Gospel is a collection of Jesus’ sayings on the practical challenges facing the Christian community, including status-seeking, scandal, division and the topic of today’s reading, conflict.

Today’s Gospel reading sounds more like regulations devised by an ecclesiastical committee than a discourse by Jesus (this chapter has been called the “church-order discourse” of Jesus). But the real point of Jesus’ exhortation is that we must never tolerate any breech of personal relationship between us and another member of the Christian community.  At each stage of the process – personal discussion, discussion before witnesses, discussion before the whole community – the goal is to win the erring Christian back to the community (the three-step process of reconciliation outlined by Jesus here corresponds to the procedure of the Qumran community).

Jesus’ exhortation closes with a promise of God's presence in the midst of every community, regardless of size, bound together by faith.

HOMILY POINTS:

Today’s Gospel outlines a process of reconciliation among divided members of a community.  Jesus calls his hearers to seek honesty and sincerity in all relationships, to put aside self-interest, anger and wounded pride, and take the first step in healing the rifts that destroy the sense of love that binds family and friends, church and community – the love of Christ is the "debt" that binds us to one another.

Jesus’ challenges us in today’s Gospel not to tolerate the dysfunction in our lives or allow our judgments and disappointments to isolate us from others, but to confront those problems, misunderstandings and issues that divide us, grieve us, embitter us.  

In the “rules” and “procedures” for bringing sinners back to the community he lays out in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls us to build communities that are inclusive, not exclusive: to bring the lost back, not out of pride or zealousness, but out of “the debt that binds us to love one another.  

Discipleship is the hard work of building community and the harder work of reconciliation — work that is grounded in love for the other, work what begins with respect and love for every human being, work that seeks God’s justice and peace above all.  

In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives his disciples the power and authority to “bind” and “loosen.”  Through the centuries, we’ve read this Gospel as Jesus’ entrusting the Church with the authority to “loosen” and “bind” sins.  But when we act with empathy and understanding, when we seek to restore and heal the broken relationship, when we put aside our own issues to help others cope with their hurt and despair, we exercise that power to forgive and reconcile.    

https://connectionsmediaworks.com/sundaygospel.html#sept10