Get right with others
Get right with God a reflection for the 12th of February
Well! Today’s Gospel is a bit different from last week’s. Last Sunday Jesus was calling us the salt of the earth, and the light on a hill and it was all very gooey and wonderful. The week before that he was dolling out blessings left and right centre. But today it’s almost like he’s making up for all the mushy things he said with his sermon on the mount.
And not only is Jesus upholding the old laws like “do not murder” and “do not commit adultery,” but he’s also making them infinitely more difficult to keep.
At first glance, this is a scary text, full of divorce and dismemberment and other things that we’d really rather not think about. As a child of divorced parents who both remarried, it's a little uncomfortable. This is a text all about The Law.
Our first lesson from Deuteronomy explains that the whole point of the Law—is so that we can choose life. And Deuteronomy isn’t talking about everlasting life, or life after death, or anything like that. It’s talking about right now, here, on this planet, with-each-other kind of life. God wants to give us life, and the best way to do that, is, surprisingly, to tell us not to kill each other. Who’dve thought?
But for anyone who’s ever experienced rejection, for any reason, rules like the ones Jesus lays out here can still seem terrifying. Instead of seeing a list of things that can help us choose life together, you may see a list of different ways to get yourself kicked out of God’s family.
Now we get skittish about the concept of sin because it feels like the prelude to a blow. Scripture, the concept of sin, the kind of “tough love” that goes around pointing out all the ways you don’t measure up—
But what if… what if … Jesus is presenting not a threat, with dire consequences. What if it’s not a list of rules to follow and instead more of an instructional video on living together? Let’s take a look at an example. First, Jesus says, “don’t get angry at your siblings, don’t insult them, and don’t use harmful and disparaging words against them. It’s just as bad as physically harming them.” Well, unfortunately, based on what our media serves up to us we’ve all failed pretty miserably at this command. If this were strictly a list of demands and consequences, we’d all be in pretty bad shape.
But the good news is that Jesus knows us, and so what we see in the very next verse are instructions for what happens when you DO fail at following the plan. Jesus says, “So when you are offering your gift at the altar if you remember that your sibling has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first, be reconciled to your sibling, and then come and offer your gift.”
So if you are nervous about being kicked out, know that this isn’t a one-strike-and-you’re-out system—this is the Master understanding our human nature in deep and sometimes uncomfortable ways, and showing us that we can try again.
Jesus is saying that we need to do the hard work of reconciliation with each other before we try to “get right with God,”.
So what does the work of reconciliation look like? Well, the first step is to listen and listen hard. Don’t say anything… just listen.
Remember always that pain is not the last word.
Reconciling means confessing what we’ve done wrong, as individuals, and as Christian communities. We take responsibility for the things we did intentionally and the things we had control over, and we at least acknowledge the existence of the things that were unintentional.
Then, we ask for forgiveness—not expecting it immediately, but doing the hard work of humbling ourselves and allowing another person to show us God’s grace in human form.
Then, we roll up our sleeves, because it’s time to start changing things. Reconciling to and with each other means not just stopping the bleeding in the body of Christ, but bandaging each other up, and moving together. When you bring your whole self into God’s house, you quickly find yourself wrapped up in the reconciling work that got you there in the first place. You get caught up in GOD’S reconciling work. Becoming reconciled with each other leads to working for reconciliation with everyone else!
I’m not saying that it's easy an easy task.
Sometimes God calls the people we least want to share the altar with.
Let our yes be a true yes. A yes that says “I’m going to do the hard and beautiful work of lifting up my brothers and sisters every day of the year, and making sure they can bring their whole selves safely into this community.” Let’s let our yes be yes within these walls, and throughout the rest of our country and our world. Let’s let our yes to each other be a yes in the streets and at tables. And then, hand in hand, we can come to offer our thanksgiving for this beautiful life together before God.
When we can get right with each other…. then we get right with God…