Loving God, you offer us healing and forgiveness through your Son, Jesus, reconciling us to yourself.  By your Spirit, empower us to share that same forgiveness and reconciliation with others, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Relationships are messy.  Have you ever noticed that?...  Things happen where we hurt one another - sometimes intentionally, and sometimes unintentionally.  Communication is sometimes difficult, and so we don’t always know what the other person is thinking and start to assume things.  Disagreements happen because we see things differently or have different priorities.  And sometimes the hardest people to get along with are in our own families or in our own households.  Relationships are messy, and this is true, even in the church.

    Nowhere was this more obvious than in Corinth.  From what we can gather, reading between the lines a little bit, Paul had made a visit to the believers in Corinth that didn’t go so well.  There was somebody in the church community there who had behaved very badly towards Paul, and it seems as though nobody else there had thought to come to Paul’s defense.  And so, after this visit, Paul had written them a letter - the one that he says was written “with many tears” (2 Cor. 2:4).

    In this letter, Paul had urged them to confront this man who had behaved so badly and to exclude him from their community.  It seems that they heeded Paul’s advice and did as he had asked.  However, now Paul is writing them again, having heard about the discipline they have imposed.

    While this was exactly what Paul wanted, this was not the ending that he was after.  What Paul wanted to see in the end was repentance, and forgiveness, and reconciliation.  He was not content to see this man remain outside the community of believers, and he wanted forgiveness to be extended to him - from himself, from the community, and from God.  However, as you may know, forgiveness does not always come easily.

    This is illustrated by a story that actually happened a number of years ago that is shared by William R. White (Stories for the Journey, 1988, p. 57f.).  He writes:

    In a small midwestern town a woman was caught in the act of adultery.  Her pastor visited her and found her brash and unrepentant.  When he asked her to repent of her sin she cursed him and told him to leave.  A few days later he brought two members of the church council to visit her.  She laughed at all of them saying, “What I did was no big deal.”
    Finally, using Matthew 18:15-18, her case was brought before the members of her congregation who listened to the testimony and weighed it carefully.  When everyone had spoken, one of the elders advised, “It is the recommendation of the council that we remove her from our group.  We will continue to pray that she repents of her sin and that she will return to full fellowship.”  The congregation concurred.
    In the days that followed her removal, the woman confronted several members of the church on the street and showered them with curses.  Many women crossed the street in order to avoid her anger.
    During the next few years the pastor frequently saw the woman and spoke to her.  She never returned his greeting.  Then one day they met quite by accident in a back aisle of the town’s largest grocery store. “There is seldom a day that passes when I do not pray for you,” the pastor said.  The woman began to weep.
    Two weeks later, on a Monday morning, the woman entered his study.  No longer brassy and bold, she confessed her sin and asked for his guidance.  In the weeks ahead the two met frequently for counseling and prayer.  Then, one day, she asked, “What must I do to enter into the fellowship of the church again?”
    He told her that he would bring the issue before the meeting of the whole church.  When the congregation gathered the pastor told the people the story.  When he finished, nearly a dozen people stood and recounted the tales of their encounters with the woman.  The pastor reminded the people that those clashes took place prior to her confession.
    Finally, the vote to reclaim her as a member took place.  It lost by a substantial margin.
    The pastor’s face turned ashen when he heard the results.  Before the president could adjourn the meeting, the pastor, trembling, stood and addressed the congregation.  “Our Lord Jesus tells us that if our sister sins against us 70 times and asks for repentance, we must forgive her.  You have chosen to ignore the command of Christ.  I have no other choice than to declare that all of you who voted against her reinstatement are hereby placed under church discipline.  Until you confess your sin you will not be allowed to eat at the Lord’s table.  Until this congregation repents, there shall be no absolution.  I expect that those who voted for reinstatement will identify themselves.”
    At the next meeting of the congregation, the woman was restored to membership, by a unanimous vote.

    A process like this doesn’t happen very often in most congregations, yet the process that was used in this particular instance is exactly the same as what is laid out in our congregational constitution.  It is to be used in cases where a member “is guilty of conduct that is grossly unbecoming of a member of the body of Christ.”

    Certainly, one would hope that this is something that would never need to be used.  Yet, if it is, the goal is the same as what Paul was advocating in the church in Corinth: repentance, and forgiveness, and reconciliation.

    The thing is that all those who have experienced repenting of their sin and receiving forgiveness describe it as a weight that has been lifted off their shoulders.  Receiving God’s forgiveness or the forgiveness of others sets us free, and being able to forgive others from the heart can be just as freeing.

    Yes, relationships are messy - but God has entered into that mess in the person of Jesus Christ and continues to forgive and to heal and to set free.  Thanks be to God! Amen.

Pentecost 2 (NL summer)                        2 Corinthians 2:1-10
May 29, 2016                            Matthew 18:21-22
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2016 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved