Tuesday, September 3, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 18:15-17

[Jesus said]: 'If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: whatever the misdemeanor, the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain the charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a gentile or a tax collector.'

Prayer

You come to make peace, Jesus, but wherever you appear conflict comes. I suppose we should expect that. Sparks fly whenever the truly good and holy appears. The things of God are inevitably opposed by that which is not truly good and holy. And our world is not wholly given to you, nor are we. So, we resist you.

In your church, we seek a haven, a safe space in which we may know love surpassing. We hope that here, in this place, the pettiness and anxieties, the small-mindedness and self-seeking that wounds our souls and mars human community will not sting our flesh. No, at least not here.

We seek a generosity of spirit in your church, Jesus, a place where the big-heartedness of your divine soul might prevail in our heart and more: in the words and actions of all who gather around you. But our hope is a romantic dream. We yearn for a place of your peace, only to be frustrated by the sin and the criticism of cramped hearts, including our own.

Our sin cuts us off, excommunicates our own souls from the living community of your shared grace.

Still, you call us to open-hearted generosity, a fullness of spirit reflecting your own love, a largess that showers good on the righteous and unrighteous alike. You make no distinction, somehow loving all.

Our chief sin is here: we do not love all. We don’t love ourselves all that well. And we are not very good at loving those with whom we share your table of grace, your own body and blood. Receiving your great generosity, we fail to extend the same.

If there is anything for which we need to correct each other, Jesus, surely it is this.

So come to us, Jesus. Send us human hearts, generous spirits, to correct and call us home to the generosity of spirit that is in you. Only then will we find the place of peace for which our souls rightly long.

Pr. David L. Miller