The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Few things are more uncomfortable than confronting conflict. Most of us would rather avoid it altogether. We hope tensions will simply fade away, misunderstandings will resolve themselves, and wounded relationships will somehow heal with the passage of time. Yet we know from experience that silence often deepens division rather than mending it.

In today's Gospel, Jesus speaks directly into the reality of broken relationships within the community of faith. Far from offering a strategy for punishment or exclusion, he offers a path toward restoration. Jesus assumes that conflict will arise among his followers. The question is not whether disagreements will happen, but whether we will have the courage, humility, and love to seek reconciliation when they do. At the heart of this Gospel is a remarkable promise: when we do the hard work of healing relationships in his name, Christ himself is present among us.

The early church experienced themselves as “brothers and sisters” in the faith. They believed that everybody has been adopted into the family of God in Christ. And as we all know – and many of us have experienced – sisters and brothers and brothers and brothers and sisters and sisters disagree, argue, and even hold grudges that interrupt any communication between them.  Sadly, disagreement can cause hurt feelings and the fracturing of relationships. Perhaps, in some relationships and circles this is even more common today.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean avoiding conflict, but dissension should not be allowed to fester and infect the entire community or family. So, Jesus teaches us about how to live together. We know that people can feel very strongly about their opinions. Jesus saw it firsthand in the way some of his disciples challenged each other and argued, like who was the greatest among them. The early church communities experienced discord over all sorts of issues like circumcision and the care of widows. The councils of the Church that codified doctrine –what we will say in the Nicene Creed today –were rife with hostility and disagreement. My patron, St. Nicholas, is reported to have slugged another bishop in a heated debate.

Humans are just susceptible to opposition. It has ever been thus, and you and I now live in a time where strong and divergent political, ethical and religious ideologies have created great tension and even resulted in the ending of friendships and severing of family ties.

In the Gospel of Matthew today we get a glimpse of how the earliest communities dealt with the difficult issues of determining when dissent becomes a disruption that requires action.

Jesus sees the harmony and peace of the community as an essential building block of our life in the church because the primary work of the church is about reconciliation and healing.

that the community was a safe haven and took in refugees of all kinds. There were some Christians among them, but many of those sheltered there were Jews, atheists, and others escaping danger.

The process described in the Gospel tells us that we need to do everything possible to maintain community, avoid divisions within our midst, and deal honestly and directly with disagreement. When we offend someone, do we seek to reconcile with them?  When we are the one offended, how do we respond to overtures of reconciliation?

The Gospel today is a lesson in the building and maintaining of a functional, resilient and healthy community taught by the One who is the best teacher. While very helpful as a guide to reconciliation with others, we know that, as much as we might try to follow the prescription Jesus offers us, some prefer negative attention and like to soak in a tub of bickering and complaint. That’s why Jesus includes the piece about needing to walk away and give the other a time out.

Episcopal Priest Barbara Brown Taylor says it well: “Our life together is the chief means God has chosen for being with us, and it is of ultimate importance to God. Our life together is the place where we are confronted, tested, and redeemed by God through one another. It is the place where we come to know God or flee from God’s presence, depending upon how we come to know or flee from one another.”

The Church is not a community because we agree on everything. It is a community because Christ calls us together despite our differences, our failures, and our wounds. The Gospel today reminds us that reconciliation is holy work. It requires patience instead of gossip, conversation instead of avoidance, and grace instead of judgment.

And we do not undertake that work alone. Jesus ends not with a command, but with a promise: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them." The living Christ is present not only in moments of worship and celebration, but also in the difficult conversations, the acts of forgiveness, and the courageous efforts to restore broken relationships. As we leave this place, may we become people of reconciliation, trusting that whenever we seek peace in Christ's name, he is already there ahead of us, making all things new.