14th Sunday after Pentecost — September 6, 2020         

Exodus 12:1-14; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20
Ordinary 14A; Proper 18

The institution of Passover. Admonitions regarding love of neighbor. Instructions for conflict resolution among Christians. What do this week’s lectionary readings have in common?

The communal nature of all three texts stands out — especially during this time when all of us are impacted by the pandemic, many of us are reeling in the wake of natural disasters and our entire country must wrestle with past and ongoing racial injustice. God put us together and expects that we steward that community, nurture those relationships and understand that our fate is tied that of others.

We learn in Exodus that Moses is to tell the whole congregation of Israel that this is a group undertaking. Further, if one household is too small for a whole lamb, they are to join with their closest neighbor; no one will be left out of this ritual. Provisions are made for everyone to participate in God’s plan for their escape. The epistle reading this week details how those in this God-constituted community are to treat others. Fulfillment of the law comes when one loves one’s neighbor as oneself, puts on the Lord Jesus Christ and lives honorably. And when conflict arises, as it inevitably will, the Gospel reading offers explicit directions for how to address it in ways that make a way for relationships to be restored and community sustained. Our interconnectedness abounds on a week when suffering reverberates through the headlines and the need for loving neighbors and mutual care cannot be denied.

We need those working in hospitals and picking up our trash. We need the people on the other end of that 911 call and those sent out in response. We need shelter from life’s literal and metaphorical storms. We cannot survive the onslaught of disasters, natural and unnatural, that are coming our way. We will not escape from Egypt or from COVID-19 without working together, sharing what we have and fulfilling God’s commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. As tempting as it may be to take sides and stoke fear and embroil ourselves in bitter conflict, Jesus tells us our role is to be peacemakers, ambassadors of reconciliation, those who desire that we are bound together and not ripped apart. After all, Jesus came to save sinners and eat with tax collectors. How can those who profess to follow him then abandon and shun them? Are we ourselves not among them?

We need each other and God calls us to love one another. The greatest commandment is proclaimed for such a time as this.

I recently listened to an episode of the podcast “Hidden Brain” about happiness. It was interesting in a number of ways, but the part that stood out to me was on charitable giving and how some ways of giving engender more happiness and connection than others. The researcher, Elizabeth Dunn, described the importance of the gift being connected to a tangible outcome, a concrete manifestation of impact rather than an abstract notion that the gift was useful. She then went on to give a personal example sharing that she is a member of a “group of five.” In Canada, where Dunn lives, five or more Canadian citizens or permanent residents can join together to resettle a refugee family. It is a large commitment. These five (or more) Canadians agree to support the resettled family for a year. The list of responsibilities includes securing and paying for housing, providing furniture and clothing, helping find employment, doctors and translators, helping with applications for benefits and providing transportation. The group of five must sponsor the entire family. The website describing the program says: “The intent is to have a group of persons helping refugees to get established in the community, not one person acting alone.”  The outcome is loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

Dunn described how meaningful this endeavor became to her. She and her four friends welcomed a family from Syria — meeting them at the airport, watching the mother in their family reunite with her sister, already in Canada, whom she had not seen in 15 years. She told of finding a soccer team for one of the children and witnessing his new teammates embrace him on the field. She said she grew close to this family and closer to her already close friends. What started as an act of charity to strangers became a bond of community among neighbors.

I listened to this story, about this group of five and the big commitment it entailed, and realized that that large, daunting responsibility became an outsized joy. Could our Christian call to love our neighbors as ourselves, to join with our closest neighbor to make sure we all escape oppression and to work for the restoration of difficult relationships be like that, too? Could we become groups of five or more, coming together to do what we could not possibly do alone?

When we survey the damage inflicted by Hurricane Laura, the destruction of California wildfires, the scale of grief and loss ushered in by COVID-19 and the long history and present reality of white supremacy, there is no way we can be whole, be healed, be restored or reconciled on our own. We need each other. God calls us to love one another. Whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what ever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. How, then, will we be bound to our neighbors? How, then, will we let loose mercy, grace and justice?

God told Moses to tell the whole congregation what they needed to do to make their escape from Egypt. Jesus, the one who came to save sinners, even the Gentile ones, who called and ate with tax collectors, promises to be among us when two or three, or a group of five, come together. Again and again, Scripture reminds us that all of God’s law is fulfilled when we love our neighbors as ourselves. Now is the time for us to hear the Word of the Lord, come together and embody it.

This week:

1. When you read the three texts appointed for this week, what common threads do you see?
2. When have you been in conflict with someone? How did you resolve it? Or did you? How do Jesus’ instructions in Matthew guide you in dealing with conflict?
3. When have you joined with others to do more together than you could alone?
4. What do you make of the statement that whatever is bound or loosed on earth is bound or loosed in heaven? Do you imagine we have that kind of influence?
5. Are you conscious of Jesus’ presence with you when you are gathered with others? What about during this time of virtual gatherings? How do you sense Jesus among you in those spaces?
6. How are you loving your neighbor as yourself during this particularly challenging season? How are you experiencing that love yourself?

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