TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A

[cappie]

Church conflict is nothing new. Sometimes people think there should be no conflict in church, as though by virtue of being Christians we can and should cover over all disagreements with niceness. Jesus in his teaching in our gospel lesson today seems to proceed on the assumption that conflict in Christian community  should be dealt with honestly and with compassion. Jesus asks us to use direct and respectful communication. If we are struggling with something a church member has said or done, we are to take time aside and engage in dialogue with that person one-on-one. If no progress is made, then we let transparency be our guiding principle and search for a solution as a whole church community, bearing one another’s burdens and seeking reconciliation.

Some disagreements are so deep that even these steps cannot ease them, and so Jesus says, “If the offender refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as a pagan or a tax collector.”  But it turns out that we are not off the hook at all. Why? Because of how Jesus treated pagans and tax collectors. What can we learn from his words and actions toward them that we can then apply to our fellow church members?

When Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying in the temple, he emphasizes the Pharisee’s pride and self-satisfaction versus the tax collector’s pained and private acknowledgement of his own sin. To treat a fellow church member like a tax collector would then be to realize that the person might be hiding a great deal of pain and regret over his or her own actions in the conflict. Jesus says this tax collector went home justified or forgiven.  Zaccheus was not just a tax collector but a chief tax collector. But he is so eager to see Jesus that he climbs a tree. Jesus calls Zaccheus down and invites himself to dinner at Zaccheus’ home. How then can we treat a fellow church member crosswise with us like Jesus treats Zaccheus?  

That is how Jesus treats tax collectors – with mercy, with invitation, with curiosity and with an eye toward their potential for growth and service to the Kingdom. Matthew, one of the 12 apostles, was a tax collector, and Jesus called him right from his money table to follow him.  

What about pagans? If we are to treat church members with whom we disagree as pagans, how does Jesus teach us by example to behave toward them?

One of Jesus’ most famous encounters with a pagan was the healing of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter.  He initially refuses, saying that the food for the children of Israel cannot be given to the dogs. Her clever and persistent response, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table,” convinces him to change his mind. If our Lord who was perfect and without sin, can be persuaded to soften and change his mind about someone, can we not do the same?   Jesus was not afraid to really listen and be changed by what he heard. We have the opportunity to do the same.

And so, we see that this gospel lesson, in fact, does not give us license to get rid of people we do not like, to ostracize troublemakers. Jesus’ instruction to treat the ones who seem to be the most far gone and uninterested in reconciliation like tax collectors and pagans opens to us a whole array of  paths toward reconciliation, toward seeing the best in one another. In the imitation of Christ, we find that treating others like tax collectors and pagans is a path of gentleness, hope, and potential.

All of this is so important not just because of the simple reality that there is no such thing as church without conflict. It matters because of how Jesus concludes his instructions:

“ I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.”

With the choices we make, we can bind each other even tighter into our separate camps and polarized positions.  Or we can loose ourselves from our pride and our ever-present need to be right. We can loose one another from assumptions and stereotypes and bitterness. We can loose our church communities from the fear of church conflict. And then we can bind ourselves together with the unbreakable love of Christ, a body tested, refined, healed, and flourishing with new life.