＂Communicating Community

＂Communicating Community“

September 6,2020

（Minister-Rev.Caesar J.David|Union Park United Methodist Church)

Psalm 149

Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in its Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King. Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre.

For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with victory.

Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters and their nobles with chains of iron, to execute on them the judgment decreed.

This is glory for all his faithful ones.

Praise the Lord!

Matthew 18:15-20

“If another member of the church[a] sins against you,[b] go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.[c] But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

＂Communicating Community”

Our passage for meditation from the Gospel according to Matthew reads like the classic steps in a conflict resolution manual, but of course,we can take some of the principles it talks about and use it as a general directive for all times.

Before we begin,we have to acknowledge that this passage presents some difficulties. For example, the instructions and tone do not seem to be congruent with the ministry of Jesus that leans even more towards tenderness and forgiveness. But we must also bear in mind that Jesus did expel the merchants and the money changers from the Temple (as they sought to make it a place of business and material profit), and that did not mean that he hated them. He just hated what they were doing. Some scholars also feel that this passage sounds much more like the regulations of an ecclesiastical committee.

Talking of this, the words “Ecclesia”is translated as “Church” (NRSV), but the organized Church with a system of ecclesiastical discipline and a formal body as we have now, did not exist then, so it must refer to the Church in its functional sense of ‘assembly’, ‘gathering’ or’ community’ rather than an institutional sense.

In any case,we want to move beyond an exegesis of the passage to understand and learn some vital principles that come through very strongly in this instructive passage. It is especially good instruction today as many of us will partake of the Holy Communion, or at least join in faith and in spirit to be in communion with Jesus and with each other as we all make up the Body of Christ. The passage has definite pointers for us as a communicating community.

This reads a little like your typical Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) and can be broken down into Objective, Strategy, Method, Indicators, Outcome, Impact and so on. (In case that kind of thing appeals to you, you can read it like that).

Anyway, let’s simplify it to the essentials.

1. The recommended method of resolving matters is communication.

Notice that the instructions are to first go and talk directly to the person who has wronged us. We are to do that privately so that it’s between the person who has done wrong and the one who feels has been wronged. What usually happens is that we talk about the person instead of to the person, and that can blow the issue out of proportion and out of our hands so that we may not be able to manage or contain it.

We’ve all had this experience when we run a whole scene in our own minds imagining responses and counter – responses. Sometimes we get agitated simply imagining a negative response and we haven’t even talked to the person yet!

The story is told about a man driving along at night and his car had a flat tire. He had a spare but no jack. He saw a light burning in a nearby house and started walking towards it. While walking toward the house he imagined asking to borrow a jack. Seeing it was night, this man imagined the house owner to be irritated at being disturbed. This was all

This was all playing out in his imagination: The man would ask him why he didn’t have a jack and scold him for being careless and disturbing other people for his mistake. By this time as the man had pressed the doorbell, he was convinced that the man inside is going to be rude, nasty and mean. That’s why, as soon as the door opened, even before the man inside could say anything, our man shouted at him” don’t want it! You can keep your jack!” and walked away.

We also do that sometimes. We start imagining things that may be far removed from reality and that can sometimes cause problems.

There are many things that can be said about communication. With our advances in communication technology it is possible to communicate in a wide variety of ways. While they offer many conveniences of speed and ease, there is no substitute for personal face-to-face communication in each others’ presence because of our capacity to communicate with more than our language and words. Our tone, eyes, touch, all of these are important for communication. There are times when we don’t say what we really mean and at other times we don’t mean what we say.

The way to keep honest but loving too brings us to the other point about this communication.

2. The Objective is reconciliation and build, not criticize and tear down.

If we’re motivated by love and the desire to reconcile knowing that we’re a community, we will be careful of not tearing down or hurting the other person. So,our objective is to reconcile and build and strengthen the community, not to criticize,tear down or destroy.

3. The Outcome is true Communion when Jesus is present with us.

When we seek to communicate in love, we make space for a dialog and we create an opportunity for mutual understanding. We create a loving environment that communicates love and shows that we all care for each other and want the community whose members are loving, mutually accountable, responsible -for – each- other, and which is a disciplined body.

The last two verses in our passage say that ‘where two or three are gathered, there l will be’. It talks about unity, about reconciliation, about harmony because it is in that kind of ‘coming together’ and ‘being in agreement with each other’, that we’ll have the kind of environment that honors Christ and welcomes Him.

Let’s be thankful for the Church-for the community, for each other where we can openly communicate and have communion as a family of God.

God bless you.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the opportunities to be a community to edify and protect each other.Teach us to communicate in such a way that we can experience the communion that you meant for us to have as your family and with you present.

Amen.