If another member of the church sins against
you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member
listens to you, you have regained that one. 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. 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.
After reading this week's gospel, I wondered how Jews in the time of Christ would normally resolve disputes. I discovered that the Jews would ask the “bait din” (house of justice) to meet. Highly educated rabbis who were completely impartial would listen to both parties and award a judgment based on the Jewish law, not the Roman law.
After reading this week's gospel, I wondered how Jews in the time of Christ would normally resolve disputes. I discovered that the Jews would ask the “bait din” (house of justice) to meet. Highly educated rabbis who were completely impartial would listen to both parties and award a judgment based on the Jewish law, not the Roman law.
Jesus knew that the
Jewish system of justice and dispute resolution would not work out well for his
community of followers after his death so he had to set up a new way for them
to resolve problems and disputes. The 'bait din' or the Sanhedrin was supposed
to be impartial and disinterested but Jesus knew that it was rife with
corruption. At that time it was an old boys' club where appointments were given
to close friends and relatives or to those who had enough money to buy a
position. Jesus certainly was not going to get a fair trial at their hands and
he knew his followers would stand no chance of being treated fairly by the traditional
Jewish court. Besides, the Sanhedrin operated on the Old Covenant and Jesus was
establishing the New Covenant, a covenant in which mercy, love and forgiveness
would be substituted for 'an eye for an eye'. If you read the verses leading up
to and following this week's reading, you will get the whole context. Jesus
speaks in-depth about not hanging a millstone around the necks of his beloved,
about leaving the ninety-nine and going out and finding the one lost sheep,
about forgiving each other seventy times seven, about receiving God's mercy and
passing that mercy on to our neighbors. Jesus was establishing a completely new
order of justice.
All this made me think about those good Jewish men and women listening to Jesus and hearing him speak about this new order for the first time. To us, his words are so familiar because we've heard these gospel passages over and over. We're so accustomed to phrases like, 'love your neighbor' and 'forgive as you have been forgiven' that we almost have to struggle to pay attention. Christ’s words are standard operating procedure – in theory if not in practice. But to Christ's disciples, it was radical and really shocking theology. The more they listened to Jesus the more they were thrust into a time of immense transition, a time where their lives were rapidly shifting and where they had no maps to guide them. They only had Jesus.
What kind of shock waves did they experience as they went through this time of shifting from one spiritual home to another? Were there moments when they were filled with homesickness for the simplicity of the old ways? Was it tempting for them to go back to a spirituality where they knew the routines, were familiar with the traditions and understood what was expected of them from day-to-day?
Transition from the known to the unknown is terribly difficult. It's even more difficult if the shift was not planned and if the unknown is laced with difficulty. Transition can feel desolate and lonely. There's no easy way through transition. It has to be walked moment-by-moment, step-by-step with the eyes focused firmly on God as one navigates the unfamiliar and sometimes terrifying terrain.
Very often, transition brings with it an inability to pray in ways that were once comforting and God can seem confusingly distant, as if he's just an idea with no real meaning. The spirit can feel dry and irritated by spiritual precepts, precepts that were once comforting but now seem more like sharp brittle twigs, not supportive, life-giving branches. The disciples must have struggled terrifically with what was now expected of them. How should they pray and act within Jesus’ unfolding, completely new theology? There must have been times when the temptation to run back to the familiarity of the old law was overwhelming. Some followers succumbed to the desire for comfort and safety and left when Jesus' words were just too radical. “Will you also go away?” he asked the twelve. “Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” What a brave and faith-filled admission that was. “We don't really understand what you're talking about or where we're all going to end up but we have to trust that you're taking us where we should go.”
There are times in our spiritual journeys when our hearts are so dry and confused that all we can say to the Lord is, “Where else can I go? You have the words of eternal life,” and our words are a cry from a wasteland where nothing inspires, nothing nourishes and where moving forward seems impossible. If we experience this inner barrenness and are lost in the desert with no inner clarity or direction, it's easy to feel guilty and to treat it as a personal failure. There is no failure here. There is only the hand of God shepherding us across the wasteland toward fresh water and abundant food. How else can God move us on into the wide and beautiful unknown if there is not first an inability to find sustenance in the known?
At any given point, every one of the disciples had a choice. They could move forward with Jesus into the confusing and sometimes terrifying landscape of new ways, new thoughts, new procedures, new perspectives, new relationships and new dangers or they could run back to what was safely familiar: the old law and the comfortable old ways. What seems safe because of its familiarity can honestly feel like the best place simply because it is known and understood. However, when God is moving us through transition, running back to what is familiar and safe will stifle inner growth and prevent deeper insights into the wonder of life with a loving God who won't allow us to stay in our comfort zones if we are slowly atrophying and aren't even aware of it.
Being willing to move forward is not a rejection of the past; it is a recognition of the maturing process we should all be embracing. As we grow and develop, our needs change. It's as simple as that. Are you still praying the same prayers as you were ten years ago? Has your image of God or Jesus changed over the years? Has your image of yourself changed? Are you growing more compassionate and less judgmental? Have your spiritual desires become deeper? Do you pay attention to your spiritual desires or know what they are? Has there been an increase in the number of times you communicate with the Lord throughout the day? Are you growing more grateful and graceful? Are you afraid of God or are you discovering the supreme joy of his companionship?
The spiritual life is a whole life. This is the concept that Jesus presented to his disciples every day. He brought them out of an existence of simply attending to the law and into a life permeated with challenges but rich with growth and amazing revelations. Challenge, growth and revelation continued until death for all those disciples who did not turn back. There was no point where any one of them could say, “O.K. I'm all done. I've got the basics and I'll just coast from here.”
Often we don't seek opportunities to move forward and grow because we can't fathom what we could be doing differently or how we could be thinking in a different light or from a different angle. We need to reflect on the fact that from one day to the next, the disciples had no idea what Jesus was going to put on their plates next. There was no way they could have anticipated his next step or his next teaching. They must have woken up every day anticipating what was in store for them and wondering how Jesus was going to stretch them once again beyond the boundaries of what they thought they knew. We have to consider how crucial it was for them - and ultimately for us - that they struggled through their confusion, that they accepted the risks and that they didn't run back to old familiarities. They were called to transformation and so are we.
All this made me think about those good Jewish men and women listening to Jesus and hearing him speak about this new order for the first time. To us, his words are so familiar because we've heard these gospel passages over and over. We're so accustomed to phrases like, 'love your neighbor' and 'forgive as you have been forgiven' that we almost have to struggle to pay attention. Christ’s words are standard operating procedure – in theory if not in practice. But to Christ's disciples, it was radical and really shocking theology. The more they listened to Jesus the more they were thrust into a time of immense transition, a time where their lives were rapidly shifting and where they had no maps to guide them. They only had Jesus.
What kind of shock waves did they experience as they went through this time of shifting from one spiritual home to another? Were there moments when they were filled with homesickness for the simplicity of the old ways? Was it tempting for them to go back to a spirituality where they knew the routines, were familiar with the traditions and understood what was expected of them from day-to-day?
Transition from the known to the unknown is terribly difficult. It's even more difficult if the shift was not planned and if the unknown is laced with difficulty. Transition can feel desolate and lonely. There's no easy way through transition. It has to be walked moment-by-moment, step-by-step with the eyes focused firmly on God as one navigates the unfamiliar and sometimes terrifying terrain.
Very often, transition brings with it an inability to pray in ways that were once comforting and God can seem confusingly distant, as if he's just an idea with no real meaning. The spirit can feel dry and irritated by spiritual precepts, precepts that were once comforting but now seem more like sharp brittle twigs, not supportive, life-giving branches. The disciples must have struggled terrifically with what was now expected of them. How should they pray and act within Jesus’ unfolding, completely new theology? There must have been times when the temptation to run back to the familiarity of the old law was overwhelming. Some followers succumbed to the desire for comfort and safety and left when Jesus' words were just too radical. “Will you also go away?” he asked the twelve. “Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” What a brave and faith-filled admission that was. “We don't really understand what you're talking about or where we're all going to end up but we have to trust that you're taking us where we should go.”
There are times in our spiritual journeys when our hearts are so dry and confused that all we can say to the Lord is, “Where else can I go? You have the words of eternal life,” and our words are a cry from a wasteland where nothing inspires, nothing nourishes and where moving forward seems impossible. If we experience this inner barrenness and are lost in the desert with no inner clarity or direction, it's easy to feel guilty and to treat it as a personal failure. There is no failure here. There is only the hand of God shepherding us across the wasteland toward fresh water and abundant food. How else can God move us on into the wide and beautiful unknown if there is not first an inability to find sustenance in the known?
At any given point, every one of the disciples had a choice. They could move forward with Jesus into the confusing and sometimes terrifying landscape of new ways, new thoughts, new procedures, new perspectives, new relationships and new dangers or they could run back to what was safely familiar: the old law and the comfortable old ways. What seems safe because of its familiarity can honestly feel like the best place simply because it is known and understood. However, when God is moving us through transition, running back to what is familiar and safe will stifle inner growth and prevent deeper insights into the wonder of life with a loving God who won't allow us to stay in our comfort zones if we are slowly atrophying and aren't even aware of it.
Being willing to move forward is not a rejection of the past; it is a recognition of the maturing process we should all be embracing. As we grow and develop, our needs change. It's as simple as that. Are you still praying the same prayers as you were ten years ago? Has your image of God or Jesus changed over the years? Has your image of yourself changed? Are you growing more compassionate and less judgmental? Have your spiritual desires become deeper? Do you pay attention to your spiritual desires or know what they are? Has there been an increase in the number of times you communicate with the Lord throughout the day? Are you growing more grateful and graceful? Are you afraid of God or are you discovering the supreme joy of his companionship?
The spiritual life is a whole life. This is the concept that Jesus presented to his disciples every day. He brought them out of an existence of simply attending to the law and into a life permeated with challenges but rich with growth and amazing revelations. Challenge, growth and revelation continued until death for all those disciples who did not turn back. There was no point where any one of them could say, “O.K. I'm all done. I've got the basics and I'll just coast from here.”
Often we don't seek opportunities to move forward and grow because we can't fathom what we could be doing differently or how we could be thinking in a different light or from a different angle. We need to reflect on the fact that from one day to the next, the disciples had no idea what Jesus was going to put on their plates next. There was no way they could have anticipated his next step or his next teaching. They must have woken up every day anticipating what was in store for them and wondering how Jesus was going to stretch them once again beyond the boundaries of what they thought they knew. We have to consider how crucial it was for them - and ultimately for us - that they struggled through their confusion, that they accepted the risks and that they didn't run back to old familiarities. They were called to transformation and so are we.
“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” (C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity)
Hatching time!
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