MMC: Forgiveness in September

Good Morning Bethlehem

I hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend and are enjoying this first rainy day of school.  

A lot is happening at Bethlehem in the next few weeks so please read 

A Few Announcements

• Forgot your toiletry items?  I will be bringing them to Americares tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.  Please bring them by the parsonage if you forgot, you can leave them on the porch if no one is home. 
• RALLY DAY is Sept 18.  Starting at 9am we will have a time of hearing bible stories together for all ages followed by making health kits for Lutheran World Relief.   We still need some people to volunteer to bring towels, nail clippers and combs.  If you are willing to provide those items, please let me know.  
• During worship on Sept 18 bring your backpack, lunch bag, briefcase, or whatever else you use in your vocation so that they can be blessed.  
• After worship on Sept 18 we will have our annual congregational photo so please plan to stick around for a few minutes.
• Senior Lunch is Wed Sept 14 at noon at Chucks in Danbury. All are invited to join us for lunch and conversation.
• Our conference is meeting Saturday Sept 17 at 10 at Salem Lutheran in Bridgeport.  All are invited to attend and find out what is going on at other Lutheran churches in our area.  Please let me know if you are interested in attending.

Book of Faith Puzzler

The last puzzler from 2 weeks ago was: In our 2^nd reading from Romans 12, Paul talks about the body of Christ having many members but we are of one body.  Where else does Paul compare the church to a human body? A) Genesis 40, B) 1 Corinthians 12, C) Matthew 8 D) Galatians 7 Out of those options Paul only wrote the books of 1 Corinthians and Galatians, but Galatians only has 6 chapters.  Chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians has a wonderful analogy of the church as a body and how we need all parts of the body. 

This week's puzzler is: In today’s gospel Jesus tells you how to confront someone who sins against you.  But how many times are you suppose to forgive someone who sins against you? A) 7 B) 70 C) 7 times 7 D) 70 times70, E) 700 F) 70 time 7.  If you know the answer you have until Thursday at noon this week to submit your answer to me.  

Sunday's Sermon

Were you traveling this weekend and missed it?  You can read the sermon here.  What do you love and hate about community?  Have you ever politely confronted someone?  How did it go?  What concerns you and frees you about Jesus' advice?

Serving this Sunday

Are you willing to be a reader, usher, counter, worship assistant or communion assistant this Sunday or in the future?  Let me know

Sunday's Text

The first reading is Genesis 50:15-21. Joseph's brothers come to him begging for forgiveness and asking to be his slaves as a result of their actions.  Joseph not only forgives their sins against him but says good actually came out of it.  When have you begged for forgiveness and been forgiven more than expected?  How can this text help us as a nation as many do not forgive the terrorist and those who masterminded September 11, 2001 or even hold those few men's actions against people who are of the same nationality or religious?  

The second reading is Romans 14:1-12.  Paul writes to a community that is struggling with diversity (Christians of Jewish heritage and Christians from various other religious heritages) and says that they should not despise or judge those who are different from them for we will all stand before God in judgement.  We as a nation have struggled many times with religious diversity.  How have you despised or judge those who are or different religious heritages that yourself?  It is hard to stop despising and judging others; how can we be less judgmental? 

The gospel is Matthew 18:21-35.  Jesus tells his disciples how much to forgive and then tells the parable of a slaves whose debt was forgiven by the king but then went out and acted cruelly to someone who owed him.  God forgives us many times and yet we have a hard time forgiving others.  When have you had a  hard time forgiving someone?  When have you received forgiveness from someone?  Who are you not able to forgive?

Hope you have a wonderful week

~Pastor Becca

I Love Community, but....

Sunday's sermon was based on Matthew 18:15-20, where Jesus points out how to go about addressing a member of the church sinning against another member of the church.  Well after a week when most of the member of Bethlehem, and most of the residents of Connecticut were without power for multiple days, we have been on a high about talking about how good community is.  In fact many of the ways people talked about how they saw God was in people coping with the aftermath of Irene as a community.  But as anyone knows there are some dangers to living in a community.


Enjoy!

It has been an interesting week.  As most of us were without power for a few days, we all harnessed our inner pioneer to find ways to cook, bathe, and spend hours in the dark with electricity.  But I have heard one big positive about this week, a phrase I have heard over and over “The community has come together.”  Neighbors have let people plug into their generators, those with electricity have open their homes to those without to shower or just hang out in the evening, and even just the general fact that we couldn’t stay in front of our personal laptops and tvs, people have gotten out of their homes and met and gotten to know their neighbors a little better.  The community has come together.

But we actually are each part of many different communities.  What communities do you consider yourself to be a part of?

And as I have mentioned earlier there are some great benefits of being part of a community, what are other things that you love about being part of a community? Kindness, Camaraderie, friendship

But there are also downsides of being within a community.  We all have moments when we want to avoid others for various reasons, but let’s name some of them now. Gossip, group think, xenophobia

Jesus knew that community is a wonderful gift, but in all communities, and in the church especially, a community that is suppose to be based in God’s grace and love, these things, these negative things can get in the way of forming and maintaining a community.  So Jesus put out some basic points.

First he gives the obvious, people sin and communities, the church included, are made up of sinning people.  But Jesus says that when someone in your community, in your church, sins against you, to do something about it by going to them directly and calling them on this.  And if they don’t listen to you, you go and get a few more people involved.  Now these other people are not to gather witnesses or to get people on your side, but as a way of involving the larger community that is also affected.  And if the person still does not listen then get the whole community involved, but be worried at this point you are at risk of the community being in turmoil.

Oh this is scary almost to think about.  It is difficult, especially when you have a relationship with someone but you aren’t extremely close to them, to tell them that you are upset with their behavior.  When a stranger cuts you off in traffic, it is easy to yell at them and to get upset.  Or when your spouse or parent or sibling says something to you that offends you, you can normally tell them so, though it might be a few minutes or days later and after either a good talk or a yelling match, all is good again and you are still in a relationship with them.  But when it is a friend or a fellow worshipper or your pastor, it can be difficult.  How can you tell them that you were hurt or offended by something that they did or didn’t do without either sounding accusatory or like you are such a sensitive person that you quake at any minor offense.  Often it is the unknown, the unknown of how that person will react that scares us the most about confrontation.  When we don’t know how they will react, when we confront someone even with grace and love, we worry if they will over react or take it out on us or won’t take us seriously.

So instead of confronting people in a loving and grace-filled manner, we either ignore the behavior or become passive aggressive and both are equally as dangerous to hurting the community, the good things that happen that we listed earlier.  I know of many congregations that have that one person who behaves terribly and yet everyone lets them because “oh that is just ____.”  And statements like “God loves her, but I have my moments” or prayers like “Lord give me patience in dealing with him” are uttered and yet the person continues to snap at fellow congregants, stop worship because there are crumbs from communion bread in the altar area, put off visitors and would be new members, or try to make the entire congregation focus solely on them and not God.  And because no one ever politely calls the person on their behavior, the behavior often gets worst.

And if we don’t ignore someone who sins, we then act passive aggressive about it and do things like talk about them behind their back, or call a bunch of other people to complain about them.  Or we sent them a nasty email and while we are at it CC the pastor and the bishop.  Or we avoid them and de-friend them on facebook, and refuse to be on any committees with them.  And if we can’t avoid them, well we’ll just leave the congregation entirely. 

But that is not what Jesus is telling us to do.  He is telling us with love and grace to talk to the person.  Maybe they didn’t realize you were offended by something they did.  Maybe they are actually having a lot of trouble in their personal lives and just took it out on you.  And if that doesn’t work, get a few others involved.  But when you do this in love and grace, be warned, you might find out you are the one at fault that your demands to have only prayers said in iambic pentameter or your reverence of the candlesticks might not be what the community, what the congregation wants. 

However when we do this, when talk to people in grace and love about not just what is good, but also what we disagree on, community is formed.  And community is important.

The congregational council just adopted our new mission statement: Bethlehem Lutheran Church strives to serve God while providing spiritual guidance to its members and the community through worship, fellowship, education and service while expanding the congregation and growing within the community.

Here the word community means surrounding area, but there is also an idea about building strong relationships both between those who come here to worship and those who live in the surrounding area.  And the council wrote and adopted this mission statement not because it sounded good but because community is a wonderful thing, especially when we can talk to each other with grace and love, through both good times and bad.  And when we do that, Jesus is with us.  Jesus is with us whenever we are in community with others, whether that is sharing a generator, offering a hot shower or telling someone politely that we disagree with their behavior.  

The Church is Not Just a Building

For today's sermon, I referenced both the gospel, Matthew 16:13-20, and the second lesson, Romans 12:1-8.  The thing I find more interesting about the gospel is that it is not Peter the man who is the foundation of the church but Peter's confession.  And I also find it interesting that we often assume the church has been built.  

Enjoy!

Just two weeks ago as Peter attempted to walk on water, we heard Jesus tell Peter “you of little faith, why did you doubt,” after Peter began to sink and had to cried out for Jesus to save him.  And now, just 2 chapters later we hear that Peter is the rock on which the church is built.  And unfortunately when we hear this, many of us think that the church is done being built. 

Yes, Peter went on after Jesus’ death and started the church.  Through himself and the other disciples telling people about Jesus, the church was formed.  People started to worship the risen savior, Jesus the Christ, who died on the cross for our sins.  And various worship practices were started, many of which we still use today, such as communing together as a group, and greeting one another in peace.  And as people told their stories about Jesus, they were written down and became the gospels that we still read from today, the very thing that we get today’s reading about Peter’s confession and him being the rock on which Jesus will build the church. 

And as the church, the fellowship of people who worshiped Jesus, grew, so too were churches were built.  Cathedrals, basilicas, chapels and church buildings were built in order to provide a space for the Church, the people of God, to worship. 

Our own church building, the room in which we are now in, was built a little over a 100 years ago. The basement was completed about 80 or 90 years ago and the community room was completed around 50 years ago.  Our church building has been built.

So as a result we see the church as having already been built; completed; past tense; finished. 

But that is because we in English often confuse the church building for the church, the people, the body of Christ.   

We see the church buildings completed.  They are made of wood, rock and glass, and other than basic upkeep or the hope of expansion, the church has been built, the church building that is. 

But the church is more than a building.  Bethlehem is more than this building here that we are now in, and the church is more than all the church buildings, great and small, new and old, through out the world.  The church, the body of Christ, the fellowship of believers, is something that cannot be contained by wood, rock and glass nor can it be made by wood, rock and glass. 

Instead the church is a living thing, constantly changing, constantly evolving, constantly growing.  And we are part of that church to which Peter was just the beginning.

Peter was and is the foundation to the church, the rock on which the church is continually being built.  But it wasn’t Peter the man, the disciple of Jesus, who is that rock, but Peter’s confession.  Peter confesses to Jesus “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  That is the foundation for the church, the body of Christ. 

And through this confession, and through Peter telling others about Jesus, even though at the time Jesus told him not to, other people came to believe the same thing and made the same confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and they told more people who then came to believe and tell others.  And so on and so on until us today. 

Because others have told us about Jesus, we have become part of the church, part of the body of Christ. And because the church is a living thing and we believe in a living God, we are not called to stay here stagnate and focus solely on the building and its upkeep.  Instead we are called to continue in Peter’s and the other disciples footstep and in their foundation and tell others about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, who died to save us from our sins.  We are called to tell others that Jesus came for us and for them.  We are called to tell others that they too are loved with a love so great that at times it can be terrifying because God’s grace as been poured out upon us, even when we feel unworthy and there is nothing that we have done to deserve it. 

And like any living being, this living church that we share in has many different parts and roles so therefore we are each called differently.  As Paul so eloquently says in our reading from Romans today: For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually, we are members one of another.  We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”  We each have been called to tell others about Christ in different ways. We have been blessed with different spiritual gifts so that we might call a variety of people into this church, the whole body of Christ. 

No one person is greater than the rest of this body of Christ.  Peter’s confession is the foundation, the rock on which the church is built, but our confessions, make up the walls, the ceilings, the tapestries, the carpet, the lighting, the chairs, the doors, and the windows on which this church continues to grow, continues to change. 

The church is not yet finished, for we are a part of it.