Sermon 17 Pentecost - Proper 18A Sept 7, 2008

17 Pentecost - 7 September 2008 - Proper 18A
Exodus 12: 1-14; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20
James V. Stockton

“Goodness is the judge of religion; not religion the judge of goodness.” So writes Michael Benedikt, professor here at U.T. Austin and author of the recent book, God Is the Good We Do. “There are many people,” he writes, “…who want to feel connected to religion’s long struggle with promulgating goodness, if only to see the drama continue and perhaps be a part of it.” From this, he concludes that, “it is essential that ‘God’ the word be reclaimed for goodness and reason, and be freed from exploitation, politics, and superstition.” It is more than merely interesting, I think, that there exists in our day a need to set free God, if only the word or the concept, while a foundation of our faith and religion is the belief that God is intent on freeing us. I suggest that this irony may indicate that, even with regard to God, the purpose of true religion is always to help us all transcend ourselves.

“I will execute judgments,” God says; “and this…will be a day of remembrance for you.” The Passover event is recalled in the book of Exodus to remind God’s people that God does judge humanity. What people do to one another, and what people fail to do, is subject to inevitable divine judgment: this is the message of the Passover. God will right the wrongs. God bring justice where injustice has prevailed. God will rescue the defenseless from the bullies, and God will bring Peace to troubled lives. To a people enslaved, now huddled inside their simple shelters, this is a profoundly encouraging message.

More than we might first expect, people in the world today, maybe you or someone you know, experience some sort of oppression. It may be the bullying of a boss or a teacher, on a larger scale a dictator, or despot, someone or some people who took advantage of their power to coerce, belittle, or harass. Oppression may come in the form of an illness, physical condition, or circumstance of nature that deprived them without warning of their usual abilities to go where they wish to go and to do what they wish to do. Oppression may be self-imposed; a derivative of a conscience made guilty by an old error or former wrong-doing of which a person or a people are unable to forgive themselves or to accept God’s forgiveness for it, either.

God’s intention is to set free the captives to oppression. At the same time, the Passover event is a reminder that when people set free do come into positions of power and authority still God judges, and God alone is judge. Thus, it reminds all God’s people that in whatever ways God sets us free, this new freedom is a privilege that comes with a responsibility. This freedom is God’s call to us to transcend ourselves in order to tend first to God’s agenda, then to my agenda or to yours. Our freedom under God’s mercy is a responsibility to seek the will of God, to do it to the best of our ability, and humbly to recognize that we’ll never completely get it right, and so that we’ll always need to rely on God to forgive us the sins of our best efforts and to correct our course along the way.

God’s people in the time of the Passover are, to say the least, grateful for the freedom that God brings. They are thankful that God’s intention is to make things right; that God’s intention is to set free people who are held back, pressed down, kept apart from God’s Love for all by other people, by circumstances, or even by themselves. And because captivities happen still today, you and I can well be grateful to God for those Passover events in our own lives as God continues finding ways to set us free.

“What you set loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” says Jesus. We don’t use that word much, so it’s helpful today to remember that what Jesus says is, “What you set free on earth will be set free in heaven.” If anyone has wondered about it, it should be clear now that theme for the day is the gift of freedom that God brings to you and me and to the world around us. And I pray that it is clear from the words of Jesus that humanity itself is called to participate in God’s work of setting free. The ‘God-agenda’ of bringing freedom to all who are captive to any sort of oppression is, by Jesus’ words, also your agenda and mine. To set free the captive of any description: this is now our own ministry of true religion to one another and to the world in God’s Name.

And how we accept the responsibilities of our own liberty: this is the shape, if you will, of the ministry that we exercise. “If someone has wronged you,” says Jesus, “hold them accountable.” “Tell the person or the people of the wrong that they have done.” After all, if no one tells them, they may never know. “And if that person or those people don’t accept their own responsibility, keep working at it with people who will hold you accountable, too.” After all, if you’re wrong and no one tells you, you may never know. “If the person or people who have done wrong refuse to help correct it, then, move on and don’t allow them to make you captive either to their sin or to your own anger or despair."

Isn’t that amazing advice? Sure, it may be that when the disciples first hear this brief instruction they look at it as a code to follow step by step, so that when they exercise their privilege of authority they can tell themselves and others that they have obeyed Jesus. And people may look at it the same way still today. But as the disciples of Jesus recall his words after he has left them to return to heaven, I think they are amazed. Isn’t it amazing how much more is here than merely rules for us to obey? There is wisdom here to illumine the mind and move us beyond ourselves.

“Your decision on earth,” says Jesus, “to make it captive will be honored by God in heaven; and if you decide to set it free, then God will honor this decision, too.” Isn’t is amazing how much responsibility God entrusts to us? “Where two or three of you agree,” says Jesus, God in heaven will do it for you.” Sure, people may hear this promise as a magical formula to follow in their prayers as though it will guarantee that all their wishes will come true. But isn’t it amazing how much more is here than merely superstition? There is responsibility here to inspire the heart and move us all beyond ourselves.

What then shall we set loose in our lives? What shall we set loose upon the world around us? It may be that we don’t quite believe it, maybe we don’t want to believe it, but God wants us to know, I think God hopes that we want to know, that we really do make choices, that God really does entrust us with the power to choose what we set loose in this world, and what we make captive.

“Love your neighbor as yourself,” says the Apostle Paul. He didn’t invent it; Jesus says it in his teaching. But even Jesus didn’t invent it; it was buried back in long tradition of the Old Covenant and in many other traditions as well. Religiously speaking, people want to do what God considers righteous and so not commit a sin. Morally speaking, people want to do what is right, and so not have a guilty conscience to deal with. Today, this week, this month, what will you set loose in your life, and me in mine? What will you, what will I, what we together, set loose upon the world around us?

Love your neighbor and soon you will love yourself; love yourself and soon you will love God; love God and soon you will love your neighbor. It seems to be a mystery of true religion that the choice to love one is ultimately the choice to love all. In this does God set you free, set me free, so that we are no longer captive to the illusion that our freedom in God is based in someone else’s captivity away from it. In this is true religion judged by its inherent goodness. In this, is God reclaimed, the word, the concept, the very Self of God set free. Better than a code to follow step by step; better than a superstition to lean upon, this is true religion that helps us to move beyond our captivities and answer its call to set loose within ourselves and within the world around us the Love of God for all.

And so may Almighty God, who has formed us together in a common life, so guide us in our search for God’s good will that where we are bound by sin we may be freed and the gracious rule of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with the Father and Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.

© 2008, James V. Stockton