2 Corinthians 5:16-21
John 6:56-69
“It's
too easy to criticize someone who is out of favor and forced to shoulder the
blame for everybody else's mistakes.” Leo
Tolstoy
“Don't
throw the baby out with the bathwater is
an expression and a concept used to suggest an avoidable error in which something good is
eliminated when trying to get rid of something bad, or in other words,
rejecting the essential along with what is not essential.”
“A
slightly different explanation suggests that this flexible catchphrase has to
do with discarding the essential while retaining the superfluous [unimportant] because of excessive zeal. In other words, the idiom is applicable not
only when throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but also when
someone might throw out the baby and keep the bathwater.” Wikipedia.com
An old boss expressed it like this: “Stepping over a
dollar to pick up a dime.”
Some things are important to “me” that are not so
important to “you”, and vice versa. It
doesn’t make any particular list of priorities more or less important than any
other by human standards, but what is
important to us does reveal what is going on inside our heads and our hearts as
much as Jesus teaches that “from the mouth comes the abundance of the
heart” (Luke 6:45).
Yet when trying to get a sense of what is truly
important by Kingdom standards when
considering the Law regarding the Day of Atonement, Jesus’ teaching about His
flesh and blood, and St. Paul’s perspective on unity within the Body of Christ,
we may get a sense that what is important to us as individuals depends perhaps
on what is at the top of our list on any given day. One day it is about expelling sin from our
lives, another day it is strictly about the depth of our affiliation with
Jesus, and yet on another day it is about the depth of our relationships with
one another.
Even though these three items may seem to be at odds
with the theology of “grace” and a “personal relationship with Jesus” as the
sole means of salvation, there is an underlying principle that ties these
readings, these components together. There is a principle that brings everything
together and necessarily broadens our
biblical understanding of what is truly important in the Kingdom and
strengthens the bonds of the Church.
It has to be Reconciliation – restoring that which is
broken. In the modern-day Jewish
practice of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), preparations begin a week prior to
the actual Day itself. In prayer and in
fasting in preparation for presenting oneself to The Lord on Yom Kippur, it is
necessary to consider all
relationships. To think about hard
feelings and grudges held, the faithful are compelled to make every effort to
right any wrongs they may have some part in or to simply clear up
misunderstandings before they dare
approach The Lord.
Jesus actually teaches this very Jewish principle
according to Matthew’s Gospel
(5:23-24) in which it is written: “When you are offering your gift at
the altar (‘you shall not appear
before The Lord empty-handed, Dt 16:16),
if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave
your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or
sister, and then come and offer your gift.”
The underlying message is that we cannot expect to be reconciled
to The Lord unless and until we are first reconciled to one another – broken or
damaged relationships restored - much in the same way Jesus teaches that “if
you forgive others … your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do
not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive you” (Matthew 6:14-15). This is unambiguous, and Jesus offers no
exceptions – perhaps especially no
exceptions for the “justified” (or “saved”).
For it is also written, “To whom much has been given, from him much
will be required” (Luke 12:48).
A pastor friend once shared with me some horror
stories of a church to which he had been appointed. The congregation was grossly divided against
itself and was in danger of imploding.
The church at one time had been hosting two worship services to
accommodate the large crowds but had dwindled to almost nothing. The reason for the decline was a particular
“clique group” that believed itself to be holding all the cards having
destroyed some people and pastors they alone had deemed unacceptable.
The first thing my pastor friend chose to do was to
hold only one worship service, a deliberate move to force what was left of the
congregation to sit together and worship together. One parishioner came to the pastor and made
it clear that if this were to happen, he will go somewhere else because
so-and-so was attending the other worship service. Apparently so-and-so was this parishioner’s
arch enemy, and he refused to be in the same building at the same time with
so-and-so. My pastor friend quoted the
Scripture and told this parishioner: “That is your choice, of course, but it
will also be your eternal condemnation if you refuse to be reconciled to
so-and-so. You’ll only take that hatred
and resentment somewhere else, but you will never get rid of it.”
Sadly many more did leave the church (I don’t know if
this particular parishioner or if so-and-so stayed). Many others, however, for love of the Church
and for the sake of mission chose to reconcile.
They chose to do the hard work of making things right and letting
bygones be bygones. They came to realize
the ones being harmed by the many grudges were not only the grudge-holders
themselves, but there was substantial “collateral damage” done in the community.
But because enough of the faithful were resolved and
committed to the necessary hard work before them, in two years worship
attendance was getting to be standing-room-only, new guests were no longer
afraid to attend (small town gossip made sure everyone knew what was going on,
true or not), and the last I heard they were reconsidering an additional
worship service. All because of the
faith and the commitment of only a few.
The pastor was only the facilitator.
There were many hard choices to be made and some very difficult
matters to be faced, but at the heart of it all was Reconciliation – restoring
that which was damaged or broken. This
pastor made sure everyone understood that their need to reconcile was not
strictly so that the church would not disappear. Immortal souls were on the line. Playtime was over, individual demands were no
longer the order of the day, haters were held to account, and the “private
club” the church had become was no longer in business.
What is significant about such a recovery, however,
was not strictly that folks had to get right with Jesus. They did have to get right with The Lord, of
course, but something else had to happen before that could be possible. We like to express the concept of the
“unconditional love” The Lord has for all Creation, and this “unconditional
love” is expressed in Jesus’ willingness to go to the Cross for all of
humanity. But this notion of
“unconditional love” has convinced too many of us that there are no spiritual consequences
for our bitterness and hatred and resentment toward one another. This is the greatest lie perpetuated by the
Church – and probably helped along by the evil one himself because it certainly
does not come from The Lord nor His Word.
New believers need to know the Truth of “unconditional
love”, of course, but they will never come to even comprehend the depth of that
Love if it is not evident in the Body
of Christ which is the Church. In the fullness
of the Spirit of the Living God we are possessed by the depth of that Love in
which we are constantly mindful that in spite of our unworthiness, our God and
Holy Father nevertheless chose to redeem us, to make reconciliation with The
Lord possible.
But I also want to throw this out for our
consideration. Is it possible we hold
grudges, we harbor anger and resentment against one another because we do not
know or comprehend the forgiveness of The Lord in our own lives? Is it possible we receive the Eucharist of
The Lord but do not fully understand what it means to “eat the flesh” and
“drink the blood”? Do we ultimately
“walk away” as those disciples in Jesus’ day did because it is too difficult to
understand that love and what forgiveness really means?
We must understand that each time we choose anger and
hatred and resentment and vindictiveness against one another, we ultimately
“walk away” from Christ because the really hard work of discipleship is beyond
our willingness to forgive.
And perhaps we lack such willingness because we do not feel as
though we ourselves have been forgiven.
By The Lord or by our neighbors or our fellow disciples.
Finding another congregation, another pastor, or
withdrawing from the Church altogether – as has become the habit of many who
don’t get their way - may make us feel better in the interim, but walking away
only deals with a symptom; it does not deal directly with the illness –
especially when the illness is within ourselves. It is in “throwing out the baby with the bath water”
by which we think we’re dealing with certain issues by throwing certain
persons from our lives, but we’ve done nothing about the anger, the hurt
feelings, the resentment that only builds, and the growing sense of
vindictiveness that will not
abate with time. We have
thrown out the baby, but have chosen to retain the toxic bathwater.
The reason for this is simple: we deliberately choose NOT to forgive.
And as my pastor friend and mentor has stated emphatically, we will
carry that very heavy baggage all the way to hell – for Grace is as Grace
does. And if Grace will not do as it must,
Grace cannot do as it should.
So let us deliberately and purposefully throw out the bathwater that has become so toxic with
sin and guilt and mercilessness, but we must keep the baby – because the baby
is us. The Baby is the Church. The Baby is the Body of Christ Himself who
died for sin and was raised in Glory for us all – even the jerks.
Amen.
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