From Masking to Mercy: Pastor Will on Honesty, Anxiety and Real Community

Foreign. Thank you for engaging with the homily by Pastor

Chill Will from Chapel Hill. I hope this message encourages you,

challenges you and moves you to go deeper in your faith and enrich

how you love God and love your neighbor in your day to day life.

Just a reminder. Like the scriptures and gospels themselves,

this homily was written for a particular community in a particular

context, time in history. And yet, like our sacred texts, I hope

that these words hold timeless truths about God's unconditional

love and grace. We hope these words speak to you in a meaningful

way. The Holy Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus said to his disciples,

if your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the

fault. When the two of you are alone, if you are listened to, 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 that person refuses

to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if the offender refuses

to listen even to the church, let such one be one of you as a Gentile

and a tax collector. Truly, I tell you, whatever you bind on earth

will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will

be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree

on earth about anything and ask, it will be done for you by my

Father and heaven. For where two or three are gathering in my

name, I am among them. The Gospel of the Lord may be seated.

In the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit, Men. Okay,

I'm going to ask a loaded and controversial question. I hope no

one walks out this morning or leaves the church. When should one

put up their Halloween decorations? When does a Halloween

season start? I mean, I have opinions. I'm sure Megan agrees with

me. Right. Mid. Mid October. Right? Right. Oh, gosh. Megan, Megan,

Megan. Fall doesn't even start until September 22nd, and we need

to have this conversation so that. I know, I know. Okay. Okay,

I get it. You feel passionate about this. Looks like we're gonna

have to take this to church council. Okay, another question.

Probably a little easier. When should Christmas decorations go up?

November 1st. Right? Right. Megan? Oh, gosh. Within our holiday

and liturgical seasons, we follow the Revised Common Lectionary

that guides our Bible readings each Sunday. While with the Revised

Common Lectionary, there's a three year cycle of reading through

the four gospels in the New Testament. And it guides us through

the seasons and holidays, not of Halloween per se, but of Advent

and Christmas and Epiphany. Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Year

A is devoted to the Gospel of Matthew. Year B is Mark. Year C is

Luke. The Gospel of John, being a little different from the

other three Synoptic Gospels, doesn't get their own year, but rather

sprinkled throughout years A, B and C. We are currently in year

A, journeying through the Gospel of Matthew. Bible scholars

believe that Matthew was written primarily for a Hebrew and

Jewish community and audience. So Matthew, knowing his target audience,

leans heavy on the themes and images from the story of Moses, the

Passover, the Exodus. And he's making connections between the life

of Jesus and the life of Moses for Matthew and the community he

is writing. His story for. Jesus is a new kind of Moses who

is leading us through a new kind of Passover, from death to life,

with a new Exodus in liberating people. The Sermon on

the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew is a new kind of Ten Commandments

and a Torah giving direction for living one's faith and living

their faith embedded in the life of community. You have heard

it said, you shall not murder. But I say to you, if you call your

brother or sister a fool, you are liable to judgment. You have

heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute

you. And Matthew wants to be clear. In chapter 5, verse 17, Jesus

came not to abolish the law and Torah, but to fulfill it. Often

the default when culture thinks about religion, faith and

spirituality is that it's a bunch of rules. And if you break

those rules, the old man in the sky is going to be unhappy. So

you better watch out. That's not the theology that we lean into

or proclaim or promote. Rather, we believe and place our

faith that God is a God of love, and that as we examine and

follow and learn from Jesus and how he lives and operates and

postures himself in the world and how he interacted with people

around him, we see and it's revealed to us, the true nature of

God, who loves us with a liberating love, a love that is stronger

than death. As we look and learn and listen to Jesus, we see

what St. Paul articulates in his letter to the church in Rome,

love is the fulfilling of the law. Leaning into this understanding

of faith and religion and spirituality, we, along with the

Hebrew faith, see that the Ten Commandments in the Torah are gifts

and guideposts that open up ways to love God and love our neighbor

even deeper. For the Gospel of Matthew, he is telling a story and

trying to paint the picture that through Jesus's life, death

and resurrection we see that Jesus is the Torah incarnate, that

Jesus is love incarnate. Love is the fulfilling of the law. We

are relational creatures. We are part of a vast ecosystem of relationships.

Even our church name is named Holy Trinity. Right? We believe that

God's own nature is a relationship of a love as a father

to a son, bound and flowing through the spirit. Because we are

relational and communal creatures created in the image of

a triune God, we have rules and laws and boundaries that help

navigate the complicated relationships that we are a part

of. While created to be in relationships and community, we know

because we live in an imperfect and broken world where

people disagree about holiday decorations. It isn't always easy.

In fact, it's almost never easy. There's a reason, as I shared

with the children, why we start our worship service every Sunday

with confession and forgiveness. Being open and honest

with each other and with God, knowing that people are going to

people. Being a part of community comes with it. Intentionality,

hard work, honesty, self awareness. Today's gospel story is

a part of Matthew's larger vision of Jesus as a teacher and

a rabbi and a Moses figure, giving guidance to how we live in

community with one another. It echoes that hard and long journey

that the Israelites journeyed through in the wilderness. For 40

years they journeyed with one another, trying to get along with

each other, trying to stick together with one another, holding

on to a faith that God is journeying with them and that God

is a God of love and liberation. Most likely, Matthew's

community and church he was writing to was experiencing some

conflict and they needed some conflict resolution. Has Jesus set

up these steps of how to get along and resolve issues that come

up when we do community together? And notice the steps Jesus

encourages us to take. Starts off small, one on one. Before you

go and talk behind someone's back or gossip about what someone

has done to you or against you, go talk to that person first.

Try to resolve it between the two of you. If that doesn't work,

bring in some others. Bring in witnesses, people who know you and

could maybe bring in a different perspective. Perhaps they

can help you see things from a new and larger and different point

of view. And if that doesn't work, bring in the whole community.

Because my relationship with someone else and how we treat one

another and how we get along and understand each other and affects

the whole community, the whole ecosystem we are a part of. Also

notice a key element Jesus lifts up and brings attention to

listening. What a gift that is to the gift of community, the gift

of listening. Something we've strived to do, especially when we

listen to testimonies and witnesses and around our reconciled

in Christ. Sundays listen to one another's stories to hear their

perspective and how they see the world and experience the world

and experience God's love. Jesus then talks about a binding

and a loosening of things, binding and loosening things that

are part of our lives and relationships. And I think what Jesus

is trying to say, similar to what we pray in the Lord's Prayer

when we pray, forgive me as I forgive others. What we do and how

we relate to one another on earth matters in how we relate to

others in heaven within God's kingdom. What we do here matters

with an eternal significance. Last Sunday at the Faith and Science

Forum on Anxiety that Pastor Katie and Campus Ministry hosted,

a big part of that discussion was about being open and honest with

one another and how we do life as individuals and with one another.

Together they share that element of anxiety is this thing

that we do called masking, that we put up a mask or we put up

that general how are you doing? I'm fine. Because we don't

really want others to see how we are really doing, either because

we're embarrassed about it or we think the other person is fine

and so they won't understand. Or this notion is that they seem

fine. So I guess I have to pretend I have to be too. Social

media feeds them that too. We see everyone's perfect picture of

their perfect meal and their perfect vacation and we think our

lives should be the exact same way. Why isn't mine life that way?

Oh my gosh, I'm not doing life right, I guess. But what if we flipped

that? What if we build enough trust and compassion that I can be

open and honest where I am in my life and faith and we can be there

for each other, building each other up in love and support. What

if we grew more comfortable with the uncomfortable, growing in

trust with one another and where we are in life and faith? Perhaps

we can continue to build each other up. Love is the fulfilling

of the law. This is a type of community that I want to be a part

of and this is the type of community that we seek to be here

at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Lutheran Campus, Missouri

over sabbatical. As I reflected on my 26 years of ordained

ministry and going on 15 years here at Holy Trinity, I remain committed

to the Jesus story and I still want to grow in how that story shapes

my life and how I live in community with you and the relationships

in the world that we are a part of. Sure, the world is far from

perfect or easy and so we have a mission, a vision and core values

to help guide us. Sure, there will be challenges ahead of us, but

there will also be opportunities in how we grow and

how we love God and love our neighbors. Life isn't easy. Relationships

easy. Community isn't easy. They are gifts. They are gifts. Even

if you argue about holiday decorations, we do life together.

Jesus doesn't promise that everything will be perfect or comfortable,

but notice that he promises to be present where two or three gather.

I am among them, Jesus is among us and love is being fulfilled.

Amen. Thank you for listening. If there is anything that stood out

for you, or if you have a question or you just want to have

a conversation, you are always free to reach out and contact us.

And remember you are not alone and that you are loved with a love

stronger than death. Sam.