It is pretty clear that what we are hearing from Matthew’s
gospel today* is directly out of the experience of the Early Church. To begin
with, it is quite unlikely that Jesus would ever have used the word εκκλησια or “church” to denote a
gathering of disciples. Moreover, the
pattern of conflict management described reflects a stage of institutional life
well beyond the itinerant and intensely personal ministry of Jesus. Anyone who has had much experience in the
church in any age must wonder about the reliability of the global statement,
“If two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you
by my Father in heaven.” It sounds very
much like an institution’s approach to inspiring members to reach
agreement. We know enough from the New
Testament about some of the conflicts that tore apart the Early Church that we
can readily understand the need to emphasize the desirability and usefulness,
not to mention the necessity, of harmony.
“Look what happens when just two of you agree!” Then there comes a telltale verse that
reflects post-resurrection experience for sure:
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of
them.”
To recognize the probability that what we are hearing is the
Early Church’s interpretation and application of Jesus and his teaching is by
no means to diminish its value, let alone to negate it. Indeed it is not just the Early Church but
the contemporary Church that must in fact do that all the time. We might do it well or poorly, but we have
little choice but to reckon with who Jesus is and what he means for our
particular situation. Indeed, every age
has to a great extent reinvented Jesus to address its own needs and
concerns. Jaroslav Pelikan, a theologian
at Yale, wrote a book decades ago called Jesus
Through the Centuries, in which he traced exactly that: how Jesus changed with and for each
succeeding age. Ours is no
different.
I invite you to open up with me the question of what it
means to practice the teaching of Jesus in an age of conflict. I think you will very likely readily agree
with me that we are soaked with conflict these days on just about every level.
These scriptures today remind us that there is nothing new about living in a
world riven with conflict. The question
is not whether our conflicts are the greatest and deepest ever—arguably
not. Nor whether we are getting worse at
handling conflicts—I have no firm evidence that we are worse at conflict
resolution, although I admit that we seem to be caught in a deep trough at the
moment. The issue is ultimately a
spiritual one: how do we practice, if we
do, the teachings of Jesus in facing conflicts?
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| Alexander Smirnov, Cleansing of the Temple |
Jesus himself was not conflict averse. Folks have a habit of pointing to his
celebrated cleansing of the Temple, chasing out the moneychangers and
overturning their tables and pens and cash boxes as evidence that Jesus could
be on fire with anger and ready to do battle with opponents in a very physical
way. I would argue, true as that may be,
Jesus engaged in virtual non-stop controversy from the beginning of his
ministry. He took on the religious
authorities of his day. He sided with
the very people whom those authorities considered anathema. He flouted tradition and law when either got
in the way of according human beings decent treatment and hospitality. He set aside Judaism’s holiest institution,
the Sabbath, when its observance meant ignoring human need. None of this made him popular. Still less did it make him the exemplar of
dodging conflict or the hard choices that have to be made in in the heat of
conflict.
How do we square all that with his teaching and practice of
the Love of God and neighbor? I will
tell what we don’t do. First, we don’t
continue to romanticize Jesus as “gentle Jesus meek and mild.” He was anything but. Second, we don’t fall for the ahistorical
nonsense that Jesus was all about making nice to folks that are out to use,
abuse, violate, and destroy others. What
we do instead is to look and see why Jesus himself was in the conflicts that he
was in. What was going on?
A number of years ago there was a television commercial
built on an image that actually helps to get to the bottom of this
question. The commercial began by
showing a scene of a large and busy room in a public space, perhaps a
convention hall or shopping mall. Over
to one side was a sizeable platform that was noticeably higher than the floor
where crowds were milling about. As the
viewer continued to watch the relatively short commercial, it became clear that
in increasing numbers, people were stepping up on that platform until, at the
end, the majority of the crowd stood there and not on the lower level. Then came the voiceover that said something
like, “People are moving to…” and the corporate sponsor was named. What was interesting about this visual was
the two levels of the room that existed simultaneously. And that is the key for me to understanding
the conflict at the heart of Jesus’ ministry.
He in effect proclaimed the presence of another level of reality that
existed simultaneously with people’s ordinary situations. The name he gave to that other level was the
“Kingdom of God,” ‘η βασιλεια του
θεου [hay bah-see-lay-ah too the-oo]. In Matthew’s gospel, the
phrase is often “the Kingdom of Heaven” instead of “the Kingdom of God,” but it
is the same thing. What it is not about
is the afterlife. It is rather the
appearance of an entirely different reality that has manifested itself right in
the middle of the ordinary world of human affairs.
And this is where the conflict begins. It was clearly the purpose of Jesus not only
to announce the fact, the reality, of the Kingdom, but to invite people into
it. Hence he continues to tell parables
that illustrate how differently the Kingdom operates from the ordinary world,
how its values are in many ways counter to the values that the world generally
honors. Not only that, but Jesus himself
modeled what life in the Kingdom looks like.
He lived according to the standards and values of the βασιλεια. In so doing, he
engaged in personal combat with the powers that run the “ordinary” world and
showed in his life, his teaching, and death how clashes with that world are
inevitable.
The world is not a region that is somewhere outside ourselves. It is very
much a part of us. The way human beings
develop can be thought of as having two selves—a self that learns to adapt to
what people expect, to protect itself against whatever threatens it, and to
control its environment to its advantage.
But in the very depth of the human heart is the potential for being and
living differently. Normally the first half of life is about establishing the
first of those selves—establishing ourselves in work, relationships, family,
and so on. The second half of life is
about discovering the limitations of all those things and learning little by little how to let go of
all that stuff that we have been giving our lives to and to live instead in tune
with a deeper reality. Bingo. That is the process of mounting the
platform and taking a stand outside the movement of the crowd. In Jesus’ terms, it is living life in the βασιλεια. In my vocabulary, it
is learning how to live the Resurrection, how to be in touch with one’s own
soul, and how to live in a way that increasingly sees oneself as a part of an
endless web of connection that embraces the entire universe. It has something to do with everything we
are, everything we decide, and everything we do. But it is not just “different” from the false
self sucking energy from our own inflated egos.
The βασιλεια is qualitatively
distinct. To describe it in terms of
Jesus’ own life, the βασιλεια is a life of
forgiveness, of caring, of the eradication of barriers between human beings,
between the human community and God, and between the human being and the rest
of creation. In a word the βασιλεια is about healing. It gets its only
power form pure love, and that love is so strong that it drives away sickness
and ultimately proves itself stronger even than death. Nothing can separate us from the love of God: that is the fundamental truth at the center
of the βασιλεια.
Now you can see how it is that the βασιλεια
is not about life in some other world somewhere else, but the power that is at
work undoing the very things that make the false self false and the world a
mess. It is possible, though not
necessary, to call the powers that run the false self and its world the devil
or evil. Paul, in a choice that has
caused untold problems, referred to the same reality as σαρξ or “the
flesh.” Well, it is not the body that is
the problem, but the energy that runs the world that exists outside the βασιλεια.
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| Christ whipped, displayed at the 2015 Biennale, Vatican Pavilion |
Now we are in a position to see what all this has to do not only with the
inevitability of conflict, but also how to handle it. It cannot all be reduced to a flat set of
rules. Always do this or never do
that. But there are some principles, and
here are some of the key principles:
1.
Have some guiding principles and know what they are.
2.
The main guiding principle is to be in relationship and
know how to tend to relationships. We
can’t get anywhere when we simply dis and dismiss each other.
3.
Practice putting ego aside. Learn to listen not to argue or to agree but to
understand.
4.
Speak the truth.
5.
Realize that where a person or a people are today is not
necessarily where they will be tomorrow.
Allow for the possibility of shifts and changes.
6.
If you allow for shifts and changes, make sure you keep
some space to shift and change yourself.
7.
Breathe.
8.
Smile.
9.
Remember that the most important phrase for stating an
opinion is, “It seems to me that…”
10.
Practice forgiveness.
I am not sure what Jesus might have meant when he said that when two or
three are gathered together in his name, he would be there in the midst of
them. But I think I know. I believe that if we intentionally live in
the βασιλεια, we will find that the power of Christ is
palpably present. It is not theoretical,
but real. And if I am wrong, I think it
is just fine to be wrong if it means that I actually am, and you actually are,
making the world a better, safer, more loving place just by moving to
the higher level, whether anyone understands it or approves or not.
*A sermon based on Matthew 18:15-20
© Frank Gasque Dunn, 2017
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