In my sermon last week, I spoke about the problem of people in the Church who act in ways that are contrary to the teaching and example of Jesus. I spoke about the real harm those people can do, and often actually do, to other members of the Church, and about the damage those people do to the Church itself, and to the Christian faith, because their actions bring the Church and the faith into disrepute. Unfortunately, we have to face up to the fact that some people in the Church do cause trouble and problems by acting in this way, and that leaves the Church, and the members of the local congregations where these things happen with the additional problem of what to do about it.
In days gone by, when the Church and the clergy were regarded with much more reverence than is usually the case now, the parish priest would have dealt with it. He would have simply laid the law down to anyone acting in this way, privately, at first, and then, if that didn’t work, from the pulpit on Sunday morning. And, if they still didn’t mend their ways, he would have barred them from Communion until they did. If those of you who have a Book of Common Prayer at home want to read the instruction about giving notice of ‘Briefs, Citations and Excommunications, which was done before the sermon, and the Exhortations that were read after the intercessions, you’ll get the idea.
In these days of openness and transparency and due process though, that doesn’t happen anymore. People who act in ways that hurt others and damage the Church can still be barred from Communion, but only with the approval of the bishop, and that doesn’t happen very often. It does happen, but in my own experience, I’ve only ever come across it once. So, these days, the problem of dealing with this kind of problem in a church, in a parish, is much more in the hands of the diocese than the parish itself.
But these days, bishops are usually very reluctant to act in what might be seen as an authoritarian or heavy-handed way with people. And that’s quite understandable in the society we live in. These days, the Church doesn’t command the respect it once did and there’s no shortage of people who would seize any opportunity to criticise the Church and the clergy. And any instance of the Church or the clergy using their authority against an individual, no matter what trouble or problems that individual was causing or had caused, would no doubt be immediately pounced upon as an instance of the Church or the clergy abusing their authority and bullying some poor, helpless individual who hadn’t done anything to deserve such appalling treatment at the hands of a powerful institution like the Church and its clergy.
So really, when these cases come along, the Church finds itself in a Catch 22 situation. If the Church uses its authority against an individual, it could be accused of abusing its authority and of institutional bullying. And because the media might get their hands on a story like that, the Church is reluctant to use its authority to deal with these problems because of the damage that might be done to its public image. But, on the other hand, if nothing is done to sort these problems out, the Church suffers because of the damage that’s done to the local congregation and to its image in the local community. And perhaps, in the final analysis, the Church thinks it’s easier for the local congregation, the parish, to deal with a local problem, than for the Church to have to deal with a national scandal caused by a storm of criticism in the media.
But that leaves us with the problem of what to do about people who cause harm at a local level, in a parish, because of their un-Christian behaviour doesn’t it? Because, as I said in my sermon last Sunday, local problems of this kind, which are very rarely heard about or known about outside the few people who are directly involved in the problem and who are affected by it, cause just as much damage to the Church as the problems that are plastered all over the media. And not only within a local congregation and parish. In fact, I think it’s probably fair to say, that if the Church was more well-respected at a local level, people would be more inclined to believe the Church and less inclined to believe the media, when the media criticises the Church. It seems to me, that the damage to the Church’s public image has been done and what we need to do, is build that image back up by dealing with the problem of those who have damaged the Church, its image and its reputation by their un-Christian behaviour at a local level.
So what do we do? How do we deal with people like this? Well, as with any other problem or trouble we encounter in the Christian life, we should look to Jesus for the answer. And in this morning’s Gospel, Jesus tells us exactly how to deal with this problem.
If someone is acting in an un-Christian way, we should tell them that’s what they’re doing. And if they won’t listen, we should get witnesses to what they’ve done, or been doing, and tell them again. And that’s very important because a lot of problems in the Church are caused by simple misunderstandings and differences of opinion, and before we accuse someone of acting in an un-Christian way, we need to be sure that they have and they’ve not upset us just because they don’t agree with us about something.
But, if their behaviour is un-Christian, and they won’t listen to us or other witnesses, then we take the matter to the Church. At a local level, that means to the vicar, the churchwardens and the PCC. It doesn’t mean, at any stage, that we should go gossiping and rumourmongering about people to our family and friends because that in itself is un-Christian behaviour and, if we do that, we’re simply pots who are calling the kettle black. But, if someone has been acting in an un-Christian way and they won’t listen and change their ways, even after they’ve been spoken to by the Church, then Jesus says we should treat them as Gentiles and tax-collectors.
To understand what Jesus meant by that, we have to look at what he said, through 1st Century Jewish eyes. Gentiles, as non-Jews, were not God’s people, they were outside the law and the covenant that God had made with his people. Tax-collectors were Jews, but they were seen as sinners; they were regarded as dishonest, as thieves and, in Judea at least, as collaborators with the pagan, Gentile Romans. So, tax-collectors, even though they were Jews, were seen as people who, because of their actions, their sins, had become the equivalent of Gentiles. In other words, they weren’t God’s people either. So what Jesus seems to be saying to us here is that, if people in the Church are acting in an un-Christian way, and they won’t listen to what anyone says to them and won’t change their ways, then they should be treated as though they aren’t members of the Church.
That’s a very different way of thinking and acting than we often see in the Church isn’t it. How often, for example, do those who are seen as ‘pillars of the Church’ act in un-Christian ways? And yet far from the Church treating them as though they weren’t members of the Church at all, they simply carry on in the roles that have made them ‘pillars of the Church’? And how much damage does it do to the Church, not only at a local level, but also at a wider level, when people see and hear about these ‘pillars of the Church’ acting in un-Christian ways?
It’s difficult, of course, to apply this teaching of Jesus. To do that, needs the Church to be of one mind about the actions of the person, or people in question, and about how to deal with them. And that is a problem because those in a local congregation are often our family and friends, and we put our family and friends on a bit of a pedestal. We might see what they’re doing is wrong, but we turn a blind eye to it, or we make excuses for them because they are our family and friends. And even if we know what our family and friends have done, or are doing, is clearly wrong, we don’t like to see any action taken against them, especially if what’s proposed hints of some kind of penalty or punishment. And so we tend to support our family and friends whether they’re right or wrong. But, in the Church, we shouldn’t have favourites. No matter what our relationship to someone, no matter how long we’ve known them, nor how good a friend they are, when it comes to the Church, as Christians our first loyalty should and must, only ever be to Christ. As he said,
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
The word we translate as ‘hate’ in this teaching of Jesus isn’t quite so bad as it sounds, it really means to ‘love less’ rather than the loathing or detestation we usually associate with the word. And Jesus doesn’t mention friends in this teaching. But the meaning of what he says is perfectly clear; for his disciples, following Jesus must come above everything, and everybody, else. We must love him more than anything or anybody else.
So, whenever we come across un-Christian behaviour in the Church, Jesus calls us to confront it. And if whoever is responsible for it, even if they’re our family or friends, won’t change their ways, to treat them as though they are no longer members of the Church. That’s very hard to do, but it’s what Jesus calls us to do as his disciples, and as members of his Church.
But to treat people as Gentiles and tax-collectors, as disciples of Christ should, means to treat them as he did, and we know that Jesus was known as a friend of tax-collectors and sinners. We might be called to confront those in the Church who act in an un-Christian way, but we’re not called to throw them out of the Church and have nothing more to do with them. This morning’s Gospel makes it clear that the point of confronting un-Christian behaviour in the Church is to persuade those responsible to change their ways, to win them back and get them to return to Christ and his way. It might be very hard for us to confront people, especially our family and friends, when they act in an un-Christian way but, it’s what we’re called to do. It’s what we must do if we love Jesus and want to call ourselves Christians. And, if we think about it as Jesus told us to, as winning back our brothers and sisters, it’s what we ought to do if we love them.
Amen.
You will find the Propers for the 23rd Sunday (Trinity 13) here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 