Perhaps one of the most difficult problems we have in the Church, and always have had in the Church, is knowing what to do when members of the Church act in ways that members of the Church shouldn’t. To be more specific, we have a problem of knowing what to do about, and with, those people who act in ways that Church members shouldn’t act and, by doing so, cause harm to other members of the Church and the Church herself.
Not adhering to the norms and expected codes of conduct is a problem for any human institution, from small clubs and businesses to nations, but it’s a particularly difficult problem in the Church, and for the Church, for a number of different reasons. First of all, we are supposed to be a forgiving people. So, if someone steps out of line, our first response should be to forgive them. But forgiveness is not the same as allowing people to carry on doing wrong so we have to urge those people concerned to return to the straight and narrow. That’s especially important when what those people are doing is causing harm to others. But, as I’m sure we all know, those who are doing wrong, especially if it’s to their benefit to do wrong, can be very pig-headed in their wrongdoing; they usually don’t want to stop. That means that they have to be confronted about what they’re doing which is another particularly difficult problem for the Church. Very few people like confrontation with others, but Christians are called to be loving and peaceable people so for us, confrontation is something we should want to avoid if at all possible. And what do we do if those who are doing wrong are causing harm to others and won’t stop? However hard it might be for us, as forgiving, loving and peaceable people, to take some kind of action against another person, sometimes we have to for the good of those who are being harmed, and for the good of all the members of the Body of Christ.
No matter how hard it might be for us to do these things though, we do have Jesus’ own very clear teaching about how to deal with these situations:
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
At that time, Gentiles were not part of God’s people and tax-collectors were outcasts from God’s people because of their sinful ways. So this teaching of Jesus very clearly implies that if someone in the Church is doing wrong, we are quite justified in taking action to try and stop them and bring them back into fold. But, if they won’t listen, and won’t stop then, in the end, we’re to treat them as though they are not part of the Church.
But of course we are also called to be loving, forgiving people so we then have the problem of what to do if those who have done wrong in the past, even those whom the Church has had to take action against in the past, come to their senses and want to return to the right path and to the Church . How do we then deal with those people? Should we accept them back into the Church? To what extent should we make them welcome? Should we welcome them back with open arms or should we take only them back with reservations? Should we put them on some kind of probation until they’ve proven that they can be trusted before we welcome them back fully? As difficult as it may be for us to actually do, this morning’s Gospel reading, the parable of the Prodigal Son, leaves us in no doubt that the Christian thing to do in these situations is to welcome such people back into the fold not only without reservation, but with joy too.
The parable of the Prodigal Son of course, is a parable about God’s love for us. It’s a parable that explains God’s joy in seeing a sinner come to their senses and return to him and God’s own ways. But Jesus said that to have seen him was to have seen the Father and so this is the same kind of love with which Jesus loved and still loves us. And, as Christians, that’s the same kind of love with which we’re called to love one another. So if and when people who’ve done wrong in the past come to their senses, change their ways and want to return to the Church, we’re called to welcome them back with open arms and with joy because that’s the Godly thing to do, it’s the Christlike thing to do and so it’s the Christian thing to do.
When we think about this problem, and in particular what Jesus said about treating those who won’t listen and won’t change their ways like Gentiles and tax collectors, it’s very easy, and perhaps even tempting to say that means we should simply kick them out of the Church and have nothing more to do with them. In fact, I have come across people who do think this way and take this line with those who cause problems in the Church. But we have to remember two very important things before we’re tempted to go down this route. The first is that none of us are wholly without fault; we’re all sinners so we’re in no position to take such a high-handed approach when we’re dealing with the sins of others. The second thing we have to remember is how Jesus himself dealt with Gentiles and tax-collectors.
Jesus said he’d come to save the lost sheep of Israel and, on the whole, that’s what he did; the mission to the Gentile world was one he largely entrusted to his Church. But we also know that, when Gentiles came to Jesus in faith, he treated them with same love and compassion he showed to Jews who came to him in faith. And we know too that Jesus actively sought out people like tax-collectors, if fact, he even chose one, Matthew, as one of his twelve core disciples. But we see this most clearly perhaps in the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus if you remember was the rich, chief tax-collector who climbed into a sycamore tree so that he could see Jesus as he passed through Jericho. Jesus saw him, called down from the tree and went to stay with him in his house. A lot of people were unhappy about that because Jesus had gone to be the guest of a sinner. But, the result of this encounter was that Zacchaeus repented, he changed his ways. He said,
“Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
To which Jesus replied,
“Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
So when Jesus told us to treat those who sin against us and who won’t listen to anyone and won’t change their ways, as Gentiles and tax-collectors, he wasn’t telling us to simply have nothing more to do with them. He may very well have been telling us to treat them as though they were no longer part of the Church, but he was also telling us to treat them in the same way that he did. To seek them out and try to bring them back into the fold. And if we can bring them back to their senses, and they are prepared to change their ways and act as Christians and members of the Body of Christ should, we shouldn’t only welcome them back but rejoice in having them back.
It’s always very sad when we have problems like this in the Church. It’s very sad when members of the Church act in ways that aren’t compatible with the Christian faith, and cause harm, great harm sometimes, to other members of the Church by what they do, but who won’t listen when they’re told what they’re doing is wrong and who won’t stop what they’re doing and won’t change their ways. It’s very sad, but it does happen. And when it does, we have to do something about it.
We are called to be forgiving, loving and peaceable people, but that doesn’t mean we can turn a blind eye to the wrong that people sometimes do and simply allow them to carry on doing it. That in itself is just as wrong as the thing we’re allowing to happen. We have to stop wrongdoing for the sake of its victims. And, if we think about it from a spiritual point of view, we have to stop it for the sake of the perpetrators too, to stop the harm their doing to themselves. And we have to stop it for the sake of all the members of the Body of Christ.
But we always have to give those who are doing wrong the chance to come to their senses and change their ways. We have to try to bring them back onto the right path and we have to carry on trying to do that even if we do reach the point where we need to treat them as Gentiles and tax-collectors. And if they do come to their senses and come back to the right path, we should welcome them back in the same way that the Prodigal Son was welcomed by his father, with open arms and with joy. That’s not easy but we have to try to do that because that’s the way God our Father welcomes us back each and every time we sin then come back to our senses and return to him and his ways. We need to remember that we’re all sinners and we all do things we shouldn’t do at times and that the things we do can cause harm to others. And if we think about that honestly, how many times do we think, or do we know that we’ve been that prodigal one who’s needed to be welcomed back by God and to God’s ways?
Amen.
The Propers for the 4th Sunday of Lent (Mothering Sunday) can be viewed here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 