Year B – Proper 21 – 8:00 am service

The Rev. Gerald W. Keucher

On the day of our great Homecoming celebration the lessons today have a lot to say about life in community. There are a couple of things they say to us.

First, they tell us that any community needs some kind of structure. In the first lesson we see that Moses was a great leader, but apparently he wasn’t a great administrator. This is the second time he’s been completely overwhelmed by trying to do everything himself. And the Lord doesn’t pay any attention to his whining, but tells him, “Identify some other good leaders that have the respect of the people, and bring them together, and let them help you.”

And again in the Gospel, Jesus has already called his apostles. The community has a structure. Like any family or any human group that has more than three members, there has to be some kind of structure. There are roles to play and jobs to do. If there isn’t going to be total chaos, we better have a structure.

St. Paul says that each of us has gifts to bring to the community. The structure the community has is intended to allow people to exercise their gifts so that the community is built up.

But the next thing both of these lessons tell us is that structures are likely to be immediately turned from their purpose of giving the members a framework in which they can build up the community. Structures turn immediately into power games and into ways of identifying who is in and who is out.

As soon as there’s a structure, instead of building up the community, people want to build up a bunch of rules around the structure. The elders can prophesy only in the tent of meeting. If somebody is doing something where I don’t think they ought to be doing it, we should stop them. If somebody wants to invoke Jesus’ name to heal someone, they better get proper permission first.

We know very well in our families, in our jobs, and in our parish, that structure is important. The structure of roles and jobs helps us get on with the work so we don’t have to invent everything from scratch every day and say, “Who will open the mail? Who will make dinner? Who will set up the Altar?”

But we also know how structure can be perverted into something that oppresses people or shuts them out. Structures define who is responsible for what, and responsibility can turn into turf. And if you think of your responsibilities in a group in terms of “my turf,” then you’re going to get defensive if somebody appears to be doing what you thought your job was. You’re going to shut others out by saying, “That’s my job; I’ll take care of that.” You’re going to want Medad and Eldad to be where they’re supposed to be, and you’re not going to want that other person to be casting out the demon that you were going to cast out.

Now the Gospel lesson seems to jump from this episode to a short discourse by Jesus that is familiar to most of us. It’s familiar because its images are so grotesque — cutting off hands and feet and plucking out your eye. What is all this about?

Right after Jesus tells John to let others do their work for God, He says, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” It sounds to me like Jesus is saying that actions that misuse the structure of the community to shut people out are pretty grievous sins.

How many people have been more or less driven out of parish churches just because they’ve been told that they aren’t needed? Oh, you’ve done that wrong. You don’t need to do that; that’s my job. We have that taken care of. No, we’ve always done it this way, and we don’t want any new ideas. These and hundreds of other comments from those who are part of the structure make people feel that there’s nothing for them in that congregation. Maybe they’ll go to another church, but very likely they’ll stop going to church.

In other words the actions of the leadership have caused a believer not to go to church. That’s a pretty heavy thing. If there’s anything that we’re doing that makes Intercession less than welcoming to anyone, let’s throw it away. If there’s anything we’re doing that shuts people out or turns them away, let’s get rid of it.

If we give somebody The Look for doing something we think is wrong, let’s pull out that eye and throw it away. It’s better for us to have only one eye and still to have that sister with us than for us to have both our eyes and have made that sister feel foolish so she can never come back.

If we have used our hand to grab something away from a brother because he was doing our job, let’s cut that hand off and throw it away. It’s better to for us to have just one hand and have that brother around to help us than for us to have both our hands and have made that brother feel that no one wants him here.

And if we’ve been walking all over other people’s feelings, let’s get rid of those feet. It’s better for us to be lame and be surrounded by our brothers and sisters than for us with both our feet to continue to make people feel they’ve been kicked out of here.

My brothers and sisters, on this Homecoming Day, I invite you, if you can, to come back this afternoon and to try your best to make everyone as welcome and as comfortable as possible. Greet people you don’t know. Welcome warmly people you haven’t seen for a while. Make up with people you’ve has disagreements with.

Let people say about us at the end of this day, “See how they love one another. Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. I want to be part of this family. I’ve come home.”