Judgement in Love

OT Lesson: Ezekiel 33:7-11 (GNT)

“Now, mortal man, I am making you a lookout for the nation of Israel. You must pass on to them the warnings I give you. If I announce that an evil person is going to die but you do not warn him to change his ways so that he can save his life, then he will die, still a sinner, and I will hold you responsible for his death. If you do warn an evil person and he doesn’t stop sinning, he will die, still a sinner, but your life will be spared.”

The Lord spoke to me. “Mortal man,” He said, “repeat to the Israelites what they are saying: ‘We are burdened with our sins and the wrongs we have done. We are wasting away. How can we live?’ Tell them that as surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live. Israel, stop the evil you are doing. Why do you want to die?

NT Lesson: Matthew 18:15-20 (NRSV)

‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, 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 the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

Sermon

Introduction

Good morning. Any of you were affected by the power outage last Friday morning? My house had the power the whole time, but I was badly affected by the power outage because Samuel’s school was cancelled. So I took him to the Indy Zoo because the annual membership expires on coming Tuesday. It was kind of my last chance to visit there. This time, I spent a little more money and bought Samuel an Explorer’s Day Pass which includes all the rides, bird feedings, etc. Samuel especially enjoyed the feeding the pretty birds. As you may remember, I was not feeling well last Sunday. I am doing much better but not yet completely over. So last Sunday, half hour before the worship service, I took DayQuill and I felt the medicine coming into effect. I was not high, just to let you know. DayQuill does not make you high. But I was a bit dizzy. So I preached under the influence. But it was, I believe, better than driving under the influence. But today I did not take any DayQuill or NyQuill. So I am preaching sober today. Beside, we finished the Five Sola series last Sunday. From today on for a while, we will follow the Revised Common Lectionary. And today’s NT lesson is not that easy topic to bring it up. Most people and the commentaries say that this is about the discipline within the church which Jesus gave us the guideline. I believe that is true, and every group or organisation, including church, needs some sort of order and discipline. It does not have to be severe, but it is true that we need it, especially when the Presbyterian Motto kind of is ‘Orderly and Decent.’

John Calvin’s School

Collège Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland

Speaking of Presbyterian, we all know that the Presbyterians are so much into the law-and-order. We do not like chaos. We you also know that the Presbyterians across the globe are so much into the education. That is one of the reasons why we do the PPM. It is an Early Childhood Education. And the Presbyterian’s love of education goes all the way back to John Calvin. John Calvin, as you all know, finally settled in Geneva, Switzerland. He did many things religiously, politically, and economically as well. But within Geneva, Calvin’s main concern was the education. So he eventually built a school for the education of children, which opened on June 5th, 1559. It was one school but inside, it was separated into two grades or parts. The lower school was call Collège in French (not to be confused with English word college), Schola Privata in Latin, which we say in English Grammar School. The higher school was called Académie in French, Schola Publica in Latin, which we say in English Advanced School. Those schools are still standing and functioning with different names now. The lower school is now called Collège Calvin, which is one of the best college preparatory schools in Geneva. The higher school became the University of Geneva. So we know where our love of education came from. But as much Calvin was into the education, so much he was into the law and order, which inevitably involves discipline. The tour guide in Geneva told me that one of the things which Calvin did was giving the teachers the legal authority to send not-behaving children to jail up to, if I remember correct, five days. Now you know how serious Calvin was about the discipline. So imagine, that you do not see your son coming out of the school bus in the afternoon. So you call the school and ask them where your son is and the answer is, ‘Oh, he talked back to the teach today, so we sent him to the county jail. Don’t worry. He will go back home next week.’ I bet there was no behavioural problems of the students back in the days of John Calvin in Geneva. I have to say that I love law-and-order but not as much as Calvin did. And I am thankful that John Calvin who kind of had set all the Presbyterian church rules had never sent any pastor to jail for preaching under the influence.

Jesus’ Discipline within the Church

In today’s NT lesson, Jesus talks about the discipline and to summarise it: If a church member commits a sin, you go and tell him. If he refuses to repent, bring a few more people to be the witnesses. If he still refuses to repent, then tell the pastor. If he does not listen even to the pastor, kick him out. Excommunicate him. Simple, right? But my question is what Jesus really wanted from His this teaching on the issue of the discipline within the church. Does Jesus want to kick some bad people out of the church? If this is all and only about the discipline, there were already so many rules concerning the discipline and judgement back in the days of Jesus. He did not really need to talk about it because those existing rules were way more severe and effective. And that was exactly the problem which Jesus had. He did not like the effectiveness of the existing rules because it could possibly sacrifice the fairness.

Ancient Biblical Trial

So let us see how the trial process was back in the biblical days. Keep that in mind that in the ancient days there was no separation between the church and the state. So the pastors and the church elders automatically functioned as the county or state judges. God says in one of the book of Moses, “One witness is not enough to convict someone of a crime; at least two witnesses are necessary to prove that someone is guilty.” In other words, two people can accuse anyone of anything. ‘Hey pastor, this person is a bad guy.’ ‘How do I know?’ ‘Ask my friend. My friend also says this person is a bad guy.’ ‘Oh. Two people say that this person a bad guy. Then it must be true. Stone this guy to death.’ Simple process with just one trial, and execution right away—easy peasy.

There was a king whose name was Ahab. One day he found a super nice vineyard owned by a guy named Naboth. So the king told him, ‘Hey Naboth, I like your vineyard. Sell it to me. I will pay you a good money.’ But he answered, ‘This vineyard is from my ancestors. I cannot sell it.’ Then Ahab, whom I think was an introvert, went back to his palace depressed and gloomy. His wife, Jezebel, saw the king sullen again and asked him what had happened. After hearing what the story, she said, ‘Oh my… You a king! Man up and stand like a king! I will take care of this thing.’ She then wrote letters in the king’s name to the elders in the city where Naboth was living in. The letter says, “Proclaim a day of fasting and give Naboth a prominent seat among the people. But put two scoundrels opposite him and get them to bring charges that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.” That was exactly what the elders did. By the words of the two false witnesses, a good man was executed with one simple trial. And king Ahab got the super nice vineyard for free without paying any penny.

Three Strike Out

The trials do not work like that any more at least in the developed countries such as America and South Korea. For example in Indiana, correct me if I am wrong because I am not really a law expert, we can get three trials. If you are not happy with the result of your case in an Indiana trial court, you can file an appeal to the appeals court. If you are still not happy with the result of the appeals court, then you can take it to the Indiana supreme court. So in Indiana, in other states, and in most of the developed countries, it is Three Strike Out. You don’t get to be executed with one trail in the same day. Of course if you are living in North Korea, China or some other countries, it is a different story. But thanks be to God that we are living in America. But the thing is why we do this? It is clearly ineffective, costly, and time consuming. There is no same day execution. It takes way longer time to get a criminal executed. So why do we do this ineffective and time consuming process? It is because we are not perfect. We are not omniscience like God. God knows everything but we don’t. We are always in the danger of errors and mistakes. We do this ineffective, costly, and time consuming Three Strike Out to be fair and to be careful.

This is what Jesus says in today’s NT lesson. Back then in the world of simple single trial and instant execution, Jesus is urging us at least do Three Strike Out. And that should be out of love. In today’s OT lesson, God says to Ezekiel: ‘Hey, there is a sinner who is doomed to die. Go and preach the gospel. Maybe, just maybe he might repent and live.’ Even for the slight possibility, God wants us to reach out and spread the gospel to the sinners because God loves them. God continues to say, “As surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live.” God loves even the sinners. Apostle Paul says in his letter to the church in Rome, “God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

No Pointing Fingers

It is a human nature to love to gossip. We like to talk at people’s back. It is always easy to point fingers at. Maybe sometimes the rumours and gossips can be right. But what if that rumour or gossip was something made up, either maliciously or benevolently. Then we are doing the exact same thing what the supposedly holy and god-fearing elders in the city where Naboth was living. The blood which Naboth shed was crying out to God. And whenever we do the same thing by gossips, rumours, and by pointing fingers, then the same blood of Naboth will cry out to God against us. Gossip is fun. Pointing fingers is so easy. Easy enough that we do not even sometimes realise that we are doing it. Instead of all these, let us love as apostle Paul encouraged us in his letter to the church in Rome. It is a bit long, but let me quote: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandments, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Justice and Love

Our God is the God of love, and at the same time, our God is the God of justice. God loves the law and order. In the beginning, the whole universe was in chaos. The Bibles describes it that ‘it was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.’ But then with His words beginning from ‘Let there be light,’ God changed the chaos into the decent order just like any good Presbyterians would love to do. And in the societies and organisations, though God may not like it, God understands the needs of the discipline. And Jesus today talks about the better way of discipline inside the church. Yet Jesus still wants it to be done in love and out of love. Love and justice. Many times they do not go well with each other. It may not be easy to reconcile those two concepts in real life because we are not living in an ideal world. But we have to make love and justice go parallel together like the two rails of the train track. But the thing is that the two rails do not automatically go parallel together. They must be put together by thousands of railway ties and million bolts. Likewise to make the love and justice go well with each other, parallel together in the church and in the society, we need tons of efforts and endeavours.

Conclusion

Friends, judgement is necessary. Discipline is necessary even in the church. Justice is one of God’s many characters. But let us remember that Jesus our Lord does not wish any quick justice. What Jesus wants from our congregation and from our town is not an instant karma. Jesus wants it to be fair and in the loving way. So let us stop pointing fingers if we ever did. And let us open our arms to embrace each other, and to love one another in the God of love and justice. Amen.