People in the Roman Empire did know, however, about exploitation and oppression and human greed. The disciples’ empty nets on the Sea of Galilee were due to over-fishing in order to supply the banquet tables of Rome. Rome owned large parcels of Palestinian farmland. Conquered peoples paid so much of their agricultural yield in taxes to the Empire that food insecurity was commonplace. So were unfair lending practices and rapid urbanization.
Jesus’ view of a new divine kingdom on earth, a community of brotherhood and of self-giving love, was in direct opposition to the social and economic values of Imperial Rome. It’s true that Jesus didn’t address contemporary issues like the warming of the oceans or microplastics in our food or the fires and hurricanes that threaten our homes. But our current ecological crisis stems from the same kind of collective human exploitation of the earth and its creatures that Jesus knew in his own world. Jesus’ answer is found in the creation of loving, compassionate community—community in which people learn and follow practices like hospitality, sabbath rest for all creation, justice, forgiveness, prayer, sharing of resources, caring for bodies as well as souls. We can't separate care of creation from communities based in self-giving love. Pope Francis explains it well in his treatise Laudato Si’: “When we speak of the ‘environment,’” he writes, “what we really mean is a relationship ... between nature and the society which lives in it... Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”[1]
Both our reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans and our Gospel lesson today speak to the importance of this kind of Christian community. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus speaks directly to the kind of relationships required for a loving community to flourish. Unfortunately, we in the church have sometimes taken these instructions as an easy formula for proving that the majority interpretation of things is the only correct one. These verses have justified many a real witch-hunt or excommunication throughout history. That’s not what Jesus is saying, though. Jesus is trying to show us a gentle and humble pattern for relating to one another.
I would modernize today's Gospel like this: “If a fellow believer hurts you, go and tell them in person—don’t send them a text. If they listen, you’ve made a friend. If they won’t listen, don’t huddle at coffee hour with your friends and complain about them. Go talk to them in person, but take one or two others along so that the presence of witnesses will keep everyone honest. Try and try again. If they still won’t listen, discuss the issue in community. If they won’t listen to the consensus of the group, you’ll have to start over from scratch. Remind them that truth is heard through many voices, and offer them again God’s forgiving love.”[2] Remember, too, although Jesus says to treat an offender “as a Gentile and a tax collector,” we all know that Jesus never gave up on either one of those groups. Even Matthew himself was once a tax-collector!
The Christian emphasis on living in loving community continues in Paul’s letter to the Romans. For Paul, love of neighbor is the fullness and the goal of the Law. Christian community is meant to be a new creation, a new way of living in the world, a way of living that's as much of a change from regular life in the Roman Empire as night is from day, as different as sleeping is from waking, as different as drunkenness is from sobriety. It’s no surprise that Paul culminates his list of divine commandments in today’s reading with, “You shall not covet.” Covetousness seeks to ground the self by grasping at what belongs to someone else. Covetousness is the underlying economy of Empire. Love of neighbor is it’s opposite. Love seeks the good of others by giving of the self.[3]
Today, a lack of Christian community is contributing to our own social and climate ills. There’s an article in The Atlantic this week called “What Really Happens When Americans Stop Going to Church.”[4] The author, Daniel Williams, explores what’s happening, sociologically-speaking, when so many millions of people no longer attend church. You might be surprised at his answer! In the recent past, it was mainly the more socially progressive folks—Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and social-justice loving Roman Catholics—whose numbers in churches were dwindling. In Europe and in the US, these former mainline church-goers have kept some of their Christian values and have tried to live by them in their secular lives. They might no longer attend church, but they might work at a food bank, or welcome refugees, or care for creation.
Today, though, even the more conservative Evangelical Christians are also leaving church in this country. What Williams finds is that Evangelicals, too, are taking the values that they were taught in church out into their secular lives. Culture war issues about morality, Christian nationalism, and the emphasis on individual freedom continue to form the day to day lives of Evangelicals who no longer belong to a Christian community.
What sociologists are finding is that people of all political persuasions become more entrenched in their views when they stop participating in a church community. Williams writes, “being part of a religious community often forces people to get along with others—including others with different political views—and it may channel people’s efforts into charitable work or forms of community outreach that have little to do with politics. Leaving the community removes those moderating forces, opening the door to extremism.” Without a church community, the nation’s political system can become their church, and polarization ensues on the right and on the left.
Such stark political polarization does the climate crisis no good. Yes, we as individuals can do things on our own to care for creation. We can recycle. We can use alternative forms of energy. We can tend a garden or buy sustainable, local food. But systemic change, the kind that Pope Francis talks about, the kind that Jesus died for, requires cooperation in community. It requires a community willing to practice the kind of new, amended common life that Paul and Jesus describe for us today.
What can we do at St. Ambrose to foster such community? We can listen to one another; we can forgive one another again and again; and we can place value on consensus and community discernment. We can do these things here in our St. Ambrose community, and we can do them out in our day to day lives in our increasingly polarized world. We can show our children and grandchildren what it looks like to live in loving community. We can join with the community of Episcopalians across the United States in signing the Creation Care Covenant this stewardship season. In so doing, we can work effectively with others to care for God’s creation. As Jesus promises us: “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.”
[1] Pope Francis, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home [Encyclical], (Vatican: 2015), paragraph 139.
[2] Adapted from Eugene Peterson, Matthew 18: 15-20 in The Message.
[3] Luke Timothy Johnson, Reading Romans: A Literary and Theological Commentary [Smyth and Helwys 2001] 204-205.
[4] Daniel Williams, “What Really Happens When Americans Stop Going to Church,” The Atlantic, 3 September 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/christianity-religion-america-church-polarization/675215/
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