Proper 25
21st Sunday after Pentecost
Ordinary Time 30
Year C
October 24, 2004
How to Admonish and Instruct
Others in the Mercy of God
·
In our series, “Blessed Are the Merciful,” we
have: Defined mercy as lovingkindness, compassion, or
forbearance shown to one who offends. Remember that when you are
offended. We also learned about two works of mercy—corporal and
spiritual.
·
The works of mercy we are called to be Jesus
Christ are love in action as we come to the aide of our neighbor in
his bodily and spiritual necessities.
·
So far in our series, we have learned what it means to
feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and
visit the imprisoned, sheltering the homeless, to visit the sick and
bury the dead.
·
Today we will look at two works of spiritual
mercy—admonishing the sinner and instructing the ignorant.
·
Let’s begin by looking at three passages of scripture
that teach us how to deal with sin in the life of our community:
Matt. 18:15-20
1 Thessalonians 5:12-14
2 Thess. 3:13-15
1.
HOW IS ADMONISHING SOMEONE MERCIFUL?
·
In the Scriptures we read, we have heard Jesus and
St. Paul
addressing Christians and churches telling us to make sure we
resolve issues of sin and offenses within the Church.
·
This is important for many reasons including
maintaining peace and unity in the relationships of people in
churches, helping Christians not to stumble in their Christian walk,
and protecting the credibility of the Church which a re all familiar
with from the scandals we have seen in churches both Protestant and
Catholic.
·
St. Paul
tells us in the second reading 1 Thess. 5:12-14, that Christian
pastors are to admonish the Church as one of their responsibilities,
as well as encourage people when they are fainthearted, help people
when they are weak, and always be patient with everyone as we all
learn to become like Jesus and deal with the sins in our lives.
When there are people who refuse to change or receive the
love of gentle patient pastoral care and are hurting the Church,
there is a time and place to have nothing to do with them for a
season so they will be ashamed and come to a place of being sorry
for their sins—then we can welcome them back and again treat them
with love, and gentle patient care as they continue to fight the
battle to have the spirit rule over the flesh.
·
The practice of the Church in dealing with our own
sins seems so out of synch with contemporary privacy laws and
political correctness.
·
In our day, the spiritual work of mercy to admonish
people when they are sinning calls us to contradict current social
expectations. This is currently at the front
lines of why the Gospel of Jesus is offensive in
America
!
·
Like it or not, we live in an era
of social and moral relativism where the socially acceptable
attitude is “everybody has a right to do their own thing, and as
long as no one gets hurt you should never judge anyone else for
their choices or actions.”
·
Where the rubber meets the road is when people come to
Church for the first time.
·
If a couple is living together, or people choose to
have a homosexual relationship and want legal recognition of that,
or people pursue serial monogamy, or are engaging in other passions
of the soul, the socially acceptable response is polite
indifference.
·
Jesus and Paul, however, call us to admonish sin in
the Church. Far from being an act of intolerance
and condemnation, God says admonishing is an act of mercy to save
someone from experiencing the consequences of sin and the curses of
breaking covenant with God.
·
Mercy is a love that denies oneself, must flow out of
purity of heart in the fruit of the Spirit, to gently and firmly on
our knees as servants plead with someone to turn from the broad way
that leads to destruction to the narrow way that leads to life.
What Does Admonish Mean?
·
Admonish: To reprove gently but earnestly.
·
Nowhere in this definition is there any hint of
condemnation or personal rejection. When we
admonish someone who is clearly making a dangerous, risky, or
unhealthy life choice that contradicts how God tells us we need to
live to be blessed, what we call morality, the attitude of the one
admonishing toward the one being admonished DOES NOT INCLUDE
ALIENTATING OURSELVES FROM PEOPLE BY ACTING LIKE A HOLY JOE!
·
Admonishing gently but earnestly simply points out the
likely consequences of the choices a person is making, and in
humility, prayer, and love reaches out with true care and concern
remembering we too are human beings with feet of clay who sin on a
regular basis.
If We Are to Admonish Sin Within the
Church, Who Are Sinners?
·
Paul says in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.
·
Sin: any thought, word, or deed that deliberately
disobeys God’s will and in some way rejects the divine goodness and
love of God. 10 Commands, Great Commandment,
Beatitudes summarize virtues and vices. There
are many passions of the soul—Greek monastics list 298 passions or
sins of the soul.
·
The mission Jesus has given the Church is to go into
the world and make disciples by baptizing people, and teaching them
to obey all God has commanded. AT the center of
becoming a disciple is learning how to live the kind of life God
says will be blessed by Him so our life on earth can be a full life
of joy and blessing.
·
Learning to overcome temptation and sin is high
priority in beginning to be blessed by God. Sin
separates us from God and cuts us off from being blessed.
·
Today in
America
, when people come to Church—they need to learn to see life through
new eyes because the American way of life is full of sin.
·
So for a common example, we meet a young couple who
have no background with the Church who are living together, engaging
in sexual relationship outside of marriage, and have a child.
As we get to know them and develop a friendship, we know
their choice of co-habitation outside of marriage is not healthy for
them as individuals or for the long-term health of their
relationship.
·
At the same time, we must admit that this couple has
lived their entire live sin a culture and within families which have
a ho-hum attitude toward living together. So,
while they are breaking God’s laws and under the curse of sin, their
choices have been rooted in a larger society that is living in moral
darkness.
·
The reason I bring this example up is this—we live in
a postmodern and post-Christian country where many young people and
couples have had little or no exposure to God, Church, or any
religious or moral instruction. When they come
to Church for the first time, most people have no understanding of
right and wrong anymore.
·
By assuming people have a moral grid for understanding
the concept of God or Christianity means we will definitely comes
across in ways that can totally betray our true intentions.
·
We are often seen as moralistic, offensive people who
lecture, harangue, and who are narrow minded bigots. People are
being hurt, angered, and alienated by churches and Christians today
who are living in the past thinking people understand words like
God, church, and morals. They do not.
·
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND BROTHERS AND
SISTERS! We must think of ourselves as
missionaries in a foreign land where we need to learn a new language
of postmodern post-Christian
America
in order to present our Christian faith and life in meaningful ways.
2.
HOW CAN CHRISTIANS LEARN TO SPEAK THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE
OF A WORLD WE LIVE IN BUT ARE NOT OF?
·
Within the Church we deal wit hsin one way—by
admonishing. But how do we handle sin that goes
on outside the Church?
·
The world needs to hear the truth of the Gospel to be
liberated from living in moral darkness coming from sin which causes
all of the hurt, pain, and troubles people have in their lives.
·
The Church is called to go into the world instructing
people who have not heard the truth so they can be free from sin and
all the hurt that comes with it.
·
St. Paul
put it this way in Romans 10:
13for,
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."[6]
14How, then, can they call on the one they have not
believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have
not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is
written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"[7]
·
Paul tells us that as a race, human beings were
created by God to know and love God, but sin has taken us into
captivity like children who were stolen at birth and do not know our
true parents.
·
What Paul is calling Christians to in Romans 10 is to
realize that humanity apart from God lives in spiritual ignorance,
and we are called to instruct people whom Jesus died for, so they
can know how loved they are by their heavenly Father, and elder
brother, and Holy Mother who long for them to come home and enter
into the love and home they were born for.
·
SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE: THE ABSENCE OF INFORMATION ONE IS
REQUIRED TO HAVE IN ORDER TO LIVE IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF ONE’S VIRTUE
OF HIS OF HER TRUE HUMANITY.
·
How many of you have ever wondered why people today do
not seem to know the difference between right and wrong?
Why sexuality and family are being redefined?
·
This is one of the results of people who are ignorant
in that they know nothing about God or the Church!
They live out of a worldview that is totally void of virtue
and morality, the results of the old lie told to human beings by the
serpent long ago.
·
St. Paul calls us to live out of the same mercy that
brought Jesus from heaven to earth--We must go to people with a
heart of mercy; we must show them the way to truth, peace, and true
contentment in life. We must tell them so they
can hear and believe the good news and truly become full human
beings!
What Do We Need to Know So We Can Show
Mercy to Those Who Have Not Heard the Good News of Jesus Christ?
1.
We live in a culture of pluralism—many different
lifestyles, philosophies, and religions or those with no religion
exist side-by-side and are supposed to have mutual respect—but do
not.
2.
People are not supposed to talk about beliefs in
social situations because that would offend others and make them
uncomfortable.
·
So how can we have beautiful feet as heralds of the
Gospel to instruct those who are ignorant so people can hear and
believe?
1.
St. Francis said we should proclaim the Gospel always
and when necessary use words. I firmly believe
that showing the works of mercy to people in need, going forth as
servants to the brokenness of our land are our marching orders.
It is our actions that matter most today.
·
I think St. Francis was saying that people don’t care
how much you know till they know how much you care.
2.
Realize that our most power preaching is the way we
live our life where God has put us.
·
Christians can let our light shine through good works
and influence we have wherever God has placed us to work day in and
day out. Christian journalists, film makers like
Mel Gibson, authors like Flannery O’Connor, Ron Hansen, and Grahame
Greene; medical practitioners, teachers, lawyers, business people,
clerks, secretaries, and so forth can live their lives to instruct
people through the fruit of our lives.
·
Everyday, we will meet and work with people who need
to know God. People living in sin and ignorance
and suffering for it, yet indifferent or even hostile to the idea of
God. So what do we do?
·
Today, let us put on the garments of servants and wash
feet. Let us build relationships with people so
we are trusted and have earned a right to speak.
·
Let us speak first with our lives and when necessary
and given the opportunity, add words to the Gospel of our lives.
·
Things like works of mercy and evangelizing by
becoming servants helping people in their daily life needs will open
the door for us to join
St. Paul
in preaching so people can hear and believe and experience the life,
the blessing, and the peace we know they can have in God.
Proper 25
21st Sunday after Pentecost
Ordinary Time 30
Year C
October 24, 2004
How to Admonish and Instruct Others in the Mercy
of God
·
Let’s begin by looking at three passages of scripture
that teach us how to deal with sin in the life of our community:
Matt. 18:15-20
1 Thessalonians 5:12-14
2 Thess. 3:13-15
3.
HOW IS ADMONISHING SOMEONE MERCIFUL?
What Does Admonish Mean?
·
Admonish: To reprove _________________ but
_________________.
Who Are Sinners?
·
Sin: any thought, word, or deed that deliberately
disobeys God’s will and in some way rejects the divine goodness and
love of God.
·
In understanding sin, we must also understand the word
“culpable.” This word means DESERVING OF BLAME
OR CENSURE AS BEING WRONG, IMPROPER, EVIL, OR INJURIOUS.
4.
HOW CAN CHRISTIANS LEARN TO SPEAK THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE
OF A WORLD WE LIVE IN BUT ARE NOT OF?
Romans 10:13-15
·
IGNORANCE: THE ABSENCE OF INFORMATION ONE IS REQUIRED
TO HAVE IN ORDER TO LIVE IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF ONE’S VIRTUE OF HIS OF
HER TRUE HUMANITY.
What Do We Need to Know So We Can Show
Mercy to Those Who Have Not Heard the Good News of Jesus Christ?
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