The Second Sunday after Epiphany – January 16, 2005

I Corinthians 1:1-9

             There they are: three simple words that form a complete sentence, a complete thought. “God is faithful.”

             God is faithful. How easily we forget that truth of our faith. God is faithful. Have you thought of that lately?

             Frequently it is all about us, isn’t it? We worry about our faith. Do we trust God? Do we agree with the creeds and theology of the church? Do we see a future in God? Do remain trusting in God and God alone, or do we shape false gods for ourselves and follow them?

             This past week the church once again had opportunity to be faithful. The report of the Task Force on the blessing of same gender relationships and ordination of non-celibate gay pastors was released on Wednesday. One of the inspiring comments in the report is that while the church is not of one mind, in fact there is much disagreement, we can strive for unity and need not be disagreeable while we disagree.

             The first recommendation of the Task Force is that we find a way to remain one church while we disagree. Let me read the recommendation to you: “Because the God-given mission and communion we share is at least as important as the issues about which faithful conscience-bound Lutherans find themselves so decisively at odds, the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality recommends that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America concentrate on finding ways to live together faithfully in the midst of our disagreements.”

             Since I disagree with some of what the Task Force had in its report, I gave some thought to what it means to disagree without being disagreeable.

             I thought about Matthew 18:15 and following where our Lord Jesus tells us to talk to each other and not about each other. That may not be a startling insight by our Lord Jesus, but it is a remedy to gossip, slander and misunderstanding. It can help any of us when we think about disagreeing with one another and try not to be disagreeable. However, it is often forgotten, so as good as the advice is to talk to each other rather than about each other, the words of our Lord Jesus are often ignored. Strike one.

             Well, if the words of Jesus himself don’t guide us, what might lead us to disagree while not being disagreeable? Ah, I thought, how about doing what the counseling professors call “active listening?” You can easily guess what this means. It means truly focusing on the person speaking, not interrupting, and listening with our whole self, including an empathetic heart. The truth is this is hard work. Few of us do it. Strike two.

             Jesus words and active listening don’t work, what might? To be honest, I am at a loss at this point. I don’t really know where to turn after the words of our Lord and the best advice of our culture. All I know is that it remains very hard for us to disagree and not be disagreeable. There seems to be no solution. This is strike three, and baseball fans know that three strikes mean you are out.

             Maybe that is where we need to be. Maybe we need to be out…out of quick and easy answers, out of quips that put others down so we can feel big and mighty, out of hostility for the sake of hostility so that we can always have our way. Maybe we need to out. Maybe we need to be out of all of those disagreeable characteristics we so often indulge ourselves in when disagreeing with others.

             But, we know we cannot eradicate those disagreeable characteristics. If we could, why would we need to hear from our Lord about talking to one another instead of about one another? Why would we need the best of our cultural minds telling us to “actively listen?”

             The truth is that by ourselves we cannot disagree in an agreeable manner.

             So, the words of St. Paul to the people of Corinth become words for us today: “God is faithful.”

             Because God is faithful we, too, can be faithful. By the grace and mercy of God, who is faithful to us, we know forgiveness for all our sin, even when we have been disagreeing in the most outrageously disagreeable way.

             God is faithful and Jesus dies on the cross that all our sin, even our most pungent disagreeable natures, can be forgiven and redeemed.

             So, it does not begin with us, but begins with God. God is gracious and loving, so we are capable of being gracious and loving people. God’s love in the cross of Jesus comes and transforms us so that faithfully we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can talk to each other and not about each other. We can actively listen and hear what another says because through the cross we are created new people.

             God is faithful and thus we also are faithful. Imagine God is so merciful that we become people of mercy.  Amen.

• Pastor Robert F. Holley