September 13, 2023
Beloved in Christ:
Every week, Bishop Loya sends a note to all diocesan clergy. He includes clergy news and other tidbits. I found this past week’s note particularly meaningful for faith communities, which are active places where passionate and energetic people do God’s work, and don’t always agree with one another! The background of this note is Matthew 18:15-20, wherein Jesus gives advice about how to handle disagreements and conflict in communities. We used the readings for Holy Cross Day this past Sunday instead of this Matthew reading, but even if you don’t have a chance to read this scripture, I think this note will make sense to you. I commend it for your reflection, for all of the areas where you are in relationship with others.
In peace,
Beth+
Beloved in Christ,
Almost all of the conflict that I have either witnessed or been part of in the church seems to be rooted in either unspoken expectations or an unwillingness to speak directly to one another about hard things. In this week’s gospel from Matthew 18, Jesus offers a corrective that is remarkably simple yet seldom heeded: be honest and direct with one another in the household of God.
Too often, when any of us are offended, hurt, or angry, the offending person is the last to know it. It’s amazing how much can change when we simply ask directly for what we need, or say what we feel.
Jesus is inviting us to embody the relational economics of Beloved Community: the fierce and courageous work of loving one another enough to tell the truth. That can be excruciating. But as we know, ex crucis, from the cross, is how we truly find the fullness of life.
“Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven” has, I think, nothing at all to do with clergy authority to forgive sins, and everything to do with how our relationships in the Body of Christ resound in heaven, and how liberation and holiness aren’t vague aspirations for an undetermined future, but are worked out through every small disappointment and petty frustration that life together always and inevitably entails.
Grace and peace,
The Right Reverend Craig Loya
X Bishop
Episcopal Church in Minnesota
