Forget Being "Nice"

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

On Matthew 18:6-14

Dictionary definition of nice: “Pleasant. Agreeable. Kind”
Non offensive. Not bothersome.
Nice = Not Interesting Colloquial Expression.

• Jesus wasn’t about being nice.
If “nice” is how his followers are described, we’re failing.

• “it would be better… to be drowned in the bottom of the lake”
Jesus was serious about our responsibility towards the little ones.

“If your hand or foot causes you to fall into sin, 
chop it off and throw it away”
Jesus was serious about accountability.

• Jesus is looking for disciples who will risk not being nice,
who will follow whatever the cost, serious about discipleship.

Our nation is in a mess of self-righteousness.
Paul says in Philippians 2: Don’t do anything for selfish purposes,
but with humility think of others as better than yourselves.

• Wednesday evening 6/17/15 a young man entered Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, ostensibly to participate in Bible study. In the midst he shot and killed nine people, all African American, precisely because they were African American. We need to learn & teach ways of disagreement.

We can’t exactly repent Dylann Roof’s actions because they’re his, not ours,

but we have to acknowledge that racism is alive and active in America
and we have to do something about it

including REPENT our own racism. Our own “isms”.
Stop & examine life & attitudes. Are you helping anyone? Who?
Are you ignoring anyone? Neglecting? Harming?     Honoring? Defending?
What will you risk to defend someone? What will you risk to bring someone back?
Is there someone in your life who needs brought back?

Jesus talked about leaving the many unguarded
FOR THE PURPOSE OF bringing one back. Risky. Irresponsible?

• How terrible for people who cause others to trip and fall into sin.
And how irresponsible for disciples to do nothing when another wanders away.

Prayer of confession (Ruth Duck)

Gracious God, we humbly confess our sins and our shortcomings.

For anger, impatience, and quickness to misunderstand – forgive us.

For thoughtlessness, indifferences, and self-centering – forgive us.

For unkindness and the lack of kindness – forgive us.

For not speaking out against injustice and suffering – forgive us.

For all the times we have not followed Jesus in the way of love –

forgive, heal, and transform us anew into your servant people.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, we pray. Amen.

• Good news: Jesus doesn’t leave us where we are. Jesus enters our lives willingly and with grace and strength and power, to reconcile and redeem us. May we be so bold.

• Hymn 662 Stand Up and Bless the Lord

 

Matthew 18:6-14  (CEB)  4^th Sunday after Pentecost   06/21/15

⁶ “As for whoever causes these little ones who believe in me to trip and fall into sin, it would be better for them to have a huge stone hung around their necks and be drowned in the bottom of the lake. ⁷ How terrible it is for the world because of the things that cause people to trip and fall into sin! Such things have to happen, but how terrible it is for the person who causes those things to happen! ⁸ If your hand or your foot causes you to fall into sin, chop it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter into life crippled or lame than to be thrown into the eternal fire with two hands or two feet.
⁹ If your eye causes you to fall into sin, tear it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter into life with one eye than to be cast into a burning hell with two eyes.

¹⁰ “Be careful that you don’t look down on one of these little ones. I say to you that their angels in heaven are always looking into the face of my Father who is in heaven. ¹² What do you think? If someone had one hundred sheep and one of them wandered off, wouldn’t he leave the ninety-nine on the hillsides and go in search for the one that wandered off? ¹³ If he finds it, I assure you that he is happier about having that one sheep than about the ninety-nine who didn’t wander off. ¹⁴ In the same way, my Father who is in heaven doesn’t want to lose one of these little ones.