A MESSAGE FROM REV. KAREN KINNEY: THE COURAGE TO ADDRESS WRONGS
Grace and peace to you,
This Sunday we take up conflict as something that every leader faces, indeed every church body eventually faces. Perhaps it is fitting that we explore how to address conflict and reconciliation on the day that Yom Kippur begins at sunset, following ten days after Rosh Hashanah – the celebration of the Jewish New Year.
In Jewish tradition, these ten days are known 
as The Days of Awe. These days are considered the holiest days on the Jewish calendar. They are a time for reflection, fasting, and repentance. During this time Jews ask forgiveness from those they have wronged and forgive those who have wronged them. On Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), Jews believe that the fate of the Jewish people will be sealed by God’s judgment over them on this day.
Jesus most certainly would have observed Yom Kippur and perhaps that is what he had in mind in the passage from Matthew 18:15-20 that we explore this Sunday. Who has wronged us? Who have we wronged? What does it mean to forgive and/or ask for forgiveness?
How does one forgive when the wrong is so wrong that reconciliation is impossible? And, how does being part of a community give us courage to address wrongs?
Conflict, atonement, forgiveness, repentance, and reconciliation aren’t easy things – there are times and places where especially reconciliation is not possible and can be quite harmful. But Jesus is giving us a process that we should consider.
First, he is reminding his followers in the verses that precede our reading that no one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven – that we need to be like children – humble in our approach to God and to one another. We need to not cause our fellow believers to stumble and fall into sin through our words and actions.
It is also in this chapter that he reminds people that when one sheep out of a hundred goes astray, the shepherd will go after the one – the 99 have each other. The 99 and even the one that goes astray are bound together as a community and that gives them courage to resolve their differences, to care for one another, to hold each other accountable.
The church is often called a hospital for the sick, for the broken, for being repairers of the breach (Isaiah 58:12). We are called to be healers, to right wrongs, to repair breaches between people, to overcome what might keep us apart. That is hard, hard work and it requires that we do our own work of hearing how we might have wronged people, to engage in our own repentance, to ask for forgive-ness and work towards reconciliation. Repentance is an important step.
We will explore more about this as well as how community rituals might help us do this work. Come and see this Sunday!
Blessings,
Pastor Karen