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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Sunday, July 12, 2003 "Don't Let it Fester" |
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Frontline Devotion for Saturday, July 12, 2003 By Anne B. Crawford
Scripture text: Matthew 18:15-17
One of the most critical lessons presented to us when my husband and I attended both Lutheran Engaged Encounter and Lutheran Marriage Encounter is the importance of dealing with conflicts and hurts right away. Rather than let things fester and get out of control, we need to engage each other directly and resolve whatever the issue or disagreement is, in order to maintain our loving relationship.
Today’s scripture lesson makes much the same point for the Christian community. When we have disagreements, when we sin and hurt each other, we need to work to restore a right relationship – not just for ourselves, but also for the community as a whole.
The first step involves a one-on-one discussion. Notice that the responsibility for initiating this discussion is on the person who has been hurt. How often though, do we turn this around and nurse our hurts and claim that it is the ‘other guy’ who has to make the first move and come to us and apologize. That points up a second common problem in the way we sometimes handle conflicts, which is that we are more focused on getting an admission of fault (or dare I suggest, getting “even”) rather than on restoring a right relationship.
I find it interesting that following the description in verses 15-17 on the process for dealing with a fellow believer who sins against you, Peter asks Jesus the famous question about how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him. Jesus’ answer clearly indicates that Peter’s focus (and ours) should be on restoring a right relationship, and not on a tally of how or how often we’ve been wronged.
When I first read today’s scripture I was focused on the description of the escalating process for dealing with sin and really troubled by the end point (essentially getting “shunned” by the Christian community as a whole). But on further reflection, I decided that I was too fixed on process and not enough fixed on the point this passage and the following verses are trying to make about the need to resolve conflicts and continually restore relationships within the Christian community (both between fellow believers and between us and God). ADDRESS/CONFESS/FORGIVE – this is a cycle we must live out each day in our dealings with one another.
Let us pray: Gracious and forgiving Lord, you call us to live in community and give us the model for resolving conflicts and restoring relationships when we sin against you and each other. Enable us to desire a right relationship above all, and to both offer forgiveness when we are hurt by others and to seek forgiveness when we have sinned against them.
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