Fool!

Sermon preached on Thursday, June 15, 2006
Year 2, Proper 5, Thursday, Mass: Psalm 65:1-5, 1 Kings 18:41-46, Matthew 5:20-26

A quick browse across the world wide web will reveal a few things about people in general. Here's one thing I noticed. We are not opposed to branding each other fools. Whatever the forum may be - political, religious, entertainment, you name it - there is a tendancy to claim that the source of our disagreements must come from the sheer stupidity of the other side.

What saddens me the most is how this way of dealing with problems or disagreements has so consumed most Christian forums, online or otherwise. If I say anything that some other Christian disagrees with, often, the response is simply that I am a fool. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm ignorant.

That may be true, I may be a fool. But in today's Gospel we are reminded by Jesus that how we interact with people who disagree with us is as important as whether or not we are sure we are right. It was the Pharisees who dealt with people who disagreed with them by calling them fools or by casting them out of the community. It was Jesus called his disciples friends and said make friends quickly with people who accuse you.

As I see it, there are two ways to try to do what Jesus is talking about. The first is to shrink the circle of friends I have to a small group that agrees with me about everything. The second is to radically alter that way I deal with people by treating everyone as if they were a lifelong friend. I work hard to make sure that disgareements do not keep me from my best friends, I can work hard to approach disagreements I have with everyone in the same way. If I go the first route - and I think the more seductive and easier route - I will find that at some point my small circle of friends has become just me. If I go the second route I will find that I constantly fall short of living up to my own expectations.

However with the help of God, a with the power of the Spirit, I will find that that gap becomes closer and closer. Pray for the power of God to fill you with the strength to love everyone as much as you love yourself, as much as you love your God. With that power the word "fool" will thankfully escape our lips far less often then the word "friend".