What a Wonderful World

[ the choir is singing What a Wonderful World earlier in the service]

What a wonderful world. Sounds like what God said on each day of creation. Yet there are times when we recognise that some things in life are not wonderful. This coming week marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US; at present there is fighting and conflict in parts of the Middle East, Africa, and other places.

The person who wrote the song what a wonderful world, is right, the sky and the trees and the sound of a newborn baby, people shaking hands, all signs of this wonderful world that God has made. But so often we see shaking fists, rather than shaking hands; Fists that are a sign of aggression rather than love.

A few weeks ago we read about Peter being the rock on which Jesus would build the church, today we read about conflict resolution. Jesus didn't teach a lot about church, most of it was about living as God's people. The word church occurs rarely in the Gospels. So it seems to me that Jesus knew that when you get a gathering of people you will have conflict.

Yesterday at the market day at the school I was speaking with the principal, and we talked about places of community like being part of a congregation, or part of a school. Places where we gather, and when we gather what we can do and what we offer, and who we are is more than the sum of the parts. It is like in the Wizard of Oz where the tin man, the lion and the scarecrow join with Dorothy. Together they encourage and build each other up so that all of them together, is much more than four individuals.

The teaching in Matthews’s gospel about conflict resolution is a reminder of the importance of relationship. It is a reminder not to gossip, but to speak with the one who has caused you pain. It is a reminder of the importance of community, that the behaviour and actions and words of each one of us, affects those around us, and affects the community that we are a part of. Because when we are part of a community, whether that is a small group, a neighbourhood, a club, a church, a suburb, or some other group; our words and our actions speak not only about us as individuals but also about the group or the community that we are part of.

Each group or organisation that we are part of will have their own set of rules, they may be written down in a book, or they might be unwritten rules about the way you behave in this group or what does or doesn't happen in this group. In the reading from the letter to the Romans this morning, Paul talks about some of the rules of the church. Well it wasn't really the church then, these are part of the 10 Commandments handed down to Moses that are part of the Jewish faith as well as the Christian faith.

The 10 Commandments [exodus 20]:

1.   I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, you shall have no other Gods.

2.   you shall not make for yourself any idols

3.   will not take the name of the Lord in vain

4.   keep the Sabbath holy

5.   honour your parents

6.   do not murder

7.   do not commit adultery

8.   do not steal

9.   do not bear false witness

10.        do not covet your neighbours possessions.

The first four Commandments talk about our relationship with God, recognising God’s action in history and in our lives, and worshipping only God, not worshipping idols, not misusing God's name, and taking time to rest each week.

The other six Commandments are about our relationship with each other, and they flow from our relationship with God. When we recognise the God who has been active in the history of people, bringing liberation from Egypt in whatever form that is in our life, when we recognise that and recognise how much God loves us and forgives us, we also recognise that God calls us to treat all people with respect.

Paul is not advocating following just the 6 Commandments, or even the 10 Commandments. Paul is building on the teaching of Jesus, not in doing away with the law, but in bringing a new way of looking at relationships. There are a people who are willing to obey rules, and to a comfortable doing that, but you will notice at times people talk about the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. And sometimes following the letter of the law does not follow the spirit of the law. That is probably one reason why rules and regulations get to be so complicated. If we look at the commandment not to murder that seems clear-cut, but it isn't; what about self-defence and accidents. And what about when people live in such grinding poverty; lacking proper shelter and food and die malnourished and from disease; does that also count as murder.

Paul writes that love is the fulfilling of the law. Not to do away with the law, but to put the law in its proper place. Because when we act out of love, we respect life, we respect the relationships of others, we respect the homes and property of other people, and we do not use other people for our own ends.

Living out of love is not easy. Following the teaching of Jesus in the on conflict resolution is not easy. There are times when acting out of love is really hard, because we feel wronged, we feel hurt by the words or actions of another, we feel we are not respected, we feel let down. There are times when we act out of anger, fear, ignorance, rather than out of love. There are times when we don't want to resolve the conflict; we don't want to make peace with the person who hurt us, because it seems too hard.

How do we live this impossibility; this impossibility of living out of love. Paul writes that we should put on Christ. I'm told this is the same verb as putting on your clothes it makes your Christian life public. We live in this wonderful world that God made, and it can be a wonderful life, not because of the absence of pain and fear and anger, but because Christ lives in us and with us, and because of that we also live in hope and faith and love, for given and set free, to be the people that God made us to be.

We are the people of God, and we are called to live out of love, to love God and to love all people. And when we live out of love, we will want the best for each other and the best for God’s world. It is only in living in the love of God through Jesus Christ that we can begin to live out of love; it is only as we know God’s love in our life, as we know the forgiveness offered through Christ, as we embrace the Spirit within us, that we can be people of hope and faith, people who live out of love.

And that would be a wonderful world!