Relational Community

​Do you ever feel like your heart is heavy?


In today’s world:
There’s a lot going on:
And a lot that can make a heart heavy.

We’re still living in the midst of a world-wide pandemic:
One that we thought we’d get through:
But every day, we are reminded that we’re still in it.

The political landscape of America seems to be more polarizing than ever.
Misunderstanding, finger-pointing, and sometimes down-right hatred,
Is boiling all around us.
It’s enough to make a heart heavy.

And today, despite it all:
I’m grateful that we’re together.
That we’re here to pray with one another.
Because this is what a heavy heart needs to do.

Our Collect today, is timely:
As it says: “God, you are always more ready to hear:
than we to pray.”

And here we are:
Coming together to pray.
To the God who is ALWAYS waiting to hear us:
No matter what is going on around us:
No matter what virus swirls,
Or what political disagreements arise,
God is ALWAYS, ALWAYS ready to hear:
In the midst of heavy hearts:
And in the midst of moments of Joy.


And its fitting:
Because that’s what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel Reading.
He’s talking about the importance of relationships:
Of being with one another,
And united to God,
Despite our heavy hearts, or disagreements.

We hear from Jesus two teachings today:
An uncomfortable teaching against divorce:
And a quite comforting teaching on the welcome of little children.

And we might feel this tension:
The uncomfortable and the comforting.

Like many of the political issues surging up all around us.
We might be quick to get up in arms:
About Jesus’ words against divorce.
(or at the very least, feel quite uncomfortable.)

Instead, we might listen a bit closer:
We might look a bit deeper:
And see that Jesus’ concern here is not on judging:
But on valuing community:
Valuing our need to be in relationship:
Valuing our need to be healed.

Jesus: always more ready to hear:
Than we are to pray.

And then there’s that teaching about little children.
We’ve talked about this for the last few weeks.
And today it comes up again.
Rather than seeing Jesus' welcome of children as some sweet adorable story that we’ve come to expect:
We might see the real implications of this teaching:
The shock of its counter cultural assertion that God’s kingdom belongs to its weakest members.
That even children have something important and meaningful to both say and offer.

So maybe: We should listen to them….
To Children:
Because, we:
Unlike God: who’s ALWAYS more ready to hear:
We are often: quicker to speak:
Than to hear….
Or to pray….

I’m sure you’ve noticed:
In the turmoil of today’s world:
That many people are far too quick to judge.
That many are refusing to listen.
That many—especially on social media--
Are shouting at each other:
In pain and in anger.


I’ve also noticed that tragedies that can make are heart heavy,
Do NOT always bringing people together:
As so many often claim.
Sometimes tragedies can separate us even more.

The strong feelings,
And the unwillingness to listen:
Are breaking relationships:
And putting up roadblocks against forming new ones.

And this is exactly what Jesus is warning against:
Warning us against broken relationships:
Against turning others away:
Against “speaking sternly” as the disciples did to the children.

Yet even in Jesus’ warnings:
He welcomes us anyway.
This, too: is our task:
And a hard and difficult task it is.

Because, as humans we are prone to break relationships:
We are prone to be quick to anger:
Prone to be quick to judge.

And in today’s world of fast paced news:
Social Media:
And instant declaration of our beliefs and political viewpoints:
We are more prone than ever to broken relationships.

We are more prone than ever to hurt one another through our words:
And Jesus knew this.
Jesus KNEW how easy it is for us to break relationships:
To refuse healing:
To refuse forgiving:
To refuse to listen to one another.

But Jesus names this brokenness:
And willingly associates with us:
the broken:
The hurting and the vulnerable of all kinds:
Including children,
The divorced,
And the unjustly wronged.

And as the Letter to the Hebrews says:
Even in our brokenness:
“Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.”
Even in our brokenness: God is ALWAYS more ready to hear:
Than we to pray.

DESPITE our brokenness:
DESPITE our broken relationships:
“Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.”

How can we, too, live unashamed:
Unashamed to call one another brothers and sisters?
Whether we agree or disagree?
Even if we have been hurt or wronged?

Jesus’ teaching on divorce is not merely about divorce.
Marriage is just ONE place where humans have the OPPORTUNITY to live out their baptisms:
To serve God and God’s people in meaningful relationship:
To Serve:
To listen:
To speak truth:
But to speak it with compassion.

Jesus is talking about much more than divorce:
He’s talking about ALL our relationships.
And ALL relationship failures are hurtful tragedies:
Spaces of unrealized hopes:
Whether its friend and friend,
Husband and wife,
Child and parent…

Because our relationships are meant to be the places where we live out God’s mission:
Where we live out the Good News:
Where we honor the Creators image in ourselves,
And in each other.

God has given us the gift of community:
The gift of being together.

And this gift is one that humanity longs for:
That humanity desperately needs.
But we have to say yes to that gift.

Today’s world and its turmoil is proof that the human life is too hard for us to live alone.
And God knows it.

We do not need to agree.
But we do need to find those places:
Where we can be unashamed to call one another brothers and sisters.
Whether we’re in crisis, or in blessed joy.

And if that’s not enough:
May we remind ourselves that God is ALWAYS more ready to hear:
Than we are to pray….
Even in our brokenness:
Even in our failures:
Jesus is not ashamed, to call us brothers and sisters:
May we strive for the same.

Amen.