© 2014 The Wired Word
www.thewiredword.com
The pontiff traveled to Calabria last Saturday on a one-day pilgrimage to meet the father of a 3-year-old boy killed in January along with one of his grandfathers and his grandfather's girlfriend during the region's drug war. The killers set a car afire with all three victims inside.
Hearing that news, the pope had expressed horror and promised to visit the town.
The child's parents were in jail on drug-trafficking charges at the time of the slaying. The mother was released to house arrest after her son was slain. During his time in Calabria, the pope visited the boy's father in jail and also met with two of the boy's grandmothers. According to a Vatican spokesperson, Francis said to the boy's father, "May children never again have to suffer in this way." He also agreed to the father's request that he pray for the boy's mother.
At an outdoor Mass during the trip attended by tens of thousands, Pope Francis spoke against the Calabrian Mafia, calling it "an adoration of evil and contempt for the common good."
"Those who have taken this evil road ... such as the mobsters, they are not in communion with God, they are excommunicated," the pontiff declared as listeners applauded.
According to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, excommunication is "the principal and severest censure, ... a medicinal [intended to remedy the situation], spiritual penalty that deprives the guilty Christian of all participation in the common blessings of ecclesiastical society. Being a penalty, it supposes guilt; and being the most serious penalty that the Church can inflict, it naturally supposes a very grave offence." Excommunication is similar to the practice in some Protestant groups of "disfellowshipping" or "shunning" members who have willfully and unrepentantly distanced themselves from God through sinful behavior. The purpose of excommunication and disfellowshipping is to invite the person to change the offending behavior or attitude, repent and return to full communion.
Chad Pecknold, an assistant professor of theology at Catholic University of America, explained that the pope's remarks were not in themselves an official excommunication, because excommunication is "only for individuals," and not entire organizations. But, said Pecknold, what Francis was doing was describing the "self-excommunication" the 'Ndrangheta is already experiencing because of their "serious sin."
About this news, TWW team member Frank Ramirez said, "The story about Pope Francis struck me because he is not only speaking out against an obvious evil; he is also taking a risk that many churches shy from, which is confronting money. The Mafia are not only a crime concern, but they 'atone' by contributing large amounts of cash -- hush money really -- to churches. Crime families also build huge churches and contribute to their parishes. They build private churches. When the local congregation addresses an issue that might directly confront businesses that some of the richer members of a congregation might profit from, those richer members might leave."
In his homily, the pope also spoke about the evils that can occur when the adoration of God is replaced by the adoration of money.
"Your land, which [is] so beautiful, knows the signs of the consequences of this sin," the pope said. "This evil must be fought, must be expelled." He called on the local church to expend itself even more "so that good can prevail."
"When you do not worship the Lord, you become worshipers of evil, as are those who live in the underworld. ... The 'Ndrangheta is this: worship of evil and contempt for the common good," the pope said.
More on this story can be found at these links:
Pope Francis Says Italian Mafia Members Are 'Excommunicated.' New York Daily News
Pope: Mafiosi Are Excommunicated, Not in Communion With God. Official Vatican Network
No, Pope Francis Did Not Officially Excommunicate the Mafia. Vox
Excommunication. New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia
The Big Questions
1. Should congregations make regular use of such practices as excommunication or disfellowshipping? Should we make occasional use of such practices? Why or why not? Is it a good thing that some congregations never use such practices? Explain your answer.
2. What unholy things does your church tolerate because to oppose them could have financial penalties for the congregation? What unholy things do you or your church financially support, perhaps because you don't want to make a scene or be perceived as using money to influence things?
3. In what ways do our attitudes and actions toward other people reveal our true spiritual condition?
4. How should Christ's instruction to love our neighbor as ourselves play out when our neighbor behaves in ways that are clearly not God's ways? How do we engage real evil?
5. What is the meaning of "cheap grace"? What's wrong with it? What is "costly grace"?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
1 John 4:20-21
Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (For context, read 4:7-21.)
The meaning of these two verses is so clear that they hardly need commentary, but they provide a strong basis for the pope's comments about how crime against others renders the offender out of communion not only with the church, but also with God.
Questions: In what ways is it harder to love a brother or sister than to love God? In what ways do these verses provide a challenge for you? In what ways are you difficult to love? Are there hot-button issues that are hard for you to listen to and that might make you unapproachable?
Mark 10:25
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (For context, read 10:17-27.)
Commentators sometimes try to "soften" Jesus' eye-of-the-needle remark by saying that "the eye of a needle" was actually a reference to a Jerusalem gate that camels had to kneel to move through -- meaning it was difficult but not impossible to get through. But there's no indication that Jesus was referring to such a gate.
In any case, Jesus was at least saying that wealth makes it more difficult for someone to experience God's saving power. In the context leading to this comment, a rich man asks Jesus what he must do to receive eternal life. Jesus' answer is not that the man should give a lot to charity but keep plenty for himself. Clearly, Jesus views this man's riches as an impediment to his salvation.
Note too that in telling the man to give to the poor all he possessed, Jesus wasn't suggesting that by so doing, the man could "buy" salvation. Rather, Jesus was pointing out the entirety of commitment necessary and how this young man, who had kept all the commandments from the time of his youth, still didn't understand the need to focus on those things that would last rather than on those things that were of value for only a short time.
Questions: What are some ways we try to buy or earn our salvation? Why don't they work? When have you tried to "soften" a scripture text for fear or concern about how it might affect another? Which scriptures do you soften or negate because of the way you live your life?
Matthew 18:15-17
If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (For context, read 18:15-20.)
Actually, according to biblical researchers, it's perhaps not just if that person sins "against you," for those two words are missing from some of the oldest manuscripts of Matthew. So what Jesus may have said was, "If another member of the church sins, go and point out the fault ...." In that reading, Jesus was speaking of behaviors and speech that hurt not just one other person, but the church itself.
What we should note here is that Jesus speaks of a procedure for dealing with the offending person. Confronting the offender is not left merely to the judgment of one individual. If the initial one-on-one conversation does not bring healing, then one or two others in the congregation are to be asked to assist. The next step is to bring the matter to the church. Only if all those processes fail to restore the offender to the fellowship (or bring the offender into fellowship to begin with) is the person to be cut off or expelled from the church.
Questions: These words of Jesus call us to accountability to and responsibility for each other in the church. What is the meaning of these words? How should they be interpreted when the offender is a dangerous person showing no hesitation to do wrong? Have you experienced or offered this pattern of accountability? What was the result?
Have you ever been on the receiving end of a procedure like that described in Matthew 18? Do you listen as well as you would like others to listen to you? When has your mind been changed about your life, your choices and your finances because of a sermon or a "word to the wise"?
Matthew 23:23
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. (For context, read 23:23-28.)
Unlike the mobsters Pope Francis condemned, the scribes and Pharisees did not seem to most people to be evil. But Jesus condemned them for their hypocrisy. In the verse above, he decries them specifically for giving tithes to the temple of even minor things such as the spices they used to flavor their meals while neglecting "the weightier matters of the law."
Questions: Is this another way of saying that we cannot purchase salvation? Why or why not? When has this text spoken directly to you or your congregation? What was your response?
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (For context, read 9:1-12.)
The apostle Paul wrote the words above to the Christians in Corinth to encourage them to give generously to the first recorded church-wide collection for the poor. Paul says that giving "bountifully" will result in receiving bountifully from God.
The problem with what Paul said here, however, is that some people have taken it out of the context of a faithful life and treated it as a promise of God's bountiful care toward those who give generously even while remaining committed to deeply sinful and unrighteous living. That's a serious misreading of Paul's words; he never intended generous giving to be separated from righteous living.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor executed by the Nazis for resisting Hitler, gave us another way to think about this. He wrote that one of the deadliest enemies of the church was "cheap grace" -- such as preaching that an intellectual acknowledgment of God is sufficient for salvation, or such as telling people they are okay without demanding any real dedication or holy living. Bonhoeffer wrote, "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession ... grace without discipleship, grace without the cross."
The opposite of cheap grace, said Bonhoeffer, is "costly grace," which, though it justifies the sinner, also condemns his or her sin and demands that he or she follow Christ.
Questions: When have you sought absolution without personal confession and repentance? In what ways do you now let your life reflect costly grace? Do we categorize sins and not demand costly grace for those we consider "lesser" sins (murder vs. anger, adultery vs. lust, etc.)?
For Further Discussion
1. Have you ever threatened to leave your church or to stop giving to your church if things didn't go the way you thought they should? What do you think about that threat now? Have you ever not left a congregation or not stopped giving -- perhaps to avoid making a scene, or because you were too comfortable and habituated to your current location -- when, in your view, it was starting to cooperate with sin or evil? What do you think about your choice now?
2. People who threaten to leave congregations over issues/sins are often welcomed in another congregation. Do we have a duty to warn the other congregation or should we let those who have left us have a fresh start elsewhere? Why? How do we, in humility, recognize the possibility -- as unlikely as that may be! -- that those of us staying may have been in the wrong?
3. Does your congregation or denomination practice a form of disfellowshipping which might be called excommunication or shunning? What are the steps involved? How may one be restored to the fellowship?
4. When have you felt very uncomfortable about your church's lack of witness to a pertinent problem because of over-concern for what the financial consequences might be?
5. Have a volunteer read aloud 1 John 3:10-17 and then discuss as a group how the passage applies to today's topic.
Responding to the News
This is a good time to remind ourselves that giving to the church is a part of being a responsible Christian and that giving ought not to be used as a tool of manipulation in the church.
Closing Prayer
No comments:
Post a Comment