Ezk. 33:7-9; Ps. 95:1-2, 6-9; Rom.13:8-10; Mt. 18:15-20

“There I am in the midst of them”, the Great “I Am”.  Those who gather in prayer to fulfill the law of love, I am there.  I am there in your joys and sorrows; I am there in your conflict between each other; and I am there to heal the broken hearted.  Let us pray then together as one body of Christ for the sick, sorrowing, the sinful and speak as commanded by the Spirit to their hearts that they may not be hardened.  If God is love and love fulfills the law then the law of God makes him present in our love to speak with faith and courage and not be silent. 

I have often in counseling others expressed to others “don’t love me the way you love yourself”.  Our love of self is imperfect at best and dysfunctional at the worst.  Imperfect love of self is conditional for pleasure, profit, power and prestige.  When we satisfy these passions, we recognize a false pride that is only temporal.  Dysfunctional love takes these same conditional passions to a greater degree of harm of self and others.  It creates a dependency and/or an obsession spiraling into sickness and death of true self.   Can anyone desire this type of love from “neighbor” or offer the love of Christ which is truth, beauty, goodness and unity?  How can we then bring our brokenness into our relationships of conflict and find a peaceful resolution.  Only with the one true mediator, Jesus Christ do we come into the presence of the Father who promises, “there I am”. 

Jesus speaks to our hearts in the Holy Spirit that we may speak as “watchman” for the house that is “church” of God’s people.  The devil has no trouble speaking out through others calling out “hypocrites” those sinners who dare to speak seeking to silence them Souls who are given a voice to speak truth, goodness, beauty, and unity become “cancelled” in the current culture of oppression.  The devil lies ready to counter truth by calling out our hypocrisy, to counter goodness by calling out our sinfulness, to counter beauty by calling out our jealousy, and to counter unity by calling out our self-righteousness.  Just as the devil used Peter to chastise Jesus and Jesus responded with “Get behind me Satan” the devil uses those we love to bring division to our relationships and prevent reconciliation. 

In the same manner when Jesus asks “But who do you say that I am?”  Peter responds with the inspired truth “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  The revelation to speak was revealed by the “heavenly Father” to Peter, a sinful man, a follower, a hypocrite who later denies Jesus three times, prideful and self-righteous but at that moment there was the heavenly Father revealing truth to the disciple.  We cannot say “who am I to speak?” when our first grace to speak came at baptism with the gift of the Holy Spirit.  To speak as “church” when two or three are gathered in his name is a command from God who warns “I will hold you responsible for his death” if we dare be silent.  Our salvation depends on it!  

Am I here for me or thee, that is the question?  Until our faith is cemented in how we answer this question we risk our salvation and play with fire from hell.  Often it is heard “where is God?”  This is heard in the midst of suffering or tragedy and it begs the question where is the fulfillment of the law of God?  Obedience is not the greatest of virtues aspired by humanity.  We place conditional limits to our obedience just as we place conditional limits to our love returning to the question, “am I here for me or thee?”  We don’t bring peace to conflict through conflict avoidance.  We bring peace to conflict following the formula of subsidiarity given to us in scripture today, starting with the individuals who hold the power at the principle level of where the conflict lies, brother to brother and sister to sister before turning to authority to bring reconciliation. 

Godly reconciliation is not a “compromise”, a fifty-fifty agreement, or a settlement of jurisprudence but reaching for a greater truth that brings salvation.  This greater truth comes from the “Great I AM” who promised “there I am”.  Speak now before this moment is forever gone.  Speak now in the Holy Spirit of truth to bring the goodness of God the Father, through the beauty of Jesus love on the cross, to bring the unity of reconciliation in heaven. Speak now through prayer at the urging of the Spirit.

A voice of truth in our times is not to be silenced through the culture of “safe spaces”, political correctness, or threats of being “cancelled” through an overall attack on our very humanity. There is a cross to bear when God speaks through us. All the great saints were threatened to be “cancelled” for disrupting the norms of their times. Holiness is not for the weak. We are all called to be great saints for our times.