Dirty Laundry

It must be difficult to live with the knowledge you have done something wrong and hurt another.

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. - Matthew 5:23-26

When I hear stories of abuses that took place years ago, I wonder how people live with the knowledge of what they had done.  Do they think it is all in the past and will stay hidden?  Or do they live in constant fear that their sins will be revealed?

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus tells his followers to right the wrongs they have done before coming to the altar to make sacrifices.

But some wrongs may just be too heinous to be able to reconcile.  Paying someone off to keep them from telling is not the same as reconciling.

Surely it would be easier not to have done the wrong in the first place.  And I think that is really the point here. 

When we think about what is involved in admitting what we have done, and putting our lives in the hands of the one we wronged, it is just too scary.  You would think that alone would prevent us from doing what we intend.

But we don't air our dirty laundry in public.  We toss it in the closet and bury it under piles of regret.

When we hear of someone who has done something wrong, we tend to be judgmental.  We expect them to know their place and stay away from the altar, but that isn't what Jesus is saying here.

He wants us to know that no matter what we do, we can still come, but we need to make amends first.

We need to settle with the one or ones we harmed, and we must do it honestly, with remorse, never to do anything to harm others again.

And then it is our job to accept the person back, as God does.

That is the hard part.

We don't like dirty laundry, even after it has been washed clean.

More to come...