So, last weekend for me was spent in a fence-mending project. Literally. A section of the wooden fence behind my parents’ old house in Baton Rouge was blown down in a windstorm. One of my brothers drove over from his home in Tuscaloosa, and together, we repaired the fence.
This is actually the third section of that fence that I have helped to repair. We have had to place big wooden posts in the ground, pour concrete, put up many 2x4’s as cross-support pieces [measuring and sawing many of these to fit properly], and nail up many fence boards [also sawing many of these boards to fit properly]. In fact, in these three repair missions, we have now put up more boards than the number of original boards that remain. I presume it won’t be long before we have completely replaced the entire fence.
You’d think that, by now, I’d be getting pretty good at this kind of labor. Actually, no. If it weren’t for the skills of my brother, none of this work would have been accomplished. That’s not completely true. If left to my own devices, I would have had to, in the words of Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, “call the man”.
On my own, I suppose I probably could have thrown something together that would have sort-of resembled a fence. But, it wouldn’t have been a fence. Not really. It would have looked terrible, and it certainly would not have remained standing very long. In fact, the words of one of the enemies of Israel from the Book of Nehemiah 3:3 came to my mind as I typed this. As you recall, Nehemiah was rallying the people of Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city. The enemy, Tobiah the Ammonite, mocked their work and said that their ridiculous wall would collapse if a fox jumped up on it. That’s exactly what would happen if a fox jumped on any fence repair that I might try to do by myself. But, I am proud to say that, at least so far, and dating back to May 2016, the three fence sections repaired by me and my brothers working together are still standing, tall and strong!
Another lesson learned in all of this fence repair work is that things are so much easier when you use power tools!
Have you ever done any “fence-mending”? Actually, I’m not now referring to fixing a physical fence. The general meaning of this expression, when not being used in the context of a physical fence, refers to attempting to repair broken relationships. This is never easy work, and it is complicated by the fact that, very often, the relationship was broken - not by something external to the relationship - but by something you or I have done within the relationship. In fact, it might actually be easier to repair a physical fence than to restore a broken relationship.
We talked about worshiping “in spirit and truth” last week, and you are correct if you believe that Jesus is interested in proper worship. But, Jesus made it clear that there is something that is even more important than proper worship. Can you guess what it is?
That’s right – “fence-mending”, repairing broken relationships. In the “Sermon On The Mount”, Jesus says, “So, if you are presenting a sacrifice [or gift] at the altar, and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God.” [Matthew 5:23-24].
That’s right. Stop worshiping immediately when you realize there is a broken relationship; and go, right then, and do the hard work required to get it fixed. Because then, and only then, can you acceptably worship.
Does that seem strange to you? Many of us seem to think and act like “getting worship right” is what The Church is all about.
It’s not.
Or maybe it is. But the one thing, or at least one HUGE thing that makes worship NOT right, is broken relationships. We can pound our fists on the table all we want about all manner of things that we think are important in a worship assembly [and I won’t list them here – you know the things that have taken up so much of our precious time over the years]. But, all of those things are meaningless if we sever relationships over them. By allowing relationships to be broken over such things [or actually, over anything] we have placed ourselves in the position of never being able to worship properly at all, even if we happen to get everything else “right”.
At least, that’s what Jesus says.
I wonder – is this the key to reigniting power within The Church? Is this the key to bringing an end to the strife our Nation is facing? Is it time to start some “fence-mending”?
Ambrose K. Ramsey III
Shepherd
