A Murmuration of Starlings
Sermon by the Rev. Rick Millsap preached on September 6, 2026 at St. Paul’s, Year A, Proper 18.
Jesus said, “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.
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For
where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
The Holiday Inn chain became really big during the 1960s and 70s. On their marquee signs outside they would advertise things you wouldn’t always find at a reasonably priced motel back then…marquee signs outside they would advertise things you wouldn’t always find at a reasonably priced motel back then…
One picture I’ve seen shows a Holiday Inn that might well have been up at Lake Tahoe with a sign that said the usual, “Air conditioning, Telephones, TV, Swimming,” But they had one other perk. They also advertised, “Pets welcome.” But underneath, it said, “Except for bears. We’re not making that mistake again.”
There are sometimes really good reasons for making rules …
But often a bunch of rules really isn’t necessary. Still, people love to make them up, especially in the Church.
In Genesis it says that God rested on the 7th day, and later, this Sabbath day was made a rule under Moses. But what started as God telling folks to just take a day off and rest because it’s good for you, became filled with even more human-made rules.
Some of the most extreme were made up by the Pharisees that Jesus tangled with so often. They created 39 categories of work that was forbidden on the Sabbath which included some really detailed specifics. No walking through a field: Your sandals might accidentally brush against the grain, which they counted as illegal “harvesting.” No writing: Jotting down two or more letters of the alphabet was forbidden. Writing is work. No eating an egg laid on the Sabbath: The chicken did “work” to lay it, making the egg forbidden to eat. I suspect the Pharisees were not invited to many parties.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives to us the Church the authority to bind or to loose.
But before we get some eager beavers who are thinking to themselves, “Oh boy, do I have some bindings I want to make around here!” Let’s look at how Jesus used his authority to bind or to loose. Instead of binding, Jesus was always about loosing. He released the blind and gave them sight; He released the lame and they could walk again; He released the sinner and they could live again.
If you haven’t figured it out from his epistles, Paul was trained as a lawyer. You might have guessed it from some of the length of his opening sentences, for example, in Galatians:
“Paul an apostle — sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead — and all the brothers and sisters with me, to the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father to whom be the glory forever and ever.” — One sentence!
Paul created a lot of rules for Christians in his writings, many of which were to address problems of his day. Unfortunately folks who love to make rules and bind people have taken a lot of those out of context and require them as rules for people now. Yet even Paul with all his rules understood one main lesson from his Lord. You heard it today in our reading from Romans…
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Instead of making a bunch of picky rules, Jesus said focus on love and the rest will follow. I think the greatest example of Jesus loosening instead of binding came when he appeared after his resurrection. Peter had lost his nerve the night when Jesus was arrested and denied him three times, And except for Mary, Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, and several close women, and the apostle John, they all abandoned him.
But when Jesus appeared after his resurrection, what were the first words he said to this group of people who probably felt really guilty about what they had done? It wasn’t, “Boy, do I have a bone to pick with you guys.” If you’re going to talk about someone who had the right to lay down some rules, it was Jesus. But instead, he chose to give grace. His first words were, “Peace be with you.” He never once got on them for being afraid and losing faith. If there was ever a group that needed grace, it was Peter and the gang. What a relief that must have been!
In Acts 15, when some Jews tried to teach that Christians need to observe the old law, specifically in the area of circumcision, the apostles didn’t try to bind those old things. Instead, they just gave them some simple instructions to live a godly life in their day, and they sent their love and wished them well.
Some folks think there is only one right way to do everything, and they’re more than happy to share that with you. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus says if two of you agree on earth about anything it will be done. He says where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them. You know, this completely gets rid of the thinking that there is only one right way to do things, in life or in the Church. This is another reason why we need to be about loosing not binding things.
Some folks seem to think the only way to do their job as a Christian leader is to make more rules and bind them tightly on people. That is not what Jesus did. The religious tradition I was raised in had a lot of rules. I’ve joked that it was always Lent and never Easter. So many people make this mistake of only binding, but never loosing.
I had a rector once who had a lot of rules like: You were only allowed to wear black shoes and black socks when you served at the altar — priests, deacons, chalice bearers, acolytes… everyone. The corollary rule was no crossing your legs when you sat up here in the chancel… I guess there was the unthinkable danger of possibly showing bare leg above socks. And you can see his concern. There is no knowing how many souls have been lost because of brightly colored socks.
We have many customs about how we do things in Episcopal worship. When I teach acolytes to light the candles at the altar and extinguish them after services I teach them this order: First, you reverence the altar, then light the right-hand candle, then the left one. Then you light the office lights in the back, first, the ones on the right with the light proceeding out from Christ, and then the same on the left. At the end of the service, you extinguish the candles in reverse order.
Then I ask them if they know what happens if they don’t do this exactly right? And then I tell them… Nothing… nothing. These are just customs. We certainly want our services to look dignified, and there is often symbolism in what we do, but when all is said and done, they’re just customs.
And you know who makes up the most rules that sometimes bind us? We do it to ourselves. When I was teaching school all week, I got so tired of spending my whole Saturday cleaning house, I made a plan that no matter what time I got home, Monday I’d clean the kitchen, living room, and hall, Tuesday bathrooms, Wednesday bedrooms, and so on. But what happened if I was too tired to do the bathrooms on Tuesday or if I had too many papers to grade, and it didn’t get done? I would stress out about it or stay up too late cleaning on Wed. night to catch up and be exhausted Thursday.
I learned to loosen my own rules. It’s OK to clean the bathroom if it’s not a Tuesday — Did you know that? It is also OK not to do it perfectly. And you know what? My house is cleaner. I’m happier. Binding is awful, especially when we do it to ourselves.
And we sometimes do the same to ourselves in our faith practices. Jesus says in John 8:32, we will know the truth and the truth will make us free. We’re called to freedom not binding and guilt and feeling inadequate all the time. I don’t know who is expecting you to be some kind of Super Christian — No Mercy, no loosening, only binding — But I know it’s not God. I’d guess that two-thirds of the teachings of Jesus are directly or indirectly about the mystery of forgiveness: God’s loosening of God’s own rules. When we start making up a bunch of rules for ourselves or for others, we miss the whole point.
This extends to how we treat each other when we have conflicts. The Franciscan priest and theologian Richard Rohr said it this way.
“Without radical and rule-breaking forgiveness — received and given — there will be no reconstruction of anything. It alone breaks down our worldview of trying to buy and sell grace. Grace is certainly the one gift that must always be free, perfectly
free, in order for it to work. Without forgiveness, there will be no future. We have hurt one another in too many historically documented and remembered ways. The only way out of the present justified hatreds of the world is grace…”
Have you heard the word murmuration? It describes the beautiful shape of flocks of starlings when they fly in huge groups. You can find starlings mainly in Europe and Asia. Amazing synchronized clouds of up to 750,000 birds, flying at 50 mph, executing turns so tight and coordinated they look choreographed. The flock splits, reforms, pulses like a single organism. They do it not by telepathy or magic. Each starling follows 3 simple rules: (A) Fly in the same direction as your neighbors; (B) Stay close to them; (C) Don’t crash into them. When one bird moves, the change ripples outward. The entire murmuration transforms in milliseconds. You know, those would be three good rules for living with each other in the Church and in the world.
For all the rules and regulations humans like to make up, Jesus said there’s just one: Love. If we can worry less about all the so-called rules, and instead give ourselves and others grace and forgiveness, maybe like the starlings, with just being aware of each other as human, and sharing love and grace across hundreds of thousands of individuals, we too could produce breathtaking change and beauty in this tired old world. Amen.