Pastor Will Rose’s main point is that love fulfills the law: reconciliation matters, so go directly to the person, listen carefully, bring witnesses if needed, and only then involve the whole community because how people treat each other on earth carries spiritual weight. He grounds the message in the Gospel of Matthew and explains that Matthew portrays Jesus as a new Moses and the Sermon on the Mount as a kind of living Torah—basically, Jesus as love incarnate. Pastor Will unpacks Jesus’ step-by-step advice for conflict resolution (one-on-one, then a few, then the church), highlights the gospel idea of “binding and loosing,” and connects it to the Lord’s Prayer and forgiveness. He uses everyday, slightly silly examples—yes, even the Great Holiday Decoration Debate—to show how relational friction shows up in ordinary life. He also names modern struggles like masking and anxiety, urging honest confession, mutual listening, and building trust so people can be real with one another. The overall tone is warm, practical, and hopeful: he reminds listeners that Jesus promises presence when two or three gather, and that they are held by “a love stronger than death.”

Pastor Chill Will from Chapel Hill strolls into the pulpit at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chapel Hill, NC (September 6th, 2026) with a grin and a loaded question about holiday decorating—because if you can’t tackle Halloween vs. Christmas in a sermon, where can you? He quickly pivots from playful parish politics to a rooted reading of Matthew, gently reminding listeners that the Revised Common Lectionary has plopped them into a Matthew-heavy season that portrays Jesus as a new Moses, a Torah incarnate. He explains the basic idea clearly: Matthew borrows Moses imagery to show Jesus leading a new Exodus from death to life and reframes the law by centering love as its fulfillment. The Sermon on the Mount reads like a fresh Ten Commandments—less about guilt and more about relational flourishing.

From that theological scaffold he drills into Matthew 18’s practical wisdom on conflict and reconciliation—start one-on-one, bring witnesses if needed, then involve the broader community—because relationships ripple outward. He highlights listening as a spiritual muscle, ties it to confession and forgiveness, and connects the “binding and loosing” language to everyday discipline: what we do in community matters, and it matters with eternal significance. The homily is both an invitation and a how-to: build trust, stop gossiping, be honest about where you are, and practice forgiveness so love can actually do its job.

Takeaways:

• He explains the Revised Common Lectionary: a three‑year cycle of Gospel readings that guides Sundays and seasons like Advent, Lent, Easter and Epiphany.
• Pastor Will Rose, preaching at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chapel Hill on September 6, 2026, portrays Matthew’s Jesus as a new Moses leading a liberating Exodus from death to life.
• He unpacks Matthew 18’s stepwise approach to conflict resolution—go one‑on‑one, bring witnesses, then involve the whole church—practical, relational steps for messy communities.
• They highlight the importance of listening and honest confession, explaining how dropping the social‑media 'I'm fine' masks builds trust and strengthens communal care.
• He clarifies the biblical idea of 'binding and loosing' by tying it to forgiveness and prayer: earthly relationships reflect and matter for God’s kingdom.
• Sheesh—joking aside, he insists that love, not rule‑checking, fulfills the law; faith is active, restorative love toward neighbor and enemy alike.

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Foreign.

Thank you for engaging with the homily by Pastor Chill Will from Chapel Hill.

I hope this message encourages you, challenges you and moves you to go deeper in your faith and enrich how you love God and love your neighbor in your day to day life.

Just a reminder.

Like the scriptures and gospels themselves, this homily was written for a particular community in a particular context, time in history.

And yet, like our sacred texts, I hope that these words hold timeless truths about God's unconditional love and grace.

We hope these words speak to you in a meaningful way.

The Holy Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus said to his disciples, if your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault.

When the two of you are alone, if you are listened to, 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 that person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

And if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such one be one of you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Truly, I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything and ask, it will be done for you by my Father and heaven.

For where two or three are gathering in my name, I am among them.

The Gospel of the Lord may be seated.

In the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Spirit, Men.

Okay, I'm going to ask a loaded and controversial question.

I hope no one walks out this morning or leaves the church.

When should one put up their Halloween decorations?

When does a Halloween season start?

I mean, I have opinions.

I'm sure Megan agrees with me.

Right.

Mid.

Mid October.

Right?

Right.

Oh, gosh.

Megan, Megan, Megan.

Fall doesn't even start until September 22nd, and we need to have this conversation so that.

I know, I know.

Okay.

Okay, I get it.

You feel passionate about this.

Looks like we're gonna have to take this to church council.

Okay, another question.

Probably a little easier.

When should Christmas decorations go up?

November 1st.

Right?

Right.

Megan?

Oh, gosh.

Within our holiday and liturgical seasons, we follow the Revised Common Lectionary that guides our Bible readings each Sunday.

While with the Revised Common Lectionary, there's a three year cycle of reading through the four gospels in the New Testament.

And it guides us through the seasons and holidays, not of Halloween per se, but of Advent and Christmas and Epiphany.

Lent, Easter and Pentecost.

Year A is devoted to the Gospel of Matthew.

Year B is Mark.

Year C is Luke.

The Gospel of John, being a little different from the other three Synoptic Gospels, doesn't get their own year, but rather sprinkled throughout years A, B and C. We are currently in year A, journeying through the Gospel of Matthew.

Bible scholars believe that Matthew was written primarily for a Hebrew and Jewish community and audience.

So Matthew, knowing his target audience, leans heavy on the themes and images from the story of Moses, the Passover, the Exodus.

And he's making connections between the life of Jesus and the life of Moses for Matthew and the community he is writing.

His story for.

Jesus is a new kind of Moses who is leading us through a new kind of Passover, from death to life, with a new Exodus in liberating people.

The Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew is a new kind of Ten Commandments and a Torah giving direction for living one's faith and living their faith embedded in the life of community.

You have heard it said, you shall not murder.

But I say to you, if you call your brother or sister a fool, you are liable to judgment.

You have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

And Matthew wants to be clear.

In chapter 5, verse 17, Jesus came not to abolish the law and Torah, but to fulfill it.

Often the default when culture thinks about religion, faith and spirituality is that it's a bunch of rules.

And if you break those rules, the old man in the sky is going to be unhappy.

So you better watch out.

That's not the theology that we lean into or proclaim or promote.

Rather, we believe and place our faith that God is a God of love, and that as we examine and follow and learn from Jesus and how he lives and operates and postures himself in the world and how he interacted with people around him, we see and it's revealed to us, the true nature of God, who loves us with a liberating love, a love that is stronger than death.

As we look and learn and listen to Jesus, we see what St. Paul articulates in his letter to the church in Rome, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Leaning into this understanding of faith and religion and spirituality, we, along with the Hebrew faith, see that the Ten Commandments in the Torah are gifts and guideposts that open up ways to love God and love our neighbor even deeper.

For the Gospel of Matthew, he is telling a story and trying to paint the picture that through Jesus's life, death and resurrection we see that Jesus is the Torah incarnate, that Jesus is love incarnate.

Love is the fulfilling of the law.

We are relational creatures.

We are part of a vast ecosystem of relationships.

Even our church name is named Holy Trinity.

Right?

We believe that God's own nature is a relationship of a love as a father to a son, bound and flowing through the spirit.

Because we are relational and communal creatures created in the image of a triune God, we have rules and laws and boundaries that help navigate the complicated relationships that we are a part of.

While created to be in relationships and community, we know because we live in an imperfect and broken world where people disagree about holiday decorations.

It isn't always easy.

In fact, it's almost never easy.

There's a reason, as I shared with the children, why we start our worship service every Sunday with confession and forgiveness.

Being open and honest with each other and with God, knowing that people are going to people.

Being a part of community comes with it.

Intentionality, hard work, honesty, self awareness.

Today's gospel story is a part of Matthew's larger vision of Jesus as a teacher and a rabbi and a Moses figure, giving guidance to how we live in community with one another.

It echoes that hard and long journey that the Israelites journeyed through in the wilderness.

For 40 years they journeyed with one another, trying to get along with each other, trying to stick together with one another, holding on to a faith that God is journeying with them and that God is a God of love and liberation.

Most likely, Matthew's community and church he was writing to was experiencing some conflict and they needed some conflict resolution.

Has Jesus set up these steps of how to get along and resolve issues that come up when we do community together?

And notice the steps Jesus encourages us to take.

Starts off small, one on one.

Before you go and talk behind someone's back or gossip about what someone has done to you or against you, go talk to that person first.

Try to resolve it between the two of you.

If that doesn't work, bring in some others.

Bring in witnesses, people who know you and could maybe bring in a different perspective.

Perhaps they can help you see things from a new and larger and different point of view.

And if that doesn't work, bring in the whole community.

Because my relationship with someone else and how we treat one another and how we get along and understand each other and affects the whole community, the whole ecosystem we are a part of.

Also notice a key element Jesus lifts up and brings attention to listening.

What a gift that is to the gift of community, the gift of listening.

Something we've strived to do, especially when we listen to testimonies and witnesses and around our reconciled in Christ.

Sundays listen to one another's stories to hear their perspective and how they see the world and experience the world and experience God's love.

Jesus then talks about a binding and a loosening of things, binding and loosening things that are part of our lives and relationships.

And I think what Jesus is trying to say, similar to what we pray in the Lord's Prayer when we pray, forgive me as I forgive others.

What we do and how we relate to one another on earth matters in how we relate to others in heaven within God's kingdom.

What we do here matters with an eternal significance.

Last Sunday at the Faith and Science Forum on Anxiety that Pastor Katie and Campus Ministry hosted, a big part of that discussion was about being open and honest with one another and how we do life as individuals and with one another.

Together they share that element of anxiety is this thing that we do called masking, that we put up a mask or we put up that general how are you doing?

I'm fine.

Because we don't really want others to see how we are really doing, either because we're embarrassed about it or we think the other person is fine and so they won't understand.

Or this notion is that they seem fine.

So I guess I have to pretend I have to be too.

Social media feeds them that too.

We see everyone's perfect picture of their perfect meal and their perfect vacation and we think our lives should be the exact same way.

Why isn't mine life that way?

Oh my gosh, I'm not doing life right, I guess.

But what if we flipped that?

What if we build enough trust and compassion that I can be open and honest where I am in my life and faith and we can be there for each other, building each other up in love and support.

What if we grew more comfortable with the uncomfortable, growing in trust with one another and where we are in life and faith?

Perhaps we can continue to build each other up.

Love is the fulfilling of the law.

This is a type of community that I want to be a part of and this is the type of community that we seek to be here at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Lutheran Campus, Missouri over sabbatical.

As I reflected on my 26 years of ordained ministry and going on 15 years here at Holy Trinity, I remain committed to the Jesus story and I still want to grow in how that story shapes my life and how I live in community with you and the relationships in the world that we are a part of.

Sure, the world is far from perfect or easy and so we have a mission, a vision and core values to help guide us.

Sure, there will be challenges ahead of us, but there will also be opportunities in how we grow and how we love God and love our neighbors.

Life isn't easy.

Relationships easy.

Community isn't easy.

They are gifts.

They are gifts.

Even if you argue about holiday decorations, we do life together.

Jesus doesn't promise that everything will be perfect or comfortable, but notice that he promises to be present where two or three gather.

I am among them, Jesus is among us and love is being fulfilled.

Amen.

Thank you for listening.

If there is anything that stood out for you, or if you have a question or you just want to have a conversation, you are always free to reach out and contact us.

And remember you are not alone and that you are loved with a love stronger than death.

Sam.