Because of the People

 Matthew 18: 15-20

 

¹⁵ “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ ¹⁷ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

¹⁸ “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.

¹⁹ “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Because of the People

 

In a study on racism this week, the unit dealt heavily with how scripture can seem contradictory or be used by two sides of an argument to justify their opposing stances. How does our holy text ever hope to provide us answers? How do we honor the Word of God when it seems to contradict itself? How do we choose from a myriad of interpretations?

 

Why is this so hard? We turn to scripture when we are facing the hardest times of our lives – that is when we lean heaviest on what it has to say to us. In a world torn apart by division, disease, natural disaster and a complete and utter lack of trust in our fellow man, we seek scripture to be clear for needed insight and guidance.

 

Too often, we want it to tell us we are right and justify our side of an argument. Other times we are treating it like a research text using the scientific method to pick and choose texts that seem to speak to a particular issue – 5 verses say this, and only two are opposed so I should listen to the 5 surely, right?

 

And then, we tee up Matthew. In a world that seems to always have people sinning against one another, this text has often been used as a template to resolve or discipline those guilty of sinning against a brother or sister. This scripture has been used to tell people facing devastating loss that they must not have prayed hard enough because it says you will get what you ask for, right? And then, the shunning, judgmentalism wins the day. We are supposed to call out those who sin against us – Jesus said.

 

Not one of my favorite scripture readings – can you tell? In the study I mentioned, the lesson concluded that we should be suspicious of scriptures and read critically. That just doesn’t feel right. The more I have thought about that, I am thinking that we should be suspicious of how we use scripture against one another and when it says to read critically it means use our powers of reasoning to study the texts that challenge us to figure out what this weird, quirky Word is saying to us. The gospel writers in the books and Jesus in parables don’t just come out with a clear cut list of rules or a one-size fits all guidebook. Rather, this is the living Word addressing us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

To be in relationship with God and to let the living Word into our lives is hard work. It is not bad to just read the Bible on the surface level, but to mature our faith and grow ever closer to God, we must go one better and look at the context of the writer, our context, possible alternate meanings, and then the scriptures surrounding a given text – finally wrap it in the whole. And not only see how it relates and shakes out, but how does it measure up if read through the lens of the greatest commandment – love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Wait that is from Matthew too. How do we reconcile today’s texts with Matthew’s overarching message about following Jesus and leading lives guided by the Word of God?

 

Right there – surrounded in a commandment of love, we must engage our minds. I know, sorry, it is Labor Day weekend and I am presenting to you a command to work at scripture this morning. Give me an hour this morning, and then we can honor those who have worked so hard in our lives by relaxing from our own.

 

Matthew starts with what sounds like asking us to pass judgment on one another. As you have probably guessed, it isn’t that simple. The scripture immediately preceding the one we are looking at this morning is the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus leaves the 99 sheep to return the one that has gone astray back to the fold. We sometimes forget that Jesus told this parable when asked to mediate an argument among the disciples about who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. He warns them against leading even one person, especially someone more vulnerable than you or perhaps socially inferior, warns them against leading people astray or becoming a stumbling block for others.

 

And then in the verses immediately after our reading, Peter asks Jesus how many times should he forgive a brother or sister who sins against him – as many as seven times? No, Jesus says – 77 times.

 

Some reference the process outlined here as the one used by the Essenes to discipline. What jumps out at me about the surrounding texts are the numbers 100 sheep and 77 times forgiving. Yet, the numbers in today’s scripture are much more intimate. The discussions begin between just the offended and the person sinning and then two or three are brought into the process to help. Then we get this strange seemingly unrelated conclusion of the directions from Jesus - if two agree it will be done and the familiar “if two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

 

I referenced this passage a few weeks ago as only one of a few times Matthew talks about the church, ecclesia. I think that we can take this at face value and gain much about listening and reconciling with one another. But, I think too, we can fully engage our brains and dig deeper.

 

The church – we are Christ’s body in this place, and where two or three are gathered Christ is in our midst, but we are people. Too often we are quick to disagree and too slow to listen to one another, to mediate and reconcile with compassion and respect. We may even use this very scripture to justify cutting off those who sin and with whom the steps just won’t work. But, there are clues that Jesus is up to more here. 

 

Other translations don’t just say if a brother or sister sins – they say is a member of the church sins against you. Both translations have merit, but the takeaway is that this isn’t a stranger sinning against you in this case but how you react when it is someone close to you – family. Bound together to you and with you to Christ. Add on top of that the quandary of defining ‘sin’. That sounds awfully judgmental and kind of like what we have been advised against in judge not lest you be judged or let him who is sin free cast the first stone.

 

So, go to my Greek. What does this word translated as sin ‘hamartano’ really mean. Yes, it means sin, but the nuance is more of ‘to be without a share in’, ‘to err’, ‘to miss the mark’, ‘to wander or be missing’ Perhaps that is the hidden clue that Jesus listeners would have heard. He just spoke about the sheep and how important it is to bring even one who wanders or is missing back into the fold.

 

Maybe in a time when it is easy to feel alone, lost and abandoned, this is what Jesus is asking of us. Open ourselves up to one another in trust. Don’t let even one of my little ones, open of my vulnerable children remain apart from the body, the church. It may not take 99 other sheep to bring relationship and awareness of Christ in our lives – just one reaching out or two listening.

 

Is this a sneak attack of evangelism – I don’t think so. I think that this is Jesus admonishing us to listen to one another not just once but as many times as it may take so that each knows they are a valued child of God. When I think of close knit communities, I am reminded of the television series Cheers. The regulars wander into the bar what seems like every evening after work. When they get there, everyone knows their names. They are greeted happily and welcomed in, but it wouldn’t have been a movie or funny and entertaining at all if there weren’t rough spots. They are people with odd quirks, disagreements, selfish moments right alongside beautiful and loving gestures. Yet they keep returning to one another in relationship despite the messiness.

 

And that is the thing, we have rough spots. Hopefully church is a place where you are known – oh the new interim may not yet know your name, but even behind masks you can see the smiles that carry to the eyes of those welcoming you. When we disagree about how to do things, we may carry arguments and factions into the parking lot continuing discussions. Dividing apart and telling others why we are offended appears nowhere in these steps – literally or figuratively.

 

Jesus calls on us to listen – the word listen appears four times in the first two verses of today’s reading. Listen to those who you disagree with, provide a place in this community for all to have a voice. Hear one another in compassion and respect offering each the integrity of a place in this beloved community. Because I think that is another way we get this reading wrong.

 

Verse 17 says if the offender doesn’t listen to the church, let them be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Umm, aren’t those the very people Jesus extended much of his ministry to? Wasn’t Matthew the disciple accredited with this gospel a Jewish tax collector? So what does it mean for the last step to be let them be like those who wrote our bible and who Jesus sought out again and again?

 

That certainly isn’t letting them wander off alone or shun them, or even dismiss them from the body. Maybe Matthew’s gospel is growing on me. What we are truly being asked to do here is yet one more way of not letting anyone go missing. Even when things get difficult, we are to keep listening especially to the little ones – those with less power than us, those who may feel like outcasts, those I feel uncomfortable welcoming into my home, those who challenge me. We must begin to bring an atmosphere of trust into the world, a world divided that jumps quickly to blame rather than listening and seeking to understand one another.

 

How do we bring reconciliation to those who think and act differently from us? As Andy Crouch puts it, “The remedy for shame is not becoming famous. It is not even being affirmed. It is being incorporated into a community with new, different, and better standards for honor.”

 

Only by reaching out, hearing one another and being a compassionate community do we truly become God’s church, Christ’s body sitting side by side in this wonderful relationship. We need to constantly learn new ways to carry that relationship when we rub each other wrong, as we approach elections, as the opportunity to divide and disagree is magnified and reflected back from so much of our world. We must pause and listen. Agree to disagree opening our arms in love, doing the tough work of being Christ’s body – a body that accepts all. 

 

As Frederick Buechner says, “If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in.”

 

What kind of amazing and wonderful things can happen in this community, this body of Christ if we are about the work of being together and holding together, listening and not letting even one slip away. Why is this? Because of the people – all of them. Accepted and sought after by Jesus in our strength and in our weakness. No one should be missing. We aren’t just another club. We are called to be a unique community with Christ, one that honors that Christ is always in our midst. A place where our hopes can live, where our fears are comforted. Where we can sit side by side united yet diverse – accepting in God’s love especially the sinners and Gentiles of our world. A place that accepts the messes we make and responds graciously as people of God working together to correct when we all err  - together, a church of the people looking forward in hope of the amazing things God is doing and will do through, with and in us.

 

One of the traditions of the Presbyterian church in many places is to extend the Peace of Christ. This is done after confession. For many it has been put on hold because of pandemic and the need to not touch. The reason it sits after assurance of pardon in our worship is because rather than just a nice break to say hi and catch up with friends, it is a time to share the peace with all it means. One part of that is to seek out those who you have been in disagreement with, a time to forgive and be forgiven – to pull each other back into relationship – back into the peace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. May the Peace of Christ be with you! Amen!