Readings
Ezekiel 33:7-11
Psalm 119:33-40
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
It would be easy to think that today’s Gospel is all about discipline in the Church. And why wouldn’t we? We literally spend two-thirds of the scripture talking about how to deal with someone in the faith community who has acted wrongly against someone else. But, if you will bear with me, I believe with a little bit of examination we may just discover that something bigger is going on here.
What is most striking about the first part of the Gospel today is the level of care and concern that is at work. The person who has sinned is given 3 opportunities to repent. They are shown levels of care that increase with each intervention. This reminds me of interventions done with alcoholics and other addicts. The goal in such actions is not to punish the person for their behavior, but to help them make an important change and to recognize their impact on others.
What is interesting is that when such an intervention doesn’t work, the scripture then says that they are to be “treated as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Now again it would be easy to make an assumption here. That the passage is saying that they are to be treated as outsiders, like the scum of the earth. But if we recall how Jesus behaved towards gentiles and tax collectors we are reminded that he ate with them and brought them into his circle. In other words when someone doesn’t respond with the desired effect we are to love them as an outsider and treat them with the same concern and care as Jesus would.
So all of this stuff about discipline is really about being a community of care and love. It is a call for us to be patient with one another and ultimately to never give up on the hope of us all being reconciled to one another and to God.
Now let me be clear. Doing so does not mean that we condone bad, hurtful, or destructive behavior. It is appropriate to set boundaries and to require repentance and restitution. But in the end we need be careful not to exclude, shun, or demean such a person. If Jesus wouldn’t do it, then neither should we.
No, today’s Gospel is about community. It is about the nature and quality of community to which we are called.
The Gospel today once again reminds us that whatever we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven and that whatever we bind on earth will be bound in heaven. We are told that whatever we ask for will be granted by God when two or more of us agree on it. And finally, we are told that whenever two or three of us are gathered together Christ will be with us.
When we look at the scripture in the original Greek what becomes clear is that everywhere the word “you” is used it is always plural, not singular. This means that we’re talking about the community of the church, and not about each of us individually.
Community is at the heart of what it means to be human and at the heart of what it means to be the Church. Community is one of the primary places we encounter the living God.
When we function as a community then God is present in the world through us. And when we gather in community God is in the midst of us.
If we leave off there it is easy for us to come away with a lovely image of what we are called to do and be. It is easy for us to think of the church in some kind of romantic notion of love and acceptance.
But the truth of the matter is that being community is hard work. It requires much of us. In order for us to function as community we must be willing, each of us, to forgive again and again. We must also be willing to engage when we perceive ourselves to be hurt or wronged or see someone engaged in hurtful or broken behavior.
That’s really hard isn’t it. Both the forgiveness piece and the engagement piece. It’s much easier to do the happy love thing, but what about the difficult stuff? To do so requires us to risk something of ourselves and our personal sense of safety and well-being. I mean, what if it goes poorly or there is conflict? What if I am in error and find myself on the wrong side of the stick? What if I lose a valued relationship, or worse, my sense of belonging?
But we are called to be in community with one another. We are called to invest in one another and in this gathering we call the church. Many times that will feel good, but sometimes it won’t.
And as for investment. Each of us need to be prepared to invest ourselves not just in the fun or inspiring parts of our communal life. But we must also be prepared to invest in the work that makes this community possible. We must be prepared to be ushers, choir members, lectors, chalice bearers, and acolytes. We must also be prepared to serve on things like the stewardship task force, the evangelism task force, or the Vestry. All of these things are vital if we are to be the community we are called to be.
So I invite you.
Think about the nature and quality of your relationships in this community. Where might there be more forgiveness? Where might we need to be brave and address the brokenness we encounter? Where might we more fully embody love and reconciliation?
But think also about the question of investment? Think of where you see a gap, and even if you are already doing something think about how you might further invest. Where might each of us exercise our gifts to the building up of our beloved community of faith?
Through a willingness to love and serve one another we will grow further into the image of God and into the community of Christ. Through our willingness to forgive, to love, to engage, and to invest we will discover nothing less than the living presence of God in our relationships, our gatherings, and this community that we call Christ Church. May we have the courage and the conviction to be so and to do so. May we find that wherever two or three of us are gathered that Christ is in our midst.