12th Sunday after Pentecost
– Sunday, September 4, 2011
Texts: Romans 13:8-14, Matthew 18:15-20
Aren't
there sometimes when you just don't want to be bothered? I mean,
don't get me wrong, I love my mother. To all of you who are mothers
or who love your mother, or grandmother, or your father or
stepparents or guardian, I want to be clear that I cannot say how
much I love or appreciate what mothers and all parents do, really.
But I think you know what I'm talking about when I say sometimes I'm
just busy, running from one thing to the next when that phone rings.
You know who it is. She always calls at the same time. You don't
even have to look at the phone to know who it is. It's Mom calling.
The guilt sets in. I want to just hit silence and put that phone
right back in my pocket, but that voice on my shoulder won't let me
do it. With a sigh, I flip open the phone:
“Hi,
Mom”
“Yeah,
I'm really busy today, just running out the door, actually-”
“Oh
really, you want to come over?”
“Gee,
wow. You want to come over today.”
“You
know, maybe next week could-”
“Today,
ok.”
“I
mean, Mom, I know you get tired sometimes. Don't feel like you have
to come over, really. I know you care about me and all-”
“You'll
be here in 15 minutes. Great.”
“I'll
just put on some water for your tea. Yep, I'll have it. Can't wait
to see you :/”
“Mom,
are you there?”
<Sigh.>
I love her, but I must confess I don't always want her around. I
have my way of doing things. I've got stuff I need to do. Things
would just be easier if she wasn't there to question everything I do,
or to notice every bit of dust in my house, or to tell me what I
should be eating...
We
hear today from Jesus, “where two or three are gathered in my name,
I am there among them.” Really Jesus? I mean, really. Come on,
don't you have something better to do, like battling the devil or
saving the world? Surely there's some Pharisees somewhere you can
debate with. Why do you have to show up in my life?
Jesus
tells us today that he shows up whenever we are together, and the
example case is if someone has sinned against us. The translation of
our reading begins, “if another member of the church sins against
you,” but the actual word here is brother. It's “If a brother,”
or a sister, meaning someone close to you, “sins against you.”
That's not an “if,” that's a “when.” All of y'all with
brothers and sisters know what I mean. We just sang a hymn called
“God when human bonds are broken.” Well, when aren't they?
Why do
I, why do we, need Jesus to show up THEN? We can handle that. We
have all kinds of ways to settle disagreements like this. We've got
justice systems and prisons and police, not to mention an
old-fashioned argument or fight if we just want to settle things on
our own. Here in the church we could even follow the neat little
instructions Jesus laid out for his disciples and benefit from them
as well. Let's see, here. Step one, go tell them face to face what
they did wrong. If that doesn't work, step two, bring a couple more
buddies to set them straight. If they still don't 'fess up and pay
me back my due, step three, get 'em in front of the whole
congregation – then they'll have to own up or they'll have all of
us on their case. And if that doesn't work, well there's no saving
them, we'll throw 'em out and they'll never tarnish the halls of this
place ever again.
Seems
like a nice little solution. Problem solved. Not so fast, Jesus
says. You see, we have a lot of thoughts about justice and we
usually do a really good job of making sure that our rules help us
look good and shut out all the people we don't like very much. In
the part of his letter we heard today, St. Paul echoes Jesus in
summing up the law into one thing, and that's love. Paul seems to
have figured out Jesus' teaching that if all we have are rules that
separate us into right and wrong, good and bad, that before long we
will be the ones thrown out of the congregation.
All
through Matthew's gospel, we are promised that God will be present
with us in Jesus Christ. An angel tells Joseph that his son will be
named “Emmanuel,” meaning “God with us.” The resurrected
Jesus appears to his disciples saying, “remember, I am with you
always, to the end of the age.” We hear today, “where two or
three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Jesus has
set up shop and he's here to stay. And wherever Jesus is, so is his
kingdom. God's kingdom is here on earth because Jesus has promised
to be here with us.
And
where Jesus is, where the kingdom of heaven reigns, things are
different. This passage we hear today is the third of three
responses Jesus gives in this chapter to the disciples' question,
“who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Jesus' first
response is to pick up a child and tell them they must become like
children. Then Jesus tells a story about a shepherd who rejoices
over the one lost sheep more than over the 99 who never went astray.
The kingdom of heaven is not about being the best or strongest. It's
not about doing the right thing all the time.
Let's
look at today's story. With quite a bit of irony, Jesus instructs
his disciples to treat the people who just won't listen as a Gentile
or a tax collector. Now, normally this would be a sensible solution
– kick 'em out. But Jesus' whole life and teachings are about how
everyone, Gentile outsiders and sinful tax collectors among them, are
included in the kingdom. Jesus is talking about those who sin
against us, people we just can't stand or even people we hate, and
he's asking us to see them the way that God lovingly and mercifully
sees them.
And
this is not all. Jesus promises that when we come together in this
world in his name as his people, God will respect whatever decisions
we make. Woah. Clearly, Jesus isn't worried about us always getting
the right answer. Lord knows, we have and we will always make some
pretty ugly decisions. Jesus isn't interested in perfect justice
being carried out, but in his people coming together. He wants us to
listen to each other and to honor each other's perspectives. He
isn't asking us to always agree, but to hear each other, to reconcile
with each other and to remember the grace God has given to each of
us.
Things
are different in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is here in our
gathering among us, and he has made his law of love the highest law
of all. But this love isn't a law that requires anything of us, no.
The love of Jesus does not wait for us to agree with each other, or
to stop hurting or even killing each other. It doesn't wait for us
to give each other the respect due a beloved child of God. The love
of Jesus comes right to us. It doesn't make sense. It's actually
very hard to comprehend or imitate. The love of Jesus isn't stopped
by our messiness, sin, dishonesty, mistrust, fear or hatred. Jesus'
love takes all these to the cross, and they are nailed there along
with him. The love of God in Jesus is for you, right now, and you
don't have to clean up your life first to receive it. This love is
setting you free to be a disciple of Jesus in the world.
It
frees us all to be honest and open with each other because we've got
nothing to hide. Sure, we're all flawed, we've all got scars and
wounds and we all can be nasty to each other – but God loves us.
God chose to work with us. No one has to fake being perfect in order
to follow Jesus.
Here
at this table where we gather, 2 or 3, or 20, or 100, Jesus is
present among us. It's why we call this Holy Communion – because
the presence of Christ literally binds us back together into a
community built upon God's love. Everyone is invited to this table,
all are seated around it and each person eats the same no matter what
you did or who you were before you got here. The kingdom of heaven
has come. Now you are God's child. Now we are sisters and brothers.
Now we eat together in the presence of our Lord. Come to the table.
Amen.
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