12. Sunday after Pentecost, 09/04/2011

Sermon on Matthew 18:15-20, by David. H. Brooks

¹⁵"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. ¹⁶But 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. ¹⁷If 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. ¹⁸Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹Again, 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. ²⁰For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them."

If you drive south away from my sister's house in Savannah, GA, you will pass through several of the barrier islands, the shrimp boats that ply the waterways, and a tiny town that is slowly being swallowed by the relentless development that is the mark of most coastal areas. If you were to drive through, you might say that there is no problem with the development, for there seems to be little in that hamlet that deserves saving. But that wide spot on the highway is special to me, because it was the place where I as a child first learned about irony.

Years ago, my family was driving down that same road to a fish camp that had great seafood, and we passed through that tiny town. My father slowed to the posted speed limit, and we drove through that little burg. As we were about to depart I saw a church. I proudly read the sign out loud: "First United Missionary Church." Then there it was, a well-kept white clapboard church, and then their parking lot. But then there was another church, this one about the same size, but built of bright red brick. I read their sign: "Second United Missionary Church."

We were silent for a moment, and then my father said, "that's what happens when two or three Christians get together," and we all laughed, especially me, because I got the joke.

I suppose it's still a good joke, but I don't find it as funny these days.

The truth is that the world knows far too many stories like this one-and worse-about what happens when Christians gather together.

Sadly, there are few places in the world where people treat each other so callously and cruelly. In my ministry, I have heard story after story from people who have been hurt by others in their congregations; I have also heard many stories about those who hurt others and never understood what they did-or did understand and did not care. I have known pastors who dreaded the "gathered two or three" in the church parking lot. I have listened to teenagers tell of their fear of the "gathered two or three" in their youth group. Such stories can be found and heard whenever...two or three Christians gather.

Now I am sure that you want me to say that there are lots of good things that happen in congregations large and small, and you would be right. But one good thing that would be most visible to the world at large is the way that we treat each other, or the ways in which we handle disagreement.

And it is not as if we should expect that there will never be disagreement or dissention. Jesus assumes as much because 1) he went to the trouble of talking about this topic, and 2) he gives a method to work through what might be described as an escalation of the disagreement. But in all the steps, what is sought is reconciliation because of the implied depth of the relationship. The other party is not merely a "member on the rolls," as our text would have it, but a brother, or a sister-someone who is kin to you. Someone who is just as much a child of our Heavenly Father as you are. Someone who is bound to you by blood-the blood of the Lamb.

What is more, Jesus suggests that the way we treat each other has profound implications. Whatever we set loose will be set loose in heaven. What ever we bind up or put back together here on earth will be done likewise in heaven. It is simply the logical consequence of being forgiven; because we have received so great a gift from God, our forgiving one another is a profound extension and expansion of that same loving act. It is as Dr. Martin Luther King states in his text Strength to Love:

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.

Here is the core of our Lord's call to love one another as kin-we build one another up. Here is why we are to see our actions in this community as harbingers of the heavenly way-we love because God loves, and God's love reconciles all things to him. Here is why we are to see this community as a place where love and forgiveness are experienced-because it is in those moments of forgiveness given and received that we share in the great work God is doing in the lives of men and women everywhere.

In his book Thunder From the Mountain, John Stroman tells a story about a Dutch theologian named Henry Kramer. A group of lay Christian leaders came to him in late 1940 and said "Our Jewish neighbors are disappearing from their homes. What must we do?" Kramer answered, "I cannot tell you what to do. I can tell you who you are. If you know who you are, you will know what to do." These persons were the start of the Dutch Resistance Movement, which largely worked in non-lethal ways to protect those targeted by the Nazis and assist Allied efforts in the war.

Jesus calls us to remember who we are. We are a forgiven people, bound to one another as brothers and sisters through the waters of baptism, and workers in the Kingdom of God. Remember who you are, in whatever tiny town you might find yourself, or in whatever sized group you might find yourself. Remember who you are. Amen

Rev. David. H. Brooks
Cary, NC, USA
E-Mail: David.Brooks@ChristtheKingCary.org

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