Being Reconciled

Sometimes a Gospel passage is difficult to understand, isn’t it? When I first moved to Sudbury, the local funeral director asked me out to breakfast and as we were eating, he said, “Tim, I have a question for you.” You know how you know when you’re on the hotseat just from someone’s tone? I knew I was on the hotseat. But he was paying so there was no getting out of it. “Go ahead Gerry,” I replied.

“You know that story in Matthew about the coin in the fish? The one where Jesus tells his disciples to catch a fish, find a coin in the fish, and use the coin to pay the temple tax?”“Yes, Gerry, I know it.”

“What does that mean?”

“No idea Gerry.”

“I ask every new pastor that question. Nobody knows what it means!”

Well, I have a better idea now. But you get the point, right? Sometimes the Gospel passage set for a Sunday morning is hard. The coin in the fish story is distant from us in every way. It may have made perfect sense in 73 AD when Matthew set it down. It may have been uproariously funny to a Christian community that made their living fishing. It may have been thought provoking to Christians in Rome as they remembered their Bishop, Peter. But to us, it’s hard. We have to work at it to unlock it. And one of the joys of preaching the lectionary readings for any given Sunday is, the preacher doesn’t get to avoid these difficult Gospels. He or she has to preach it anyway.

Of course, the opposite is also true. Sometimes the Gospel is easy to understand. So easy, it makes it hard to preach. It speaks exactly and immediately to the lived experience of the congregation such that the preacher is almost unnecessary. We can just read the Gospel together, discern immediately its application together, and go home. The challenge is, of course, that we will find such an exercise hard BECAUSE it is so obvious. And so we hand it over to the preacher. And just like the difficult texts, the preacher has to preach them.

And at first glance, our Gospel for this morning is an easy to understand, difficult to apply text, isn’t it? It’s about how to deal with conflict in the church—the assembly is the word Jesus uses. And there is a four-step procedure: (1) confront the sinning brother privately. (2) if repentance is not forthcoming, confront again in the presence of two witnesses. (3) if he or she still does not repent, bring it to the entire assembly. (4) finally, treat that one as a Gentile or a tax collector.

Straightforward, right? It’s hard because it is about conflict and dealing with conflict is hard. It’s hard for communities that are larger because it presumes an intimate setting where everyone is known (“If your brother sins against you” is a literal translation of Jesus’s opening words). It’s hard because it takes for granted that the assembly is a small group and the “exposure” is private. It’s hard because if the assembly has to go to step 4, the sinning brother likely won’t feel the loss of community as a spur to repentance, but merely a spur to go the church down the street and start over. Easy to read and understand. Easy to think of situations where we’d like to apply it (situations, I might add, where we are never the sinning brother or sister). But actually rather challenging to enact.

What are we to do? That’s a good question. Let’s come back to it.

Before we can answer it well, we need to notice that it doesn't stand alone. it is a passage about welcoming people into the kingdom of God. (If we can cast it in the terms we used last week, it’s part of the life that is a living sacrifice; it is part of the life of self-denial, cross-taking, and following Jesus).

This passage is part of a larger one that begins with the disciples arguing over who will be the greatest in the kingdom at the beginning of chapter 18. And the context lends itself to the idea that they were looking for a quality or a virtue that one must have or does have that will make one great. I have very little difficulty imaging the conversation. “I am x therefore I will be the greatest.” “But I have y and y is more important than x. So I will be the greatest.” “You’re both wrong. Z is more in tune with the kingdom than either y or x; and I practice z more than you all.” “Well what does the master say?”

And Jesus sets before them a little child, saying to them, “Unless you become like a child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. When you welcome a child in my name, you welcome me.” Child here, I think, means simply the least, or helpless, or weak, or incredibly vulnerable. To be a child is to NOT be arguing about what makes one the greatest in the kingdom.

And the rest of the chapter is about how to welcome a child.

(1) Don’t put a stumbling block in front of them! Now, Jesus does not yet tell us what a stumbling block is. But it’s pretty clear that it’s very, grave. Here we have some of the harshest words in the entire Bible and they come not from the Old Testament, but from our Lord himself: “IF you cause one of the little ones who believe in me to stumble, tie a millstone around your neck and jump into the sea!” “A stumbling block is like a gangrenous hand or foot. It is like an infected eye. Cut it off!” The children, the little ones, the least, the weak, the helpless—these are the very ones that the kingdom is for! To prevent them from entering the kingdom (whatever a stumbling block is, it is at least that) is to cut yourself off from that same kingdom.

(2) Don’t despise them! Their angels behold the face of the Father. (This is where the whole notion of a guardian angel comes from. I don’t want to go there this morning, except to say, that’s a lot of weight to hang on one verse of Scripture.) Remember, the disciples are arguing about greatness and Jesus turns their arguments upside down by exalting weakness, vulnerability, childlikeness. These are the very values the disciples despise in their arguing. And it spills over into their actions: We see it when they try to shoo away the lame, the Gentile woman, the children. But these people whom they clearly despise are the very people who are closest to the kingdom of God! Don’t despise them! God searches after that sort of people just like a shepherd searches after a lamb lost in the storm, outside the safety of the fold. And when the shepherd finds the lamb, he rejoices! He brings the lamb back to the fold. So, Jesus says, it is not the will of the Father that any of these would be lost. Don’t despise them! Don’t act in such a way that they will be lost!

Only now do we come to the Gospel for today. We are still talking about how to welcome people into the kingdom. We are still talking about what it means to be the kind of a community where a child would be welcome, to be, really, a community of such children. I wonder if we can now begin to see just how this Gospel impinges upon us.

“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.” Is how our Gospel opens. The language Jesus uses is more intimate: if a brother sins against you. And of course we hasten to add this applies to sisters, too. The translators were searching for a way to include men and women in Jesus’s injunction and so made it less direct. Let’s take the more direct version. This is conflict in close quarters. This is in-house. And we all know, this is where the conflict can be bloodiest.

Now, before going further, we can begin to see what a stumbling block is, can’t we? A stumbling block is arguing about who’s greatest in the community. A stumbling block is despising those whom Jesus loves and for whom he died. A stumbling block is to refuse the path repentance and reconciliation that is about to be outlined. When we argue about the greatest (and we do). When we look down our noses at those who are “not our kind of people” (oh, we do that, too). When we fight rather than seek repentance and reconciliation. Then, we have become stumbling blocks to the children for whom our heavenly Father intends the kingdom. We have become like one who would despise the lamb lost in the storm, and the shepherd who pursues it relentlessly. And we have heard just how serious a matter that is, haven’t we?

But listen now. We are sometimes told that to “not be a stumbling block,” we have to avoid addressing hot button issues, we have to avoid talking about sin. Jesus in our Gospel passage says exactly the opposite, doesn’t he?

If a brother sins against you, go to him privately. Not put it on your facebook page. Not announce it on twitter. Not take a picture of whatever has caused offence and put it on instagram. For those of you that are older, don’t get on the phone to “share a concern,” with a third, uninvolved party. Don’t raise it as a “matter of prayer,” in a public service. Whatever. None of that! Go privately. Go when the two of you are alone. Why? Because when we are dealing with sin, we are dealing inevitably with personal matters that must be addressed personally and, at least at first, privately.

Matters that are not necessarily themselves private note that. They may well be matters that if left alone will publicly divide and tarnish the community. Matters that if left alone will become stumbling blocks to the little ones to whom the kingdom is given. No, the matter and its consequences could be very big issues. But we go about resolving them privately. (Now, sometimes the issue is so grave, we may also need to phone the police. This is not an either/or. Some sins are also crimes and crimes have their own consequences. I want simply to say here, I am NOT talking about covering up crimes and leave it). We go privately. We say gently, “brother, sister, you have sinned against me.” The family language is so important. We are not going to call down the wrath of God. We are going with broken hearts to a brother or sister. We are going well aware of our own capacity for fault. We are going with a view to the reconciliation that mirrors Christ reconciling the world to God through the Cross, as we said in our call to worship. And we are going privately so that others looking on won’t stumble, won’t be kept out of the kingdom.

If your brother listens, says Jesus, you have gained that one.

If he doesn’t, do it again, this time in the presence of witnesses. Here, Jesus is drawing upon both Deuteronomy 19 and Leviticus 19 and the rules for a trial in Israel. Here, they are called to witness the conversation so that they can confirm it at a later point. This we might think of this as an intermediary step. The witnesses are there, but they observe. Again the difficult conversation is had. Again, the call to repentance is made.

If there is still no repentance and reconciliation, the matter is now taken to the church to the whole assembly, and the role of the witnesses is clear: they are there to confirm what has already happened. Now remember, we’re not talking about shaming some poor soul in front of thousands, or hundreds, or even dozens of people. This is still an intimate setting. A setting in which the familial language of brother or sister can be used without awkwardness. Again there is the call to repentance and reconciliation.

And finally, if there is no reconciliation, Jesus says, “treat that one as a Gentile or tax collector.” Oh my. That’s a troubling one isn’t it? It means that the assembly has boundaries. It means that some people behave in such a way as to place themselves outside the boundaries. And while it is true that in the Gospels, the tax-collectors and others of questionable conduct were the very ones most attracted to Jesus, the ones with whom he spent his time, the ones we might say are the least, the weak, the vulnerable, the lost for whom he came, he does not mean here, therefore it doesn’t matter.

Remember, we are talking about stumbling blocks that prevent those very people from entering the kingdom. And what has Jesus said before about those who bring a stumbling block? Let them tie a millstone around their neck and be thrown into the sea. They are like gangrenous hands and feet and eyes. Cut them off. He is not here going to say, it doesn’t matter. Keep on spending time with them! Keep on calling them to repentance! Keep on pressing for reconciliation. Do it in the spirit of the crucified one so that you know what the cost and form of true reconciliation look like! But don’t pretend that it doesn’t matter. That it’s business as usual. Something has broken in the assembly. And that break has to be acknowledged. 

Oh dear God, where is there Gospel in this??? This hurts! It hurts me. I’d rather not talk about this. I’d rather not have to be on the initiating or receiving ends of the kinds of conversations that Jesus is talking about. I don’t want to say “Brother, sister, you’ve sinned against me.” I don’t want to hear, “Brother you’ve sinned against me.” Do you? Of course not! But these are the kinds of conversations the Lord Jesus calls us to have if we are to be and become the kind of community that doesn’t place stumbling-blocks in front of the weak, the helpless, the vulnerable, the lost.

And there is Gospel. There is Good News. Do you want to hear it? “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. Again, 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. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

We often use Matthew 18:20 as a feel-good verse when too few people come to church on Sunday or Wednesday night. “Oh well, where two or three are gathered. . . .” But that’s not what this promise of our Lord is about at all is it?

Here’s the Gospel this morning: The Lord Jesus is present in the awkward conversations. The Lord Jesus is present when two brothers are seeking reconciliation in the presence of witnesses. The Lord Jesus is present when the assembly seeks to be the kind that can pursue the ministry of reconciliation with which we have been entrusted. Reconciliation not with the world—it is Christ who reconciles the world—but among ourselves, the community of the supposedly reconciled. He is present in such a way that if the two agree—in context, agree on the importance of repentance and reconciliation—we need only ask and it will be accomplished!

That is the Gospel, my friends. The Lord Jesus is present in the assembly that seeks continually to be reconciled. The Lord Jesus is present in the assembly when brothers and sisters are open to correction. He is present in such a way that we need only ask the Father, and it will be accomplished.

So what are we do to? Live in to reconciliation. Live unafraid of the awkward conversation. Live open to gentle correction. Then the Lord will be present. Then there will be no stumbling block. Then there will be no need for the miller’s stone or the surgeon’s scalpel. Then the children will find a home here. And that is what the Father wants.

Here is a link to the video.