Proper 18
Preparation
Please begin by reading Matthew 18:15-20 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided the text for you at the end of this reflection.
Reflection--A Lesson For Community Life
This reading from Matthew has an important part of Jesus’ vision for Christian community at it’s heart . It includes a “tough love” approach for addressing serious problems that can lead to a shattering of community if they are not attended to.
[W]e are inclined to see our sin as a matter between ourselves and God, or at most, between ourselves and the person who has wronged us [or whom we have wronged]. That it is a matter of the Christian congregation to which we belong, and may damage its life, comes as a surprise to both us and them, if they are as individualistic as we are. Whatever we think of the solution Matthew offers, we might first ponder the nature of the Christian life it presupposes . . . . To be Christian is to be bound together in community.*
It is sometimes hard for us to call a brother or sister to task, but that is what love demands in the face of behavior that is destructive to self and community. Another commentator writes: “Jesus’ words set forth a means of dealing with disagreement that blends and balances love and justice. The call to live as the God who pursues and rejoices over the finding of the lost is not a call to a mushy compassion that simply lets anything go. Christians are called to recognizes right and wrong in love.”
Note the gradual escalation of remedies Jesus set out. That evidences an intent to save the dignity of the offender if at all possible. Real Christian community always has an added dimension that should make it different from any other. When we are truly gathered in Jesus name, Jesus is there. That being the case, these instructions should always be read with the understanding that they are to be exercised in the love that is part of God’s essential nature.
Avoiding conflict is something many of us naturally do. It is, and perhaps ought to be, even more prevalent in a community based on God’s love. Sometimes, though, avoiding a loving confrontation at the beginning can just increase the destruction wrought later by problems allowed to fester.
revclay
* The New Interpreter's Bible, vol. VIII (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), 379.
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Matthew 18:15-20
[Jesus said] “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. But 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. If 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.
"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." [NRSV]