“We are called to live well together”
Sermon Notes 10th September 2023
Geoff Vidal
Matthew 18:10-20
Over in USA in the last few weeks, Carol and I noticed many homeless people: many with obvious psychiatric or drug issues. This was distressing and confronting. In the Gospel reading today, Jesus says look out for the little ones. This doesn’t necessarily mean infants. Jesus is referring to those who are considered by society to be of no great value: people like the ones we encountered in USA who are thought of as being just a total nuisance. How do you look out for these little ones? Handing these people money isn’t always helpful. The assistance required is much more likely to become available to the desperately needy through our support of organisations such as Anglicare.
The need to care for each of the “little ones” is emphasised by the reminder in today’s gospel that it is God’s desire to search for and to recover the one lost sheep that has gone astray. When it is found there is great joy!!!
We have been given this challenge to show concern for the lost in our community. When we are seen to have concern, we are like a magnet. We draw people in by the way we live and deal with each other. Outsiders are attracted to a community in which they can see a sharing of care and love. People stay away when they see there is a lack of love; where no one seems to care. People find it a turn off if they suspect disinterest and apathy and can see no obvious desire to resolve problems in a community.
The church should be a special place where God’s people live well together and set an example of how to resolve conflict. Doesn’t the world need that? What great timing it is that this teaching on what it means to be a loving and caring Church comes up on the day before the anniversary of Sept 11th (and at the time of G20 meeting where world leaders are struggling to find agreement on how to make life better for so many).
The best way to show care for the little ones is to be an obvious good example. This is seen in the work of the op shop and in the way we accept different people. If we live with each other and deal with each other well, we become a magnet to draw people in. That’s our mission; to be a community that outsiders can see is attractive.
For sure, it’s not easy to live this life of attractive unity and acceptance but, because it’s so important that we love each other, Jesus gives us this critical teaching on the way to sort out our conflicts. And there will be conflicts! There will be difficulties, disagreements and upsets in our families and our church community that we are going to need to settle properly; in a way that attracts and doesn’t repel.
There’s love and justice in the way Jesus says we are to deal with disagreements. Think of the disasters you have known of or heard of in the life of church congregations, maybe even this one, and ask yourself whether things would not have turned out quite differently (just so much for the better) if Jesus’ directions had been carefully followed.
We aren’t asked to have a compassionate tolerance of everything and to let people get away with anything. We are to tell the truth even if that truth is a painful, tough truth. It’s not always a loving thing to say “Who am I to judge?” or “I’ll promise to stay out of your life if you stay out of mine. You can ruin your life but I won’t interfere”. That is not helpful. A real friend is somebody who cares so much that they are prepared to say something like, “Now, that was not one of your better decisions, was it?” A true friend would say “What on earth were you thinking when you did that?”
The deepest love we can have for one another is a love which is prepared to get involved: which cares enough to confront, to challenge and, if need be, to oppose. Such love requires real courage because it is liable to be misunderstood and can easily lead to hostility and rejection. Even with the best of intentions, mistakes can be made and relationships can go wrong. We are called to recognize right and wrong in love. But serious love for our neighbour must be the motivation.
When there is a breakdown in relationship, Jesus says the first step in attempting reconciliation is a private thing. We will make things worse if disagreements are brought up in public where self-defensiveness and self-righteousness could easily result and a person can be backed into a corner really quickly.
Often an apology is asked for. I believe that saying “Sorry” isn’t necessarily the best way to apologize. There’s not necessarily any interaction required when someone says “I’m sorry”. Everyone has seen a huffy child stomp off saying “I’m sorry” when it is very obvious that they’re not. A much more loving and helpful way to resolve an issue is to ask “Will you forgive me?” This requires a response and can often result in reconciliation.
Jesus is pointing out that, when there are differences between us, the responsibility for resolving them is ours; no one else’s! And the responsibility is mutual. We both need to have the issue settled.
And if our best efforts don’t bring reconciliation, (if we can’t sort it out ourselves), we are not to let it rest. We are to bring in one or two witnesses who can moderate things and help us to get back on track and work things out.
And then, if there’s still no resolution, Jesus says go to the “whole church” which for us doesn’t mean the whole congregation but simply “a bigger group”. There were no big Parishes and Hillsong churches back then. The purpose of bringing things to the bigger group is still to achieve reconciliation.
But finally, if all the efforts of the church fail, the stubborn one is to be regarded as being outside the church. It’s not that this person is dismissed or finished with. But the matter has now run its human course (everything humanly possible has been done) and it’s now up to God.
Jesus words seem harsh here, “let such a one be to you as a gentile or tax collector”, but remember Matthew's Gospel was written to encourage the sending out of the infant Church to the Gentiles to teach them. The church was very aware of the mission it had to “outsiders” such as Gentiles and tax collectors. This Gospel was written by an “outsider”, a tax collector named Matthew, whose selection by Jesus for him to be one of the disciples was a lesson in itself.
The Christian who refuses the authority of the community is not just to be shunned. He or she is to be loved more than ever and is to be the subject of outreach and concern; imitating the way in which Jesus was so interested in searching out tax collectors that he was described as their friend. These Gentiles and tax collectors were the very ones that God searched for to bring into the Church. Yes, offenders are dealt with. But they are to be dealt with in love, and for the purposes of reconciliation.
In all the gospels, this morning’s passage in Matthew 18 is one of the only two places where the word church is used. And as a Church, Jesus has given us the job of exercising authority for doing the work of God on this earth. We are called to bind and to loose. Our job is to bind the forces of evil which enslave people and to loosen the bonds of oppression which prevent people from living the fullness of life of God's kingdom. Whether that means opposing wrong actions of individuals or governments, clearly inappropriate values in our society or corrupt economic structures, the challenge of the gospel means that Christians need to love enough to speak uncomfortable truths in humility, but with courage. And when we do that, we can trust Christ’s promise to be there with us.
In financial and management terms, we know that, to survive, the Church must be a well-run organization existing among all the rest of our society. But, if we are to be true to Jesus, his life and his teaching, then we must sometimes act in a way that other institutions regard as foolishness. Normal thinking is that you’d have to be crazy to search out and to care for those who refuse the authority of the institution; but that is the way of Jesus. Not very many people have turned away from the Church because they found it too forgiving. But I’m sure that you know of someone who doesn’t come to Church anymore because they found it unforgiving and unloving.
We will always need the presence of Jesus to give us the courage and power to live our lives in love and harmony the way Jesus teaches. That is why Jesus finishes his instructions with a command to constant prayer. We should not expect that absolutely anything will be given to us if two of us agree and pray. The context of Jesus’ promise is living well together and winning back any lost member. The ultimate promise is that when we gather together in Jesus name, God is there in the midst of us.