It would be rather difficult to avoid talking this morning about today’s Gospel.
It is one of those that demand paying attention to,
and this Gospel in particular
is one that has been notoriously abused in history.
This abuse, this misuse and misreading of the text
happens because it is taken out of context.
Taken out of the setting of this chapter and this Gospel,
withdrawn from the thematic development
of the whole book of Matthew,
and separated from the witness of the ministry and teaching of Jesus,
the intention and purpose of this text
has then been turned around to the opposite meaning.
It has been perverted.
It has been used as a weapon for dividing the Church of Christ.
It has been used as a justification for exclusion and for excommunication.
Its application has been used to sunder the Kingdom of Heaven.
If this sounds like I am on a rant, it’s because I am.
I want no mistake in understanding
that here is a passage of scripture
that has been used to bring damage rather than reconciliation.
So this morning I plan to put this passage back into its context
and show you that it means just the opposite of what some have said.
…Just the opposite…
Let’s look at Matthew 18, the whole chapter.
The chapter begins with a discussion about
who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
And the answer Jesus gives
is to take a child and put the child in the midst of them and say,
“Unless you become like a child,
you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
The reality of the Kingdom of Heaven is described
in terms of relationship to children and their open trust.
Jesus then goes on with a long teaching
about what can get in the way of this openness of heart, the traps.
His examples are extreme:
If your hand, representing power,
is a trap to being open to the Kingdom,
cut it off.
If you eye, representing envy,
is a trap to divert you from the reality of the Kingdom,
pluck it out.
And above all, those who are little in the faith,
who are vulnerable,
are the very ones God seems to have the most investment in protecting,
for Jesus says that their angels, messengers,
always behold the face of God;
they always have an audience with God.
Then he tells the parable of the man having a hundred sheep
and loses one of them.
Jesus says that he leaves the 99 on the hills, out in the open,
and goes in search of the one that went astray.
Jesus is saying that the lost sheep is so important
that the other 99 are left at risk, until this one is found!
The concluding verse, the one just before today’s reading begins, is this:
“Thus it is not the will of your Father in heaven
that one of these little ones should perish.”
That is the context for today’s Gospel.
Now, if your brother (or sister), a little one in the faith, sins…
And the Greek doesn’t say, “sins against you.”
…first go speak to that person alone.
Just a nice personal conversation
to help bring the stray back to the paths of life.
If they don’t get it, don’t quit there;
bring one or two others into the conversation.
This little one is too important to let him wander off, keep going astray.
Others with you can help clarify the communication.
If he still hears amiss (that’s what the Greek verb here means),
if he still fails to listen
or disregards the words shared with him,
then get everybody involved, the whole congregation.
And if even with all these voices pointing clearly to the way,
he still hears amiss, doesn’t get it,
then he is like the gentile and the tax-collector.
Well, let’s look at Jesus’ relationship
to tax-collectors, sinners and even gentile foreigners/outsiders.
What did he do?
He ate with them!
He healed them!
He called them to follow him!
Matthew, remember,
was a tax collector, the one who recorded this Gospel.
So what is the teaching of Jesus according to his example
for our relationship with sinners and outsiders such as these?
The greatest love and service of ministry.
Therefore those who are being considered as outsiders/Gentiles
and as tax-collectors/sinners
are those whom we are to go after
until they are found
and brought back within the fold of the Good Shepherd.
Those folks out there we wouldn’t give two cents for
are that important.
It only takes two or three
coming together in harmony with the Spirit of God,
asking in the will of the Father,
for it to be done.
What if a whole congregation were of like mind in the Spirit?
Then truly we might know what it would be like
to be agents of binding up
what has already been bound up in heaven
and to loose
what has already been set loose in the will of the Father.
For that is what this part of the reading means –
that we are to reflect and cooperate in our actions
with what is already the will of the Father in heaven.
Is this a different way of reading this passage
than you may have been familiar with?
In case you need anything more to show that this way of reading the text
is consistent with the context,
look at the next verse following the selection for today.
It happens to be the first verse of next Sunday’s Gospel.
Peter listens to all this about going the extra mile for the lost sheep,
and says to Jesus,
“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?”
Isn’t there a limit; do I just keep going on forgiving forever?
So you see, this is a passage about going to all means and lengths
to keep inclusion in the household of faith.
This is the way of the Kingdom of God.
This is the reality of living out life in Christ.
This is the context for Paul too in the Epistle reading for today.
He writes:
“The commandments,
‘You shall not commit adultery;
you shall not murder;
you shall not steal;
you shall not covet’;
and any other commandment,
are summed up in this word,
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Love does no wrong to a neighbor;
therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”
This is the way of love,
the way of God who is love, Immeasurable Love.
This is the love that does not separate, does not divide,
but that brings together in union
hearts who have found their identity in Christ.
Is this a message we hear in this congregation today?
in this city, in this state, in this nation? in the world?
No, but we need to hear this message, now more than ever.
We have been scattered and separated enough recently by COVID
let alone by our own ideological divides that fuel divisions.
This is not a matter of trying to convince others about orthodoxy of belief,
to convince others to believe right doctrines.
This is a matter of giving witness to our own faith with sufficient clarity
so that others can come to a realization
about their own life dilemmas
where they are entrapped,
blindsided by their own going astray.
We are all being called to the ministry of reconciliation by this Gospel today,
challenged to address a multitude of dilemmas and problems
that people struggle with.
And, of course, our role is not to solve their problems,
but to share the light we have experienced
in our trust relationship with Jesus,
so that hopefully they too will discover for themselves
the transforming grace of God.
The ministry of reconciliation –
Heaven knows the world needs it.
With all the media attention given to deep divisions within the nation,
law and order versus racial justice
personal “rights” versus the common good
there is a profound need in the world
for a word that can unite peoples in reconciling love
rather than further divide, isolate and separate.
When all else fails, the Gospel proclaims,
treat them as a foreigner and tax-collecting sinner.
Good heavens, and just how do we treat the foreigners among us?
Where is the reconciliation work going on in the prison systems
where “sinners” are warehoused ?
Who really are the lost sheep?
Maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s you.
If so, I want to be treated like Jesus treated Matthew, the tax collector,
and the alien gentile foreigners:
not deported or excommunicated
but sought by the love of God.
