Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, 18A, September 7, 2014; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of mercy, grant us the wisdom, the strength and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Those of you who have heard me preach more than once or twice might know that I often complain about lectionary reading combination – the scheduled selections of the Hebrew Bible, Second Testament, and Gospel readings. Today I love them. Today, the reading from Exodus in the Torah, the piece of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the Gospel passage from Matthew all speak to each other so beautifully, at least to my ears. I especially love the way the first two readings can help us realize what the Gospel reading is all about, not in a way that props up the Gospel, but in a way that illuminates the path for us.

The Torah portion is giving the instructions for celebrating the Feast of Freedom, otherwise known as Passover. The instructions are to remember and celebrate the Love that frees us from any kind of enslavement or oppression. In Hebrew, the word for Egypt, mitzrayim, literally means “narrow places,” the tight spots in which we find ourselves – you know, between a rock and a hard place. Over and over, the people are called to remember and celebrate that what God wants for people is to be free and to be fed. Throughout the Torah is the repeated admonition to remember what it was like to be in Egypt – in narrow places. And here’s the thing, it’s not just so that the people can be happy. The celebration of freedom comes with the moral obligation to also ensure the freedom of others.

Elsewhere, the Torah instructs: “You shall not wrong or oppress a foreigner for you were a foreigner in the land of Egypt. (Ex. 22:21)” and “Love the alien as yourself for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” Frequent reminders to not forget that you’ve been – your people have been — on the receiving end of bad behavior and do better. Make it better for other people.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans – this beautiful line – that love is the fulfilling of the Law (or the Torah). Owe no one anything except to love one another. All I owe you is love. All you owe me is love. All we owe each other is love. That’s how we are to live — honorably and respectfully, loving one another. Love is the fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets. So keep the teachings of Exodus and Romans in your minds while we move to the Gospel according to Matthew’s instruction manual for community discipline.

The context is that Jesus and his disciples are in Capernaum, in the Galilee of the Gentiles as Matthew calls it earlier. It was a very cosmopolitan region. This passage is in a section that begins with the disciples asking Jesus, “Who is the greatest in the realm of God?” In response, Jesus calls a child into their midst and says, “whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the realm of God, and woe to anyone to tries to trip up one of these little ones.” Jesus goes on to warn, “Don’t mess with vulnerable people, because in their faces is the face of the Divine. If a vulnerable person goes astray, the Good Shepherd goes in search of the one who went astray. And if he finds it, there is great rejoicing in heaven.” The verse before we pick up in today’s Gospel portion has Jesus reminding folks that “i\It is not the will of God that one of these vulnerable ones should be lost.”

I want to tell you that there are two translation issues with the first verse in our passage that can distort what the earliest manuscripts said (and furthermore the earliest manuscripts in this case are not identical). [1] The one word that here gets translated “member of the church” is simply brother – adelphos – like the second part of Philadelphia (the city of brotherly love). It could be translated fellow, or countryman, or companion or neighbor, but “member of the church” is an anachronistic leap. I mean, maybe your brother is a “member of the church” and surely Matthew the Gospel writer was talking about the newly developing church by the end of the first century, in which members referred to each other as brothers and sisters, but if it’s a narrative of Jesus’s teaching, translating the word adelphos as “member of the church” seems intellectually dishonest to me.

Then some ancient manuscripts say “sins against you” – some just say “sins.” In general, a version with fewer words is usually older than a version with more words. Sacred narratives usually get embellished, rather than having words or phrases deleted. Also, what comes before is about a sheep going astray. The word for sin means going astray, wandering away from the path of honor, being mistaken, missing the mark, being without a share in. [2] So I think it’s probably not a sin against you – singular. I find it ironic that in a teaching about being led astray, the translation is doing just that to us!

So: “If your brother strays from the path of honor, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If he listens to you, you have gotten him back on the right path.” The text note in The Jewish Annotated New Testament points out that “Rabbinic sources indicated that a person should never shame another publicly or he/she could be excluded from the world to come (b. Sanh. 107a).” [3] Just to be clear, this is not an instruction for a victim to confront her or his abuser privately. This is an instruction about the radical responsibility in a community to redirect people who have veered away from a path of honorable and respectful living. This is an instruction in which Jesus reminds that each is her or his brother’s keeper.

This is the community antidote to watching someone stray and shrugging one’s shoulders, or watching someone stray and feeling self-righteous and smug, or even worse, basking in Schadenfreude. [4] Jesus says, “Go find that person and point out where he went astray.” This is an amazingly good standard operating procedure for holding the community together while working through conflict. Notice that Jesus is calling every person in a community to be accountable for resolving conflict. Start, Jesus says, by going to the person who has gone off the honorable path and state your case in private. That gives the offender an opportunity to hear the grievance and to make amends – and very importantly, it gives the offender the ability to save face. I can’t stress enough how valuable that part is in resolving conflict: offering a strayer or an offender a path to return to dignity and honor. The point here is to restore relationship. In Biblical terms, the problem with sin always has to do with broken relationship. And broken relationships make individuals and families, whole assemblies, entire communities – even nations — unwell.

But if, in private, he doesn’t listen to you and return to the honorable way, your work is not done, you are to take one or two others along with you and try again — not to outnumber or gang up on the offender, but because two or three can witness to the offense and can be much more creative in conversation than one person alone can be in a conflict situation. And then if that doesn’t work, tell the assembly and if the offender refuses to listen even to the assembly – and this is the best part of all – treat that person as a Gentile or a tax collector. That would seem to say, separate from them, ostracize or shun them – unless we think about how Jesus treats Gentiles and tax collectors in the Gospel of Matthew – with scandalous hospitality and deep compassion. In the Gospel of Matthew, Gentiles and tax collectors get treated with respect and compassion, with healing and with food. Jesus eats with them (9:9-10), invites them to follow him (10:3), parties with them as friends (11:19), feeds more than 4,000 of them (15:32-39). In other words, go out of your way. My brother-in-law often says: “However far out of your way you’re willing to go, that’s the way.”

Do you know how I know that Jesus is talking about treating people who behave dishonorably with scandalous hospitality and deep compassion? Because right after this passage, Peter says, “Wait a minute – how often I am supposed to forgive the same person who sins against me personally? As many as seven times?” And Jesus says, seventy-seven or seventy times seven, depending on how that is translated. Doesn’t matter whether it is 77 or 490 does it? Who could do that? Who could do that? (Who is one of the names of God, so the answer is yes.)

I imagine that you’ve been reminded of some conflicts with people in your own experience as I’ve been talking. In fact, maybe you’ve gotten so distracted that your mind has wandered away altogether. If that’s the case, I’d like to call you back to ponder what this teaching might this have to do with conflict in this community. Every community has conflicts that have been well established. Emmanuel isn’t particularly conflicted these days, but we will do well to pay attention.

You know, it’s not by accident that this instruction follows Matthew’s descriptions of little faith and flagging zeal, Jesus’ followers judging and finding fault with one another, and people wandering away. When people start wandering away, it is the lack of forgiveness that is the chief suspect – forgiveness of oneself, of another. William Hawkins, writing for Christian Century, contends that “More than anything else, the unwillingness to perform the difficult task of forgiveness and reconciliation in the love and spirit of Christ is what robs the church of that quality of life that first attracted outsiders.” [5] It is that quality of life that sets faith communities apart from other attempts at creating community. Hawkins also points out that “The only petition of the Lord’s Prayer with a condition placed at the conclusion is the one about forgiveness. One cannot help believing that Jesus knew forgiveness would always need special emphasis.”

According to Jesus’ instructions, the work of reconciliation begins with accountability of every person, with respect for dignity, with hospitality and deep compassion – generosity of spirit and sound discernment in community. And then Jesus reminds his followers – in what I imagine was their stunned silence – he reminded them of what he has said before – that they have the authority to “bind” and “loose” The Law – that is Torah, or Holy Scripture. Together they can discern how to apply a commandment – under what circumstances it must be applied (that is, bound) and under what circumstances it did not apply (that is, loosed). They can decide what obligations or terms are binding, or what rules or agreements can be loosely applied. Here it’s clear that it’s not just Simon Peter alone who has that authority. The authority to discern comes from agreement within the community of disciples. Jesus might have said “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there will be conflict!” Indeed he’d already said earlier in Matthew that following him would cause all kinds of conflict. What he offers here is blessed assurance. “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” What he offers here is blessed assurance of Divine Presence and reconciliation.

So I wonder, what is it about this community – Emmanuel Church – that attracts outsiders? Well – okay – it’s the music; it’s the architecture; it’s the progressive theology; it’s the enthusiasm for a church and a synagogue sharing resources. What I mean is, what moves people who are “just here” for any other reason into a more meaningful and satisfying and fuller relationship with one another? What moves people to claim Emmanuel Church as their own? I believe it is, in large part, the experience of being in a community that is actively engaged in the work of forgiveness and reconciliation. So what I really want to know is what forgiveness and reconciliation work needs to be done here so that we can continue grow in love and spirit? And who will join me in that work?

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