Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost, September 7, 2014

Gospel: 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.

Reflections: Jesus teaches us about how to deal with people who sin against us. What a far cry from the message of today’s psalm!

We don’t often actually think about punishment or vengeance—but many of us grumble, or talk behind someone’s back. We might say something sarcastic. Perhaps we are by nature quick to “nip things in the bud.” Or maybe we bear with grievances for a long time—until we lash out because we can no longer hold the anger in.

            So often the message of Jesus is on the side of patience and forbearance. But fortunately, Jesus also gives us a way to address injustice. Unlike the ways listed above that we easily slip into, Jesus’ ways to resolution is not through expressing our feelings.

Instead, Jesus calls us to make every effort to help one another in love. Rather than compounding abuse by “getting it out of our system,” he counsels meeting face to face and honest sharing. If that doesn’t work, we are to try again with the help of others. The goal is restoration in love, not punishment or exclusion.

But some groups demand not unity, but uniformity. They are capable of conformity of thinking, but not of the sort of “agreement” to which Jesus refers to at the end of the passage. To “agree” involves being “gathered in my name,” that is, in the mind and heart of Christ, where love is the ultimate mediator among us.