Sermon: Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 18:15-20, Sept. 10, 2023 + Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

Sermon: Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 18:15-20, Sept. 10, 2023 + Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

Concerning what makes for a good sermon, you’ve shared with me that you like to hear about the practical applications of the bible readings for Sunday and to be given helpful hints about how to live out your faith in daily life.

Well, we have that big time in today’s reading from Matthew where the gospel writer reports how Jesus outlined the very specific steps for holding members of the church accountable. “If another member of the church sins against you,” we heard, “go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.” That’s step one. If that doesn’t work, then Jesus says to confront the offender with the evidence of two or three other witnesses. That’s step two. If that doesn’t work, then you bring the offending member before the whole assembly of the church… That’s the third and final step.

This biblical advice is so concrete and specific that the process outlined in this passage made it into the ELCA constitution for congregations. If you want further reading, it’s in the ELCA constitution, available online, which is the basis for our congregation constitution:  chapter 15 on the “Discipline of Members and Adjudication.”

The process outlined in the constitution is basically about how to discipline and perhaps remove persons from membership in the congregation who have not made amends for destructive behavior that harms others and life in the community.

The emphasis on removal from membership is inspired by how the process Jesus outlines in Matthew ends: “If that member of the church refuses to listen to [the evidence of two or three witnesses], tell it to the church [the whole assembly], 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.” (Matthew 18:17)

In Jesus’ day, good, upright religious people would have had nothing to do and no association with gentiles (foreigners) and tax collectors. Basically, what we’re talking about here is excommunication, of denying offending members of the church any association with the community. It’s a shunning, an exile. It’s throwing the book at people and making them subject to the weight of the law and its punishments.

But let’s consider Jesus’ conclusion more closely. What does Jesus generally do with gentiles and tax collectors? What’s the wider witness of the gospel stories? Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors. He heals them. He includes them, seeking them out for special attention when everyone else shuns them and excludes them. Thus, the outcome of the 3-part process, ironically, is not ultimately about shunning at all.

This wider perspective from the witness of what Jesus does puts the disciplinary emphasis in a whole different light, doesn’t it? The wider message is that the process for holding each other accountable in Christian community is really about going the extra mile and then some to seek to maintain and restore relationships in community. It’s about seeking reconciliation and nurturing the bonds of affection in the church, going to the greatest of lengths to do so even beyond the apparent last resorts.

Thus, what seems at first only to be law also becomes gospel for us, good news. This good news focus on today’s passage is further reinforced by the story in Matthew that precedes today’s reading, namely the story of the lost sheep, where the good shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to seek out the one lost sheep that went astray. “And if [the shepherd] finds [the one lost sheep], truly I tell you, [that shepherd] rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” (cf. Matthew 18:10-13) That’s more gospel, not just law!

And then the exchange that follows today’s reading offers still more good news. The story involves Peter asking Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but I tell you, seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22) Or in some translations, 70 X 7 – that equals 490 times! Which is to say, offering forgiveness is never supposed to end!

The long-suffering patience of almighty God is what inspires the call to such unending forgiveness, as proclaimed by the prophet Ezekiel in today’s first reading: “As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11)

The apostle Paul also reveals that it’s our calling and our duty to love our neighbors, and by implication to forgive them. Paul writes, as we heard in today’s second reading: “The commandments…. are summed up in this word, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:9-10) Seeking to offer forgiveness proceeds from this divinely mandated call to love our neighbors.

It's a commandment that demands a lot of heavy lifting from us. Matthew reports that Jesus gives us the authority to engage in this hard work of maintaining and protecting and restoring community. “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth with be loosed in heaven.” To be entrusted with such authority and to do it faithfully is a tall order for us mortals.

Which is to say, listen to the weight of responsibility on God’s servants recorded in today’s first reading, in this case, it’s the responsibility on the shoulders of the prophet Ezekiel, but by extension also on the church and its leaders today. The Lord said to Ezekiel: “If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked ones, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand.” (Ezekiel 33:8). Ouch.

How on earth can we engage the weight of these responsibilities? The work and authority entrusted to us are not about cheap grace, but the hard work of holding each other accountable by naming wrong-doing. Our work is about protecting the community, but also not washing our hands of trouble-makers ending in the finality of excommunication. No, we’re called to seek endlessly to rebuild community – seemingly impossible tasks for us, especially when the stubborn human will insists on its own ways and we are prone to abusing the authority given to us!

Well, folks, there’s more good news, of course. We’re not in this alone. Jesus continues to be right here with us. Listen again to how today’s gospel ends: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20)

As I repeatedly say, that’s the only numbers game I play in church these days: where two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, Christ is there – here! – among us – among us here whenever we are gathered to hear his word and share in the supper; among us here in the waters of the baptismal font where we, as Paul writes, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ;” among us here whenever absolution is offered by one of us pastors; among us here whenever any of us gathers in holy conversation and we end up offering each other words of forgiveness and mercy.

All of these means of grace connect us with Christ’s death and resurrection, the ultimate display of God’s mercy and forgiveness and reconciliation and restoration. The presence of Christ among us in the power of his death and resurrection is that which makes it possible for us faithfully and wisely to exercise the authority given to us in the church to engage in the loving ministries of reconciliation, binding and loosing in Jesus’ name. It is Jesus’ presence among us that gives us the faith, the trust, the confidence to resist the temptation to abuse our authority, “throw[ing] off the works of darkness and put[ting] on the armor of light,” walking “decently as in the [light of] day.” (cf. Romans 13:12b-13a).

Thus, we plead, Christ, help us. Lord, have mercy on us – even as we offer our thanks to God for Christ’s unfailing presence among us to give us what we need to do the loving, forgiving, reconciling work entrusted to us. Amen.