Living With Others — Matthew 18

A text – Matthew 18:15-20
18:15 “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.
18:16 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.
18:17 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.
18:18 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.
18:19 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.
18:20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

A reflection:

This is an extremely powerful text. Like all extremely powerful things, it can bring healing or destruction.  Its power lies in the fact that it encourages humans to judge other humans. It is pretty easy to see that it might work as Jesus intended if applied in a case of gossip, for example: if a church member is spreading rumors about another member, and the victim of the gossip confronts the gossiper, either alone or in the company of others who know the gossip is false, the gossip and the harm might be stopped, and perhaps reconciliation could happen.

You wouldn’t think such things would happen in churches, but when people join communities of faith, they want to feel they can believe one another. It makes it very tempting then, when a problem arises, to talk about it with others and go a little big with your side of the story, so that you can get others to agree with you. Many church conflicts begin in just such small ways. And there are even uglier examples when someone tells an actual lie about another, misleading a company of others. Remember the novel Silas Marner? The life of a truly pious man is forever changed by such false human judgment, and God has to practically move heaven and earth to get Silas to live and love once again.

Where does Jesus end up by the end of this text? “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” For many years I worked with groups of people who gathered in Christ’s name and tried to come to understandings together by discerning what the Holy Spirit was calling them to do. When people consider that God might actually be in the same room with them and that the Holy Spirit might actually have an opinion on how they should live and act together, they listen, they behave charitably with one another, and they are surprisingly generous. God is acting today, and interested in how we live with each other.

God gives us the gifts of one another. And how we live together matters. It goes more easily if we live in gratitude for those gifts.

A prayer:

Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us blessing upon blessing and gift upon gift. Help us to work hard at living in gratitude for what you have given to us, and consider that you care how we use our gifts.  Amen.