In many ways, this text is for us a legal document. If you look at our new constitution you will find that the process we have in place for conflict resolution and reconciliation comes right out of this passage in Matthew.
We say that if we have an issue with someone in the church, we will first go to that person, individually, to confront the person with that problem. After that we will take a couple of people with us to address the issue, and then, if that doesn’t resolve the problem, we will go to the whole congregation. It is a sort of one, two, three, and you’re out program.
As it is laid out for us, this process can be helpful to know but not pleasant to implement. Yet there are times when it becomes necessary for us to use it. But, I am not sure today that this reading fully captures Matthew’s understanding of what Jesus is saying.
I know that I have told you before that context is everything, and today, I think, this is particularly true. You see, the text that is immediately before this is the story of the lost sheep. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to go look for the one that is lost. When the shepherd finds that one, he rejoices just as our Father in heaven rejoices whenever a sinner is returned to the fold. In this context, our text today is not about how to get people out. It is about keeping people in. This makes this passage much more challenging.
Then I read the passage that immediately follows this passage where Peter comes to Jesus and says, “Lord, how many times do I need to forgive these people before I can use this really cool one, two, three, and you’re out program, seven times?”
Jesus says, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times, or seventy times seven times.”
Now when Jesus says this, he is not speaking of these numbers literally; he is using these numbers much more metaphorically. Jesus is not saying that you can keep track of the number of times a person sins against you, whether it be seventy-seven times or four hundred and ninety times. He is using a number that is much bigger than this humble seven. He is using the number seven for what it represents: like the number of creation. We know that the entire world that we live in, that place we have come to know as not being limited to the universe we live in, but a cosmological multiverse that continues to daze and amaze us, was, biblically speaking, created in seven days.
While Peter is speaking of the literal number of seven, Jesus is using this much broader understanding of seven. In this context, Jesus is saying that maybe forgiving a person for as long as the time that it takes to create the immensity and the complexity of our multiverse is not enough time. It is that amount of time times ten (another number of wholeness) plus another seven units beyond that. It is another way of saying, “forever and a day”. Suddenly, Peter, who asks about the use of this one, two, three, and you’re out process, is confronted with forgiving people with a number of times that is huge, beyond counting, beyond comprehension. You couldn’t even figure this number out if you took your shoes and socks off; or, at least, I can’t.
So, what is it that Jesus is saying to us then when he says, “If a member of the church sins against you, go and speak to that person in private?” I am convinced that this part of the text is truly about reconciliation. It is all about trying to be listened to. But once you get past that point, when you are bringing witnesses in to be part of the process, you are talking about legal proceedings. By the time you get to presenting before the church, you are anticipating a jury with a decision that will push someone out the door.
Yet, even at this point, Jesus tells us that we are to think of that person as a gentile or a tax collector. Let us remember, Matthew is described in this Gospel as being a tax collector, and Bartholomew, literally, son of Ptolemy, is most likely an Egyptian gentile. So, these people, the gentiles and the tax collectors, are not beyond our community; they are the object of our evangelism—they are potential members of our community.
And then, as I thought about this text further, I wondered if we aren’t taking this text too literally with the word one. For the Greek in this passage is written in a way that is difficult to translate. The singular member here is more like an organized group with a single name, and that group then sins against you all. In this case, in may be that it is the responsibility of the community, that is the congregation, to confront that evil together as the body of Christ in the world.
Take an issue that we as a community know to be destructive to the wholeness of the body of Christ, an issue like xenophobia, that fear of the stranger, for instance. Because we know that we are commanded to care for the stranger, then we are called to confront that issue of xenophobia head on. We are to first address the people who are fueling that fear. If that doesn’t work, then maybe we should start organizing with other congregations in our immediate locale to confront that group. And if that doesn’t work, then maybe we are to call upon the resources of the greater Church to publicly confront and denounce those who would continue to create an atmosphere of fear concerning the foreigners among us.
For Matthew’s time, the Church would have been understood as being all believers instead of an individual worshipping community. This passage then could be the organizing principle for activism that begins in a local congregation and organizes the people around issues that both concern the whole church and also insult and assault the body of Christ.
In this larger context, we can look at what happened during the Reformation. Luther is first confronted by the Catholic Church. When he refuses to recant, Luther is summoned to Worms where he is more publicly called upon to renounce his writings and teaching. Finally, he is commanded to come to Augsburg where he and his teaching are rejected by the whole Church. Luther and his followers are excommunicated from the Church, and afterwards both church bodies have born the scars.
The Catholic Church is now known as the Roman Catholic Church, and those who were excommunicated with Luther have become known as the Lutherans, as we well know. What is important for us to know is that conversation between the two Churches continues. We are as foreigners and tax collectors to one another, but we are foreigners and tax collectors that have respect for one another.
At another level, I have been thinking that if this passage is about maintaining the health of the people gathered in the body of Christ, then there may be some more positive uses for this passage. If the sin is not a sin of commission (what we have done) but a sin of omission (what we have left undone), then this passage may help us enter into a more active ministry.
For instance, if you have an idea, a project, or a ministry that you think might help us become more widely known in our community, but you don’t know how to get it started, then it might be helpful to talk to another person about it. If that person can’t help, then gathering a couple of people who have some expertise in the area might be in order. If that does not produce any benefit, then expand the base; take it to the congregation for their consideration, ideas, and blessing. In this way, we can see that Jesus has not given us these words only to limit the community of believers, but also to build community and involve all of Christ’s followers in all that we do.
When I was a sophomore in high school, at the Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped in Janesville, I had the crazy idea that I should transfer to public school in Kenosha where my family lived. I knew that any number of other students had tried transferring before, and most of those people ended up returning to WSVH within the year. There was no getting around the fact that going to public school was difficult. I had no idea whether I would be able to do it. So, I went to teachers I had respect for and confidence in their judgment and asked them what they thought. Some thought that I would be able to make it; others thought that I would be back rather soon, but that I should try it anyway.
When I ran into difficulties, I was able to go back to those people to ask for help. They gave me some very good suggestions and aids that made it possible for me to be the first totally blind person to graduate in the Kenosha public school system. But without the support of those people and finally the support of the whole group of teachers, I would not have been able to do it. So, part of this text today is telling us to learn to depend on the people around us. We have been given this amazing gift in the body of Christ—this gift of mutual support for us in our daily lives. We need to use this gift.
So today, I want you to see and understand that this passage for us concerning conflict resolution and reconciliation is not just a one, two, three, and you’re out program. It is also something that can be used for enhancing and enriching our daily lives. We have been given the power of binding and loosing on earth what is already bound and loosed in heaven. We have been given, with one another, the power in prayer to ask for the benefit of the world. We are not in this worshipping place by ourselves. God has created us with a need for each other and has given us each other to need, and God has promised that, wherever we gather in Christ’s name, Christ will be there with us always.
As you consider this text throughout the week, may you find respect for yourself and your sensibilities, confidence in the support of others, and power in this gift of God’s people who are called out to serve, this thing we call the Church; and, with your discernment, may we find ways to build up this place we call Albany Lutheran Church.
No comments:
Post a Comment