Need for Advocacy

Matthew introduces images for the body of Christ in chapter 17 and, specifically, what the healthy body of Christ looks like. We are told not to be a stumbling block for the body of Christ but participate in a way that brings health and good will to the world. For this reason, when parts of the body of Christ cause stumbling, we are encouraged to cut them off. It is better to enter baptismal new life, maimed (without hand, foot, eye, etc.), than to burn in the perpetual pyres of Gehenna, the garbage dump.

In the case of a flock of sheep, the body of Christ is not able to know wholeness without the hundred being present. The shepherd will leave the incomplete 99 and, in order to find wholeness, will search for the 1 that is lost.

This week in Matthew 18:15-20, we are told that reconciliation is necessary for the body of Christ to know wholeness and health. For effective reconciliation, several things need to happen.

(1) One must claim one’s injury/wrong as one’s own and then carry that injury/wrong to the person who has committed the injury/wrong.

(2) The injuring party needs to hear and understand how s/he has injured/wronged the other person.

(3) If reconciliation doesn’t result, others are to be included to acknowledge that the person who is injured/wronged has tried to reach reconciliation.

(4) If reconciliation does not result, bring the injury/wrong before the CHURCH.

(5) If the injuring party refuses to reconcile, s/he is to be cast out, cut off, thrown into the burning fire of the garbage dump.

(6) Lastly, seeking always to know the wholeness and health of the body of Christ, we are to seek the one who is lost (cast out).

This, of course, leads to the question of, “How many times must we go through this process? That is, how many times must we forgive?” That is next week’s problem.

What we need to remember in the midst of this process is that “what we bind is bound on earth and in heaven, and what we loose is loosed on earth and in heaven. Do we withhold, bind, the gospel and punish? Or do we share, loose, what is gospel on the world?

Can we follow Jesus’ paraphrase in Luke of Isaiah’s instructions: bring good news to the poor, release the captive, bring sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (jubilee)? And while we ponder our promulgation of policies and posture, let us always remember that Christ is there among us cheering us on to know the power of his justifying reconciliation.

The projected plan seems very nice and tidy until one tries to practice healthy reconciliation. For instance, is it right for the church to equate ordination with possessing a driver license? Therefore, I offer this bit of doggerel to demonstrate, not a satisfactory resolution, but the frustration of recalcitrance and the need for continued, persistent advocacy for oneself and one’s neighbor.

“For Christ’s sake, forgive me please.

Let me up from bended knees.

I spoke some slights; I didn’t know.

You think I’ll burn in Hell below.

I just misspoke, a little thing,

A trifling quip, not meant to sting.

But truth; and so, now let me say,

‘Toughen up! It’s the worldly way.’”

 

Bruised, dismissed, I returned home,

Feeling like a garden gnome

Of plastic visage, hardened shell,

Cored, empty, like the wishing well.

Wishing I would stay away

Not speaking what I had to say

Of my issue or the laws

That support my rights and cause.

 

Determined, I went again.

This time I engaged two friends

To be witnesses of my plea:

For rights and freedom, liberty;

To get a job; not reproved

For special needs; and then removed

From the job I just acquired,

Rebuffed and cursed, no longer hired.

 

“I thought you had it,” one friend said.

“And then he cut you, cut you dead.

He raved and shouted, ‘Strong-arm me?

With two and you that makes it three.

Did you come to play the hob?

I know you’d like to have the job.

I’d like to have my business thrive

As well! That’s why you need to drive.’”

 

Shamed, broken, left in the lurch,

I tried once more in gathered church,

To make one more plea, appeal.

I spoke with passion and with zeal

Of talents, gifts, Holy Call,

Of God’s blessed people, one and all.

I spoke until my heart would break.

We’re here together for Christ’s sake.

 

Though the boss had understood,

His heart was stone, petrified wood.

“As leader you have vision,

Of Christ’s leading and his mission.

I know that you can Zoom and sing.

Indeed, you can do many things.

As problem solver, you do thrive;

But alas, son, you cannot drive.

 

“And so, I care not a jot

If you can do the job or not.

I do not care if you need

accommodation to succeed

Or if the law accuse me.

The facts ‘fore us shine so clearly

Amid this shuck and jive.

Alas, dear mouse, you cannot drive.”

 

Your pal, Nicodemus

Editor, Theologian, Counsellor, Mouse