Matthew 18,15-20,2026
God of Word and Wisdom, send us your Holy Spirit, so that by your light, we may see clearly what you call us to be and to do. Engage us by your truth so we know how best to follow Christ Jesus, your living Word. Amen.
This morning we sang:
“We are the hands and feet of Christ
Serving by grace each other’s need”
When we think of what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ we probably think of things like offering leadership in our congregations, helping with community groups that serve the needs of the disadvantaged, or speaking up for God’s justice
Our gospel lesson today gives us another way to be the hands and feet of Christ
We are directed as to how to offer forgiveness
What is there to be said about forgiveness?
It is hard to do
It is good to receive
Jesus taught about it
Forgiveness doesn’t change the past but it does enlarge the future (Paul Boese)
In looking about for what I could learn about forgiveness I discovered that forgiveness talk can have more to do with questions and less to do with answers
This reminded me of the work of Walter Wink
Wink developed a method known as Transformative Bible Study
This involves not looking at scripture as a factual text, but as a text with which we engage
One needs to be centred
To listen to and ask questions
As I worked with this text it seemed that in more than one place that I looked I was being directed to the questions
In following Wink’s method of Bible study we think about how our experience touches upon the experience of the text
This can sound good to some and frightening to others
Some of us expect that study will lead us to more information not to more investigation!
For today, let’s try that method in relation to today’s gospel text
What might it be like to be the one who had a problem in the story?
What if you were the one who felt that someone in the congregation had sinned against you?
How would you feel being told to go and talk to that one?
What would it be like to know that you were going to talk to someone and quietly lay out the problem as you see it?
Might the person be open to you?
Or defensive?
Or just plain angry?
Have you ever done this?
How did it work?
Taking all those questions to the text, how does it read for you now?
As I worked through this passage I remembered a synod meeting a few years ago
We were in Pictou Co.
New Glasgow I believe
Laurence DeWolfe was preaching
And he was touching on forgiveness
He asked us to do a few things
We were to pray for someone in the room
And then we were invited to go stand beside someone with whom we needed to be reconciled, or had forgiven
We were invited to do so, not commanded
And we all just stood there
Later I was talking with a friend about the experience
I thought if the process was changed a bit
If we were all invited to pass the peace, or process forward
Maybe that would have helped the process
She didn’t think so
We had 10 minutes or so to move, she said if we weren’t going to do it in that time we weren’t going to do it
I’m still not convinced
I think that sometimes forgiveness needs to be helped
If we could have felt that we were in a room where forgiveness would have been supported rather than judged, what might have happened?
That is the story that came to my mind as I thought about what it would be like to be a part of the experience Jesus was describing
This is how I connected to the gospel story this week
What about you? Or maybe you haven’t connected yet
Jesus has given a list of things to do when there are problems in community
First he says, go talk to the person
Now this is not, go tell the person what others are saying about him or her
And it is not go talk about that person
It is talk to the one who has wronged you
Jesus goes on to say
If the member listens to you, you have regained that one
What does Jesus mean by regained?
How might being listened to affect the way the two people would interact?
How much courage would it take to approach someone with whom you have a difference?
How much courage would it take to accept the word of someone who felt you had sinned against him or her?
Is there anything that comes to your mind as those questions are raised?
The lesson continues and we read:
But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you so that every word might be confirmed
We know that we who know new life in Jesus are called to live together, in community, in harmony
And it is not always easy to get along with other people
And so Jesus tells us that if going to talk to someone 1:1 should not lead to reconciliation
We are to take one or two others with us so that in the presence of others you may work together toward reconciliation
The others are there as a witness to what is said, not to take sides
They are part of the community too
They are not there to weigh evidence, but to support the reconciliation
Jesus is not instructing us to bring witnesses to testify against our “brother” who has sinned against us,
but to testify to the exchange between brother and sister.
This is not just about safety in numbers, but the safety of the numbers.
The health and welfare of the community are part and parcel of the problem of sin between two of the community’s individual parts.
At each point along the way, from the start as two individuals are together to the inclusion of witnesses and supporter to the involvement of the assembly as a whole, there is something else at stake. (Karl Jacobson The Text This Week)
How would that be?
To be in a room with one who disagrees with you and two who support you both?
How likely would it be that such a gathering could happen?
In the incident that I mentioned earlier that happened at synod,
it was concern over what people would think that kept me in my seat.
How would our ability to be reconciled to one another be affected if we believed that the community would support us completely?
Jesus then says, that if that one still refuses to listen, let the offender be as a tax gatherer or a Gentile
And how did Jesus treat the tax gatherers and Gentiles?
There are at least 2 takes on this passage
There are those who feel that to treat someone like a Gentile or a tax collector is to wash your hands of that one
This is not a light statement
This comes from understanding the view that the Jewish people and the early followers of Jesus would have had re Gentiles and tax collectors
Gentiles were those who were outside of the covenant
They were not people with whom you broke bread, or with whom you worshipped
They were outside of your notice
The tax collectors were even worse
They were employed by the conquering Roman government to collect taxes from the residents of Israel and Judah
While Gentiles were looked at askance, the tax collectors were held in even lower regard
And Jesus said, treat those with whom you can’t be reconciled like a Gentile or a tax collector
Some commentators suggest that there is a point of no return for some members of the community of faith
If a place of compromise or agreement can’t be reached, then the solution is to exclude that one
It is a solution that appeals to the human condition
Just put that one outside your circle of notice
In reality this rarely happens
It seems that those we try to shun, occupy as much of our attention as those we want to keep as friends
We talk to others about what they did to us
We rehearse in our minds the conversations by which they upset us
We remind ourselves over and over of what we should have said or done
In fact this person that we have decided to put beyond our notice can often gain a great deal of our notice
There is another way of looking at his passage
When we look at how Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors
He taught them
He ate with them
He forgave them
With Jesus the door to reconciliation is never closed
Jesus let all the people he met know what God expected
He didn’t lower his standard
But the invitation to reconciliation was always there
He told parables, such as the parable of the Good Samaritan, to help us know more about God
He called different kinds of people to be his disciples, like Levi the tax collector
He ate meals with all sorts of people, and the righteous of the day called him a glutton and a drunkard
Jesus really wasn’t about drawing lines in the sand to say who was in and who out
He made many attempts to draw people in
He spoke to the leaders of the people
He spoke with those who were outside of the covenant
In the verse immediately before our passage this morning
Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep in which the shepherd leaves the 99 and goes out to search for the one that is lost
And in the verses following this passage, Jesus talks to Peter about forgiveness
He says to forgive 70 times 7
Jesus was always ready to talk reconciliation
If there another way we could look at what he said?
So might Jesus mean that if we go to one who has wronged us and we are not heard
And we take one or two with us to talk again
And we are not heard
That to treat that one as a Gentile or a tax collector would be to always leave the door open to the possibility of restoration?
To pray for that one
But not to gossip
We never saw Jesus gossiping in the stories we read in the gospels
He would sometimes say forthright things to those with whom he disagreed
But he didn’t back stab, or undermine or assassinate another’s character
He was open to conversation
He told parables that would help people understand what he was all about
He didn’t carry the burden of going over and over the wrongs that this or that person had done
He had compassion for those who had wronged him
And so we are invited to have compassion for those who have wronged us
To not talk about them
To wish them well
And if that is too much, to pray that no wrong will befall them
Jesus says, essentially, that being a member of the church means you have a responsibility.
If your sheep gets lost you don’t look for an hour and call it quits.
You get out there and find that sheep.
If your brother sins against you seventy-seven times (another hypothetical certainty),
That’s how many times you forgive him.
And of course, we know from the Gospel of Matthew how Jesus treated the Gentiles and tax collectors.
Jesus then says whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven
(To continue with Wink’s method)
What does binding and losing mean?
How can what we do on earth affect what happens in heaven?
If two of you agree about anything it will be done
This is a huge promise!
How can we accept it?
Have you experienced this?
“For where two or three are gathered in my name I am there among them “
Do we act as if we believe this?
Notice that Jesus follows this with talk about the power of agreement,
saying that anything that is agreed upon by two on earth will be done for them by the Father in heaven.
This is a promise.
But notice as well that this is not where Jesus ends.
Jesus says last, “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
There is no question of agreement at this point.
Jesus is present, really present, where two or three are gathered in the Divine Name,
not just where two or three agree in Jesus’ name,
but where two are three are gathered;
presumably this includes the two who cannot listen to each other about a matter of sin, and how to handle it.
Even there, perhaps especially there, Christ Jesus is present.
Jesus knew that being a follower of his was not always going to be easy
And yet he invites us on that path
Jesus was not trying to side step what was coming
He knew that if he continued to stand up for the poor
If he continued to attack the status quo
In short, if he continued to do what God wanted him to do
Then he would be arrested
And given the political situation of the day
He would be tried and he would die
But he also knew that wasn’t the end
Jesus knew that God wanted him to stand up to what was going on to make a new way possible
Jesus would not slink around trying to avoid the wrong doing in the world
He would confront it and defeat it
As much as Jesus has made a new way of living possible
As much as Jesus has conquered sin and death
Jesus also knew that the new community of faith would not be like the Garden of Eden
There would be problems
People who knew God
People who trusted in Jesus
People who were living the new way Jesus made possible
Would still have trouble in their lives
The paradox would be that they would be living a new life, but still plagued with the same temptations
It may seem contradictory to say that Jesus knew these things for sure
And that we may bring our questions to the text
Sometimes we can get the idea that Christianity means accepting a series of dogmas
That God is not happy with our queries
We can bring the inquiries we have to our reading of scripture so that we are open to what God has to say to us
Scripture is a living thing
In reading the Bible we are engaging with God
So there will be something more to be gained in each reading
God wants to help us to grow in faith
Jesus has given direction for how to be in harmony with one another as individuals and small groups
It is not too much to think that Jesus intends for us to be in harmony on a larger scale
To be involved in working for the good of our families, our schools, our businesses, our communities, our world
We can come to think that our hope is that we are reconciled to God through Jesus
That we rejoice in this reconciliation
That we endeavour to live in harmony in our church
And pray for the world
Our relationship with God is one that can be expressed in all we do
And being reconciled to God in Jesus we can bring harmony to all of life, not just to our church life and our prayers
Lord make us servants of your peace
Where there is hate may we sow love
Where there is hurt may we forgive
Where there is strife may we make one
Creator, and ever-creating, God,
all creation draws life and breath from your Spirit.
We remember those whose breath
is drawn with difficulty,
and those who mourn breath’s ceasing.
For the sake of healing,
for the gift of comforting,
for companionship in all of our days, we pray:
We pray for youth and elders,
for bodies still stretching with growth,
for minds still seeking wisdom.
For the sake of roots that stand firm,
and love that branches out and returns again, we pray:
We listen for your voice:
in wind that rustles leaves and new ideas;
in birthings bearing grace and midwifing hope.
For the sake of holy mystery
encountered in community and creation, we offer our prayers
Amen
Bless
You are wonderfully made,
one of God’s wonderful works!
Invite people to greet those near them with:
(Name), you are one of God’s wonderful works!