15th Sunday after Pentecost – September 10, 2023

Matthew 18:15-20

A long while back we had an amazing welcome brunch to St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Wilmington NC.

About 35 people gathered to get to know each other and the church a little better.
And to of course…eat breakfast casseroles.
As was our practice…we all shared what it was about church that drew us there or kept us there.
And we tried our best to share with the new folks what St. Matthew was about.
What we did and how it ran.
I always had a list printed out in front of me so that I did not forget to mention things one could be involved in and things one could sign up for.
It has never dawned on me until this week as I was producing this homily on Matthew 18 that I should have also added: Things you can get excommunicated for.
If you are unfamiliar…excommunication is a fancy church word for shunning people – for kicking them out.

Only once in my ministry have I threatened to excommunicate a parishioner.

And I cannot remember the exact details…but I’m pretty sure it had to do with food.
The two perpetrators were in charge of food for a church event and suggested ordering…Little Caesars’ Pizza.
And since cheap dough-y chain-store pizza is an abomination unto the Lord…
I suggested that excommunicating them would be a better option.

Well…Our Gospel text for today is sometimes called the excommunication text.

And there’s more than one reason why this passage makes me a little skittish.
Here’s why…I know the stories of the good people I have served for 49 years now.
I have heard of how…as a divorced person…or as a fallen away church person…or as a backslider…or as someone with a different sexual orientation…some were shunned or denied baptism or communion or marriage and even burial.
I have heard how…when wielded with precision…this text has been used as a tool to eviscerate people you love.
While some smug…far-superior Christian then gets to stand above you thinking they have “spoken truth in love”.

This text makes me skittish because Jesus is talking about how to treat someone who has sinned against you.

But instead…it has been used to turn away someone who the nice people think is a sinner…and that’s different.

This text makes me skittish because I wish Jesus had said:

“If someone has sinned against you…then go talk directly about them to a few other people before posting a thinly veiled remark about it on Facebook.”
But he did not.
So now I must think about all the times in my life that I have chosen to triangulate others into a drama about someone else.
Rather than just going to that person privately.

This text makes me skittish because Jesus is giving instructions for what to do if someone in the church sins against you.

This text is often misused as an excuse to not take responsibility for our own feelings.
Because it is really about when someone does you actual harm.
So…you need to confront them about how hurt you are.

This text makes me skittish because I just don’t trust us to get this kind of thing right.

I have a hard time trusting myself to be clear of my own self-interest and emotional triggers enough to not get this kind of thing wrong.
So…I started to go back and search for the promises we have in this text.

There is a promise in Matthew 18.

But to hear it we need to read the three verses that precede our reading for today.
“If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he 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.”
Next verse: “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.”
This text is about Christ promising to be present in reconciliation because that is God’s nature.
O Jerusalem…leave it to humans to take something Jesus taught about reconciliation…and his presence in forgiveness and instead use it to judge and exclude others.

But…stay with me…because there-in lies the good news.

OK then…no matter how much Jesus’ words have been twisted.
No matter how badly this text has been used against us.
Or that we have used it against other people.
That cannot cancel the promise.
The promise is that God desires to be reconciled to us.
And we to each other.
And that when we seek reconciliation…Christ is present.
Contemptible…obnoxious behavior is never powerful enough to nullify the promise that God can bind together that which our sin has ripped apart.

What I mean is this: We Christians have done our best to kill this thing…the Gospel…and yet here it still is.

The Church of Jesus Christ has survived papal corruption…the inquisitions…the crusades…sectarianism…racism… gender bias and slick toothy TV preachers.
And it will survive us too.

The power of the death and resurrection of Jesus will not be nullified by the church’s inability to live up to the promise of life and life abundant.

Because God’s ability to make things right is always more powerful than our ability to get things wrong.
I mean seriously…if I believed more in the church than I did in God’s ability to redeem our dirt…
I would have gotten out of the ministry long ago.

Let me say this: This church will let us down.

The pastor will say or do something stupid or someone else will hurt us and we will fail to meet someone’s expectations.
But that if someone leaves because the church let someone down…
We might miss the way the gorgeous…shimmering grace of God comes in and fills in the cracks left behind from our brokenness.
And it is just too wonderful to miss.

So let us not put our trust in this church.

Let us put our trust in Jesus…who says…where two or more people who get things wrong are gathered…I am here.

Who says…where two or more people who don’t bother to sign up for jobs or give money to church are gathered…I am here.
Who says…where two or more people who triangulate and gossip about each other are gathered…I am here.
That’s the promise.

He is here with a power that is not our own.