Pentecost 15 Sunday, September 10, 2023

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Matthew 18:15-20

[Jesus said to the disciples:] 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. 16But 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. 17If 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. 18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19Again, 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. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

One of the downsides of doing a “Super Quick Bible Study” is the necessary focus on just a snippet of scripture. That means I as the writer and you as the reader end up occasionally studying scripture superficially. This snippet from Matthew 18 is a perfect example of such pitfalls.

With quickness of study and brevity of scripture as my goal, I’m not able often to put the few verses of scripture for the week into the larger context that’s really needed to understand what’s going on. Matthew 18:20 is often quoted out of context as Jesus assures us where two or three are gathered, there is he in the midst of them. In its “out of context-ness” this verse is frequently interpreted as meaning that Jesus is just as present in our small group gatherings as he is in a church that worships thousands of people at a time. In other words, size doesn’t matter to Jesus. So, we shouldn’t fret if our worshiping community has only 11 people in it. I believe that’s true. But it isn’t what Jesus was saying here.

When we pull the camera back on 18:20, we see that Jesus isn’t talking about group size at all. He’s talking about church conflict. He’s teaching that when disagreeing church members get together to talk through their problems, he will be right there in the midst of them. To me, that’s more comforting than Jesus promising to be present in my group of five that showed up to an event where I’d hoped for one hundred.

And then, if we pull the camera back even more on this 18thchapter of Matthew, we see that these six verses are about a larger vision of God’s kingdom. These verses are part of a series of teachings in which Jesus uses hyperbole, exaggeration. 

Some of these teachings we choose to take literally, and some we don’t. For example, we don’t drown others for being “stumbling blocks.” And we don’t encourage people to pluck out their eyes or cut off body parts because they’ve sinned. And most shepherds would not abandon 99 sheep to go looking for one sheep. Jesus’ exaggerated response to Peter’s question about forgiveness in verse 21 shows that he knows we want forgiveness to be a quick and simple answer although it’s not.

Jesus uses hyperbole to give us the opportunity to learn new truths. He’s teaching us what it means to live in community with one another, including times when we greatly disagree with each other. This chapter starts out with the disciples asking Jesus which of them was the greatest. I figure this disappointed Jesus that they would ask such a question about greatness when he’d been teaching and witnessing hard to what it means to be the least. But he guides them patiently in Matthew 18 to a different way of thinking about the Kingdom of God and about the church that would one day be its imperfect proclaimer.

Readers: Super Quick will be taking a vacation for the next couple of weeks. See you soon!

Matthew 14

So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. 30But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Matthew 15

21Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” 23But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” 24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 25But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” 26He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” 27She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” 28Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Last week,  the SQBS of the Week was centered on the story of Jesus walking on the water. Remember, Peter, sees him and asks to walk out to meet Jesus. He starts out okay, but then gets scared and starts to drown, When Jesus is pulling him out of the drink he asks: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Peter isn’t always a shining star, and yet he becomes the leader of the church. His “little bit of faith” is illustrated several times. Then, 

less than a chapter later, a woman with no religious credentials is told, “Great is your faith.” That’s no coincidence, that’s an intentional contrast by gospel-writer, Matthew.

This woman isn’t a dog, as she seems to be called. She shows how a person can be bold and brave in approaching God without fear. Society’s strikes against her do not limit her faith or her persistence. She’s aware of her place in life, the limitations placed on her, she’s aware she’s not one of the children of Israel. She just wants her child to get better and says to Jesus, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

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While we might not understand some of the difficulties of this story, and probably never will, we get the point at the end. Persistence and faith make a powerful pair. Jesus calls us to a discipleship that looks a lot like hers. She persisted and her persistence demonstrated her faith.  

Some might look at her actions and call her stubborn. But persistence and stubbornness are not the same word. Stubbornness is a dogged determination not to change your attitude or your position. It’s digging in your heels, not budging, not going anywhere. Persistence is movement. It keeps moving forward with a course of action despite hardship or oppression. Persistence seeks change and progress. Persistent faith is what we need for mission. Mission is movement. It’s growth. It’s seeking. Stubbornness mixed with pride never moves us forward. Persistence mixed with humbleness is the lesson in this lesson.

Matthew 14

14When [Jesus] went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” 18And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

You probably know this miracle of feeding pretty well. It’s the only miracle of Jesus told in all four gospels. Each one is a little different, but the core story is consistent. We’re told Jesus, the disciples, and a huge crowd of followers are in a deserted place (like an urban food desert), that it’s getting dark, and everybody is hungry. Matthew tells us there were 5,000 men, and he notes this doesn’t count the women and children. If we did count the women and the children, how many would it really be? 35,000? That ups the demands of a dinner miracle big time.

The disciples recognize there’s a big problem brewing. They have a quick staff meeting with Jesus and make a recommendation to dismiss the crowd so they can walk to various villages to buy food before all the stores close down for the day. Sounds reasonable. But, as usual, Jesus is looking at it with different eyes and a different agenda. He rejects the disciples’ very practical and responsibility-free suggestion. Instead, Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat. Say what!? They point out that all they have are two fish sandwiches, so obviously his request is laughable. How can they possibly make a miracle of abundance out of such scarcity? Ah, the age-old human question.

What they and we discover is that a little bit in Jesus’ hands becomes plenty, plus leftovers. Notice the disciples were the stewards charged with handing out the abundance come from God. It’s an abundance that’s always there even in desert places.

All of should sit up and take notice when Jesus invites the disciples to come up with a miracle of abundance in that deserted place. I can only assume that in places of scarcity in our community, Jesus is still inviting us to discover how we can create a miracle of abundance.

Very often we are disciple-like in our responses. You’ve heard them, you’ve said them, you’ve thought about them: There are too many homeless people downtown – round them up and move them out. Too many people live in food deserts in rural and urban areas –let them shop at the local Dollar General for low quality processed foods, let them take the bus to the Publix across town. Too many people use the local Emergency Room like it’s their doctor’s office – they should stop being so inconsiderate to those of us with awesome insurance.

Jesus keeps teaching us in so many parables and so many miracles that abundance is all around us. With faithful stewardship, political will, deep care for our neighbors, and our pooled wisdom; we can’t be Jesus, but we can find ways to tap into the abundance all around. We can always claim something isn’t possible when it’s something we don’t want to do anyway, something that isn’t a priority, something that’s too much trouble. But when we’ve put our minds and hearts to a problem, we have, and we can, work stewardship miracles.

Matthew 18:20

Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

This well-known scripture isn’t part of our scripture readings for this Sunday of July 2nd but knowing this holiday is just around the corner, I thought about this passage. I didn’t think about it because I’m anticipating having a pretty small crowd of worshipers this Sunday. It seems nearly everybody will be out to the beach or mountains. The disappointment of a low-attendance Sunday might be soothed by this scripture about two or three being gathered. 

Matthew 18:20 has consistently been ripped out of context and grossly misused. I assume most of us have heard it used as an assurance that there is no group too small for Christ to be present with us. I want to ask, “Who thought that there was?” Is it throwing shade at the Jews who required ten males in order to constitute a liturgical community? Is it saying that Jesus guarantees his presence at much less than that? Jesus wins at graciousness again! When scriptures are cut out from their biblical contexts, they become like a plant picked from its stem. It will soon whither and eventually become unrecognizable. Matthew 18:20 has become unrecognizable. Let’s see if we can replant and regrow it. If we can, we might just have a message much needed on this 4th of July as divisiveness in our country keeps rotting our relationships. So, let’s take a smidge of Super Glue and paste this abused little verse back into the whole of Matthew.

When we do this, here’s what we discover when we put this famous passage back into Matthew 18. Here’s Matthew 18: 15-17:

If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. ’If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. 

Note the “two or three witnesses”. What’s Jesus talking about here? He’s teaching about how to handle conflicts, he’s giving a process for reconciliation. Many of our church constitutions site these verses for the handling of church conflicts, even to this day. 

The Jesus method of reconciliation is: Talk to your disagreeable person one-on-one, if this doesn’t work then take one or two other people to talk with them. If that doesn’t work, you’ll need to call a congregational meeting. If they remain contrary and toxic to the community, they’ll need to be excommunicated. The assurance given here is that even in the small group of two or three faithfully trying to work things out, Jesus will be present. In faith, we trust that because he is present things will work out as God wills. 

The culture of our country on this 247th anniversary of independence, is one in which our United States of America are alarmingly dis-united. More than that, we are polarized and uncivil while promoting name calling and violence. As I’ve said before, our church of Matthew 18 seems woefully reluctant to do much about it. We’re gathering with the like-minded, avoiding difficult conversations, and calling names in secret. 

I wonder if part of the problem is that we don’t just disagree on points of policy or ethics; we increasingly hate and avoid each other. We even talk about how we are living in totally different concepts of reality. If it’s true that we are living in parallel universes, what we know about the definition of “parallelisms” is that by their very nature they can never met, never touch, never be like-minded.

That makes even Jesus’ reconciliation counsel seem a bit impossible. If our realities, our paths can never cross, then what really is the need to even try and work it out? I think our only hope and succor is that the same assurance in Matthew 18:20 still holds, “I will be in the midst of them.” What more could we really need except the courage and assurance we hear there.

Maybe a new ritual for July 4th might be to use our great freedom and seek out just one person with whom we disagree about politics, religion or a family spat, and talk about it one-on-one. After all, Jesus promises to be there, so that makes three. In that is grace. A grace we need. God, (please) bless America.

Romans 5:1-5

1Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
 

Many of us are casually or routinely familiar with Alcoholic Anonymous’ 12-Step program. These steps have a proven record of keeping people sober as they continue to live with the disease of addiction. For example, the first five are:

• 1. Admitting powerlessness over the addiction
• 2. Believing that a higher power (in whatever form) can help
• 3. Deciding to turn control over to the higher power
• 4. Taking a personal inventory
• 5. Admitting to the higher power, oneself, and another person the wrongs done

When anything in life (or faith) is described in “steps” we know that means it’s a calculated process. It means we take baby steps, grow from one step to the other. It means we won’t be successful if we try to tweak the steps, or speed things up by jumping from step 1 to 5. To be a living thing is to be a growing thing and growth is inch-by-inch with all sorts of stages.

Paul in this passage in the letter to the Romans speaks of how we can boast in our hope; but he also outlines a 4-step program to getting to this sobriety of the spirit. He outlines the steps like this:

• 1. Suffering produces endurance,
• 2. Endurance produces character,
• 3. Character produces hope,
• 4. Hope does not disappoint us. 

I’m sure there are many people living with addiction who wish they could snap their fingers and get sober. When I hear of friends and parishioners who attend four AA groups each week, who must seek out the local AA group wherever they are on vacation or a business trip or visiting family; I realize what a big commitment it is. How difficult it must be to slow your longings down to engage in a program that has a whopping 12 steps to go through.

When I see people suffering physically, mentally, and/or spiritually, those longings are the same. Don’t we all want to go straight from our current suffering to the bliss of a hope that does not disappoint us? But, scripture witnesses, as do our own lives, that the trip from suffering to hope is not a straight road on I-90 through the sunflower fields of South Dakota. Instead, there are big hills, switchbacks, detours, and often glum scenery. 

When Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross laid out her steps of grief decades ago, we all were comforted to understand that grief was a journey and that though we might always walk with a limp, we would walk and function again. She had observed these in the families she worked with. I suspect Paul saw his 4 steps in the lives of those he ministered with and probably in himself as well.

Understanding and believing that hope is possible and is the end-product of our confidence in God gives us a hope that doesn’t disappoint all along the way. Be of good courage, friend.

Acts 2

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Much of what is told in the gospels is all about the events of Jesus’ life (birth to death basically), as well as things Jesus said and did in between that birth and death. At Pentecost, the story 50 days after Easter Day, a shift happens. The risen Christ becomes the ascended Lord. Now all of us disciples are left staring up into the clouds mumbling, “Now what?” It was a very reasonable question.

Yes, Jesus had spoken about not leaving them abandoned by his death or his “I won’t be with you anymore”-ness. But what really did all that mean. It was hard to imagine. Being a called disciple didn’t mean you always understood what Jesus was talking about. It just meant you were called to listen and learn as best you could. 

For forty days after Easter the risen Christ spent time appearing to various disciples and kept teaching them. Then on Day 40, he ascended into heaven. For the next ten days, I assume the disciples were holding a very long discernment retreat. On the 50th day after Easter, they were all together in one place, with their retreat sticky notes and newsprint up on the walls recording their individual answers to questions like, “What I think Jesus would have us do if he was still here…” and “On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you that Jesus will return in the next two weeks?” Just when Peter asked, “Who wants to share first?”, a mighty wind blew through the windows and sucked all the sticky notes right off the walls. They knew that often in scripture God was present in cloud and wind. Next, they saw a flame above the heads of each one and yet, not a hair was singed. No one had to say it out loud, but they all thought, “This is what it was like when Moses saw the burning (unconsumed) bush!”

Scripture says they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were filled with the power of the Spirit and empowered by it. One sign of this power was their ability to communicate the gospel in many languages. Yes, it was a miracle of communication, but more significantly, it was the birth of a community. That community abides today as the Christian Church, even with its flaws and failings. Today, we are the faith descendants of those original Pentecost people.

The questions before us this Pentecost 2023 are: What sets your hearts and your hair on fire now? Where do you find your passion? What concern/issue/injustice/need keeps you up at night and how might the power of the Holy Spirit work through you to address it? How do you tell the gospel story that burns within you?

These were all things our ancestors in faith had to figure out in their generation. They made mistakes. They squandered opportunities. But they were also brave. They were willing to be guided in a new direction. They trusted that God was in the midst of the wind and fire, and in the midst of their messy ministry. They had a lot of “what now” questions and so do we. We have gratefully inherited the trust and confidence in God of those first disciples. And so, with Christ, we continue to abide. 

John 14

[Jesus said to the disciples:] 1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

This Sunday the Church reads together some sayings of Jesus from John 14 that they usually reserve for their funerals. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus begins. At the burial of a loved one we hear that as if it’s spoken just to us as we grieve our losses and confront our own fears about death and dying.

But now we hear it in a different season, Eastertide, and we hear it outside of fresh grief. We can take a little time now to ask what was going on with Jesus that caused him to counsel us not to have such troubled hearts. In funeral sermons, we skip over any Bible study like this.

“Let not your hearts be troubled” is spoken while Jesus and the disciples are having their last meal together, all with clean feet after Jesus stooped to wash them. And, some very troubling and confusing things have just happened. Jesus has just outed Judas to Peter as the who will betray him, and Judas has just exited into the night. The rest of the disciples don’t seem to know what’s going on. Jesus tells them straight out that he is with them only a little longer but where he is going, they cannot come. Presence will soon become absence. The sheep will have no shepherd. Peter declares that he’s man enough to go with Jesus even to laying down his life. Jesus looks at him and says it isn’t true because before morning he will have denied him three times.

Judas’ place is empty. Peter has been named a traitor. Everybody’s heart is racing. The sound of nails being hammered into crosses echoes in the distance. At this moment, Jesus says, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”

I recently read a small interview in Southern Living magazine in which the person being highlighted said that the quote she lived by was this: Everything you want is on the other side of fear. It’s at this tender and critical moment when Jesus tells his friends and followers that he is the one, the Way, who will lead them to the other side of fear.

Jesus is the Way over the rocks along the way they will travel. Life and faithful discipleship require more than pop psychology platitudes – pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, letting a smile be your umbrella, the power of positive thinking, etc. The rocks are high and many. You’ll need more than just yourself to get to the other side of fear. 

Don’t let your hearts be troubled, beloved, because there is a way to the other side of fear. Jesus is that Way for Christians. And what’s promised on the other side of that fear is what Jesus calls “abundant life.” Abundant life isn’t the reward in the afterlife, but a gift in this life for those who have ears to hear and ears to hear. Alleluia! Christ is risen, indeed!