Start Over From Scratch

A Sermon for the 12^th Sunday after Pentecost (RCL A – Proper 18) 9-4-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts:              Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 149; Matthew 18:15-20

Themes:         the Passover, the beloved community
Title:               Start Over From Scratch

Beloved in the Lord: how do we build the beloved community of grace? How do we go about intentionally constructing a community that is united in love and care for one another in a way that is clearly visible for all to see?

Over the course of the centuries, congregations have attempted two primary, and divergent, methods of achieving this end.

The first is, quite simply, to lower the standards. We know that everyone makes mistakes. In theological terms, we know that everyone sins, because no one is perfect, except for Jesus our Lord.

Therefore, in order to create a harmonious and united community, we lower the standards so that everyone fits, everyone is accepted no matter what. Basically, in this method, if we don’t care too much about sin and the struggles that we have in living virtuous lives, then we won’t be bothered much when we struggle and sin, because the bar has been set low at the outset.

The other primary path is to set the standards high and to enforce those standards rigorously. If the sinner will not repent, then that one is thrown out of the community. In this way, a harmonious and united Christian community is formed, because everyone on the inside agrees to abide by the same strict code of conduct.

I’m sure that you can think of communities such as this. It is a common strategy that many Christian leaders have taken.

And those who have advocated this path have used for their argument biblical passages such as the one we heard just now in the Gospel, and particularly this climax: “if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17).

The way the high-standard folks have understood this verse is quite simple: when confronted by church leaders about their transgression, if a member of the church refuses to confess and apologize and repent, then that member must be thrown out. The official legal word, of course, is to be ex-communicated. 

Some of you may remember my experience of ex-communication nearly two years ago in the Monday night basketball league in which I participate in Moorestown. On the typical Monday night, people wander in and once ten people are there, then a pick-up game is started on one of the courts while we wait for everyone else to arrive. 

At 7 o’clock, that game stops and everyone gathers to be split into teams of equal size and the games truly begin.

Well, on this particular night, right at 7 o’clock, just as we were gathering to form teams, about 6 guys – the size of one of our four teams – just walked right out the door. As one of the regular guys was leaving, I asked him: “Jeff, what’s going on?” He pointed to a new guy who had just walked in, and he said: “We can’t play with him here.”

After the rest of us played for a few hours, we stopped for the night and I walked over to that new guy and introduced myself. His name is Ben and I asked if he knew why the others had left when he came in. Ben proceeded to explain to me that he had been raised as part of the local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. But now, Ben has a son of his own and he has decided that he does not want to raise his son in that faith system.

Ben felt that the Witnesses were too narrow and fundamentalist, and he did not want his young son indoctrinated in this way. So he wrote the requisite letter to the church elders explaining his decision. This is all fine and good. The problem is that the elders then instructed the other Witnesses to shun Ben. That is, they must now treat him like an outsider, like “a Gentile and a tax collector.”

The shunning is so severe that they are not allowed even to play basketball with him! I had no idea that there were so many basketball-playing Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moorestown, but apparently there are! And that is why they walked out that night, and most of them have never returned.

This is an example of how many Bible-based communities have interpreted teachings such as this one from the mouth of Jesus by setting the community standards very high and demanding obedience to those standards or else be expelled.

But, do you know what? They are wrong!

I believe strongly that neither one of these two strategies for creating a unified community of faith

Is the method that Jesus has intended for us. I believe strongly, in fact, that there is a third way, a middle way that is both disciplined and compassionate.

Look again at this key verse that seems to justify this practice of excommunication: “Let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

For the Jewish followers of Jesus, the Gentiles and tax collectors were those who were outside of the covenant relationship with God, either by birth or through hateful abuse of their own people by collaboration with Rome.

So it is right, in fact, to view those who persist stubbornly in sin as outside of the covenant. This much seems clear in the intent of this teaching.

But then consider how our Lord himself acted toward those on the outside and toward the tax collectors. One of the very disciples to whom he was speaking, the one whose community recorded these very words, was himself a tax collector. Matthew was called from his tax booth to come and follow after Christ.

As usual, The Message translation of the Bible offers an excellent interpretation when Eugene Peterson translates this verse in this way: “If [the fellow believer] won’t listen to the church, you’ll have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love.”

There it is: to treat someone as a Gentile and a tax collector does not mean to shun them. It means to conclude that here is one for whom Christ died and yet who has not yet truly understood or embraced the Gospel. If they had, then their heart would not allow them to be so cavalier about hurting other believers. A Gentile and a tax collector is one who needs to be loved into the kingdom of grace, not one who needs to be pushed out into the darkness.

A proper understanding of this teaching by Jesus introduces us to the middle way of life together in the church. What we do does matter. How we live our everyday lives is important. The ethics and morals and the lifestyle of each one of us is important for all of us.

In this community called the church, we do care to see that each one of us is growing in grace and virtue, and we work together toward that end. That means that we are bold and willing to hold each other accountable.

But we do so always in a framework of compassion, understanding that each one of us is in a process of growth, that we will all make mistakes and hurt one another at times, but that the journey in Christ together as a community is worth our labors.

After all, we have the promise that never fails: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Thanks be to God. Amen.