Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost 6th September 2020

Exodus 12:1–14         

 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbour in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the Lord.  For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.  This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.                        

Romans 13: 1–10         

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement.  For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due to them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.  Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.                    

Matthew 18: 10–20

‘Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? 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.  ‘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.  But 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. If 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. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, 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. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’ 

Reflection:

To say that this gospel reading today is difficult is a bit of an understatement. Not so much for simply what Jesus says here. Its pretty straight forward in some ways but the reality Jesus’ words describe about people sinning against one another is what strikes us hard. It’s really, really tough when people who care about each other feel harmed or are injured by another. It happens throughout society in everyday life, at work; at home; and unfortunately, it happens at church. And it’s always difficult. I suggest there is a higher expectation for people who are members of the church as Christians, followers of Christ this won’t be the case but too often unfortunately it is. Love one another can sometimes go by the wayside.

(I point out that the hurt that I am talking about today is not an action that is against the law, it is not harm that requires mandatory reporting – this sort of sin requires more action than what we are speaking about today) 

Even amongst Christian communities, ‘Love one another’ can sometimes go by the wayside.

We can presume that this is happening in Matthew’s time in the church. And Jesus has thus, offered some teaching about of how to deal with someone who sins against you. Remember that these stories were passed down by orally for many years before being recorded on paper. Each book would then be edited or redacted by the author. Biblical redaction is the study of biblical literature and examines the way the various pieces are assembled into the final composition.

It is interesting to look at which stories of Jesus the evangelists included in their book. This would relate to their particular community’s situation and needs. The gospel writers would also arrange them or order them quite specifically for particular reason specially to enhance their readers understanding or to emphasize their point. If you are interested to learn more about this and you use your computer to google- have a look at Bible.org/ synopsis. A synopsis is a tool which displays different passages of a text side by side. This is commonly done with the four Gospels of the New Testament because of their similar material. By looking at a synopsis you can see which stories are included in which gospels and even where in the gospel the author has placed them. The words used can also add to what the author was intending for their audience. It’s all very interesting!

It is worth noting that the writers of the gospels were pastoral leaders, helping their community make sense of their lives in light of Jesus teaching. The teaching that we hear about today is only found in Matthew’s gospel. And so, we can most likely surmise that Matthew includes this part of Jesus’ story because his community was struggling with this kind of situation.  But, whatever the reason this teaching is found where, is not really the issue at hand for it is it is important material! Not just for the time it was written but also for us today. How do we relate this message to our situation and circumstances? In answering this question, I suggest that we keep in mind three things which are significant.

First, the primary goal of these instructions from Jesus is to heal the broken relationships and restore the one who is sinning to the community. It’s not about punishment, retaliation or power. It’s about healing and restoration. Notice that the first part of this gospel portion speaks of the lost sheep. It tells of how important everyone is. Even if one of the flock is lost, the shepherd will leave the other 99 to look for the one that is lost. This speaks of love and compassion for even just one that has gone astray and a desire for reconciliation for that person. 

Second, this kind of healing and restoration is best done person to person and in and with the community. This isn’t done by letter (or email or text, our 21st century equivalents) but in person. I recently heard of a parish that had a few members who sent many impulsive and brash emails out to others and it sometimes caused great distress to those who received them, when a face to face conversation would have been much kinder and much more effective.  

Further, when a first approach doesn’t work, we are invited to try again and to include other members of the community. It sometimes helps to have other eyes and ears in the room when we’re having a difficult conversation. And when it gets difficult you don’t give up, or move immediately to legal recourse, but rather engage the community, even the whole community if necessary. I’ve seen this process work very effectively recently in our Op shops as we have held meetings for the staff to attend and an opportunity to hear one another’s ideas as well as complaints. The staff responded positively to being able to be involved in discussion together.

Third, it doesn’t always work. Sometimes even the best efforts to repair relationships or to point out where a colleague or friend is struggling or falling short. That’s unfortunate, and it can lead to a severing of relationships. Of cause, we can offer mediation or council but ultimately if a person chooses to continue a certain type of behavior then most likely no matter what we do will change the way they behave or think. 

The other thing to be mindful of is that sometimes there’s more to the story than meets the eye. I remember a lady who became a good friend of mine who was known for being a little, if not a lot, volatile. In fact, I was warned by several people to be careful in my friendship with her. It turned out that this lady had been very hurt by others in the church in the past and so some of her behaviours were linked to these previous experiences. In time we were able to pray about these things and reconciliation took place.

That’s great if it happens but remember that this isn’t always a perfect formula. We are complex beings and some more sensitive than others, some are flightier than others and some are just plain difficult! Also, we don’t know what another person’s motivation really is. 

You may well say oh this doesn’t happen in our church, but…I suggest there are a lot of lost sheep in our community- people that may well have been churched when younger and for whatever reason fallen away. I meet people like this all the time especially when I do funerals. ‘Oh, he used to teach Sunday school, yes, she was always doing the flowers and polishing the brass, Oh, we used to go to church every week, ….’ Not always the reason is because they have been hurt by someone, but sometimes it is. So how can we avoid this happening more? Well…  

We find in these verses an attempt by Matthew’s community to address a difficult and complicated situation using their memories of Jesus and his teaching. But even as Matthew shares this part of Jesus’ story, I think it’s also interesting that he references Gentiles and tax collectors. Jesus says here that those who finally cannot be drawn back into the community are to be treated as Gentiles and tax collectors. And while we assume this means they are to be expelled or shunned, let’s keep in mind that these - Gentiles and tax collectors – are some of the ones recognised in Matthew’s story as those who responded to Jesus and his message most enthusiastically and were invited into the kingdom of God by Jesus himself.

Let us pray: Dear God, you know how difficult and damaging conflict and sin can be. No matter how difficult the circumstances, help us to treat each other as persons deserving of respect and do all that we can to restore and repair broken relationships. We pray for people who have been hurt by others in the church that they may be found and there may be reconciliation and peace, in Jesus’ name, Amen.