March 12, 2017 2nd
Sunday in Lent Matthew 18
Today’s chapter from Matthew is
sometimes called the “Community Discourse.”
It parallels the “Missionary Discourse” that we read in Matthew 10. Like a lot of things in Matthew it follows a
structure, and I hope that came out the way we read it. There are two sections each broken into three
parts: One, the topic is introduced; two, Jesus gives a teaching; and three,
the teaching is illustrated with a parable.
Taken as a whole this is about how we should treat each other as
brothers and sisters in Christ. Like
everything, it is challenging, and it upends everything we do in daily life.
We humans like to make distinctions
and have stratifications. We measure
people based on how smart they are. We
even quantify it with IQ tests. We
measure people based on how much money they have – that is easily quantifiable
even if it is socially unacceptable to share your net worth in public. We measure people based upon their looks,
their athletic ability, their charisma and on and on and on. Sure, as Christians we know it is wrong, but
it is also unavoidable and we should resist it.
I don’t know how many times I’ve
heard, “We should try to get them as members,” after a person or family has
visited; however it doesn’t happen with every visitor. Consciously or not, I think we have a model
in our minds of what makes a valuable new member. We want those people. And, therefore unavoidably, there are also
people that we don’t really care about as members. While we won’t exactly exclude them, we won’t
pursue them as vigorously. This is
wrong, but we do it.
I think we are drawn to people who
help us get ahead, or who amuse us, or who make us feel good about
ourselves. We are repulsed by people who
offend us, or who make us work on things we don’t want to work on. You’ve heard me say before that living in the
suburbs or a bedroom community is very challenging to faith. Not everyone can afford to live in places
like this. Those who can have really
bought themselves the best of all worlds – close enough to the good parts of
urban life to easily enjoy it, but removed from the bad parts. When you and everyone else around you has
done the same thing it becomes its own culture.
Then instead of recognizing that you are an extraordinarily fortunate
person, inadvertently you start to think of it as the norm. You expect it. You demand it as your right.
When I inspected bridges we usually
worked at least ten hour days when we were in the field. The exception was the one bridge in
Harlem. There we started at 7am. By 4pm we finished up, climbed into the
company van and drove back to a Red Roof Inn in suburban New Jersey. It was time to leave the filth and the crime
and the violence and the noise behind.
We called it, “the armpit of the world.”
Now of course the Red Roof Inn is just run of the mill accommodations,
but it was a palace by comparison. I
sometimes reflect on what life was like for the thousands who couldn’t climb
into a company van every night and drive away from it all.
In our gospel reading notice that the
disciples are starting to get that God loves everyone and invites everyone into
his kingdom. That’s good; they’re
learning. But while they know that Jesus
loves everyone they want to know ‘who’s your favorite’?
How do they get ahead? How is social rank established in God’s
kingdom? What makes one person a more
valuable member than another? What qualities
should they work on?
Jesus calls a child and uses the child
as an example. A child had no real
social rank in those days. Children
certainly didn’t have school and sports schedules that ran their parents
ragged. No, a child held no position and
had no rank. While being friendly to
children was considered a virtue, a child could not help you advance in social
rank.
Jesus’ teaching upends all social
ranking systems. They simply don’t exist
in God’s kingdom. That’s a good
thing. Do you really want to spend
eternity fighting for social rank?
Perhaps if you were the cool and charismatic jock or cheerleader in high
school you’d like to keep that superiority forever. You could forever look down on others. But if you were the nerd or the kid being
bullied or ignored you certainly don’t want to spend eternity like that.
It would be wrong to say that everyone
is equal in heaven. It is more like
there is simply no ranking or status above or below others at all. Jesus uses the parable of the lost sheep to
illustrate that. God wants all. We can’t determine that someone isn’t worthy
of God’s love and therefore not share God’s love with him or her.
That this is serious business is
proven by the cutting off limbs and plucking out eyes teaching that Jesus
repeats. We saw that first in the Sermon
on the Mount and he repeats it here.
This is not just a matter of convenience for Jesus’ followers. This is not something that you can just say,
“That’s a nice thought Jesus. I’ll do it
when it’s convenient for me.” No, this
is a solid demand and expectation from our Lord. If God loves all equally then we must too.
The same theme is present in the
second section about forgiveness. If the
first part is about inviting people in, then the second part is about kicking
people out. Here is one of the Bible
passages that actually bears the weight of law.
The constitutions of all ELCA Lutheran churches cite Matthew 18:15-17 as
the rule for disciplining members. It
bears the force of law. When I was in
seminary I was on the student ethics committee one year. When a student was brought up on charges of
ethics violations the first question was if Matthew 18:15-17 had been
followed. It turns out it wasn’t and the
student brought a civil lawsuit against the seminary.
Peter asks Jesus if a fellow Christian
sins against him how many times should he forgive? As many as seven times? Seven times was the Jewish expectation of
forgiveness. It was also the number
symbolizing completion. But Jesus
replies not seven times but seventy-seven times. The parable that follows shows Jesus
point. A king forgives the debt of a man
who is deeply in debt to him – 10,000 talents.
A talent was worth about 15 years wages for the average laborer. So to put that into perspective, if the
average household income in Ontario County is about $60,000 then this amounts
to a debt of around $9 billion! This is
no ordinary debt forgiven. One has to
wonder how someone wracked up that much debt in the first place! But then this fellow turns around and
imprisons someone who’s in debt to him to the tune of a hundred denarii. A denarii was a day’s wage so this would be
like $20,000-$25,000. Definitely a
sizeable sum, but nothing compared to $9 billion! When the king found out he revoked his
forgiveness of the huge debt. Jesus
concludes by saying, “So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you,
if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Though it may be hard for us to see
ourselves as significantly sinful people, (After all we try to do right don’t
we?) this is God’s business and not our own.
Last week we talked about God’s power.
It is not for us to judge the magnitude of a sin. That is God’s and God’s alone.
A neighbor recently posted on
Facebook, “Just love everyone. I’ll sort
them out later… God.” Indeed that is
God’s role.
Now don’t take this the wrong
way. It does not mean we have to be
syrupy nice to everyone. It does not
mean that criminal and destructive behavior should be overlooked. No, there is still accountability. But in terms of your relationship with your
brothers and sisters in Christ and the people around you, you don’t get to pick
and choose who you love and who you favor.
All our God’s. Your job is to
love and to work to build others up.
Let me conclude with Martin Luther’s
advice from the Small Catechism on the Eighth Commandment, “You shall not bear
false witness against your neighbor.”
Luther writes, “We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies
about our neighbors, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations. Instead we are to come to their defense,
speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible
light.”
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