March 26, 2023 Lent 5 Matthew 23-25 (Esp. 25: 31-46)

 Anyone who drives has probably had this happen.  You’ve driven up to a major intersection.  You want to make a left turn.  The light is red.  You’ve moved into the left turn lane and there’s one person ahead of you.  While you’re waiting a whole line wanting to make left turns forms behind you.  Finally the light changes from red and gives your lane that green arrow.  …and then the car in front of you just sits there.  Or maybe they slowly, ever so slowly, edge forward.  Maybe they’re on their phone.  Or maybe they’re looking left and right to make sure everything is clear.  Or maybe who knows why.  But you about want to scream at them, “Get moving!  There’s a whole line of us and this green arrow won’t last long!”

Now I certainly always want to advocate for safe driving.  When I taught my kids to drive I taught them to drive like they are in community.  Be aware of the traffic around them and what everyone else is doing.  Then you do what you have to do, knowing what your rights are, but also keeping in mind the needs of the other drivers.  If you’re in a left turn lane and there’s no one behind you and you feel like lazily making that left turn then feel free.  But if you’re tying up a whole bunch of people then get a move on.  It’s common curtesy.

I use this as an example to get at what is going on in our gospel reading from Matthew.  I hope you’ve been reading along all week as the church has sent out emails.  Throughout the week we’ve read what is called the, “Judgment Discourse”.  In 23 Jesus lays out a bunch of woes to the religious leaders.  He is not cursing them.  He is not condemning them.  He is just stating reality.  They are deeply misguided, and so is their advice.

In 24 Jesus speaks about the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the end of the world.  Lots of people get really excited over this sort of thing.  It can lead to a lot of imagination.  Some churches spend what I think is an inordinate amount of time on it, trying to figure out signs and time frames and being prepared.  But all of that misses the point.  The point is about faithfulness and watchfulness.

And then we get to 25 which shows us what faithfulness and watchfulness looks like.  There are two parables.  The Parable of the Bridesmaids, which about not getting lazy in the midst of delay.  And the Parable of the Talents, which is about being productive with what God has given you.

It then wraps us with what we read today.  Before we get to that let’s note one important thing.  If you did read all of these things last week, and if you did pay very close attention to them, you probably got confused.  It’s one of those things where if it made sense to you, you probably didn’t read it closely enough! 

Matthew as a gospel writer is not consistent.  Biblical commentators point out that as Matthew shares these teachings of Jesus he does so in a way that creates tensions within themselves and also tensions with what Jesus has taught elsewhere.  This is not unique, but a very common thing for ancient Hebrew writers to do.

So in one place Jesus says there will be clear signs of the end of time, and at another place says there will be no warning.

In one place he says about making oaths, yet earlier he forbade them.

Jesus himself calls others “fools” in 23:17 yet in 5:22 he prohibited calling people fools for any reason.

He says that the Pharisees teaching is to be accepted yet in a previous chapter he warned against it.

I could go on and on.  The point is this, when trying to interpret Matthew do not try to make him more consistent than he is interested in being, or even wanted to be.  Matthew is like all of the gospel writers.  He’s clever.  He wants us to feel the tensions.

We keep that in mind when we get to the judgement scene that we read today.  There at the end of time all are gathered before the Lord for judgment.  Some are classified as sheep and get to inherit the kingdom prepared for them.  Others are classified as goats are sent to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

This is a fearful passage fraught with problems.  All by itself it teaches a merciless judgment based soley on acts of charity.  And, those who did those acts of charity were unaware that they were doing them, or that they were important at all.  Similarly, those who did not do them did not realize they were neglecting this essential role in getting eternal happiness for themselves, nor were they aware of their importance.

This passage has no mention of beliefs, no mention of faith, and no mention of grace.  It is outright works righteousness done in ignorance.

All alone this passage is terrifying!

And so we do not interpret it all alone.

Remember, it comes at the end of a long discourse about judgment and the end of time.  That whole discourse has been full of tensions and contradictions.

Put yourself in the position of Matthew’s original readers.  It is late in the first century.  As a religion Judaism is in a complete mess.  The Romans have just killed off most of you when they destroyed Jerusalem.  The took out the temple and with it went most of the leaders, the religious institutions, the libraries, and everything necessary for a faith community.  You are of Jewish heritage but your family has decided to follow Jesus.  As a consequence in this tumultuous mess your family and others have been kicked out of the synagogue.

You’re asking things like: Where is God in all of this?  How long will it be before Jesus returns?  What do we do in the meantime?  How bad will things get?  What is right and what is wrong?  How do we handle all the broken relationships and the distrust?  And is it actually safe to practice our faith publicly or not?

Matthew’s answers:

Jesus was here in the flesh.  He’s not here now, and yet he is still here in a very real way.  Whenever two or three gather in his name he is in the midst of them.

How long will it be?  Well, who knows!?!  But we do know that the end is closer now than what it was when Jesus was here.

How to live until Jesus returns?  Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  Just do that always regardless of how long it will be.

Where is God in all of this?  God is everywhere in all of this.  Do not fear.  Do not lose heart.  That also means that everything you do to any and every other person is also like doing it to God.  That’s the message we get from our gospel reading today.

Remember the image of driving we started with?  When you’re driving how much do you know about the other drivers?  Perhaps some.  Maybe they have cute or offensive bumper stickers that give a clue of what they’re like.  Maybe you can tell something about them by the car they drive.  Somewhere I came across a study that BWM drivers are statistically the most selfish drivers on the road.  But for the most part, you can’t tell much about them.  Our cars do not give us a category.  As if they could say: here’s a rich atheist, or here’s a sex offender, or here’s a sweet little old Christian lady who’s never even swatted a fly.  No, when you’re driving you don’t know most of the people who are around you.  And yet you are all on the same road all driving by the same rules (hopefully!). 

If you are driving like you are caring for the whole community of drivers then you will expect others to respect your right of way, you will give others theirs, and you will drive for the benefit of all.  You don’t care anything about them other than you know you’re all in this together and you’re trying to make everything safe and fast for everyone.

Do not fear God’s judgment.  But do not mock God’s power.  You are saved by grace, and not by works.  But that is not an excuse for laziness or exploitation.  Your faith will take you into many difficult and uncomfortable places.  You will not know what to do.  But God will be with you in the struggle.  It is not about rules and regulations that determine the value of people.  It is about honoring the value of who and what God has made.  Let me close with this quote from Everett Hale: “I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  What I can do, I should do, and with the help of God, I will do.”

March 19, 2023 Lent 4 Matthew 21:23-22:46

 (Introduction to the Text)

Politics – it’s a dirty word.  But we all do it.  I’m not talking about politics in its proper and exact sense – which is debate and conflict in government.  I’m talking about the way we will go along with what a friend believes or wants because there is some long-term benefit for us.  Or those times when we decide it is better not to damage or risk a friendship over something.  It’s whenever we compromise or bend the truth for strategic purposes.  Those strategic purposes may not be bad.  They may, in fact, be very good.  Perhaps the ends truly do justify the means.  But all of politics has at its center an attitude of anxiety, scarcity and limits. 

We’re about to read Matthew 21:23-27.  It sets the scene for the rest of what we’ll read today.  The whole thing is set on Monday or Tuesday of Holy Week.  Jesus’ teachings and actions in the temple have gotten the attention of the chief priests and the elders.  They are concerned.  They’ve probably heard about this itinerant preacher from Nazareth but they have not met him until now.  His teachings pose a threat to the foundation of their faith.  They confront Jesus wanting to know who he is and why he is claiming the things he is claiming.

Jesus will call them out on their limited thinking.  He’ll ask, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?”  There we’ll see the beginnings of their political strategizing.  Rather than being open to the reality that God can do (and does do) new things, they stay limited to the thinking that keeps them in power.

After that initial foray we’ll see that a series of religious groups take shots at Jesus, trying to limit him and trap him into being within the bounds of what they believe is possible for God.  Jesus, however, wants to open them to something beyond that.

(Read Matthew 21:23-22:46)

Hidden Brain is a radio program that explores the way our minds work.  It explores beliefs, perceptions, and how we make sense of the world around us.  I rarely listen to it.  The one thing the show will absolutely not do is acknowledge God or the validity of a religious belief system.  But a colleague recently pointed me to the episode called “How Your Beliefs Shape Reality.”  It’s available as a podcast and so I listened.  Condensing an hour-long episode down to one thought it boils down to this: If you see the world as safe, enticing, and alive with meaning then you are almost certainly optimistic and nothing will be able to truly knock you down – no matter how painful and enduring a hardship can be.  But contrast, if you see the world as dangerous, dull, and mechanical, then you will be pessimistic and no amount of good events will be able to change your mind.

True to what I know of this show, it conveniently overlooked the idea that God religious beliefs could have anything to do with it – even when the research tied those who saw the world as safe, enticing, and alive as having religious beliefs.

It told two stories of people who had been through World War 2.  One was a dentist who helped to piece back together mouths and faces after battle injuries.  He had a negative view of life and the world and often pointed back to that experience as to why.  Then there was a second story of a woman named Sarah who was a Polish Jew.  When she was a little girl the Nazis came into her town.  They rounded up the Jews and split them into two groups.  One group was put on one side of the street.  They other group on the other side.  Then they gunned down one of the two groups.  The other group, which included Sarah and her family were sent off to concentration camps.  She was moved through a total of four camps over the years of the war, ending up in the biggest and worst - Auschwitz.  All her family died along the way.  It was Christmas Eve 1944 and she became sick.  She was put in the infirmary.  Placed on a cot beside another girl of the same age they reached out to each other and held hands.  And she said that in that moment she realized, the world was full of love and connection, and it was massive and impossible to stamp out.  And the world was so wondrous, so wondrous, that she had no choice but to believe there was a God and to be grateful.

Now of course the program, having the biases that the program does, would not pick up on the idea of faith being at the center of her optimism, but that was really the key.  I like to use that story when thinking about our texts today because it is the perspective of someone who is Jewish.  We make a mistake if we take Jesus’ Jewish opponents in the gospel and apply them across the board.

When I read the collection of teachings, and parables, and debates Jesus has with the religious leaders in the temple I think it comes down to those two things: the religious leaders who saw the world as dangerous, dull, and mechanistic; and the way of living that Jesus was inviting them into – that the world was safe, enticing, and alive with purpose.

I don’t want to boil the benefits of faith down to some psychological self-help strategy.  To do that is to miss the point.  But I do think it overlaps perfectly.

Jesus came teaching people to embrace the world as a place of wonder and possibilities.  He preached of God’s boundless grace and delight – even for those society thought were worthless.  He preached of abundance.  He preached of purpose.

We are invited to see that our lives have purpose and meaning.  Or rather, that God is an active and dynamic presence at work doing meaningful things, and God invites us to be a part of the work.

Jesus preached forgiveness – abundant forgiveness.  Why?  So that we could be lazy and constantly indulging in unhealthy and destructive things without consequence?  No.  Although many people see forgiveness operating in just that way.  The purpose of forgiveness is to help us realize that the world is a safe place – regardless of what happens.  Take risks.  Make mistakes.  Try again.  Don’t be afraid to fail.  No one who is successful makes it there without mistakes.  I’d say the most successful people I know are the ones who have also make the most mistakes.  Ironically those who do not make mistakes are almost certainly failures.

The chapters from Matthew that we read today are serious, and yet they are kind of silly.  It’s like one of those old western movies where the hero takes on each and every bad guy one at a time and bests them in whatever it may be: cards, fist fights, gun fights, you name it.  Jesus just keeps on winning in contest after contest.  His opponents end up with egg on their face on more than one occasion.  There is also a little joke in 22:29.  It’s the scene where the Sadducees tried to trap Jesus about the resurrection.  The bring up the hypothetical situation of a woman who has had seven husbands because they keep dying on her.  Which of the seven would be her husband in eternal life?  I’d say that such a woman must be bad news and no one would want her for eternity!  But that’s my sarcastic side getting loose.

Jesus replies, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.”

We’ll see that point proven in 27:65.  The words are the same.  Jesus has died.  He’s been buried.  The chief priests and the Pharisees go to Pontus Pilate and say, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore, command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead.”

Pilate replies with the punchline to what Jesus said, “you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.”  He says, “You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you know how.”

Obviously they do not know the power of God, and their abilities can’t begin to stop what God has going!

May you see the world as safe, enticing, and alive.  That is God’s wonderful gift regardless of how hard things are.  And may you be like the woman who in the midst of no hope find that you can’t help but be grateful for the abundance of life.

March 12, 2023 Lent 3 Matthew 19:16-20-16

             Well, here we have it.  The most dreaded of all of Jesus’ teachings.  Sell what you have.  Give the money to the poor.  Then come follow me.  It offends everything about our lives.  It cuts at the heart of who we are and how we understand ourselves.  I don’t believe there is any other biblical passage that has gotten more attention with people trying to wiggle out of it.  Some say the eye of the needle was a gate in Jerusalem that a loaded camel couldn’t fit through.  So it had to be unloaded before squeezing in.  Interesting idea… total nonsense. 

Some say these words from Jesus are only for a select few – those to whom Jesus has made a special calling – like this rich young man, or someone in a religious order, or something like that. 

Some jump to logical conclusions.  They say if everyone sold everything and gave it away then how would anyone live.

Some say this rich young man was a special case.  That he was somehow more greedy than most.  That his wealth stood between him and true discipleship.

And my favorite – that Jesus didn’t really mean that we had to give up all our stuff.  He only just meant that we had to be willing to, if he asked us.

Ha!  All of it, total nonsense!

What cowards we are!

I’m not about to sugar coat it.  I am among those daring enough to say that this passage is most authoritatively spoken when we leave it as it is, which makes us stew uncomfortably in our own juices.

Here’s the thing.  In our lives money is just about everything.  If you have it you’ve got it all.  And if you don’t, you have nothing.

It’s more than us just not wanting to give up all the stuff of our lives because we like all our stuff.

And it’s more than just that money can buy us clothes that make us look good, and a house that gives us an identity, and a car that gives us status.

Money is safety.  Money is power.  To have money is to have an identity.  To have money is to have control.  No money… none of those things.

I recently read the book A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park.  I’m sure many of you have read it since it’s a true story based on the life of Salva Dut.  He’s one of the Lost Boys from Sudan who was resettled in Rochester twenty some years ago.  If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it.  It’s only a little over a 100 pages long and the print is big.  If you can stomach reading it all at once it’ll only take an hour or so.

Salva is born in south Sudan to a family that we would consider poor.  For that area, however, he was somewhat well to do.  His father was a local leader.  His family had a house and cattle and he went to school.  But then when war breaks out he is suddenly forced to flee right from school.  With nothing except the clothes on his back he journeys on foot going from refugee camp to refugee camp for years on end.  He sees people starve to death, die from dehydration, and be forcibly driven from a refugee camp and be mowed down by gunfire simply at the whims of the government.

He has no power.  No identity.  No way to provide for himself.  No way to determine his future.  And no way to determine the whereabouts of his family, if by some slim chance some of them were still alive.

He spends years in refugee camps with nothing to do – nothing at all.  No job.  No education.  No entertainment.  Nothing.  He just sits there existing with no real purpose.

You see, that something else money gives us too – a purpose.  Money gives us a reason for being.  Even the ability to give money away is a luxury a person who has no money does not have.

How to picture this rich young man who comes to Jesus.  I suggest not reading more into the text than is there.  Do not imagine him as the type of guy who shows up wearing some expensive Italian suit, stepping out of a chauffer-driven limousine, with his nose in the air, and giving the affect of someone who’s living on a trust fund.

No, picture him this way.  If you have a daughter, picture him as the perfect man you imagine her bringing home as her boyfriend.  He’s intelligent.  He’s educated.  He has poise.  He’s dependable.  He knows the value of hard work.  His knows how to be fun and playful.  And he takes his faith deeply to heart.  He is perfection.

Or another image.  We’re not supposed to do this, but we do it anyway as a congregation.  There are certain people who when they visit people swarm around them wanting them to join the congregation.  We’re warm and friendly and welcoming.  And then there are others, who when they show up… well, sure, we welcome them.  We’re friendly.  But we won’t get all that fussed if they don’t return.  This man represents the perfect young man we’d want to have in our community of faith.

He asks, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”  We immediately think, “Nothing!  You’re a shoe-in.  You’re perfect.  You are the model of what God wants from a person.  You are the poster boy of faith.  You even address Jesus as “teacher”, a show of honor and respect.”

…get rid of it all then come, follow me.

There is simply no place in our self-understanding for us to grasp what Jesus says to this guy.  It makes no sense whatsoever.

If you’ve been in worship regularly since last fall you may remember me mentioning that I’ve been visiting a woman in the hospital who is from Syracuse because it is too far for her pastor to come regularly.  She’s elderly, has had two strokes, and is on feeding tubes and a ventilator.  She is conscious and alert but she has no quality of living.  She has no purpose in life.  She has no hope of improvement.  And every time I go I ask God, “Why?”

Let’s roll right into the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.  That is Jesus’ teaching in response to the disciples’ bewilderment about the rich young man.  Workers are called to work in the vineyard at different parts of the day.  At the end of the day we, in our logic, would expect the money to be distributed according to how long they had worked.  It’s only fair.  It’s only just.  In fact, it’s about the only way it could possibly work.  Those who created greater value for the vineyard owner would be paid more than those who created lesser value.  No business could possibly operate otherwise.  But in the parable everyone gets equal pay.

Let’s always remember, Jesus loves to make his point by using absurdities and exaggerations.  I wouldn’t suggest trying to run a business like that!  But Jesus’ underlying point is made.  Value for God is not measured in the same way we measure value.

Value for God is not measure in the same way we measure value.  The story of the rich young man, the disbelieving response of the disciples, and the parable that follows upends every piece of truth we build our lives upon.

If we think it is all an excuse for laziness, or if we throw up our hands in exasperation then we’ve missed the point.  Focus on that rich young man again.  He is perfect.  He’s everything a model citizen should be.  He lives an authentic good-hearted, well-intended righteousness before God.

His chances of getting to eternal life?  Zero.  No chance whatsoever.  It is impossible.  Period.

Let these words of Jesus echo loudly in your head, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

We recently read Jesus saying that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you could move mountains.  Well, maybe you actually can’t.  But with enough dynamite and heavy excavation equipment you can move a mountain!

How about your ability to get to eternal life?  Absolutely, totally, completely, impossible!

It is the work of God, and God alone, that can do such an impossible task.

That is our faith.  That is our hope.  That is our trust.  With faith, hope, and trust there – and the knowledge that no matter how much money we have it is all still completely worthless before God – then we are actually in a place to understand our money.

Salva Dut knows that money can drill wells in South Sudan.  He’s devoted his life to raising money throughout the world to make it happen.  When a well is drilled life changes for everyone.  Boys and girls can go to school.  People can work constructively.  Poverty diminishes.  Being alive becomes an enjoyable and meaningful experience.

When you recognize how worthless your money is before God, then you are in a place where God can truly use your money in a worthwhile way.  That is the heart of Jesus’ challenge to the rich young man.  And that same challenge comes to us as well.

March 5, 2023 Lent 2 Matthew 18

             You would think that a job of inspecting long and tall bridges would be a job of excitement.  And indeed, when I was at my former job of inspecting bridges there were exciting things.  Climbing hundreds of feet in the air inspecting a bridge tower, or walking on the cables of a suspension bridge is exciting.  But for the most part it was hours of mundane drudgery.  One particular bridge that I will never forget, but that will remain nameless today, was over 7700 feet long and 180 feet high.  It was built in the 1950s.  It was typical in those days for the erecting crew to use tack welds to hold the pieces of steel in place temporarily until they were permanently riveted together.  Tack welds were frowned upon because they can be dangerous down the road, but a few were considered acceptable.  That is, as long as they were ground off right after the riveting. 

On this bridge someone must not have been paying attention.  They did not use just a few tack welds.  And they had not ground them off later on either.  And so the end result on this 7700 foot long bridge was some 40,000 tack welds.  And, true to the problems tack welds cause, several thousand of them had cracked.  Each and every one of those 40,000 tack welds had been catalogued.  And every last one of the thousands that had cracked had to be monitored and measured each and every year.  Working on that bridge was like being in the movie Groundhog Day.  Every day, day after day, for weeks, 10-12 hours a day was the exact same thing: checking tack welds; recording their condition.

That thought came back to me as I was studying our gospel reading for today.  When Jesus uses a child to talk about who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven he was not just referring to those who are young.  He was referring to anyone who is a little person in the eyes of the world.  He was referring to those who toil away day after day doing mundane things yet are overlooked by the world.

Think about it.  What makes for a better news story: Professional football player breaks team record for rushing yardage in a single game; or, bridge inspectors reviewed another three thousand tack welds on the local bridge today and deemed them safe?

What really makes our society a safe, enjoyable, meaningful place to live?  It is the thousands and thousands of overlooked little people who each and every day go about their jobs toiling away at the mundane drudgery of things.

What do Jesus’ teachings really mean?  They mean that God sees all that.  God knows all that.  And God values all that.

It is easy for us to be drawn to people who lead exciting lives.  We want to have a part in their excitement.  But Jesus says not to despise one of these little ones.  If a shepherd has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, he goes out and searches for it.  So it is with God’s desires for everyone, not just the thrilling and powerful.

That is both a challenge and a blessing for us.  It means that we value those the world often overlooks.  And it also reminds us that when we are in the midst of things that seem small, insignificant, unnoticed, and maybe even unimportant, that God does value the work that we do.

The context of all of this helps us to understand the vivid language Jesus uses in verses 8-9 when he says, “If you hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire.  And if you eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell of fire.”

Again, context is everything.  Back in the Sermon on the Mount in Chapter 5 Jesus gives almost the same words in reference to controlling one’s sexual desires.  Here it is in reference to controlling one’s desires for power.  If your drive is for greatness, and your ambition to achieve it leads you to put down others (or exploit them), then that drive needs to be controlled.  What is of absolute and central importance here is the community of faith where all are valued.

The second part of the gospel reading continues the same theme.  It talks about conflict among Christians, church discipline, and forgiveness.  It is all solidly constructive advice.  Jesus says that if someone in the church sins against you to and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.  This can take courage, but it preserves the dignity of the other.  There’s no calling out someone in a way that embarrasses them, or you being called out in public either.

Failing that, then bring in a couple close witnesses.  Again, keep it contained but not unhealthily secret.

Failing that, then bring in the whole community of faith.  Hopefully things can be worked out and restored.  If not, then Jesus’ directives are not naïve.  Sometimes a person’s actions are so destructive that they simply cannot stay as a part of the community.  This passage from Matthew is cited in our church constitution and it actually has the force of law among us. 

It might seem to get contradictory though.  Peter then asks how often to forgive.  Jesus’ response of seventy-seven times, or seventy times seven, is effectively an endless number of times.  But that is mistaking Jesus’ intention.  Jesus’ intention is that you not keep count of how often you forgive.  If you keep count then it’s not true forgiveness at all.  It is just bookkeeping until you can justify doing what you’ve wanted to do all along.

The chapter wraps up with a parable about forgiveness.  It’s a pretty well-known parable.  The king forgives a debt of ten thousand talents of a slave.  There isn’t an exchange rate between 1^st century Roman talents and American 21^st century dollars, but I understand it’s in the range of 3.48 billion dollars!  So, the guy’s been forgiven a lot!  We’re left with the question of how someone could have wracked up such a debt?!?

With that huge forgiveness fresh in his mind we’d expect him to be willing to forgive pretty generously too.  But when he encounters a fellow slave who owes him 100 denarii, say roughly 5000-6000 dollars, he has him thrown into prison.

When the king finds out what happens he is not pleased to say the least!  He reinstates the debt and orders the man to be tortured until he pays back all 3.48 billion.  Good luck with that!

Like many of Jesus’ parables, this one plays on extremes.  But we get the point.  When it comes to forgiveness we are not to be keeping score.  We are all sinners in need of God’s grace whether we believe it or not.

You may be sick of hearing me say stuff like this, but that is the heart of this chapter from Matthew, the heart of Christian faith, and the heart of community.  If you recognize the truth that you do not and cannot live up to the trust in God that you should have, then you are in a good place for everything else in Christian faith to come together.

But if you believe the myth that you can indeed be good enough on your own to merit a place in God’s love, then you will never be able to understand any of Jesus’ teachings.  His teachings will sound like a complex mess of things designed to make you miserable. 

And let’s end with this.  We live in an individualistic culture.  We think we can do it on our own.  We think faith is something personal and private within ourselves.  But that is not the way faith works in Matthew’s gospel.  For Matthew’s original readers they needed to live in community.  And faith was not primarily an individualistic thing but a community thing.

When your faith is an individual thing then it is only as strong as you yourself are.  And if you go through life so smoothly that you’ve got everything under control then maybe that sort of faith will work for you.  These days I hear a lot of people who call themselves spiritual but not religious.  That’s a whole can of worms I’m not going to open right now, but the ‘spiritual but not religious’ person has a very weak faith indeed.  They have created their own system of righteousness that suits them.

While Jesus never advocated for the structure of church bureaucracy, and all sorts of church doctrines created in the name of God but actually made to suit a human agenda, everything he taught and lived was about community.  He created a community among his twelve disciples and then told them to spread that community throughout the world. 

Even prayer, when you pray the Lord’s Prayer yourself, you still say, “Our Father,” rather than, “My Father.” 

Faith is always in community.  We keep each other in line.  We support each other.  We learn from each other.  We grow in and through each other.  Jesus meant it when he said, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”  Not that you can’t find Jesus when you’re all alone.  But community is where there is strength.  All together we are the Body of Christ.  That means equality, forgiveness, and a common purpose.