17 Pentecost, Year A

"REFORM SCHOOL"
Proper 18 -- Ezekiel 33: 1 – 11; Psalm 119: 33 – 40; Romans 12: 9 – 21; Matthew 18: 15 – 20
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, September 7th, 2008

Every once in awhile – actually (as I think back on it) more like once a week – my wife gets upset with me. Usually, it’s for a very good reason: I’ve just “spouted off” about something that’s managed to get under my skin. Or, I may have just asked her opinion about some matter that I know perfectly well was outrageous to begin with. Or – on still other occasions, I will say something humorous that’s intended to make those big brown eyes glisten with a combination of disbelief, mild shock and a look that says, “OK, I know you’re pulling my leg (again!).”

On those occasions – those occasions where I’ve said blurted something out - I often get a response that goes something like, “Gene, I hope you won’t (fill in the blank).” On other occasions, a stare has the same effect. When I was growing up, my mother would simply look over her glasses, and say “Sonny boy”. (Whenever I heard he words, “Sonny boy”, I knew the words that would follow would be serious ones.) You can see I’m a veteran when it comes to dealing with women, especially when I, as a male, am hopelessly outnumbered.

Now you have to understand that I come from a family which is overwhelmingly female: I have three younger sisters, I have two daughters, two granddaughters, and two female Cocker Spaniels. Even my mother was my dominant parent!

So, you can see that I’ve lived my entire life in the company of – and under the supervision of – women. So you can understand why I often refer to my wise and longsuffering spouse as “my adult supervisor”!

If my humorous remarks and pronouncements about some issue or another get bad enough, my wife can enlist the aid of any number of family members to straighten me out, all of them female. My daughters, both of them wise and extraordinarily talented persons, can be summoned by a phone call or an email to “gang up” on me, if the need should arise, as it does with some regularity.

But usually, my wife – being possessed of great discernment and wisdom, simply chooses to deal with my irksome words and jokes by keeping her corrective responses confined to the privacy of our own home. It’s probably a fortunate thing that some of the words I hurl at the television set, and my wife’s corrective interjections, are matters that never get past the front door.

Why would my wife exercise such discretion in managing her husband’s wit and mercurial responses to news stories?

The answer is that she is practicing something we in the church would call subsidiarity.

(Now I know that the word “subsidiarity” is right on the tip of your tongues, isn’t it? After all, we use the principle of “subsidiarity” just about every day in our lives, somehow.)

The idea of subsidiarity is that the lowest (and smallest) level of the church that can adequately deal with any issue that arises, should be the level that handles the situation.

Put subsidiarity into practice, and a good example of it in the church would be the choice of colors and types of flowers for the altar is a matter which affects only Trinity Church. So, Trinity Church’s appointed leaders for altar flowers, and those who have chosen to give the flowers, make the choice about the type, color and arrangement of the flowers. The decisions made do not affect St. John’s, Centralia (for example), or any other church.

Subsidiarity is at work in today’s Gospel, as we hear Jesus’ words, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” Essentially, Jesus is saying, “Handle this at the lowest and smallest level possible.”

However, just as husbands and fathers can get out of hand at times, requiring additional, female wisdom, restraint and insight to be brought to bear, additional witnesses may be required to bring their wisdom into a situation which has arisen in the body of Christ, that is, the Church, as well.

Notice, then, that Jesus now says, “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.”

Jesus is following the dictates of Deuteronomy 19: 15, which requires the confirmation of two or three witnesses in order to establish a matter before a court of law.

So, by the involvement of two or three others, the next level of involvement is reached.

But then Jesus allows for the matter to be brought before the entire church, which is the gathering of all the believers. “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church,” He says.

With the matter now before the entire Church, the last step is finally reached: “If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

We ought to pause here for a moment.

Often, this final step, “Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” is misunderstood, it seems to me…..It is taken as a sign that the individual is to be cast out of the assembly, the church. And this part of the text might well be grounds for expelling a sinful brother or sister from the fellowship of the church.

But when we consider Jesus’ actions toward Gentiles and tax collectors, we know that He was often found in their company.

Why did Jesus do that? Why did He hang out with Gentiles and tax collectors? His purpose was to win them over, to straighten out their sinful ways and to end their wayward inclinations.

Could it be that another meaning Jesus seems to be indicating is that the church is to continue to reach out to a wayward brother or sister, in order to win them back to the Lord’s ways?

Quite possibly.

What might a motivation be for such a reaching out, an attempt to regain a brother or sister (as Jesus indicated in the beginning of His teaching on this subject)[1]?

I think the answer lies in the illustration I began with this morning: marriage.

In marriage, husband and wife commit to one another in lifelong relationship, “for better, for worse.” Marriage creates a covenant relationship between the spouses, a relationship in which the inevitability of pain and difficulty is acknowledged, even on the couple’s wedding day! On page 429 of the Book of Common Prayer, we read these words, “Give them grace, when they hurt each other, to recognize their fault, and to seek each other’s forgiveness and yours.”

Notice the word “when” in this petition….We admit that pain and disillusionment will be a part of the marriage that follows the wedding ceremony. (Can you tell I am thinking a good bit about our younger daughter’s upcoming wedding, as I prepare for the homily that will be delivered that day?)

You see, the pain of wrongdoing which is an inevitable part of any marriage affects not only the two persons who are married to each other, but the covenant relationship, which is a third entity created by the marriage – the union of a man and a woman - itself, that exists as a result of the commitment each partner has made to the other.

In the same way, wrongdoing, fault, or sin, as Jesus refers to it in His opening remark, affects the covenant relationship which exists between any two persons who are members of the church. That covenant relationship is the church itself. Estrangement between members of the church impairs the “gathering together” that Jesus speaks of in verse 20, where He says, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them.”

“Best to nip it in the bud,” Jesus seems to be saying, in essence. “Do it privately,” He seems to be adding, perhaps because it’s quite possible that the individual is totally unaware of his/her fault. (Isn’t that one reason God gives us to each other in the church, so that we can be accountable to one another in love? After all, we can’t see ourselves and our actions as others see us. We need their perspective to help us live lives that are pleasing to God.)

It’s also possible that the person confronted would be very embarrassed by the revealing of the fault that lies within to others who may not be aware of it, either.

The motivation, then, seems to stem from a deep love and concern for the person’s spiritual and emotional wellbeing.

However, if pride and stubbornness seem to be present in the individual, then others can be enlisted to deal with the situation.

In this way, only an appropriate level of concern is applied to the situation. High priority is given to the individual’s privacy and welfare, in the hopes that winning them back are given the best chances for success. Only when the one-on-one approach fails are others brought into the process.

At the heart of the matter is Church unity and Church discipline. Call it “reform school” for God’s chosen people, the body of Christ, the Church, if you will.

One final word is in order: We hear in today’s Gospel reading the words we heard a couple of weeks ago, “whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” As we reflected on that occasion, these words constitute a traditional Jewish rabbinical saying that refers to the maintenance of correct and acceptable teaching.

And so, the two truths stand together: the church is called to maintain the Lord’s teaching, even as it continues to seek out those who have strayed from the Lord’s ways.

In these two, we find the mystery of God’s love for us, for the God who establishes His righteous ways and makes them known, also seeks us out in the midst of our own sinful and wayward ways, so as to bring us back into a closer walk with Him.

AMEN.
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[1] See verse 15.