St. John's Lutheran Church - Sermons

Matthew 18:15-20

Let us Pray: May the words from my mouth and the meditations from each heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Misunderstanding vs Missed Understanding

A number of years ago when my daughter was younger, she had a friend who came to visit often. I am happy to say that they still remain fast friends today. This young lady was always bright but not always attentive. There was a song played often on the radio in those days where the singer either slurred his words a little or it was his accent that caused her not to fully understand the lyrics. He sang “I’ll never be your beast of burden”. Somehow she heard “I’ll never be your big suburban.”

Some years later my daughter finally told her friend to stop singing the wrong words along with that song, and she explained the right words. My daughter also asked her how in the context of the song that “big suburban” even made sense. Chagrined, her friend simply told her that it never had to her either. And we still enjoy teasing her about it every once in a while.

Now I am not recommending the song. What I am trying to illustrate is how easy it is to misunderstand something if we do not at times look at it more deeply. And I know of what I speak, because I have done this same thing. Again, a number of years ago I didn’t listen closely to the words of a song. I like to blame it on cheap radio speakers in my car back then or the strong British accent of the singer – but the truth is that I only lightly paid attention to the lyrics. It was a song done by Elton John and for quite a while I truly thought it was about “Hominy and me”. I never could figure out why he would sing about hominy, but I also never looked into it much deeper. Then one day, like my daughter’s friend, it was explained to me that he sang about “harmony” and not “hominy”.

Perhaps something similar has happened to you. Where we can sometimes only catch a glimpse of something and believe what we saw, the same thing seems to happen when we hear something and only catch a glimpse of it. Well, could the same thing apply to when we read? Could we have read something so many times that we are convinced we know it, but when we take the time to dig deeper find that perhaps we indeed did not?

The Lesson in a Deeper Reading

With that in mind, let’s take a look again at our gospel lesson. There is little doubt that Jesus is giving instruction here to the disciples. And like disciples over all of time, we need them. He lays out a set of directives on what to do if your brother sins against you. What would that sin look like? We know that sin is generally defined as anything that separates us from God. It is most often understood as a breaking of the way God desires for us to live by imposing our own way of wanting to live. God sets rules and limitations and commands. And we go about breaking them because we want to be our own little god, removing the one true God from the picture. – That is sin.

How does that definition apply then to what Jesus is saying here? How can our brother sin against us?

The answer is surprisingly similar as that to God. When someone in the church – the definition of a brother here – does something that breaks the bond of our relationship with them, they are sinning against us for they are also breaking apart the community. We when go to communion together we are supposed to be in community with one another. The base Greek word for “communion” is the same for “community”, which the bible defines as the body of Christ. So a brother sinning against you is basically helping to tear apart the community of believers. And remember that Jesus wants us in community. When he says at the end of this lesson that where two or more are gathered in his name, he is there – he means it. Watching, hearing – and hopefully approving. The main idea here is that God desires for us to be reconciled toward one another – and if that is not so, to fix it.

Yet consider that while many things could cause dissention between members of the body of Christ, not all are egregious enough to warrant all these steps in our lesson. You may very well indeed want to talk with a brother if they give you a dirty look, but would you want to take that to the whole church? You may be quite unhappy that a brother sat in your favorite spot in church, but would you really want to take along witnesses to confront them about it? You may be hopping mad that a brother didn’t shake your hand during the passing of the peace, but unless it is a symptom of something much more offensive, a simple conversation would do rather than all these steps.

My point is that while it is sad that the body of Christ needs these steps in the first place, it is not the steps so much themselves that the lesson is about, it is what they point to. A deeper and closer reading tells us that it is God’s intention that we remain reconciled to each other. Should these steps be used if needed? – Yes! But let us live toward not needing then in the first place. For going through these steps is no small task and is not always easy to do. Therefore their purpose is not to be a troublesome beast of burden – they are meant to keep us in harmony. The main question to ask now is why? Why would God be so keen on having us be at peace with one another? The answer has a lot to do with what God desires not just for us, but also from us. If we as the body of Christ cannot seem to get along, how can we expect non-believers to do the same? If we as the body of Christ are at odds with one another, how can we hear, much less agree on what God is calling us to do? If we as the body of Christ are feuding, then we are not helping to fix the brokenness of others – for we are too involved in our own turf wars. If we as the body of Christ are not getting along with each other, then how can we expect two or more to agree on anything.

Think about a coach here – football, basketball, soccer. While it may seem as the coach’s main job is to devise plays that will move the ball, further the efforts of the players, and win the game – I think that the real main job of the coach is to get the players to work together as a team. And if you have ever been part of a real team effort then you know how the power of one is exponentially increased by the power of the whole.

If getting two of us to agree on something can bring about the blessings of God to the cause – think about what we could accomplish for the Kingdom of Heaven if we all agreed. (P)

To just be perfectly clear here, what we are looked to agree upon is setting our personal agendas aside and standing together in furthering God’s agenda. Notice that not just in our lesson today but in all of scripture, the Father’s goal is to have us be in communion with Him and each other. And more than likely the thing that we most challenge Jesus Christ on is getting us to work together as a team. And more than likely the thing that we most challenge the Holy Spirit on is to actually listen to the plays, the actions that we are called to. And each time we hurt one another, we cause another tear in the community and we slow and often stop the forward action of God’s team. (P)

Conclusion

So if we can at least see how God wants us to be in harmony with one another, and we can see how beneficial that is to the body of Christ, and we truly have a desire to comply with what God wants in our life and set aside our own will for now – how do move beyond all those trespasses from others? Well, the answer to that question is simple. And that is what our lesson is about next Sunday. We’ll see then if we can help rid ourselves of that true beast of burden.

Prayer: O God, open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts to truly understand that Jesus is Lord, and then to confess it with our lips and our lives. In His name we pray. Amen