September 4, 2005
Romans 13:8-14
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Psalm 149
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Matthew 18:15-20
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Singing in Harmony
A Communion Meditation
First Congregational Church – Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
16th Sunday after Pentecost – September 4, 2005
Rev. Samuel Schaal
Romans 13:8-14
Psalm 149
Matthew 18:15-20
My preaching professor, quoting some other preacher whose name is lost to me, frequently exhorted us seminarians that the task of preaching is connecting the Word and the world. That the minister stands in the pulpit with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.
This morning we sit amid the enormous sadness and grief of the Gulf Coast situation, of seeing one of our first world cities becoming in a matter of a day or so like a third world society.
Though we, this far inland, are not as affected by Katrina, neither are we disconnected, for the gospel is clear that if we are Christians we hold all of our brothers and sisters, as all of God’s good creation, in love and concern.
So today we must connect the Word and the world in these few moments. The gospel lesson this morning says something about how members of Christ’s church are to relate to each other, and that doesn’t seem to say much about the situation in New Orleans. But the ultimate lesson in this morning’s gospel account is that Jesus is present among his believers, and by extension, present in the world, and surely, he, the one who suffers with us, is suffering with all those along the Gulf Coast this morning, for God is alive and active in the world – this above all else we must affirm, regardless of what evidence is given in the newspaper headlines and in the television broadcast. And we must affirm that as the Body of Christ we are active in relieving suffering, for Jesus calls us to account, in how we treat each other, which is at the heart of this week’s lesson.
Well, I titled this sermon “Singing in Harmony,” for the gospel lesson is telling us, perhaps, how to stay in harmony with each other.
In reality, our congregation, like most, sings more in unison, not harmony, as most of us don’t have trained voices. So everybody is singing the same note (perhaps at a different octave). Our choir, on the other hand, will usually sing a hymn or anthem in harmony – that is, each voice sings its soprano, alto, tenor or bass part, providing a much more rich sound.
There’s one denomination – the independent Churches of Christ, in the south – which don’t use musical instruments in worship, since nowhere (they would say) do the gospels or epistles mention musical instruments being used in worship. So that means no organ or piano. People like Betty and Ralph don’t have much of a career path in the Church of Christ.
To compensate for that, those congregations learn to sing in harmony. Once I attended worship in a large Church of Christ congregation and I was overwhelmed with the richness of the sounds of their singing. So they literally sing in harmony, not in unison.
All this is a symbol for this morning’s gospel text, of a community, if not singing, at least living in harmony, though not always in unison. Congregational life, it seems to me, is rich and diverse, not so much an experience of unison, or unanimity, but of harmony, of people being who they are, bringing their individual gifts into the one community, around the one Jesus Christ, for the glory of the one God – unity in diversity.
Today’s gospel text is just part of a larger chapter about church life and discipline. In some of the previous chapters leading up to this we’ve seen instruction about the community. Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ – we had it in the lectionary two weeks ago – wasn’t about one man’s confession, it was about the confession of the community. Remember that word in the original Greek – who do YOU say that I am – really meant “you all,” the community. (It is what I am beginning to call the “Y’all Principle” of Biblical Studies, for so often the Bible addresses us as a community.) So the emphasis in this part of Matthew’s gospel is once again the community.
Here in today’s lesson are some very clear and concise rules for living in community, especially when all is not harmonious. Jesus here recognizes that it will not always be easy. That it is human nature to have disagreements, to stray. And he offers a structure to keep the community together.
He says first that you should go directly to the person who has offended you. If then you can’t reach accord, take one or two others as witnesses to help give a fair hearing. If still the issue isn’t resolved, take the issue to the congregation. If that doesn’t work, the offender should be expelled. These are harsh words, but they do give some structure for how the members of the church are to relate to each other. It provides accountability. It reminds the members of the church that they are not merely there voluntarily, but that they are gathered in their free-will response to the divine call of Jesus, “follow me.”
This text might seem legalistic. But immediately following this passage is Jesus telling Peter that God doesn’t keep a scorecard of rights and wrongs and neither should we, that we should forgive not just seven times, but 77. So this chapter ends with a teaching on forgiveness.
Today’s lesson is about taking the first step toward a restored relationship. For the Christian community has a stake in facing up to brokenness and seeking reconciliation within itself. This Matthew Code, as it’s often called, has some amazingly modern advice to it. Part of my previous experience in ministry was in interim ministry and during that time I was in conversation with other interim ministers, most of whom made interim ministry a life-long calling, so they would go from church to church every year or two, doing the work of transitional ministry, serving churches that were in-between settled pastors. Some of these churches were very troubled and some were not. The churches that were troubled often manifested this trouble by not dealing with each other directly, with what is called triangulation – when you feel someone has hurt you, instead of going to that person and dealing with the issue, going to two or three or more of your friends and murmuring against that person. In an unhealthy congregation, this breeds incredible tension and one of the first tasks of interim ministry in such a setting is simply to get people to talk to each other honestly.
And that really is all Jesus is saying here: deal honestly with each other. Treat each other fairly. And when you do, I am there among you.
This final sentence provides the master teaching of this text and it is a particularly foundational text for us Congregationalists. For it promises that in the gathered community, whether one or two, one hundred or two hundred, one thousand or two thousand, there he is, among us.
And note that he gives us this promise in the context of individuals in the community sometimes struggling with each other. So that particularly when we struggle in the context of the at-times difficult relationships between sinful and broken human beings, there Jesus is.
So this text we so often cite in our churches – when two or three are gathered, there I am — is not so much a confident statement of congregational autonomy and independency between churches — but instead it says something about the real, messy and difficult relationships that humans have. And that Christ lives among us in that messiness.
This community, which is called church, is a people set apart to live as a witness to the kingdom of God. The church is strongest in the world when it works to protect its own integrity to overcome the divisive and destructive power of sin by actively practicing forgiveness and reconciliation.
In the Romans passage, Paul speaks to this. He cites the law, the commandments, and says that at the foundation of these commandments is love; that love itself is a fulfilling of the law. And then he instructs that our faith is lived out in the context of our human communities, that we should live honorably, putting on the armor of light, to actually put on Jesus Christ.
In the Matthew text, while we Congregationalists have tended to extract the final verse of this lesson from its context to support independency among our churches instead of relationship, some other traditions have used this text – especially the phrase about expelling members – as a reason to excommunicate difficult members, perhaps too quickly and over the wrong things.
Jesus says to treat the unrepentant member as a Gentile or tax collector. Well, what could that mean? We generally think it means expelling the member out of the community; that the member becomes “other.” But remember in other parts of the gospel how Jesus treats Gentiles and tax collectors – and many other folks who are marginalized from the mainstream of their community in that time. He seeks them out. He offers forgiveness. He loves them. He welcomes them, as lost sheep, back to the fold. More often than not, he breaks bread with them. He invites them to dinner.
And on this day once again, he has invited us to dinner. As we approach the Lord’s Supper this morning, we again see that this simple and symbolic meal, when judged by its material standards or its nutritional value, is meager indeed – only a tiny sip of grape juice and a tiny square of bread. And yet it is nourishment of a different sort, of a divine sort. It is a reminder that, indeed, as Jesus promised us in that Matthew Code, that he is here, among us and among all his communities who remember him in this manner.
And just as the Matthew Code gives us a structure in treating each other honestly and lovingly, in all of our harmonies and disharmonies, so we come to the table, bringing ourselves as we are, joining the community to affirm the presence of Jesus Christ among us, and moreover, in the world.
As we partake of communion this morning, let us especially remember those along the Gulf Coast, and pray for them that even as Christ is present here, Christ is present there, walking with the grieving and suffering.
Amen.