Differences

A Reflection on the Gospel for September 6th, 2020:
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Matthew
18.15-20

Jesus spoke to his disciples. “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If he or she listens to you, you have regained your brother or sister. But if the person does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the person refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church; and if that person refuses to listen even to the Church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
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Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

It’s the differences that speak the loudest. I’ve known the damage when this passage is applied like an edict rather than an invitation.


Technical information: I start a reflection by looking up the passage in the LivingwithChrist prayer app on my phone. I can find the reading there, but it won’t let me copy and paste it. So, I go to the YouVersion Bible app on my laptop and grab the passage in the NRSV-CI translation of the Bible. That’s the approved version used in our lectionary readings. Then I paste it into a doc and fix up the differences in formatting to match the LivingwithChrist presentation. Usually it’s just a matter of taking the passage and breaking it up into more paragraphs, or adding in an introductory phrase for context — Jesus spoke to his disciples. Then I’m ready to go back to the LwC app on my phone, and meditate. Invite Him in. Sit together. And when I’m ready to start writing, the computer is set up with the scripture at the top and space for my thoughts underneath it.


This time in setting up the structure — the uninteresting technical stuff — I started to cry. Because the differences were speaking the loudest. They spoke right into my experiences of what hurt looks like in a church. About how those moments contain the chance for glory or garbage. 


There were a number of differences. I had to change:
another member of the church    into    your brother or sister     
if the member    into    if he or she   
that one    into    your brother or sister    
if the member    into    if the person
the offender    into    that person




It hinges on the dignity given to the person who’s getting it wrong. It's all about the one who is ‘in the right’ approaching the other person from side by side, not over and above. 


The word Jesus used was brother. A family member. Someone who is one of us. The hurt happens in relationship; the chance for healing must be worked through in relationship. Face to face is hard, it’s risky, success is not guaranteed, but the potential gain warrants the cost.  


This carries me over into the next difference. When it doesn’t work, when the relationship is not restored, I’ve often carried a weight that isn’t mine.

I had to change:
But if you are not listened to    into    But if the person does not listen  


Jesus says, ‘But if your brother does not listen…’ So, it’s not mine to fix, it’s mine to offer. From shoulder to shoulder, not from a soap box.


The final difference seems to be just a matter of switching out a lower case letter for its uppercase partner.

I had to change:
the church​    into    the Church


Not the structure, the corporate entity that has a board of directors and a charitable tax number with Revenue Canada — that’s not the setting for this. The place for this is within a people who are in relationship with Jesus, His Body. The called-out-ones would be a direct way of expressing what Jesus told His closest followers that day. The ones who have answered His call. Compared to the gentiles and tax collectors — those who haven’t answered His call yet. If I won’t listen, after I’ve hurt someone and people who follow Jesus have tried to help me see it, then they should have the grace to treat me like people who don’t know Him yet. I’ve been on both sides of this equation over decades of walking alongside others, and there is a potential for something truly amazing when we get it right. I am there among them.  


Jesus walks right into the mess with us. He offers healing to the hurt one. And to the one who won’t listen, He offers what He offered to Matthew, the tax-collector, who recorded His words for us to be able to hear them today. Jesus says, ‘Follow me,’ and comes over for dinner with the tax collector’s friends. He offers relationship. Face to face.




Noreen Smith
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