What if. . .

Sermon based on Matthew 18: 15-20; Exodus 12:1-14

What could possibly connect the instruction stories we find in the book of Exodus andthe gospel of Matthew this morning? Well, maybe just that both come across as, among other things, words that instruct.

However they were given first to individuals who lived in completely different cultures and times. I mean, they lived not just in different centuries but in different millennia! It’s part of the challenge of scripture reading: how do we take the readings we find in the bible and make them meaningful, inspiring for us?

The book of Exodus is the story of the Israelites flight from Egypt and their time in the wilderness under Moses' leadership. I have to say,that these stories are among my favorites of bible stories. And I think that’s because I heard them over and over when I was a little girl. I don’t remember if I was bored with them back then; I might have been; doesn’t seem to matter today. We're reading a dramatic moment here. The plagues to this point have had little effect on Pharaoh and God has
decided that something drastic must be done. God is giving instructions for how the Israelites should sacrifice and prepare their homes so that they are "passed over" by the final plague, the death of the firstborns.(I also remember wondering when I was a little girl if that meant that I would have been the one spared, if I were an Israelite child – I was the first born in the family–or if it would be my younger brother Andy, who was the first boy born to my parents. I already was learning that at least in Bible Times, girls didn’t seem to count as much to most people)

The Israelites are instructed to mark their doorposts with blood, and in so doing they can be assured that the Lord will pass over their homes and leave their firstborns unharmed. In order to remember all that the Lord has done, observant Jews today re-enact some of the rituals suggested in this passage in their Passover seder. They remember by doing and in doing they are shaped. And their shape affects th way they make daily choices about their life.

Rituals can make a difference – they can be empty and meaningless, or they can move us to deeply intentional living and great love.

And then there’s this little part of Matthew chapter 18 that we read this morning. Scary thing, this passage – at least it is to me.
Doesn't usually work.
I'm wondering if Jesus was thinking of fully self-differentiated, calm, open, listening, non-combative people when he said those things. People so comfortable in their own skin that they took another’s criticism only as that person’s attempt to help them. Because that's the only kind of people for whom this could possibly work. And even then. . . well, I’m just not so sure.

It’s a hard passage.

And I've read enough scholars and recall enough professors who questioned whether Jesus said "most" of these particular words. Was it more Matthew, early in the formation of the Christian community, wanting these words to help heal rifts or answer unanswerable questions? I suspect Jesus mostly publicly said confrontational things. To unsettle people, to engage in a lively give-and-take, to help the other dig deeper into the soul (or to realize they refused to). But did Matthew hope that just the power of following Jesus ways would help others confront each other?
That people in conflict would be "calm, open, listening" people because he invoked Jesus' words?

Of course we don't know.

But these words carve away at our soul because it's what we hope for, isn't it? That we can find a bridge between another person, especially when they've sinned against us. And if the"other" doesn't listen to our "reason," than to hell with them.
But what if instead of thinking of what we should do when it seems another has sinned,we realize that Jesus is talking about us?

What if Jesus was talking about me? What if I'm the other person? What if I'm the one that won't get it? That I’m the one whose ways should change. Too often, I am. What if instead of seeing these words as step by step instructions for us they are words about us? What if we discover in praying over this passage, that it is a call to repentance?

God help us as we attempt to focus our energies on loving and respecting each other while we remember the ways we have been loved and respected. Amen.