Proper 18                                                       Matthew 18: 15-20

4 September 2011

The NRSV translation is particularly bad today.  “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.  If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.”  This is a little closer: “If your brother commits a sin, go and take the matter up with him, strictly between yourselves, and if he listens to you, you have won your brother over.” (NEB)  Or this one: “If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves.  If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.”  (NJB)  There are two particular differences here that change the sense.  First of all, “member of the Church” is technically correct.  “Brother” is what the Greek says and it is a way of talking about the intimacy of the relationship amongst those who are Jesus’ followers in any given place.  Sisters are included.  Yet, “member of the church” makes the relationship sound distant.

The other change is that the phrase “against you” is not in many of the best Greek texts.  So it is doubtful that what Jesus has in mind here are the little ways in which we brothers and sisters annoy each other from time to time.  We do, of course, annoy each other from time to time—not always in little ways, either—and we ought to admit it and forgive each other, but that is not what we are talking about here—that is what the Gospel is about next week. 

I had reason to think recently about some of the social issue of my youth and remembered the “communist conspiracy” paranoia of the 50’s and 60’s.  I do not doubt that there were cells of communists—some were even caught—but they were never the threat that people like Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin thought they were.  Remembering some of those accusations makes me somewhat skeptical of the terrorist fears of our own day which justify the massive surveillance of the “war on terrorism.”  Some folks saw communism in almost everyone with whom they disagreed and justified many egregious injustices in the name of fighting it. 

Nevertheless, there were subversive cells of communists then and there are subversive cells of terrorists now.  The word subversive means that those who belong to such groups really do intend to undermine the way things are in the societies in which they are hidden; they want a revolution in the ways people think and act.  Sometimes subversives are violent and are willing to kill the very people they say they are actually trying to help, in order to get them to change.  Sometimes subversives are peaceful people who try to undermine the surrounding culture by means of the stories they tell, occasional arguments they make, or alternative ways in which they live.  The latter kind of subversive group is what the early Church was.  Those who saw Christians from the outside really understood that their beliefs and way of life were revolutionary in contemporary society.

Jesus meant to leave behind him cells of his followers in all the places he went.  He meant for his followers to plant these cells all over the world after his death and resurrection.  What made them subversive was that—while seeming to fit into the societies in which they lived—they were actually living according to a different standard, a different loyalty: they had a different Lord and Master.  What focused these groups was their loyalty to Jesus and their intention to live in the way that he had taught—and in the face of every other claim to authority.  In this way they believed themselves to be the vanguard of the coming age of the Kingdom of God. 

Now as all leaders of subversive movements know, it is very hard to maintain enthusiasm over the long haul.  It is very hard to keep the original commitment.  The only way it can be done is if each member takes responsibility for the health of the group.  If a communist sees a fellow conspirator acting in a very non-communist sort of way; compromising too much with the capitalist establishment, selling out, as it were, then he is duty bound to go to him and confront him with the deed itself and show him how he has failed to live up to the communist ideal.  If that doesn’t work, he will report the fallen comrade to the local cell for community action.  Depending on how dangerous or violent such a cell might be, the consequences of denunciation would be either fairly mild or quite catastrophic—in either case, the offender would be out of the group.

This is the kind of thing Jesus is talking about in the gospel today.  Amongst the small cells of his followers in various parts, it was of preeminent importance to maintain the quality of Kingdom life.  The “sin” of which Jesus speaks here is some act by which the commitment of a follower of Jesus to Kingdom values is brought into doubt or disrepute.  It is a serious breach of Kingdom life.  Even so, the brother (or sister) is not to be publicly denounced at first.  The one who has knowledge of the breach needs first to confront his fellow believer.  If this leads to repentance, the whole thing need go no further.  But if he is obstinate, then it escalates.  First a report is made to a few more believers, then to whatever official structure represents the whole community—perhaps a tribunal of two or three persons.  Jesus says that whatever this group decides, he will ratify—for wherever two persons agree their request is granted, since he is present with them—particularly, we are to think, when a group of church elders comes to an agreement about a wayward brother (or sister). 

It is not really possible to go directly from Jesus’ teaching to our own day, is it?  Christians have been the establishment so long in the western world—though they are not now—that to talk of them as being a covert gathering of subversives and revolutionaries is almost laughable.  Yet, in spite of large numbers of people who call themselves Christians in this country, we still seem to be moving into a post-Christian age.  It is obvious that Christian principles—that is, ways of life that are based on what Jesus Himself preached and lived—are not the basis of our modern culture.  Those who are committed to the Kingdom of God because they are committed to Jesus as His disciples may once again become a subversive influence in our modern world—I certainly hope so!—subversive to the way life is ordinarily lived and decisions are routinely made—and not only in the world but in the Church.  So much of modern Church life needs to be subverted by the Gospel! 

Several years ago I ran across a book called, And the Trees Clapped Their Hands, by Virginia Stem Owens.  In it she makes the point that a Christian is like a spy, representing an alternate reality within what is taken for normalcy, always on the lookout for people who can be recruited into her subversive movement.  She says that gradually, over time, however, something goes wrong.  “The spy slowly begins to forget his mission.  He spends so much time and effort learning the language, adopting the habits and customs, internalizing the thought patterns flawlessly, that somehow, gradually, imperceptibly, he becomes his cover.”  She continues: “I give every appearance of being only another unit of the populace.  I was verified in the last census.  Innumerable times on countless forms for employment, taxes, and credit, I have had to list my occupation, my education, the number and age of my children, where I live.  I live in a house undistinguishable from thousands of others across the undulating land.  I eat the food, wear the clothes, drive the cars it produces.  Nevertheless, I am an alien.  My allegiance lies elsewhere.  I live in a constant state of treason, disguised.  I intrigue daily to deep alive my double existence.  The effort required is enormous; the pressure to capitulate, unremitting.” 

This is the realization that underlies our morning’s Gospel.  The pressure will be to conform to the way things are done in the world around us and we need help to keep ourselves accountable to an alternative reality: the Life of the Kingdom.  When you are serious about living in community a life which is against the grain of the surrounding world, you need to have a way to keep all the members focused on their purpose, their mission.  For us Christians that purpose is to open ourselves to the transformation that the Spirit of Christ can work in our lives—to “transcend the limitations of [our] social group by making the sacrifices demanded of [us] by the Spirit of Christ” [Merton]—and so to be a transformative influence—that is, a subversive influence—where we are.  That is what it means to be a disciple.

The ways we can be a transformative / subversive influence are limited only by the various involvements in the world that we have and the various gifts we possess—but they all stem from a deep rootedness in and loyalty to Jesus, maintained and expressed through a serious rule of life, at the heart of which is a disciplined life of prayer.   Here is where we intrigue daily to keep alive our double existence.  To such an alternative life we have all been called in our baptism.  Let us hold each other accountable to the highest and best in Christ of which we are capable through Grace.  We will need some new thinking in this area, since many of the old methods will not work under present circumstances.  I invite your reflection and prayerfulness in this.  Let me know what you come up with.