Collaboration in Resolving Disputes and the Presence of Christ

13 Pentecost, ap18, September 7, 2014

Exodus 12:1-14  Psalm 149
Romans 13:8-14 Matthew 18:15-20

Lectionary Link

  As one who has presided at many under-attended services, I have often been forced to state the biblical requirement for a quorum for an official church meeting.  I guess an official church meeting would be determined by whether Christ was present or not.   And so as I looked out onto empty pews, I have often thought or said, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.”  This phrase has gotten me through many a service because it does give a very low attendance requirement for a Christian gathering quorum.

  But like most verses in the Bible, this verse is often quoted without regard for its context.  And we should probably look at the context and that is hard to do because it is hard to know the exact situation.  It is presented to be during an actual life experience of Jesus but there is that Matthean anachronism again, the church.  The church did not exist in the time of Jesus but it did during the time of one of the editors who believed Christ to be so present in the life of the church, that Christ could be an oracle and speak through the preachers.

  There is something else about the context; the situation of the presence of Christ happens to be directly related to something which all churches and families experience, namely messy divisions and disagreements.  You know how we like to romanticize those primitive early followers of Jesus as perfect in their behavior.  But it just wasn’t so; they were as contentious and inclined to fight and disagree among themselves as we are.  So if disagreement is a fact of life, then there has to be some rules for community resolution of an argument.

  And frankly this method of resolution does seem to be like the resolution which siblings realize when Mom and Dad are not around.  You can be sure that when Mom and Dad are not around, they are still very much present.  In an argument or dispute between brothers and sisters, it is very predictable that at some point one of the siblings is going to invoke the presence of a parent by saying, “I’m going to tell Mom.  I’m going to tell Dad.”  And the other one might say too, “Well I’m going to tell Mom and Dad first.”  So even when Mom and Dad are absent, they are still present.

  The early Christian communities had disagreements and division because the communities of the followers of Jesus tried to embrace more heterogeneity.  The message of Jesus brought together people from different backgrounds, even people who had been natural enemies.  The message of Jesus was a message of love and tolerance but sometimes the people who took advantage of that forgiving tolerance for themselves had great difficulty in offering that kind of forgiving tolerance to others.

  What happens when families cannot resolve their own disputes?  They go for legal resolution outside of the family.   And it is embarrassing for a family to admit that they do not have the familial love to resolve their own disputes.  Brother suing brother; parents suing children.  In a sense, every divorce is a failure in charity which goes to outside legal resolution because it is impossible sometimes to resolve things totally “in-house.”

  If those early Christian community attained the reputation of being communities of people who fought with each other and went outside of their churches to solve their disputes, then that would blow the image that they had of “loving one another.”

  So you can see this passage from Matthew is a practical and pragmatic recommendation for the resolution of disputes.  The recommendations are against people “going it alone” or “going to those who are outside of the community.”  The pragmatic method is to practice collaboration; to gather with each person committing to the motive of being there in Christ’s name, swearing first to be a son and daughter of God and brother and sister of Christ.  If this was the family and collaborative motive, then the early church believed that the group wisdom would result in an experience of the presence of Christ.

  But let us not get too overly romantic about outcomes because some tough love and tough decisions can still result.

  When Mom or Dad are finally present to resolve a dispute among the siblings, everything is not always “cum bah yah” hunky dory.  Sometimes Dad or Mom will order children to have some time out, go to one’s room and think about actions and words exchanged.

  Sometimes when Christ has become historically present, it seems as though Christ has said, “Now you Episcopalians go to your room.  You Lutherans to yours and you Roman Catholics and Baptists to your rooms.  You guys are not going to agree on everything but you can be just a little bit different because you each have a different mission and different appeal to different groups of people. 

  Let us not over-romanticize what the presence of Christ means within the gathered church.   In disagreements there are still hard decisions and choices to make, but that is why we need to realize the presence of Christ in the hard times and in the times of knowing our sins and our disagreements.  I’ve never fully understood why some churches withhold the sacrament signifying the presence of Christ to people who are going through or who have gone through divorce, particularly to the parties who still wanted to seek and know the comfort of Christ in the sacrament in the middle of a very difficult time of disagreement.

  So let us embrace this wonderful truth: “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am  among them.”   We need not sugar coat messy situations; messy situations do not disqualify us from knowing the presence of Christ.  Messy situations should keep us seeking collaboration and the maintenance of a right motive for coming into the community gathering.

  Too many church disputes end up with people sensing that they have lost the presence of Christ, rather than finding Christ as being present within the hard times of community life.

  We cannot be exempt from being merely human and all too human within human community.  And if that is the case, let us remember that ancient principle of the Matthean church; gather in the name Christ and realize his presence in spite of the challenging turmoil.

  As much as I like to quote this passage as comfort for a Christly quorum when attendance is poor; this presence of Christ is a promise to us in the rough and tumble of community of being merely human.  This Gospel invites us to keep our motive for gathering on Christ and as a result realize his presence which will complete us and perfect us in a way that our own behavior does not.  Amen.