When two or three are gathered together .......

Matthew 18:15-20
15 "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. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 
Churches are not excluded from the normal tensions of relationships and getting along with each other.

Too often we find people talking about each other rather than to each other.

When two or three are gathered together there will often be disagreement but here in Matthews Gospel Jesus is outlining a three step process to ensure that disagreement can be resolved.

The first step is clear, if someone has offended you, then go and point out the fault when you are alone.

If that doesn’t resolve the situation then take along a couple of witnesses so that the words can be confirmed.

The third step involves the whole church and if the church cannot resolve it then let the offender be to you as a gentile or tax collector. 

Which is a pretty damming punishment unless you take into account Jesus’ own treatment of gentiles and tax collectors.

It is possible to see here in this gospel in a passage which is addressed to both the disciples, who are hearing this for the first time, as well as to Matthew’s readers who are by now members of churches themselves and of course to us who are reading this afresh once more.

The encouragement from Jesus to his church is that we should be a community that nurtures honest dialogue and a community that refuses to keep silent in the face of behaviour that harms others.


So alongside the three step process Jesus is encouraging his church to become a community in which people walk alongside and protect those who are being disempowered or made vulnerable so that their voices may be heard.
I recall some years ago at a meeting in Shepherds Dene a discussion about unemployment and poverty in the wake of the publication of Faith in the City. I wrote on a flip chart, ‘There are people in our communities hurting from the loss of jobs and poverty.’ 
It was a Daniel Blake moment!
But the Vicar of St George’s, Jesmond then wrote, ‘There are people in this room who are hurting’!
It was a way of drawing attention to the pain that was being experienced in the wider community and the impact that was having in the church community.

Some of what has been happening within our wider community, fears about our own health and safety, our stress and anxiety, has and is being felt within our own church community directly or indirectly.

The Local Ministry group, the PCC, the Churchwardens have been heavily involved in seeking to resolve issues that have arisen, relationships that have been strained, concerns about money and the parish share.

And it is unlikely that the three-step process will be sufficient to enable us to steer our way through the disaffections that have been raised.

But at the heart of today’s Gospel lies another key text at verse 20.

Often taken to provide biblical authority for a Eucharist needing at least three congregants to be valid or even celebrated at all. The text also provides a very real sense of why spiritual communion introduced during this pandemic is a true communion. I celebrate by blessing bread and wine with the words of consecration and in so doing it invites us to welcome Jesus as a guest at the feast truly present with us.

As Benjamin Carter observed at one of our meetings when Jesus is present our conversation is different. The text makes it clear that in ministry secrets can be destructive, conversations where people don’t speak honestly can lead to small issues becoming big issues and big issues becoming catastrophic.

As I know from a lifetime of experience both in churches and outwith churches the secret is communication, communication , communication but that requires listening as well as speaking.

For most of us it is easier to identify the ways we have been harmed than it is to recognize the ways our actions can harm others, even if unintentionally. Perhaps one of the most difficult truths of this passage is a reminder of the human capacity to cause harm to others—both in the systems in which we participate as well as in our personal actions (or failures to act).
The Good News is that Jesus promises not to desert us as we face difficult truths and practice liviing more fully in the communities that God calls to become. 
As Jesus says he is present wherever two or three are gathered in his name, a name that means “God with us.” 

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