Looking at the Matthew reading in next Sunday’s Lectionary…
Leaving aside for the moment how strange it is that Jesus seems to be talking about the needs of the church when the church didn’t exist yet (that early Christian community at least must’ve thought that’s what Christ would’ve said about their community life)… there’s another bit of that passage that I find a difficult, but joyous challenge. According to this gospel, Jesus says (18:20), “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Those words have been remembered in many settings. It’s great to think that Jesus is present wherever people meet in his name, however small the gathering. Meeting someone at a railway station, sharing a bacon sandwich, poring over the Bible … whatever. Some people have quoted this when a very small number worship together in a comically/sadly inappropriate space, like a church that’s much too big, with an organ and everything. What concerns and excites me is that this applies to many Christians who are different from me; Christians who park their guns in the corner on the way in, Christians who have extreme views about the divine right of their race, Christians who see human relating or the role of women very differently from the way I see these things. We disagree fundamentally – and this is not just rearranging angels on the head of a pin, this is disagreements that are political and make a difference to daily life. And yet I dare to believe that Jesus is present with therm too. More worrying still is when they appear deaf to someone else’s take on the world (which I must seem too). And yet we’ve got to keep on talking, and above all listening. It’s hard, but that’s what it is to be part of a worldwide community.
Help us God,
to be united,
despite our real, deep, wounding
differences.
Help us to maintain our integrity and love.