Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX

In Matthew’s scripture reading from 18:15-20, Jesus is giving instructions to His disciples.

Mat 18:15 “If your brother sins against you, go and confront him while the two of you are alone. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.
Mat 18:16 But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two others with you so that ‘every word may be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
Mat 18:17 If, however, he ignores them, tell it to the congregation. If he also ignores the congregation, regard him as a gentile and a tax collector.
Mat 18:18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you prohibit on earth will have been prohibited in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will have been permitted in heaven.
Mat 18:19 Furthermore, truly I tell you that if two of you agree on earth about anything you request, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
Mat 18:20 For where two or three have come together in my name, I am there among them.”

I believe Jesus is giving this instruction to His disciples and us as a last resort.  Everything else Jesus teaches us is to help keep us from getting to this point in a relationship.  Just a couple of examples are in the beatitudes.  Matthew 5:5, “How blessed are those who are humble, for it is they who will inherit the earth!” and Matthew 5:9,  “How blessed are those who make peace, for it is they who will be called God’s children!”  Being humble and being a peacemaker are in the beatitudes because Jesus knew our human condition and our tendency toward pride and self serving righteousness.  There are many other examples to give but to me these two are the most important.  When we humble ourselves before our God, we humble ourselves before our brothers and sisters in Christ we will seek to live in peace and act out our most important call to be servants to each other.  Being right or justified in our feelings becomes much less important as we see the way of peace and love Jesus teaches us.

Be strong in your faith and humble in your spirit.  Bold in your efforts to share the “Word” with others while having a servant attitude.  Faith, Hope and Love, Abide in these three but Love is the greatest.

Have a great Holiday weekend,

Randy

Tags: church, Common, Lectionary, methodist, per, readings, Revised, Scripture, united

This entry was posted on September 3, 2011 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Pastor's Ponderings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.