The Pragmatic Symphony

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Matthew 18:15-22

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I with them (Mt.18:20).”  There is no doubt that this is one of the most quoted passages in the Bible particularly when we start talking about what the church is.  Jesus is in our midst when we gather together as his disciples.  That’s our foundational given.  Yet, it is a given that begs some questions, questions like, “How do we know he is here?” or more simply, “What does he look like?”

How do we know Jesus is here?  What does he look like?  Let me give you an image.  I once knew a man back in my university days who was a musical genius.  He was a one-man band/orchestra on the synthesizer/keyboard, which was a relatively new piece of technology in the world of music back in the late ‘80’s.  We got into a discussion one day about recording because I was doing a little bit of that (on a little four-track recorder that used a cassette tape.  How ‘80’s is that?) and so he had me over one afternoon to demonstrate how he put music together using just his synthesizer/keyboard. 

I sat in the corner of his basement studio and he set to work.  Keep in mind, he’s not using any sheet music.  He was simply making up a song there on the spot.  He started out making the keys of the keyboard be different kinds of drums and by tapping out a beat on those keys he programed in some drums.  Then he switched it to piano and added a basic chord progression and recorded it over top of the drums.  Then he changed the keyboard to the sound of an upright bass, then some guitars, and strings and horns.  He had it all sequenced over each other, the basic sound track of a song.  Then, he added in saxophone solos, trumpet solos, keyboard and guitar solos – all from this keyboard.  Then, he tweaked it with different accents of percussion instruments.  I was gobsmacked…and all just off the top of his head.

This man is what I would call a symphonizer.  He heard the music in his head and he had the ability to make the music happen.  He understood music in all its intricacies and how everything worked together, what needed to happen where for it to sound better.  He made sounds, silence, and time come into the state of agreement we call the harmonies that make up what we call symphony – sounds working harmoniously together.

Well, to talk about what Jesus looks like in our midst is to talk about symphony or rather symphonizing among the troubled relationships of human community; doing with human relationship what this man was doing with his keyboard.  Jesus is the Great Symphonizer.  He is in our midst working out human relational symphony that looks, acts, feels like him.  

Symphonizing is what Jesus points us to in verse 19 when he says: “Again, truly, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven (NIV).”  Unfortunately, that is a Severely (capital S) botched translation that’s easily misunderstood to say such ridiculous things as if two of you agree in prayer that your minister should be wealthy and drive a Cadillac, God the Father will make it happen.  What this verse really says is “Whenever two of you prayerfully symphonize in any matter of Christian community on earth, God the Father will do it for them from heaven.”  Now let me give my case for why it should be translated this way.

The word we translate as “agree” in the New Testament Greek is the verb form of the word from which we get our word “symphony”.  It is “symphoneo” or symphonize.  It is a word rooted in musical imagery in Greek just as it is in English.  The image Jesus is giving us is that we are to prayerfully go about the work of making our Christian fellowship look like musical harmony, particularly when we are broken and there are conflicts.

The word “anything” is not there in the Greek text.  Jesus is not telling us to pray for anything and agree about it and God will do it.  Jesus says “all pragma”.  Pragma is the word we get “pragmatic” from.  As most of you are farmers you know pragmatic means sticking to the simplest things that work in order to get it done.  There’s the philosophy of Pragmatism – “If it works, it’s true.”  In Greek, pragma are the things we do – our practical deeds, our actions.”  Prayerfully working to come to agreement, symphonising, in the things we do as Jesus’ disciples is the direction Jesus is pointing us in.  “Whenever two or more of you prayerfully work to come together in what you do, pragma, as Christian community, there I am in your midst Symphonizing”.  I think that’s what Jesus is saying here.  

So, what are the pragma we are to symphonize?  Well, Jesus begins verse 19 by saying “Again.” ”Again, I say to you…”  This means he is referring to things he has just said.  What are those things?  This passage comes near the end of a lesson session Jesus has been giving his disciples about the nature of community in his kingdom.  What the relationship among them is to be like.

The first pragma is that of conducting oneself according to childlike humility. Chapter 18 begins with the disciples coming to Jesus and asking, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”  Jesus answered by pulling a child to himself and saying, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”.  Humility!  Humility is one of the basic musical sounds in the symphony of the way we relate to each as followers of Jesus.

Next, Jesus tells the disciples to be careful in their conduct.  They must not by the things they do put temptations before others or cause others to fall away.  I may not consider something I do to be a “sin”, but if it causes another to judge me or fall away from Christian fellowship, then I best not do it.  It’s not worth it.  The word for this is maybe circumspect or being considerate.  Try not to give another person reason to judge us on our conduct.  Rather, give them reason to appreciate us.

Next, if we do cause someone to fall away from our fellowship, like a shepherd seeking one single lost sheep we must seek that person out to bring them back.  Our typical reaction when someone leaves the church is to consign their leaving to being either their problem or regard it as a matter of their private faith in which we shouldn’t meddle.  And so, we don’t do anything.  In Christian community we seek out those who walk away from our fellowship and very pragmatically try to fix what went wrong.

Similarly, Jesus teaches that when someone in the church wrongs another one of us, in the majority of cases the one wronged should discreetly approach the one who wronged them.  This means that as a matter of first course we don’t react violently, or hold a grudge, or malign the character of the one who wronged us.  We go to them and try to work it out as quickly and pragmatically as possible even though they wronged us.  If at first they don’t listen, then we bring others into it remembering that reconciliation rather than retribution  (making them pay) is the goal.

This teaching session ends with Peter asking Jesus how many times he must forgive his brother who repeatedly sinned against him.  Jesus answered, “Seventy times seven”.  That’s a phrase that means “always”.  Because God has forgiven us and stays in a relationship with us even though we never seem to cease sinning against him, so are we to patiently and humbly bear with one another continually pointing each other to Jesus where there is healing.

The pragma, the practical matter, of healing relationships is the symphony that Jesus is orchestrating among us.  Whenever we prayerfully come to agreement in any “pragmatic” matter of Christian community on earth, God the Father will do it for us from heaven.  Jesus is the great symphonizer.  We are like that keyboard synthesizer that my friend had.  It had many different instruments that my friend used to conjure up “symphony”.  We are the many different instruments and sounds through which Jesus makes the symphony of human community in his image arise.  When we prayerfully enter into this work with him, the Father will make it here on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.

 

Forgiving Is More Than Apology Accepted

Matthew 18:15-22; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20

Last Sunday my family and some other families from my wife’s church had a barbecue. The adults did what adults do - sat around, talked, and ate chips. The kids went and played.  My son and another one of the boys had a bump in and the other boy, who wasn’t wearing any shoes, got the toenail on his big toe bent back.  My wife asked my son, “Did you apologize?”  Of course my son in his not wanting to accept responsibility for anything 9-year-old kind of way said, “It was an accident.”   My wife’s obvious answer to that was, “That doesn’t matter. You still hurt him.  You need to see if he’s okay and apologize.”  So my son sucks up his pride and goes to the boy and avoiding eye contact said, “Sorry.”  The other boy, also staring away, says, “It’s okay.  It was an accident.”

I wonder, what would have happened if it had not been an accident?  What if my son meant to hurt the boy to give himself the advantage in the game they were playing.  In that event I am reasonably sure that my son would’ve gotten punched and come running to mommy crying.  Then, the barbeque would have become a very uncomfortable situation for everybody – the other kids for the game is disrupted, the embarrassed parents, the other guests wonder if a feud might break out, and the host wonders if the party is now over.

There would then arise the formal process that groups of people go through to resolve such situations.  There would be interrogations to determine who is at fault.  Verdicts rendered.  Both boys would have been forced to make an apology that they would reluctantly make.  Wise parents would make them apologize to all the other guests and especially the host for disrupting the barbeque.  There would also be some sort of punishment dealt out for ”when we get home”.  Then, it will take time for the boys to trust one another enough to behave like friends and play together.

As conflict affects a whole community and not just the parties directly involved, both sets of parents would also have made uncomfortable apologies to one another and in order to relieve their embarrassment and fears of being seen as bad parents, they would have tried to explain why their child would have done such a thing.  Indeed, the fellowship over the chips would be strained until everybody saw the children getting along causing the suspicions of bad parenting and the fears of rejection to subside.

At some point the barbeque would “lighten up” again, but…things would not be the same as they were before the incident.  Something happened that pushed the boundaries of trust but that also created opportunities to change the nature of the relationships.  The relationships could possibly grow as all the parents shared their parenting woes and assured and encouraged one another and the hosts refilled the drinks and the chip bowls; or…we could just label one another “bad families” and find reasons to never do this again.

Well, what needs to be noted here?  One, when offence happens whether intentional or not it affects not just the two people involved but the whole community.  Everybody at the barbecue was affected by what happened between two children.  Second, there needed to be accountability for actions taken.  Third, reconciliation, the restoration of fellowship, is the work of the whole community – the kids, the parents, the other guests, and the hosts.  Four, forgiveness is more than just the act of apologizing and accepting an apology.  Quite often I find that apologizing is the very vehicle we use to skirt accepting responsibility for our actions.  Five, there is no reconciliation without forgiveness.  Thus, we need to know what forgiveness is.

In our reading here from Matthew 18 Jesus lays out for us a process for dealing with offence particularly within the Christian community.  It involves difficult advice about forgiveness, particularly forgiving those who will not accept responsibility for what they have done.  It is a difficult process that begins with the offended going to the offender and pointing out the offense. 

We tend to avoid this initial one-on-one encounter for fear of escalation.  And so, we likely involve a third party unless we are too embarrassed or afraid to speak up or there’s the tragic reality that being a victim is often accompanied by mutism, the psychological inability to speak about the offense.

Well, why Jesus would start the process of forgiveness with a one-on-one confrontation initiated by the offended one?  I believe he does this because retribution and/or restitution are not the goal of this process, but rather reconciliation is.  The process that leads towards reconciliation is different than the one the simply leads to retribution and restitution. 

Moreover, the context here is Christian community in which one disciple of Jesus offends another.  Christian community is radically different than other groups.  In the Jesus way, loving your enemy is the rule of thumb as opposed to simply exacting vengeance.  So, when dealing with conflict in Christian community we must be careful to guard the dignity of the offender as to not shame them.  Shame is not conducive to reconciliation.  Shame feels very uncomfortable and we will do anything not to feel it.  Avoiding shame is the likely culprit for why people do not accept responsibility for their offenses against others.  I believe Jesus begins with a one-on-one encounter with the offender initiated by the offended so as not to shame the offender who may not know he’s offended another.  Moreover, the fewer the outside people involved the lesser the felt shame and the more likely there will be reconciliation.

Let me say a little about forgiveness in the process of retribution and restitution.  We live in a culture that says “you hurt me therefore you owe me”.  Thus, we believe that there can be no justice and resulting peace unless and/or until you pay me what is due.   Even when the offender has served the penalty for his actions, the offended still has the right to sue for restitution.  In this process forgiveness is merely the offended “letting go” of one’s rights to retribution and restitution and “releasing” the offender from obligation. 

The Bible would seem to lead us in this direction – an eye for an eye, forgive us our debts.  The New Testament Greek verb which we translate into English as “forgive”, aphiemi, has among its deep well of meaning the concepts of “letting go” and “releasing from debt”.  It was a frequently used word to communicate those ideas in the first century Greek-speaking world.  Use of this Greek word in this way lends towards our locating forgiveness in the process of retribution and restitution.

But, let’s consider something here.  The writers of the New Testament were Hebrews and thought with Hebrew ways in mind, ways and words that didn’t always translate so literally into the Greek words and ideas embodied in the Greek language that they needed to use to function in the first century Mediterranean world.  The Hebrew idea of forgiveness is not rooted in the process of restitution and retribution rather in reconciliation.  There is another nuance in meaning for the Greek word aphiemi that the Hebrew writers wanted to use but we loose in translation because culturally the Western whites who have predominated the world of theology and Bible Study are predisposed to Greek ways of thinking.  Aphiemi can also mean “to send off”.  This idea of the “sending off” of our sins against one another is more in line with what the Bible has to say about forgiveness and particularly understanding Jesus death for our sins.

To understand how Hebrews thought of forgiveness we must look, of all places, to the Book of Leviticus and understand the Day of Atonement, the one day year that the Jews dealt with their perpetually broken relationship with God and their offenses against each other.  On this day the high priest took a bull and two goats and set about the process of reconciliation between Israel’s God and his people.  Forgiveness is forged in what happens to the bull and the goats.

First, the High Priest dealt with his own sins and the sins of the priests.  He took the bull and slaughtered it and collected some of its blood in a dish.  To Hebrews the blood is the “life” of the animal.  This blood that he collected from the slaughtered bull in essence was blood or life that had passed through death.  This points us towards Jesus and the Holy Spirit who is the blood of Christ who has passed through death.  The High Priest would take this blood into the Holy of Holies of the temple to the Ark of the Covenant.  The lid of the Ark was called the Mercy Seat.  It was God’s throne on earth.  The priest would fill the room with the smoke of incense so that he would not see the LORD when he came to sit on the throne.  This smoke represents prayers.  He would then turn to the Ark and dip his hand into the bowl of blood and then sprinkle it onto the Mercy Seat and in this act the LORD God of Israel and the priestly family would be united in this blood, this life that had passed through death.  The Hebrew word used for this act connotes a covering over and washing away of a stain much like how bleach can remove a stain.  The priest would then go out and do the same thing with one of the goats and this goat is on behalf of the people.  The blood of this goat sprinkled on the mercy is the union of, the reconciliation of the LORD God of Israel and his people in life that has passed through death.

After this act of cleansing of the stain of sin and unioning of God and his people in life that has passed through death, the priest would go back out and take the second goat, place his hands upon its head and whisper into its ear the sins of the people.  Then, a Presbyterian, a chosen person, led this goat who is carrying the sins of the people out far away into the wilderness and then loosed and sent it off on its own where it would be destroyed in death by a demon called Azazel.  This is where we get the term “Scapegoat”. 

So, to the Hebrew forgiveness involved covering over and cleansing and carrying the burdens of others and sending off.  King David in Psalm 32 said “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”  The Hebrew word for forgive (NaSA) means to lift up and carry away.  The idea of covered there is like having one’s nakedness or shame appropriately clothed so that there’s nothing to be ashamed of anymore.  The lifting up and carrying away of that which we are ashamed by another so that we appear appropriately clothed as beloved children of God is what forgiveness means to the Hebrew.

Sounds foreign.  What’s it look like?  You remember the story of four men picking up a paralytic and carrying him on his mat to bring him to Jesus so that Jesus could heal him.  They came to the house where Jesus was and it was so crowded they had to break through the roof and lower him down in front of Jesus.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say that when Jesus saw the faithfulness of the men not of the paralyzed man, he said to the man on the mat “you sins are forgiven.”  They lifted up and carried this man on his mat of shame and brought him to Jesus who healed him.  That’s what forgiveness is.  Notice the absence of an apology-based transaction.

Forgiveness that leads to reconciliation is seated in the relationships of a whole community not just the relationship between the offended and the offender.  Forgiveness is when the Christian community picks up and carries the offender in all his offensive and in great love brings him to Jesus to be healed, where he can be appropriately clothed with the cleansing of the presence of the Holy Spirit in him.  It’s what recovering alcoholics do with still suffering alcoholics in AA.  We Christians should do the same with each other.

Today is Aboriginal Sunday and we gather together here as an ecumenical community to worship and fellowship.  Reconciliation will happen among our two communities the more we gather together in union with one another in Christ Jesus where his life that has passed through death can be applied to us by the presence of the Holy Spirit to cleanse and heal us with the sweet medicine of his very presence.  When we gather together in worship, in holy Mystery, knowing the Spirit is here Jesus will do his healing work of forgiveness. 

Moreover, we the body of Christ must take up participate in Jesus ministry of being the “Scapegoat”.  We must carry one another, bearing with one another in our sins against one another.  This means that we must patiently and compassionately understand that broken people do broken things and we have and will continue to sin against one another, but we must in the love of Christ seek each other’s healing in Christ that we may all be healed.  We must approach those who offend us in the love of Christ – the self-denying, even self sacrificing unconditional love of God in Christ Jesus which has been poured into our hearts richly and powerfully with the Holy Spirit.  We must go to our offending brothers and sisters in Christ and by the love of God in us by the presence of the Holy Spirit point them back to Jesus, draw them back to Jesus Christ doing all we can to guard their dignity.  So also, when people come to us to confront us in that we have sinned against them we must in the love of Christ accept accountability for what we have done for we have caused them shame.

We are now new Creation – the old life is gone and the new one has begun.  Like eating together after this service, this is what we do.  Forgiving is what we do.  The peace of Christ be with you.  Amen.