“Taking people seriously”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Thursday, June 16, 2022

Matthew 18:10-20 (Forward, p. 49) CEV p. 1006

For me, at least, today’s passage poses problems, as it seemed to me, initially at least, to present two totally different messages, even seemingly contradictory ones. Verses 10-14 speak of a lost sheep—in other words, a lost member of the church, and then verses 15-20 detail church disciplinary measures. These messages seem quite discordant.

But then, upon further reading and reflection, I discovered something in common. What they are saying in common is that people matter. People are important, valued by God, and so we need to take them, and their welfare, very seriously.

Thus, the first section highlights that a single individual is so very valued, so precious, that the shepherd is willing to leave all the other sheep (99 of them) all alone on the hillside in order to search for and rescue that one lost and erring sheep. That shepherd is willing to take that extreme risk because that one sheep matters. And he or she is not willing to delegate it to someone else but sees it as something that he or she needs to attend to personally. That really says a lot about pastoral care.

And what the second section says is similar, albeit in a somewhat different light. Whereas a sheep wandering off bears its own responsibility only for its actions and their consequences and pretty well impacts only itself, the straying in this second section impacts other people, other believers, other members of the church.

It is interesting to take note of how this is described. Whereas in the Authorized Version (King James Version) it says that the one sheep/ follower has sinned against another sheep, another member, other translations put it somewhat differently. One version says ‘if your fellow believer wrongs you’ and another says ‘if he or she offends you.’ And so, perhaps, it is not so much sin in any objective, detached sense, but something more personal, something that has deeply impacted the relationship between these two people.

And so it would seem that, in God’s economy of things, both of those sheep, and their relationship, matter. And so the one believer is to take the initiative and try to settle the matter, set things straight and restore the relationship. And, even when that fails—if it does—he or she is to do his or her level best to try to bring the person back. It is because that person matters, matters to God, and hopefully, to the church as well. In other words, we need to take people seriously, and never, ever to ‘write them off.’ Because, after all, God doesn’t do that with any of us. Amen.

Forward notes: “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” (verse 15).

“In these days of public vitriol, a snide remark to a friend or an angry tweet about how someone has wronged us may offer a momentary rush of satisfaction and self-righteousness. It might even shame the one who has harmed us into making an apology.

“But that isn’t what Christian community is supposed to look like. The church exists to worship God and serve others, but it should also demonstrate the reconciling love of the kingdom of God come near. Even in the church, people sin against one another, but the response to grievances within the church is supposed to look different from the world’s—a response based on reconciliation, not public shame.

“There are limits to this teaching, of course. Victims of abuse are not obliged to remain in relationship with their abusers, for instance. But for most of the other ways we harm each other in our day-to-day lives, Jesus offers this simple instruction: talk to one another.”

Moving Forward: “Is it time to have a hard conversation? Talk. And listen.