I wonder whether you remember your school rules. I remember mine in some detail. They were numerous and strict. Don’t carry an umbrella unless you are a sixth former. Don’t loiter in the boot passage. Don’t talk after light’s out. Don’t smoke and, it being a Methodist school, no drinking alcohol. You get the picture – it was a list consisting mainly of “donts” and the “donts” vastly outnumbered the “dos”. The booklet containing the rules ended with these words
“These rules are not a substitute for common sense.”
We thought that the rules were very severe but then someone had the idea of reprinting the original prospectus that John Wesley wrote when he founded the school in 1748 and giving us all a copy. In it we read:
“We have no Play-Days…so neither do we allow any Time for Play on any Day. He that playeth when he is a Child, will play when he is a man.”
John Wesley’s brother Charles took a break from writing such classics as “Love Divine, all loves excelling” and “O for a thousand tongues to sing” and produced a metrical version of that rule:
“Let heathenish boys
In their pastimes rejoice,
And be foolishly happy at play:
Overstocked if they are,
We have nothing to spare,
Not a moment to trifle away.”
On first reading, today’s Epistle and today’s Gospel seem to offer a number of “donts”. Paul quotes from the Ten Commandments and goes on to warn his readers to avoid:
“reveling and drunkenness…debauchery and licentiousness…quarreling and jealousy”
In today’s Gospel Jesus seems to be establishing a disciplinary procedure for the church. And he does use the word “church”, in fact this is one of only two passages in the Gospels, both in Matthew, where that word appears. Some scholars have suggested that Matthew was putting the word into Jesus’ mouth, but we need to remember that the Greek word Matthew uses (ekklesia) doesn’t mean a building designed for worship, doesn’t imply a vestry, a finance committee or a flower rota. It simply means “people who are called out” – a group of people with a shared vocation.
Jesus does begin with a very important “don’t”. He is in effect saying
“Don’t get into the kind of dispute which pits one person’s word against another’s”
And he then says something which sounds harshly judgemental:
“if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
So both the Epistle and the Gospel contain “donts”. These might sound negative and restrictive and many people are put off religious belief because they perceive it as being all about “donts”. But both the Epistle and the Gospel are positive, each of them offering important “dos”.
In the Epistle the first “do” is:
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
And Paul goes on to quote Jesus:
“Love your neighbour as yourself.”
Paul understands that it is love that builds up communities, including the community of the church – the people who are called out, the people with a vocation to follow Jesus. The people whom he urges to:
“…put on the Lord Jesus Christ”
Turning back to the Gospel, I don’t think that when Jesus says that unrepentant members of the Christian community are to be treated like a Gentile or a tax collector, he is ordering a final and irrevocable condemnation of them. It’s important to remember how positively Jesus himself responded to Gentiles and to tax collectors, including Matthew. What he is suggesting is that the unrepentant person is still a neighbour to be loved but has to be treated as a complete beginner in the Christian life, someone who needs to go back to square one, to relearn what living and loving in community means.
This Gospel passage ends with some famous and very positive words
“…if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 2For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Sometimes that phrase about “two or three gathered together” is used by preachers to cheer up congregations which are numerically small with a message which says that, for Christians, strength is not about numbers. That’s a valid and helpful reading, but not an exhaustive one. One of the best sermons on this text I have ever come across was a published sermon aimed at children. The preacher suggested producing a slice of toast, a glass of orange juice and a packet of cereal and asking the question
“What comes to mind when you see these three things together.”
And the expectation was that the children would call out “Breakfast!” That question and answer would then be a springboard for a talk about the vital importance of diversity in any Christian community. The coming together of diverse people in love and co-operation and mission is what makes them aware that Christ is present and awareness of the presence of Christ is what makes the church flourish.
The school rules I had to obey six decades ago ended with the clause:
“These rules are not a substitute for common sense.”
Today’s Epistle and Gospel, moving as they do from “dos” to “donts” are reminding us that the rules we are called as Christians to obey are not a substitute for common humanity but rather a means to human community in Christ.