“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them” (Matt. 18:20).
Jesus doesn’t talk much about the Church: he calls his followers “disciples” (Matt. 10:24) and even “friends” (Jo. 14:15), but rarely refers to the Church itself. The word only turns up in a couple of places in the Gospel of Matthew. We heard one of those mentions two weeks ago, and today we have the other. The word in its original context meant assembly, a gathering of people for business. Because the occasions for mention are so few, we should sit up and take notice: Jesus has got something to tell us about the Church.
It’s humbling to those of us who try to lead the Church that this rare mention is caught up in a discussion of sin. That’s right: sin. It’s almost as if the moment the subject of sin comes up, Jesus moves directly to the Church. There’s logic here: Jesus knows the connection between one thing and the other. He knows where he’s going.
One of the first lessons I learned as a relatively new Christian was that the Church was a hospital for sinners. This was a point my rector made, over and over again, in sermons and in conversation. It only took me a little while to figure out that the reason the subject of sin came up so often was because it was a real problem in that Church! And of course, it goes without saying, I was part of the problem too.
In our reading, Jesus is speaking to the accountability that ought to exist between the members of the community. Sin calls out for correction, after all, and Jesus charts a course for how that might happen. Privately, if possible; but if necessary, publicly. There’s no doubt that authority can abuse this power to correct: maybe some of you are refugees from communities where this kind of abuse happens. It even happens in our own Church.
But of course, a community where there is no accountability, each of us to the other, would be a terrible place to live. If the Church is a hospital for sinners, it would be as if we went into the emergency room with a critical problem and found no one who was willing to help. Admitted to the hospital, we would find no doctors who would treat us, perhaps for risk of offending us and maybe provoking a lawsuit! “Sin: no one here with that problem!” Without accountability, we’re on our own, binding up our own wounds; or what is more likely, since we’re not really qualified as spiritual “doctors,” our wounds would remain untreated.
Having told you the Church is a hospital for sinners, I should also tell you some of the other things the New Testament, mostly the letters of Paul, tells us about the Church. If Jesus in our Gospel moves from the mention of sin immediately to the Church, there are also signs of the Church’s more exalted vocation. Let’s hear it for the Church! The Apostle calls the Church “the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27), which is a high calling: Christ present in the world in a diversity of members. In another place, the Church is described as “the household of God” (Eph. 2:19), where we can presume that God hangs out on occasion. Finally, the Church is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15); or even “the fulness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23).
The Church has these two faces, these two realities: hospital for sinners, and household of God. What comes together here on Sunday morning, at St. James’ Church and at countless congregations and dioceses throughout the world, are both realities. We need to hold ourselves accountable to both. The Church has a high calling and a present reality: to be a sign of the coming Kingdom of God even while we struggle with our own sin and inadequacy as members of the Church. It all comes together when the Church gathers.
In a sense, the Church is on a long-distance journey from one reality to the other. For us, it’s a pilgrimage, and our Sunday morning gathering is a station on the way. We pause in order to refresh ourselves; we gather as a Church in order to consult the map and remind ourselves where we’re headed. Here’s where we hold each other accountable; where the wounds get bound up by our fellow practitioners, who are also our fellow parishioners.
Those being confirmed and received today are joining in a new way in this great project of being a Church. They are reaffirming their baptismal vows and receiving the laying on of hands with prayer. The Holy Spirit will strengthen them for the living of the Christian life. All of us have the chance to reaffirm our own vows and to remember what we’re here for. Each of us is promising to hold the others accountable to the common life as Jesus’ disciples that we are pursuing together.
Jesus promises that when we gather, he will be there in our midst. The doctor is in! wherever we are on the journey, Jesus is walking with us. He’s the One who can heal whatever ails us: sin, or death, or any thing else. We’re not on this journey alone. As St. Augustine wrote years ago, “We have not yet reached his presence, but we have our neighbor at our side. Support, then, this companion of your pilgrimage if you want to come into the presence of the one with whom you desire to remain forever” (Sermons on John 17).