Matthew 18:15-20
In the portion from Romans that we heard last week Paul offered what sounded to me like a checklist. He provided the Christians in Rome a checklist on the different aspects of Christian living. If you want to live as a Christian, these are the things you should be doing. How many can you check in your own life?
Let love be genuine.
Hate what is evil.
Hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with mutual affection.
Do not lag in zeal.
Be ardent in spirit.
Serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope.
Be patient in suffering.
Persevere in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints.
Extend hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you.
Rejoice with those who rejoice.
Weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another.
Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
Do not claim to be wiser than you are.
Live peaceably with all.
Never avenge yourselves.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
(Romans 12:9-21)
That was last week; he gets a bit of a second wind in this week’s passage and there’s more. So how do you do? How many can you check of as “yeses” in your daily life?
I expect most of us would agree that all of the things on Paul’s list are aspects of good Christian living. But the list seems pretty overwhelming. If that list were a parents’ advice to a child for the first day of school, the kids’ eyes would have glazed over after item three.
Thinking of advice that we give to children and young people, how often do we say to them, “Just do your best.” Just do your best. Before a big test. Before the first day of kindergarten. Before the first day of college. Before the big game. Before the first game of T-ball season. Before their first job.
Just do your best.
Don’t worry about remembering a checklist.
Don’t measure yourself against others.
Don’t measure yourself by some perceived outside standard.
Don’t measure yourself by the final score on the scoreboard.
Just do your best.
I hear Jesus saying that to us in this morning’s Gospel. Just do your best.
What he actually says in Matthew’s Gospel is: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” These words are particularly familiar to many Episcopalians from the prayer of St Chrysostom which is in our Prayer Book. “O Lord, you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name, you will be in the midst of them.” I still remember an occasion when I was in high school, and the little church we attended in Edwardsville was between priests. One Sunday the lay reader and I (the acolyte) were the only ones who showed up. He reminded me of this prayer. He reminded me that we two were gathered together in Jesus’ Name and Jesus was with us. We know and cherish Jesus’ promise.
You may or may not know the particulars of the context for Jesus’ words. Jewish public worship then and now requires a minyan. A minyan is a quorum of ten. It is required for most public worship. There has been considerable debate over the years exactly who constitutes a legitimate participant (age, gender, standing in the community), but the quorum, the number is absolute. Ten participants. The peoples’ prayers, public worship cannot begin without ten.
But Jesus says, if two or three is the best you can do today, I will be in the midst of you. If two or three is the best you can do, that’s OK. I… whom Peter has just named Son of the living God… I will be with you.
So Jesus says to us today: Do not measure the quality of your worship against the numbers of the megachurch down the street. Do not fret about some perceived ideal or standard without which worship is not authentic. Don’t worry about whether or not everything is “just right.”
Just do your best. And I will be among you. Whenever two or three gather in my name—you have my promise—I will be among you.
The editorial in the most recent issue of the Christian Century talks about the nature of the church—what makes a group of people a church? One thing a church is is a group of people skilled in everyday practices of faith. People who “display some measure of forgiveness, compassion, hospitality, care for the Earth, solidarity with those who suffer and perseverance in distress.”
It’s a shorter summary of Paul. Maybe it seems more manageable than his long checklist. Or maybe you still say to yourself… I can’t meet that standard. Maybe if I were stronger, or more spiritual. Maybe if we were bigger church. If, if, if… if only, then maybe.
Jesus says to us, whenever two or three are gathered in my name, in worship or in service… Whenever two or three work side by side, in my name, doing their best to live faithfully, I will be with you.
This is a very comforting assurance. Jesus says, don’t measure yourself by somebody else’s standard. Just do you best. Don’t give up. Just gather one or two others with you and do your best. And I, Jesus, will be with you.
Hear Jesus’ words of comfort. Hang on to Jesus’ words of comfort.
But also hear these words as challenge.
As adults, often when we say the words “It was the best I could do,” we say them as throw-away words. We actually mean, “This nowhere near the best I could do.” The words mean: I didn’t take the time to do better; I didn’t care enough to do better… given the very low priority of this project in the midst of everything else going on my life, this was all I really felt like doing… It was the best I could do.
We say those words, with that meaning, a lot to Jesus.
In next week’s Gospel, Peter asks Jesus, “Lord, if another member of the community sins against me, how often should I forgive?” Then, imagining an extravagant number as a sign of his holiness, he says, “As many as seven times?” Should we, your followers forgive as many as seven times?
Jesus says to Peter, “Just do your best.” Do your best to forgive. Not seven times, but maybe seventy-seven times. Jesus concludes this passage by saying, it isn’t really about numbers. Forgive from your heart. Offer the best of yourself in forgiveness. Do your best to forgive.
How often do we save our best for other things and other times and other activities, and withhold our best from God?
Just do your best, Jesus says.
Of course, Jesus doesn’t actually say those words anywhere in Matthew’s Gospel. But it’s what I hear Jesus saying to me, to us, today. In these passages from Matthew that are all about being a community in Christ.
Just do your best.
They are words both of profound comfort and significant challenge. We need to remember them as both, as comfort and as challenge. Your best is enough, but offer your best. Comfort and challenge. “Just do your best.”
