14 Pentecost

 

September 6, 2020

 

Romans 13.8-14; Matthew 18. 15-20

 

+ A few Sundays ago I preached about the conversation between Jesus and Peter in that morning’s Gospel reading.

 In Matthew 16: 16, Peter professed his belief that Jesus was the “Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

 In my sermon, I mentioned that there were several different interpretations of what all this meant.

 One of the more popular beliefs was the Roman Catholic belief that Jesus was, in fact, founding the Church on Peter whom they claim to be the first Pope and giving to him and his successors the power to bind and loose.

 And for people who hold that view, the Roman Church and the Pope have full authority to bind and loose.

 Now, although I have respect for the Roman Catholic Church, there is much I disagree with as well.

 I do not believe in any way that what Jesus is establishing that Gospel reading was a Pope.

 But with all of what have heard and learned from our pondering of Matthew 16.16, we now need to tackle our Gospel reading for today.

 In today’s Gospel, we find that the power to bind and loose was not given just to Peter, but to all Jesus’s followers.

 After talking about his followers  who have disagreements with each other and how they should resolve their differences, he goes on to say:

 “Truly I tell you [and he is speaking to all his followers at this time] whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

 He goes on to say: “Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

 This is very important to us.

 Because when Jesus gave that power to bind and loose to all his followers, he didn’t just give it those followers who were with him that day.

 He gave that power to all Christians, throughout all time.

 He gave that power to us, as well, here and now.

 And because there are, in fact, more than two or three gathered here this morning, even virtually, Jesus truly is in the midst of us—his Church.

 We, being the Church, have that power to bind and loose and it is quite the power.

 Take a moment and just think about what it is Jesus is giving us authority to do.

 What we bind on earth, will be bound in heaven.

 And what we loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven.

 This is some incredible power.

 We as followers of Jesus have the power, in a very real sense, to control not only what is here on earth, but that control carries over into heaven.

 Still, it’s confusing, this concept of binding and loosing.

 What is it Jesus is talking about when means binding and loosing?

 Probably the best way to try to understand it is to put it in the context of Jesus’s own time.

 For Jewish rabbis in Jesus’s time, "binding" the Law meant they were able to apply it to a particular situation.

 They “loosed” the Law when it was not able to be applied to situation.

 There were some situations that the Law was clear about, and  they could not be loosened.

 But there were also grey areas in life where the Law wasn’t so clear and, as a result, the rabbis had to figure out if the Law could be applied to it.

 They made the decision about whether it was binding and loosening.

 For us, this passage isn’t quite so clear.

 For us, “binding” and “loosening” don’t mean the same things as they did to Jesus’s followers.

 Still, we are able to grasp, in some way, what Jesus is getting at.

 The simple fact is this: what we do here on earth, really does make a difference with God.

 And that, as Christians, as followers of Jesus, what we do has great power.

 Because when we gather together, Jesus is in our midst and what we do together becomes an act of Christ.

 We have been given the power the bind and loose—however we might understand those terms.

 And we can use (or mis-use) a power like this.

 But, there is one motivating factor behind all binding and loosing.

 And we find this motivating factor spoken to us in our reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans today.

 There we find the summary of this same Law that binds or loosens.

 The summary of this Law is that we should love our neighbor as ourselves.

 And here we find the truly binding experience of Christianity.

 Our job as Christians is not to nit-pick about what should be bound and what should be loosened.

 Our job as Christians is to make sure that we love each other as we love ourselves.

 Love, after all, is the ultimate experience of binding.

 And Christian love, because Jesus has given us this power to loosen and bind, has a power that few other loves have.

 The love we have as Christians is more than just a love for each other here on earth.

 This love that we have is a love that binds itself even in heaven.

 And this is why we can’t allow anything else other than love in ourselves.

 That’s why we cannot allow feelings like hatred into our lives.

 Just as love is the ultimate binding experience, hatred is the ultimate loosening experience.

 And hatred for others, or for ourselves, loosens us and that loosening experience is also loosened in heaven.

 God does pay attention to what we feel and what we do.

 God does notice when we do not love—when we do not love others, or ourselves.

God is aware in this age of racism and division what is in our hearts.

 And God is not happy with it, as we all know.

 Racism is a sin, plain and simple.

 It has its core in hatred.

 Hatred for another race.

 Hatred for a race other than ours.

 And that is not God’s intent for us.

 God does not want us to feel anything other than love for others, and for ourselves.

 Because in loving each other, in loving ourselves, we are loving God, who is present in our midst—who is present with us and within us.

 And that perfect balance is what gives us a glimpse of the Kingdom of God in our midst.

 The Kingdom of God, as elusive and vague as it might seem at times, is a place of balance.

 This much we do know.

 The Kingdom of God in our midst involves catching a glimpse of the balance that comes when we love each other and ourselves.

 Our job as Christians is always, always, always to love.

 Love should always win out over hatred and racism.

 If we love fully, as we are commanded to do by Jesus, we have no place for hatred and racism.

 So, because we, as Episcopalians, believe that Jesus founded the Church not just on the Rock of Peter, but on Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God,  and because we believe that the power to bind and loose was not only given to the Pope, but to all of us who are Christians, we need to take stock of the words that come out of our mouths and the emotions we feel in our hearts

 We need to let love always win out.

 We need to know that if we bind we must bind in love and if we loosen we must loosen also in love.

 And by doing so, what we do in love on earth, will be done in heaven in love.

 So let us love fully.

 Let us love others and love ourselves as Jesus commands us to love.

 And if we do, we will find the words Jesus said to Peter in that Gospel reading a few weeks ago coming true in us as well.

 The gates of Hades will not prevail against us as followers of Jesus.

 The gates of every ugly, evil thing in this world will have no power over us.

 Rather, with a love like that in us and emanating from us, the powers of darkness and evil will fall flat before us.

 So, let us love fully.

 And let that love that is bound in us be bound in heaven.

 And by doing so, we will be bringing the Kingdom of God into our midst.

 Let us pray.

Holy God, you have given us such amazing power in our following of Jesus, your Son. Let us use these powers as you intend us to use them let us use them in love, so that our love, bound here on earth, will truly be bound within you in heaven. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.