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Repeat Performance

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Fellow Passengers: This week’s Primary Passage* (Matthew 18:15-35) transports me to a land of broken records. Not the Guinness Book variety, but the old LP variety, where the needle, aka stylus, gets stuck on a scratched place in the vinyl, and a short snatch of a song is repeated over and over again. That’s what I naively thought Neil Young was talking about when I was a kid and heard him singing: I’ve seen the needle and the damage done. Now, though, our passage has the stylus stuck on the broken record of human conflict, (a little part of it in everyone), the groove of one flawed soul doing something to offend another flawed soul. Jesus gives some pretty clear and fairly simple instructions on what to do when this happens, how to nudge the needle along to keep the song going. As clear and simple as these instructions are, they are some of the least followed words of Jesus. What did he say? If your brother has offended you, go to him and explain the fault. If he listens, great, you’ve won him over. If not, take a couple of the church folks along to have some witnesses to the conversation. If he still doesn’t listen, take the matter before the church. If he still doesn’t listen, treat him as a pagan and tax collector.

Usually we skip over those first couple of instructions and move right on to the end, treating people who have offended us as pagans and tax collectors. But even so, does this mean we should treat them with contempt and disdain, as it might seem on first glance? Of course not. We’re to treat the ne’er-do-well as a pagan the way Jesus treated pagans. We’re to treat the miscreant as a tax collector the way Jesus treated tax collectors. Which means, eating and drinking with them, offering forgiveness and an invitation to join or re-join the journey of grace. The Message Bible says it this way: you have to start over from scratch, confront him with the need for repentance, and offer again God’s forgiving love. Start over from scratch. There’s that word again. So, Jesus is telling us, or singing to us in a Neil Young voice: keep the stylus on that scratch of grace, and don’t find another groove until reconciliation is in place.

Impetuous Peter wondered how long that could go on. After all, people can be tiresome to deal with. This is beginning to sound like a broken record, we can almost hear him saying. And after all, don’t broken records get on your nerves? Can we give up after seven times and skip on to the next song? Uh, no. There is no give up in grace. Peter’s question and Jesus’ response reminds me of a funny my Granny used to say: “Pete and Repeat were sittin’ on a log, Pete fell off, who was left on?” Repeat. “Pete and Repeat were sittin’ on a log, Pete fell off, who was left on?” Repeat. “Pete and Repeat were sitting on a log. . .” This could theoretically go on forever. Which is what Jesus told Pete. Repeat. Offense. Grace-ful pardon. Repeat. Offense. Grace-ful pardon. Repeat. . .  Repeat offenders and repeat pardoners. Hard to say why this dynamic is so hard to learn. I sure haven’t learned it fully yet. Until I do, I’ll keep the vinyl on the turntable and keep listening for Jesus’ voice in the scratch: I sing the song because I love the man, I know that some of you won’t understand. . .

How about you? Where does this Primary Passage take you on your journey of faith? Feel free to comment.

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• Matthew 18:15-35

  This Week's Theme: "Forgiveness"

  *Today's Passage

  “If your brother or sister sins against you, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

  Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

  “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

  “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
  

    –Matthew 18:15-35, NIV