Article 14: Discipline in the Church – Wii should do it together
January 30, 2011
BMC- Matt 18:15-22 & Eph 4:14-16
The Ban Hat
Dave: (Enters excited) Rick, Rick, I’ve got to show you this new hat that I have developed for people in our congregation to use so that we can grow deeper in faith.
Rick: Wow, Dave, you seem pretty excited about it. Tell me what you’ve come up with.
Dave: Well I’ve been thinking about our article for this week, Article 14: Discipline in the church and I decided to go back to previous Mennonite Confessions of faith to see what they have to say about this. And I found that all the way back in 1527, the first Anabaptist Confession of faith only had 7 articles; but it included one on discipline.
Rick: You must be referring to the Schleitheim Confession.
Dave: That’s right and article two of the Schleitheim Confession is on the Ban. It says that when a brother or sister sins, we are to use Matthew 18 against them and ban them from the fellowship to teach them a lesson. That’s the same passage that our current confession of faith refers to when talking about discipline in the church.
But as I thought about it, that seems pretty difficult to do in a small town like this. I mean I walk around most places that I go and I bump into people all the time. If I’m going to ban people for their sins, I’m going to need some help so I developed the Ban Hat.
Rick: Well, I’m not sure that we look at the Matthew 18 passage in quite the same way Dave, but I’ll bite. Let’s see this hat that you’ve developed.
Dave: {bag down}Well I got thinking about the horses that the Amish use for their buggies and how they put blinders o
n them to keep them focused on what is ahead of them and ignore what is beside them. {Put hat on} So I took a ball cap and added blinders to it. That way when I am walking down the street about to encounter someone the I am supposed to ban, I can just turn my head and it’s as if they aren’t even there. {Pull Flaps Down}
That way, I’m not tempted to converse with them or ignore the ban against them. Pretty great, huh? The people who are carrying out the ban will be able to do so more effectively and those who are experiencing it will be more convicted to repent!
Rick: Actually Dave, I have to say that I really think that this is a terrible idea and a complete misunderstanding of the meaning of Matthew 18 and what Article 14 suggests that discipline in the church should be.
Dave: Really? {flaps pop back up}
Rick: Yeah, let me explain…
Matthew 18:15-22: A community of healing (Rick)
You see when we approach our faith and discipline from a static or stationary point of view, then discipline becomes more about keeping people in line. And, Matthew 18 becomes a formula to achieve this goal. Allow me to demonstrate…
(At this point Rick and Dave went onto the floor level and Rick described a situation in which Annie had a problem with Dave. She came forward to talk with him, but Dave refused to listen. Then the elders were called in and Sharon and Carl came forward but Dave still did not listen. Then it was taken before the whole congregation but Dave still did not listen so Dave was shown the door.)
However, this static formula approach to faith and discipline simply doesn’t get to the heart of the liberating discipline that Jesus is presenting us with here in this passage. It’s not about faith formulas; rather it’s about a worldview of reconciliation and mutual growth.
To begin to see this passage as a dynamic passage of liberation, it might be helpful think about the surrounding stories. Why? Well, when we look at the surrounding passages we notice that this passage is sandwiched between a story about a shepherd seeking one lost sheep and a story on mercy.
Jesus first talks about seeking the lost v 14 “In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” Then we have a parable following this passage that concludes by urging the disciples to forgive their brothers or sisters from their heart. So we have the themes of seeking lost and forgiveness surrounding this passage. Keeping this in mind might help us to see the bigger picture of what is happening here.
We might think, “Well that sounds nice and rosy but what about our confession of faith? What about discipline?” We can talk about seeking the lost and forgiveness but what about bringing change to people’s lives. Well, I would suggest that our passage does allow us to see some way of bringing change but I don’t want to lay out some formula for us. Yet, there are some things that we can begin to notice.
We can notice that there is movement in Jesus’ words. Often times when something happens we let it build up. That build up is like poison that can drain the life out of the body until it bursts (bottle experiment – at this point Rick described an experiment that he did with others when he was younger in which a chemical reaction led to the buildup of pressure in a two liter bottle. When the buildup became too great, the bottle exploded).
But here we see that we are to go to the person. We have to lay aside our pride and anger and see the person as Jesus sees them and allow ourselves to be vulnerable and we share from our heart. This isn’t comfortable but Jesus doesn’t promise us comfort.
Then we might notice that we are to create spaces of healing. Jesus says to bring two along not to judge the person but so we can have others to help us in the process. Yet, if our brother or sister chooses not to listen we bring it to the church. Now this can be scary yet I think that Jesus advocates for bringing the conflict to the community of faith because:
Troubles are never settled by going to law, or by Christless arguments. Legalism merely produces further trouble. It is in an atmosphere of Christian prayer, Christian love, and Christian fellowship that personal relationships may be righted. The clear assumption is that the Church fellowship is Christian, and seeks to judge everything, not in the light of a book of practice and procedure, but in light of love.[1]
So, we create spaces of healing and not condemnation.
But our brother or sister still might not listen, so we treat them like a pagan or tax collector. Now, if we were a Pharisee reading this, we might hear, “Yes! We know how to treat pagans and tax collectors. Those are the outsiders and hopeless people that we exclude from our fellowship because all they do is drag us down.” But, we are not following the Pharisees; we are following the one who didn’t see tax collectors as hopeless; just ask Matthew (who is the author of the book) or Zacchaeus.
Well, all this talk of seeking restoration gets the wheels turning in Peter’s head and he says, “Should I forgive my brother (or sister) up to seven times.” Peter most likely thought he was being pretty generous, after all the rabbis instructed forgiving a person three times. But Jesus says that we are not to count. In effect Jesus here is creating a community of reconciliation
Peter’s Story (Rick)
One of the best stories of this sort of radical and liberating restoration happens in John 21. This story of healing between Jesus and Peter is a beautiful model for how Matthew 18 can bring liberation and healing into our lives.
(At this point, Rick described the story in which Peter comes before the risen Christ and is asked three times if he loved Jesus. Each time Peter replied that he did and he was then told to go and feed Jesus’ sheep, His followers. It is a story of experiencing Jesus’ forgiveness and restoration.)
Eph. 4:14-16 (Dave)
You know Rick, as I hear you share about your perspective on Matthew 18 and how you are tying in the story of Peter’s forgiveness; I find that it really resonates with me. It also seems to me that it really connects with the Ephesians passage that you recited this morning.
In there, I heard you name the reality of the various things in life that can get in the way of our faith. There are things that can toss us like waves toss a ship. There are things that can blow us off course and lead us to places that we should not be. There is need for us to mature in our faith. And this passage in Ephesians calls us not to strengthen each other through harsh discipline that is against each other, but rather as a body working together, not through anger, hatred and isolation; but through love.
It is through speaking the truth in love that we are to grow in maturity of faith. In this way we are to grow into mature faith like the head of our spiritual body, Christ; the ultimate example of sacrificial love. He spoke the truth to all that he encounter and did so in love. He always clearly defined who he was, what he believed, and who God is. Then he invited people to join him in that better way; sometimes sending them on to share it with others.
And with Jesus as the head, we are a body together. We are a body that is joined and supported together by every ligament. We are body that grows and builds up together as we share together in love and mutual accountability.
Wii Workout (Dave)
Actually, this body imagery makes me think of a very practical and tangible example that we work at practicing two to three times a week. Last spring, Rick and I began jogging together. It started because he wanted to run and I needed to run to get ready for a 5K.
We kept running through the summer and then in the fall shifted to using my family’s Wii to workout. We have a game called Active which is essentially a virtual trainer. It tells you what exercise to do and how many repetitions and monitors your progress through the remotes. I would have loved to demonstrate it for you; but given my health problems in December, I was afraid that I would make you all too nervous.
So two to three mornings a week, Rick comes over and we use the Wii to work out for about a half an hour. In the first place, our working out together helps us to become more physically strong and healthy. The discipline of exercise is important for healthy growth of our bodies just as spiritual discipline is important for healthy growth of our souls.
In the second place, our working out together keeps us accountable to doing the work. I have learned that I need someone to workout with in order for me to do it. It was true of my time on various soccer teams, it was true of my time in seminary when I would work out with Mark, and it is true now. This is true of our spiritual lives as well, we need the discipline of accountability from trusted fellow believes to proactively help us to not be swept away by the waves of the world.
Conclusion
Rick: You know this way of viewing discipline as something that bring healing and liberation and growth reminds me of the Beatles song “Blackbird.” The first verse of the song says, “Blackbird singing in the dead of night; Take these broken wings and learn to fly.”[2] Taking brokenness and learning to fly or live is at the heart of discipline in the church. But it doesn’t just happen without the whole body living it out in our lives.
So I cannot help but wonder if our life together encourages and empowers healing. So let’s learn to fly together. Let’s put aside our need to be right all the time and learn to grow together into Christ our head, because this is part of true discipline. Let’s learn to fly. Let’s put away the harsh whip of legalistic discipline and create spaces for authentic reconciliation to happen, because this is part of true discipline. Let’s learn to fly. Let’s put aside the static forms of faith that seek so to just keep people in one place and move into a dynamic view of faith as we partner with the Holy Spirit in bringing restoration to people’s lives, because this is part of true discipline. Let’s learn to fly. Let’s allow ourselves to be vulnerable as we come to the foot of the cross together, because this is part of true discipline.
Dave: Absolutely. There have been terrible and hurtful abuses of church discipline in our history that leave a bad taste in our mouths to say the least. Yet discipline is a necessary part of our faith and our lives together. In its best sense, it is something that we do proactively together as a body much like Rick and I working out regularly with my Wii or doing this sermon together. May God empower and guide us in the ways of doing this in love and together in mutual accountability. Amen.
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