Rerouting...

 

Matthew 18: 15-20
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
September 6, 2026

Photo of a yellow traffic sign in the shape of square resting on one of its corners. In the middle of the sign is a black arrow in the shape of a U-turn. Background is blue sky fading into pale lavender clouds.

So let’s get this out of the way. Like a lot of theological language, that word “sin” carries a lot of unnecessary baggage with it, depending on what brand of Christianity we were steeped in. Images of firebrand preachers and comedians poking fun with cries of “Sinner, repent!” both inflate and reduce the meaning of the word, rendering it meaningless, which I suppose is the whole idea. We connect the word with shame and guilt, both of which tell us that we are bad people, which is not what sin means, and so in an effort to be free people, we reject the word entirely. A convenient, all-too-human way to avoid correcting behavior akin to denial.



Properly translated, the Greek word for sin, hamartanó, means “missing the mark”, like an arrow missing its target or in today’s imagery, missing the turn that gets you to your destination, which is God and God’s law of love. What is God’s law of love? Paul writes to the Romans, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” And yet, as I have heard it many times before, the Bible is meant to be used as a mirror we hold up to ourselves, not a weapon for us to use against the world. It also matters what it is we are actually aiming for. Are we aiming for wholeness or greed? Are we aiming for inclusion or power? Are we aiming for liberation or control? For everyone or just for those we deem worthy or just ourselves?



Jesus is talking on an interpersonal level, but what if that one who has missed the mark and lost their way is the church? Or a whole country? Throughout the history of the Christian church there have been people who have not just missed the mark but harmed the vulnerable. Where there has been abuse, individuals and congregations have tried what Jesus said and yet the Church has castigated the victims and protected the perpetrators. In our quest to be a just nation, the United States has also behaved similarly, like paying reparations to enslavers and appointing and electing abusers to some of the highest positions in government. How do we hold harmful systems accountable when in our society, we cannot hold a mirror to ourselves? When it’s so much easier to deflect and distract.



Much of the time, I think we miss the mark, we wreak havoc, because of the unavoidable pain of being human. We all have wounds and more often than not, they require so much more of us than we are willing to take time for. Poet and truthteller Alok Vaid-Menon asks us, “Are you fighting for freedom or are you fighting for privilege? Because privilege is the ability to monopolize. Privilege is the ability to do what was done to you to other people. The way we heal pain is not by transmitting it, it’s by transforming it. Your pain is valid but your use of your pain, the weaponization of that pain to harm other people, that’s not valid. Let’s interrupt the cycle of trauma.”



I think that’s what Jesus is getting at. In a covenanted community, when someone misses the mark with us, when we miss the mark with someone, Jesus is saying we do the hard work, take the time to hold a mirror to ourselves, acknowledge our wounds and the ones we have inflicted, and repair the harm done. But if the offender refuses to listen, they are to be treated like a gentile and a tax collector, and we know that Jesus loosened the law when it came to those who had been previously excluded. These ones would not have been exiled, and not excused, but given further instruction about what it means to be in covenanted community.



Poet Hana Malik wrote, “Forgiveness is taking the knife out of your own back and not using it to hurt anyone else no matter how they hurt you.” That’s what this Table is all about, this Table of betrayal and desertion. It’s a mirror we hold up to ourselves and to our covenanted community. It’s where we go when we have missed the mark. It’s one of many steps in our journey toward wholeness. This Table is a safe place where we can lay down our pain sharpened like a knife. Where we receive further instruction about how love is the fulfilling of the law, that instruction called grace and forgiveness and justice and restoration. Where the work is never really done but continues because we all have wounds and they require so much more from us. Because transformation takes time.



Because, as Alok reminded me the other night in Philly, we think we can outsmart love but ultimately Love is smarter than we are. May it be so. Amen.

Benediction – enfleshed.com


Family in Christ, God has given us the power to do things differently.
Made in the image of Divine Life, we are creative people.
May we depart from one another encouraged to break old patterns,
to disrupt legacies of violence,
and to prioritize love that sets free above all else.
The Spirit will accompany us with peace.