Sermon preached at The Church of the Holy Trinity

Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia

Sunday September 7 201
The Re!erend "lan #eale
$%id you &no' 'ords can hurt you() *+eico,
Matthew 18:18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, and
Petersens Message has this fascinating translation Tae this !ost
seriously: " yes on earth is yes in heaven# a no on earth is no in heaven$
%hat you say to one another is eternal$
In three and a half decades I cannot recall one ser!on I have &reached, or
one ser!on I have heard, on todays te't$ Maybe its (ust healthy a!nesia
to &revent &ainful recall)
"nd yet *esus introduces this verse with words that should !ae us stand to
attention +!entally at least,- .erily +/*.,, Truly +012., and 2eriously +The
Message,$
"nd yet what do they !ean) 3o you have 4uestions, thoughts about this
verse)
5efore sharing !y understanding of this troubleso!e, &u66ling, !aybe even
enig!atic verse +as of 7:18a! this !orning,, three &reli!inary co!!ents$
1$ There is nothing de9nitively to lin this verse in Matthew 18 with
forgiveness# it is as liely to refer to later verses on forgiveness as it is
to earlier verses on relationshi&s$ %e dont assu!e v$:;, about two or
three agreeing on earth, refers to so!e sort of co!!ittee decisions
about forgiveness and absolution so why v$18)
:$ The dyna!ic, the !ove!ent in this verse is !uch !ore fro! earth to
heaven than, say, fro! heaven to earth as in the <ords Prayer# there it
is your will be done earth as it is heaven, here what is done on earth
will be done in heaven$ The &attern, the dyna!ic is reversed showing
us, the readers, clearly that this is a &owerful, &rivileged wor$
=$ >or too long I have read the wor of binding and of loosing as two
distinct actions$ 5ut in the tradition of ?ebrew &arallelis!, I read the
action as conse4uential @ we bind and then we loose, two sides of one
coin$ Mar =, Matthew 1: @ the strong !an is bound so that we are free
to &lunder, redee! his goods$
In *une :;1A a new television co!!ercial was &ublished$ Two &eo&le sit in
an auto!otive re&air sho&, then a co!!ercial for BCIDE a&&ears on the T.$
The !an: F?uh, 18 !inutes could save you 18G or !ore on car insurance$F
The wo!an FCverybody nows that$F The !an F%ell- did you now that
words can really hurt you)F The wo!an F%hat)F Dut to a western scene
where a cowboy is about to ride oH as a wo!an chases after hi!$ F*essie
donIt goJ *essie noJF *essie re&lies FII! sorry 3aisy, but II! alone, and a
loners gotta be alone$F "s *essie the cowboy rides oH the words FThe CndF
fade in K *essie runs right into the words, falls oH of his horse and colla&ses
to the ground$
0ow I still dont understand the continuity of the ad but I re!e!ber it$ 5ut
this I learn- %ords can really hurt you- or set you free$
Eur ba&tis! today will focus our attention, for a while, on fa!ily$ If we dare,
so!e of us will reLect on dysfunctional situations where words were used to
hurt, belittle, da!age# than Bod there are others who will reLect on vastly
diHerent conditions$
The M5 *oe 0a!ath once said, Nntil I was thirteen, I thought !y na!e was
O2hut N&$ It isnt redundant &sychobabble to acce&t that words said on
earth had an eHect in the heavenly, &ri!al, &sychic de&ths of his being$ It
!aes sense, yes)
Enly yesterday I !entioned to a cou&le that words s&oen even in (est,
teasingly, can over a &eriod of ti!e erode selfKcon9dence and selfK
assurance @ be carefulJ $ It isnt redundant &sychobabble to acce&t that
words said on earth have had an eHect in the heavenly, &ri!al, &sychic
de&ths of our being$ It !aes sense, yes)
+<ucys 5a&tis! @ renounce PbindQ three ti!es, but also I turn to PlooseQ
three ti!esJ,$
2adly, over the centuries, the church at its worse has elected, chosen to
bind and cage individuals and grou&s into tight corners while at the sa!e
ti!e refusing to bind institutional syste!s that have &racticed racis!,
se'is! and !any another is!, and refusing to set these &eo&le free$ To bind
to &oor victi! rather than bind the devilish !achines of re&ression$
If I, if the church, dare tae u& a &recious !ission I want it to be one of
breaing chains, of setting ca&tives free, of untying bonds of antediluvian
&re(udice and bigotry# of loosing on erh with eternal conse4uences$
%here we see in our society bonds of &overty, chains of stereoty&e,
!anacles of re&ression we begin our !ission by identifying the voices that
have s&oen on earth to create such &sychic, eternal bondage$ "nd woe to
Dhristian and Dhurch that use dare the 3ivine 0a!e and 3ivine %ord to do
such da!age- to (ustify, legiti!i6e horrendous and devilish behavior$
It is the !ission of the Messiah +IsaiahR1,, it is the !ission of *esus +<ue R,
to set free, to loose and to bind those devilish engines of har!# and this
!ission he entrusts to, shares with us$
?e has co!e to set !e free- he has co!e to set you free$ If we do not
wal, or grow, in this freedo! in any area of living, loving, relating- we
!ust see the voice of the <ord and be deaf, !aybe even stone deaf, to any
other$
Please- "MC0