Gospel: Matthew 18: 15-20
Today's Gospel portion provides us Christians today with a rebuke on our own behavior. The first is how much we ignore this passage. We go from offense to the airing of grievances openly and excommunication immediately. Little attempt is made to make amends or mend fences in disputes. The images of culture war and social justice warriors lends itself not to reconciliation and amendment, but to total warfare and victory at any cost.
The second is related to the first. In our readiness to treat opponents as Gentiles and tax collectors - in making them pariahs and the unclean - we utterly ignore how in fact the Lord Jesus himself treated Gentiles and tax collectors. He ate at table with them. He healed them, their family members, and their servants of illnesses of all kinds. He freed them from the demons that oppressed them. Jesus treated them with loving kindness and mercy.
The culture war folk and social justice warriors are products of a Christianity that has focused on creating communities of like minded individuals that in turn create suspicion and animus toward anyone not in those institutions. Jesus, however, went from place to place encountering people of all types, meeting them where they are at, and providing for their needs. The Way of Jesus is to carry a towel and basin for washing feet, not a sword or gun to harm others.