Gathering in Christ’s name requires humility, which demands recognizing our common human condition: sin. Humility grows when we accept God's forgiveness and extend that same forgiveness to others. Ultimately, receiving divine grace depends on our willingness to remain open, humble, and reconciled with those around us.

Ez…: “Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?”

Ps.: Turn my heart to your decrees and not to selfish gain

Rom: the night is far gone; the day is near. Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;

Matt: For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.

Humility

“Whenever two or three are gathered…” a text we are fond of quoting, though the most vital part is missing.

Whenever two or three are gathered…in my name…

I am among them.

To gather in Christ’s name, for Christ to be among us, requires something different of us than to gather for a Chamber of Commerce meeting, 
a family reunion.

The difference is what is required of us and thus what it means for Christ to be among us.

Humility.

A rare gift, rarer still  because it requires of us what we seek to avoid at all costs, though the cost is falsehood…

Pretending the peace of Christ is the absence of conflict, struggle, sacrifice.

Jesus has begun telling the disciples what lies ahead of him when he goes to Jerusalem.

He is merely telling them the truth, but it so disturbs them that Peter rebukes Jesus for telling the truth.  

The peace of Christ comes with costs, and so does gathering in Christ’s name.

The cost, the price, is truth, and for truth we are gathered in Christ’s name, which returns us to humility. 

In its purist form, humility is to recognize our common humanity…we are all formed from humus, from the dust, the breath of God fills our lungs.

We are human, each  of us, sharing the common truth, we are all flesh and bone, sinews and organs.

Wealth, status we are given by others or assume for ourselves,  do not alter our humanity.

We are all subject to time and the betrayal of our bodies, our friends, our families.

Humility grows from forgiveness, our common humanity revealed on the cross, the humiliation of Jesus for our sake, to show us it is no sin to be human.

This forgiveness flows first to us, originating not in us but from God in Christ to us.  

Christ is present among us when two are three are gathered in humility, accepting forgiveness and giving it, for when two or three are gathered forgiveness will surely be required,  because where two are three are gathered there status will be, who is first, second, and third.  

This is the truth of our common humanity, though we may pretend otherwise.  

When two or three are gathered, there will be hierarchy, and thus also Christ, among them, in the differences between them.  

Humility is about recognizing this truth, which we call sin..

Not an action, not a behavior, though certain behaviors will surely follow.

No, sin is a common human condition, not an action or behavior but an inescapable human condition save through humility.

Humility is a form of openness to what we cannot see in ourselves but is revealed in conflicts and struggles present whenever two or three are gathered.  

But we who are gathered in Christ name seek truth we cannot see and often do not want and this truth is present when we are together in our common humanity, in our common human condition, in our sin.

We need one another and the conflict that opens us to the peace of Christ which is not the absence of conflict but its presence, which sets us free from pretending we can escape our common human condition, most especially from pointing to the sin of others.

The truth: we all need forgiveness. 

Both to be forgiven and to forgive others, and there is no forgiveness without humility, recognition of our common humanity.  

This is what Jesus speaks of in his challenging words about confronting those who sin against us, for we have all sinned against one another…this common human condition we recognize each time we gather in Christ’s name.

Forgive us our trespasses, we pray, another word for sin, as we forgive the trespasses of others, not because God’s forgiveness is limited, not because any action or behavior can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus..

But because humility is required of us 
and lack of humility toward others limits our capacity to receive forgiveness from God

We are able to accept forgiveness as we are able to forgive others.  

Humility is the antidote for our common human pathological antipathy to forgive as we have been forgiven.  

Talking about others rather than to others separates us from the demands the peace of Christ confers.

The harsh, challenging words of Jesus, to excommunicate members who refuse to listen, who set themselves above our common need of forgiveness, is the grace of consequences.

Which seems to be a conflict, and so it is, conflict present when two or three are gathered, Christ is among them, grace is available which means also that grace can be rejected, so too Christ. 

Truth is we have all been forgiven and are obligated to forgive others in Christ’s name; those who reject this truth separate themselves from the grace of God in Christ, the consequence of truth separates the member from the body, the members of the body..

it is grace to recognize this truth, a truth of great cost. 

Like every preacher before me and those will follow, I would like to soften the difficult and challenging words of Jesus.

But like you I am required to live by their troubling demands to remain open and humble while also recognizing that my human condition resists the truth grace requires of me.

With you I hope and pray our capacity for humility will be increased, though it surely comes at great cost, for my openness to truth I cannot find on my own but is present here as we are gathered in Christ name.

With you I pray we will accept the grace of God’s forgiveness, and thus enable us to forgive others and there to find peace. 

Thanks be to God.