Text: Saint Matthew 18:15-20

A confirmed Bachelor and a Married Man were talking to each other about the pros and cons of family life. At one point in the conversation, the married man asked:

"Do you know what it means for a Dad to come home to three adorable well-mannered, respectful children who are thrilled at the sight of you?"

"Do you know what it means to come home to three adorable, well-mannered children who hang on your every word and think you are the smartest person and the best guy in the whole wide world?"

To which the Bachelor replied, "No, what does it mean?"

"It means that you're in the wrong house," said the Father.

"…For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them," Jesus says to His Disciples in today's Gospel Reading (Matthew 18:20). Which means that we who are gathered together in His Name are in the right house, because Christ is with us now!

One of the most striking things about the New Testament writings is that in the New Testament experience, more often than not great things happen to people not when they are alone, but when they are with others.

It is noteworthy in the Gospels that Jesus is hardly ever by himself:

• The Twelve Apostles and other Disciples are His constant companions.
• He attends dinner parties, even dining with social outcasts and public sinners.
• He mingles with the crowds that follow Him from town-to-town.
• He visits the homes of Martha and Mary, and Zacchaeus, and Simon and Andrew.
• He teaches in the Synagogue on the Sabbath.
• He attends a wedding reception with His Mother.

On the Mount of Transfiguration, when He has to make that momentous decision about the future of His Ministry, and in the Garden of Gethsemane on the last night of His life, Jesus takes His friends with Him - apparently needing and wanting their love and their support at those crucial times in His life.

In the Acts of the Apostle, the New Testament author makes a telling point of the fact that on the great day of Pentecost the Apostles were together when the holy Spirit was given to them. And in the same chapter of Acts, we are told that from then on the Disciples devoted themselves to the "fellowship" of Christian Discipleship.

"…For where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there among them," says the Lord. Notice that the phrase "two or three" is a Greek idiom that does not mean "two" or "three" literally. It means more than one. It could be eight or ten, it could be more than that, it could be the number of people here in this very gathering. What Jesus is saying is that when more than one of you are together "in My name," when you have established this context for being together, "I am there!" The Living Christ, the Spirit of Christ is there!

The Living Christ, the Spirit of Christ is here now, to bring us the healing and the forgiveness and the guidance and all else that is involved in being Christian Disciples.

Once upon an eternity, St. Peter greeted three new arrivals at the pearly Gates. He began their Heavenly Orientation with a question: "What would you like most to hear your family and friends say about you at your Funerals?" The first replied, "I would most gratified to hear them say that I lived a useful life as a Doctor and as a Family Man." The second replied. "I would be happy to hear them say that I was a wonderful Wife and Mother and an excellent School Teacher." Said the third, "I would like to hear them say, "Look! He's moving!"

Not at our Funerals, but here and now, in our gathering together in Jesus' Name, what we would like to hear Him say is, "Look! They're Moving. Look! They're following My directions! Look! There are on their way to becoming the uniquely beautiful persons God intends them to be!"

We are likely to encounter those who criticize Jesus' relentless call to Discipleship and the Demands He makes on our lives. What such critics fail to understand is that the Will of God for our lives cannot be evaluated by feeble notions of right and wrong, good and evil. What they need to understand - what we all need to understand - is that whatever God demands, He demands because He loves us. As a Spanish Saint once said, "God writes straight with crooked lines."

"What does it profit someone," Jesus asks, "if they gain the whole world but loses their soul?" It follows then, that if our lives are not moving in the direction of ever-closer union with the Source of all of Life - the God who made us and wants us for His own - we have nothing.

Jesus clearly stated that His call to us to follow Him and His appeal to us to transform to our lives, are inseparable. To follow Jesus Christ is to change your life, necessarily - from who you are to whom you are meant to be; from what you are doing to what you ought to be doing.

Jesus' true followers cannot be content with the status quo.

Jesus' true followers cannot drift along through life, forgetting that the call to follow and the call to change are inseparable.

"Reform! … Repent! … Change!" says the Lord. It is not merely a once-in-a-lifetime transformation Jesus is calling for. It is an ongoing, continuing change, a process of growth and development - a constant movement that stretches out over our entire lives. And, in the process, God keeps working on us. God keeps on loving us. There may be times when we feel He keeps trying to make us miserable. But when we are feeling miserable, we need to consider the probability that we feel that way because we have bottled up God's love inside of us, contrary to His will.

• God wants us to experience the joy of His love flowing through us.
• God wants the experience of His love to make us whole.
• God wants the experience of His Love to provide us with meaning and purpose for our lives, a genuine sense of direction for our lives.
• God wants the experience of His love to result in the kind of movement for our lives that reflects His love through the way we relate to others.

In other words, God wants us to love one another as He has loved us.

Deep within yourself, say "Yes! The gift of God's love, as revealed to us in Jesus Christ is so good for me, so life-enhancing for me, that I will put every part of my being, my whole self into my response. I will let the Holy Spirit of God baptize my time, my talents, my feelings, my mind, my body, as I offer them to God in service of others."

We who have gathered together in Jesus' Name, let's say it and mean it, and surely we will hear Him say, "Look! They're Moving!"

Thanks be to God!!!!!

Amen!!!