Christ Will Be There

Sunday Readings: Romans 13:8-14 & Matthew 18:15-22

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

These readings today implore us to be a Christ-like community committed to loving one another and to holding each other in love when we may harm one another. They are beautiful texts and I was struck by the source for shaping our community into a loving one… that is the presence of Christ himself. For he says today that wherever two or three are gathered, I am there. Christ comes to us. Christ shapes us. It’s always a movement toward us and our community.

And, as I look out among you this morning, I am certain that Christ is among us! I’m counting around 50 or so people gathered here this morning and that well surpasses the two or three that Jesus mentions today.

So, among each of you and within all this glorious creation in which we worship today, I see Jesus. I know he’s there! And that’s a wonderful promise that Jesus makes to us and is among the most cherished by many people. This promise to be with us to be in the ups and the downs inspiring us to come together in loving community.

When he says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” it’s important to notice that Jesus didn’t say “I will be there” as if we gather and then he might show up a few minutes late – like every movie with a parent running behind to catch their child’s baseball game – I’ll be there, I promise! No, Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in my name, I AM THERE. I am. It’s definite.  That is the promise I cling to.

In my early twenties I was a bit driftless. Most of you know that I spent several years totally separated from the church. As part of this time of separation, I always craved a religious community. So, I tried attending a new-age style of spiritual community. One where many texts were read from many different religions, and everything was sort of centered around a tree. The idea was that there are many branches of spiritual experience emanating from a single trunk or source.

That is a beautiful metaphor, and it does indeed capture a deep truth: That is, from God flows all things. Well, I went to this community for several months and the people were welcoming, and there were wonderful things being done to combat loneliness, poverty, and hunger in the wider city.  

However, I soon felt a little hollow and spiritually tired. I described my feeling at the time, as missing an encounter with the Trinity. I would still describe my feelings that way but would add today that what I was missing a unique promise. The promise that God comes to me. The promise that where two or three are gathered in Christ’s name, Christ is indeed there. The promise that Christ always comes to us. The promise that I have to do nothing and God says, “I AM HERE.”

In the past few weeks, I’ve had many conversations with people after a sermon I gave quoting Martin Luther who says, “by my own strength alone I cannot have faith, but faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Now THAT’S the kind of promise I needed – That’s the promise I needed to rest into. Because trying on all those religious texts, and exploring all those branches of the tree was making it my responsibility to seek, and I needed to rest in the promise that the Holy Spirit seeks me out, and provides me with faith, and that Jesus says, I AM THERE wherever two or three are gathered in my name.

And, so that was part of my returning to the Church. I realized the first time I stepped back into a Christian sanctuary and the congregation confessed their sin, the pastor said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.” BAM just like that – all I did was show up and I was reminded that Christ has forgiven. It’s done! What a promise to rest in!  

And today, on the eve of our move back into the central worship space in our church here at St. Matthew, I am reflecting more deeply on how the sanctuary helps us to rest into the promises that God is with us, that Christ is here, and that the Holy Spirit provides.

The entire space was and is now aligned toward those promises.

New floors, new colors, new pews, new speakers.

Each of those design elements literally point toward the central things: Which are our new altar, new pulpit, and new font. These central items of worship then point us toward The Word of God, the water of Baptism and forgiveness, and the wine and bread of Holy Communion.  These are the things with which we most consistently demonstrate how God’s love and presence flow to us. They are the central things of worship. They are the Sacraments.

They each remind us that Christ says to us today, “I am here. My real presence is among you, and these things remind you of that fact.”

I encourage you to turn your heart toward these sacraments as we prepare to return to our sanctuary. The promise from Christ that he’s here. I think it will make our final preparations to move back into the sanctuary deeper. Because we are preparing to use that apace and all the things within it to acknowledge the Risen Christ’s real presence among us.

At the beginning of next week’s worship service, we will gather and pray in the name of Jesus Christ. And then the room itself, the pulpit, the font, and the altar will all be consecrated – they will be set apart. Those items in the sanctuary will have one job: to point to the presence of the Risen Christ.

And each week from now on, hopefully for several generations, scores of people will gather at St. Matthew, in that sanctuary where we will carefully set apart those sacred items. They’ll come for Sunday worship, Christmas eve services, Good Friday services, and Easter services. They’ll come for weddings, baptisms, and funerals. And at each of those moments of worship, the sacred tools which we set apart next week will serve as a reminder of the presence of Christ and of the promises we’ve received from God of love, forgiveness, and resurrection to new life. And each person will be invited to rest into those promises which are freely given as gifts from God.

Thanks be to God for the gift of the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion; thanks be to God for The Word which illumines them and thanks be to God for the gift of physical items which are set apart to become beacons that reorient our lives toward God.

Amen.

Rev. Ryan Heckman | Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026 | Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost