After laying out the process of caring for people who have not done what he says, Jesus gives the implication:

“Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven.”

There is a connection between here and there, between what we say and what God does. If we say, “you aren’t living right,” God says, “you aren’t living right.”

How can that be? Because when we get together, in twos and threes and more, and we ask God to guide us, he will. The judgment we arrive at, through reflection and conversation and examination, has to be viewed as coming from God.

I know. That’s a terrifying idea. Very many people have very many stories of misguided people doing dumb, bad, and horrific things in God’s name.

But, and I say this cautiously, what people have done wrong with what Jesus said doesn’t mean that He was wrong to say it. And what people have done wrong with what Jesus said doesn’t exempt us from obeying Him.

That’s why, when I look at someone’s behavior, thinking “that’s killing you,”  I feel sad. And when I say something, one on one, I am aware that I am involved in holy work, on God’s agenda. If I find myself too happy about the process, handling it too lightly, then I have to back off and examine why, exactly, I thought that God was prompting the conversation.

That’ s why, when I’m part of two or three talking with someone, I’m  incredible sensitive to any feeling of “ganging up” on someone. That’s why, when something has to move to the level of talking with a larger group about the ongoing defiance, I am achy and deliberate.

But that’s why, when I watch what happens when we don’t follow through, I weep at the waste.