10/18/26
Message; “The Christian Cubit.”
Scriptures: Micah 6:1-8 and Matthew 18:15-20
Micah 6:1-8
1 Listen to what the Lord says: “Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 Hear, O mountains, the Lord ‘s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.
3 “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.
4 I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.
5 My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
6 With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Matthew 18:15-20
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
One, of actor/comedian/educator Bill Cosby’s greatest old comedy routines is “Noah.” Cosby replays the conversation between God and Noah as the Divine tells the clueless human about his watery plans and the need for an ark. True to Genesis 6:15-16, God tells Noah to build this boat with specific instructions: “the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.”
Noah listens to all God’s instructions with a stunned grin frozen on his face. Then finally sums up his complete incomprehension by asking, “Right. What’s a cubit?”
A cubit, of course, is just a linear unit of measurement–the approximately 17-22 inches of the human forearm, the ancient world’s equivalent of a “yard” or a “meter.”
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures God is always giving construction projects to the people of Israel. First, the ark; then the ark of the covenant (Exodus 36-37); then the Temple (1 Kings 6). All are described down to the last detail, the last “cubit.” Part of the reason for the divine detailing of the blueprints was the desire for God’s “space” to take on three dimensions, length, depth, and breadth first in the minds of the people, and then on the landscape of Israel.
It is this three-dimensional detailing of the lives of God’s people that keeps the scriptures as alive today as when they were written. The rabbis taught that “if two sit together, and words of the law pass between the, the divine presence abides between them. When two people come together to study and learn, learning happened because a third party, the divine presence, entered into the process.
Jesus adapts and expands that rabbinic saying, giving it new life for the new faith communities.
The cubit measurement that was used to construct God’s first building projects is now replaced with a new, personal three-dimensional
measurement for God’s church. Jesus promises that the church will be the church because when disciples gather together in his name, he’s there among them. There will never be just TWO when Christians gather. There will always be three. The risen Christ’s final words reassure us again, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mathew 28:20).
The church is a cubed community, a place where all relationships, all interactions, all prayers, and all decisions are carried out with the power of three. Jesus didn’t tie his promised presence only to the experience of worship or the study of the Scriptures. He declared that simply to “gather in my name” would guarantee his attendance. This frees Christ’s presence from the sanctuary and brings him into our homes, our schools, our work places, our boardrooms, and our bedrooms.
Wherever two or three are gathered, whatever the reason for our gathering, whenever we gather, Jesus promises to be present. There’s nowhere we can go that Christ will not be there.
As the church we have been given the power to cube everything we do and say. All our actions all our decisions are taken to the power of three. But first we must gather in Jesus’ name.
If Christians gather in the name of fear or hatred–Christ isn’t in their midst.
If churches gather in a quest for power or prestige–Christ isn’t in their midst.
If two or three gather strictly to oppose a different group of two or three–Christ isn’t in their midst.
To “gather in my name” sounds deceptively simple. It’s so easy to tack on “in Jesus’ name” at the end of our prayers or meetings. But that’s not what Jesus requires. To gather IN Jesus’ name means to come together and stand inside the Word Jesus preached, the life Jesus lived, the sacrifice Jesus offered. Inhabiting the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is what it means to gather in his name.
Do you have presence? Does this church have presence? I don’t mean presence as the world means presence– someone who turns heads when they walk into the room. That kind of presence doesn’t guarantee the Presence I’m talking about today.
So what does it mean to say that a person or a community has presence?
When that person is a Christian, and when a Christian community has presence, means that Jesus is presence.
So what measure can we use to tell that Jesus is present when we gather together? The Talmud says that all the biblical commandments are contained within the three requirements of Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require from you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Be in the Presence of God! Act justly; love mercy; walk humbly: that’s a person or a community cubed by the presence of Christ.
In His service
Pastor Joe
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