Detail from photo (by John Hall) of a print of ‘The Presence in the Midst’ at Beccles Meeting House. Photo: John Hall / flickr CC.
‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst.’ (Matthew 18:20)
Janet Scott reads from the gospel of Matthew
Matthew’s gospel sets out to show how the risen Christ is present in and with the church (though the word ekklesia is better translated as ‘assembly’, or indeed ‘Meeting’). We see this at the beginning and end of the gospel. In 1:23 Matthew quotes from Isaiah, ‘they shall call his name Emmanuel’ which is translated ‘God with us’. And the final verse, 28:20, says, ‘and see, I am with you all the days until the fulfilment of the age’.
How Christ is present is addressed in chapter eighteen, which deals with the life of the community. It includes the verse that promises Christ’s presence in any gathered meeting, however small. It is customary to take this verse as being about worship. Friends also have thought this way. During Yearly Meeting in 1916 a picture, now called The Presence in the Midst, by J Doyle Penrose, was exhibited and attracted much attention. In the Friend of 15 December that year, Doyle Penrose explained that he had ‘the idea of showing… the wonderful power and confidence of those who had worshipped there… [and] that this was the secret of their power, the close and intimate connection between Christ… and the soul of [the] humble follower’. He wanted to convey ‘the great truth of the spiritual Presence of Christ with all who sincerely worship… and the privilege of coming into direct contact… without any human intervention’.
The picture (above) shows Christ standing on the elders’ bench (spiritual discipline), at the level of the ministers (teaching) and with his hands raised in blessing. His position indicates his work in the Meeting. If we look carefully at the chapter, however, we see that Matthew has more than worship on his mind. This verse is the climax of a section on the nature of the community, one where children are welcome as signs of Christ’s presence, where the lost are looked for as a shepherd searches for a stray sheep, and where conflicts are resolved. Those who cannot live up to this standard are to be treated as gentiles and tax collectors. That is, they are again part of the mission field, those who need to be taught the good news and convinced in their hearts. The chapter concludes with teaching, including a parable, about forgiveness within the community, which is to be unlimited.
In this sort of community, humble, loving and forgiving, there is the authority to make decisions. Verses 18-19 envisage a two-layer universe of heaven and earth, closely connected, with the power to decide given to earth, to the meeting in which Christ is present. This, I suggest, lies behind the term ‘gospel-order’ that George Fox used to describe our Meetings for Church Affairs.
To read the chapter this way raises interesting questions. Does it imply that ‘heaven’ is more interested in the life of the Meeting and the way it reaches decisions than in the actual decision reached? And does this help to explain why different Meetings and different churches can prayerfully come to different conclusions on the same matters?
