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There's a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller.
The concept of thin places goes back to a time in western Europe -- particularly Ireland --
that predates Christianity, and it refers to actual geographical places where the veil between this world and the "other world" or the "eternal world" is thin.
There are accounts of people and beings of the other world being able to pass back and forth between worlds in thin places.
People who have traveled to those locations have said that experiencing a thin place exercises your spirit, makes you more in tune with your own spirituality.
They say that prayer seems more powerful, answers come more readily, and a sense of peace is overwhelming.
People who travel to these places frequently say they return from them refreshed and renewed.
Mindie Burgoyne writes that "Thin Places are ports in the storm of life, where the pilgrims can move closer to the God they seek,
where one leaves that which is familiar and journeys into the Divine Presence."
Thin places capture our imagination.
If you're like me, you wonder what it would be like to find such a location, a portal through which you could simply step into the divine presence of God.
It all sounds so magical, like the 9 3/4 platform at King's Cross Station in the Harry Potter novels --
a place where a person steps through a solid brick wall that turns out to be not so solid, after all,
onto a magical platform from which a train delivers its riders to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Yes, thin places capture our imagination --
these places on the map where it seems to be easier to experience God, peace, and a connection to the universe.
But there are also things called "thin moments" --
particular experiences or events in our lives when we are able to especially sense God's presence.
Unlike thin places, in which you may need a passport and an airline ticket to experience, thin moments can be experienced at any time and any place, given the right attitude.
And "thin moments" are the things that are being described in today’s reading from verses 18-20 of the 18th chapter of Matthew's Gospel.
They are those earthly experiences that give us a glimpse of heaven, those events to which Jesus refers in our readings that take place when we are in community with each other.
Community is the place where we learn to love the very people who drive us crazy.
It’s where people don't walk away from us, even when we say stupid things and behave like idiots.
Community is what happens when people pray on our behalf because we have run so low on faith in a benevolent God
that we are unable to raise up even a single prayer on our own.
In short, community can be a very messy place.
But even with all its messiness, community can be a thin moment in which we experience God.
Jesus points to the faith community as a source of thin moments.
It's a place where he tells us that binding and loosing happens.
Rocco Errico is an expert on Aramaic language and idioms, and he says that the phrase "binding and loosing" refers to forgiveness.
We have the option of binding or holding onto a resentment or grudge.
Or we can loose it; we can let it go or release it.
When we forgive, the matter is over and released. When we hold on to a grudge or bind it, it remains alive within us, continuing to damage us.
So the first gift that comes from being in community that Jesus mentions is the gift of forgiveness.
If we are going to be in community, we are going to have get used to the idea that that we are all human.
And being human means occasionally doing and saying dumb things -- things that require forgiveness.
When we are able to forgive others then we will experience a sense of peace -- a peace that reveals to us a glimpse of heaven.
And when we are able to accept another person's forgiveness, we experience that same sense of peace.
The next gift that Jesus mentions is the gift of unity. He says that if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by God.
I am not a biblical literalist,
so I don’t believe this means all I need to do is find one other person to agree that the offering baskets need to be overflowing with money, and God will magically make it happen.
That's nothing more than greed, and God doesn't reward greed.
I think the focus in this verse is on the word "agree," rather than the phrase, "God will make it happen for you."
When just a couple of people -- even people who may have diametrically opposite political views,
even people who have polar opposite approaches to the Bible -- when just a couple of these people can overcome their differences
and find something that they agree upon, they will experience God's presence in that thin moment.
Several years ago, when we had a midweek Bible study, I invited different people from the Waco community to talk about their own faith to our group.
A Jewish rabbi talked to us, a Unitarian minister, a local Muslim, someone from the Baha'i faith, a Taoist, and a Wiccan.
Without exception, after hearing the representatives from the different faiths, the group participants were amazed to discover
that there seemed to be more agreement between the religions and ways of life than there were differences.
It was a thin moment for those group members. They were able to discern the presence of God because of the different religions, not in spite of them.
The last gift that Jesus mentions which comes from community is the gift of presence.
He said, "Where two or three are gathered [or present] in my name, I am there among them."
And even though this verse is most frequently quoted to justify low Sunday morning attendance, I don’t think that was the intent of the text.
When I read this text, the key word phrase that I hear is not "two or more," but rather the word "gathered."
I think the text is trying to say that thin moments happen when we gather, when we come together, when we experience fellowship.
Sara Miles, journalist and author of "Take this Bread" and "Jesus Freak," says "you can't be Christian by yourself."
I will paraphrase that by saying you can't experience God by yourself.
If I am going to experience God, the most likely way it's going to happen is within my relationship with each of you.
All I experience by myself is my own ego.
I believe that Jesus coupled the commandments to love God and to love our neighbor simply because they can't be separated.
We can't love God unless we also love each other. And we can't love each other unless we connect with them, unless we are in community with them.
And so if you remove yourself from this faith community because you don’t feel you're receiving enough from the Sunday morning experience
or because you’re pretty sure that no one will miss you, then you are denying me and others the possibility of experiencing God in all God's glorious wholeness.
I need your presence in order to experience God's presence.
The time we spend within faith communities is a sacred and holy time. It's a thin moment in our lives – moments in time when we are able to more fully experience God's presence.
And that happens as we participate in forgiveness in the midst of our human flaws;
it happens as we experience unity in the midst of our diversity; and it happens as we gather together and experience each other's lives.
These are all things that happen when we participate in community.
And when we do that, we are more likely to experience the thin moments of God's presence in our daily living.
My prayer for each of us is that our lives will be filled with thin moments. Amen.