NOTES: 1] Read the context. 2] Guardian angels featured in Jewish thought, e.g. Raphael in Tobit (Apocr.) 3] Some versions have v.11, 'borrowed' (?) from LK19:10. 4] God's concern for 'little people' (the nobodies) is central to Jesus' agenda. 5] 'Binding' & 'loosing' were rabbinic terms for forbidding or allowing. 6] v.20:Carter [Matthew & the Margins, New York, Orbis, 2000, p.369] '..after the Temple's destruction in  70 CE, Judaism asked where God's presence could now be found. MT's answer is 'in Jesus'.' 7] JN 15:7 may help us understand 19-20 better.

WARMING UP:  Have we ever had, or been, a guardian angel?

TREASURES OLD & NEW:  Identify God at work in anything this week?

EXPLORING GOSPEL:

10-14    Is there someone we look down on ? What if they're among God's 'little ones'? What do we need to do to take on board what Jesus says about 'little ones', make that our attitude, too, & act on it? Do we think of ourself more readily as the 1, or the 99?

How is it that churches have, on the whole, become more a place for insiders than for outsiders? Are we afraid God might stop loving & rejoicing over us (the 99?) because he rejoices over finding & returning someone who was lost - & we're not? What are we doing to see that 'none of these little ones should be lost'? Have we got our 'Jesus arithmetic' right?

15-17     Do members of our congregation & home group act as caringly toward each other as Jesus sketches here? Would the 'structure' Jesus sketches work today? What, or who might stop it working? If we do, are we really acting as Jesus' loving, caring, outreaching Body?

How does Jesus expect us to treat a Gentile (a non-Jew; maybe for us = someone who isn't one of us; these days, maybe a Muslim)? Or a tax-collector (for us, maybe, someone who props up those who exercise or abuse power over us)? In our 'Body of Christ', who's 'in' & who's 'out'? Who decides that?

18-20     What 'binding & loosing' powers does our church exercise today? Who or what legitimates those powers? Do we ever feel they're being used to control rather than nurture? Or, aren't they used enough? How should church authority be exercised?

Might the 'where two or three of you....' bit apply more to the dynamics of how our congregation works than to the actual praying we do together? If, on the other hand Jesus is on about a principle of prayer in general, how are we to make that work? Is it easier to believe that Jesus is among even two or three of us than it is to believe the bit about something being done for us when we agree together? How much is all this a matter of making sure we ask, gather, etc. in Jesus' name rather than our own? [see N. 7 above.]