From today’s collect, this worth repeating:
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you:
Mercifully accept our prayers;
and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you,
give us the help of your grace. Amen.
In case it might have skipped your notice,
during this Epiphany season the gospel readings have been
from the Sermon on the Mount.
Each Sunday we have been reading a portion of it
beginning with the Beatitudes.
The major part of this whole liturgical season this year
is dedicated to and focused on this famous and often quoted passage.
We tend to look at the Sermon on the Mount
as the high point of Jesus’ message.
And so often these three chapters from Matthew’s Gospel
are considered to be the summation of Christian moral teaching.
If we stop there,
with that idea that the Sermon on the Mount is about morality,
then we aren’t looking deeply enough at it.
The section for today is packed.
And it really deserves spending some time unpacking it
and seeing that each part of it is connected with the other parts,
not just a pasting together of various sayings of Jesus,
but a cohesive and integrated whole.
First, notice that those who put the lectionary together
and coordinated it with our various ecumenical brothers and sisters
matched up this selection with the reading from Deuteronomy
about the importance and promise inherent in keeping the Law.
Obey the commandments of God and walk in God’s way,
Deuteronomy, chapter 30, tells us,
for this is the way of Life.
Moses exhorts us and urges us to choose what is blessing and life giving:
“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
CHOOSE LIFE!”
And the Sermon on the Mount shows us the way of life,
the way to live out all the commandments of God,
not as laws for moral behavior
but as discerning, always discerning, in each and every moment
what is life giving and what is death,
what gives blessing to life
and what is actually a disguised curse to drain the life out of us.
So we could say
that there are two different approaches for keeping the Law of God.
One is moral: doing God’s will.
The other is existential: being in union with God.
Being trumps doing.
Being trumps doing.
The Covenant between God and our Jewish forebears begins by God stating
I am your God.
You are my people.
Be holy, therefore, as I am holy.
Be holy. Be. Not do.
So this portion for today:
a segment of examples in which Jesus begins by saying,
“You have heard it said [this]…, but I say to you [something other]…”
and that “something other” than the familiar and conventional understanding
goes beneath the purely outward behavior
based on law and commandments
to what is far more fundamental and relational.
Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times,
`You shall not murder';
and `whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.'
But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister,
you will be liable to judgment;
and if you insult a brother or sister,
you will be liable to the council;
and if you say, `You fool,'
you will be liable to the hell of fire.
So when you are offering your gift at the altar,
if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you,
leave your gift there before the altar and go;
first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.
Come to terms quickly with your accuser
while you are on the way to court with him,
or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”
So Jesus says to those of his time
that when they are in a controversy, disagreement,
or argument with another person,
they resort to bringing a sin offering to the altar
thinking that at least THEY are cleaning up their act
even if their opponent isn’t,
or they will head for the civil court to resolve the matter,
both actions that are unilateral.
But it’s the relationship which is primary.
Unless that is addressed first,
your sin offering brought to the altar to make yourself righteous
is nothing but a sham.
If there is to be any reconciliation,
anything to make for a clean standing with God,
the reconciliation must be personalized,
it must be in the relationship itself,
face to face between two human beings.
The next portion of this passage then builds on this primacy of relationship,
and moves it into a new arena.
This time Jesus is even more challenging for his first audience,
for it goes against his own culture’s way of objectifying women.
"You have heard that it was said, `You shall not commit adultery.'
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away;
it is better for you to lose one of your members
than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away;
it is better for you to lose one of your members
than for your whole body to go into hell.
"It was also said,
`Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'
But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife,
except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery;
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Sorry about this,
but Jesus is indicating that ALL marriages are subject to failure,
because unfaithfulness runs rampant in our thoughts and intentions.
Our motives are never entirely pure.
We use our spouses for our own means, objectifying them,
treating them like objects,
rather than the marital relationship of union - where there is no other,
the spouse is my very self.
Again, relationship is primary, and is more important than an eye or a hand.
And you might also note that this saying of Jesus is obviously addressed to men
so here Jesus is clearly supportive of women, Jesus the feminist.
Now the last section of today’s gospel:
"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times,
`You shall not swear falsely,
but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.'
But I say to you, Do not swear at all,
either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
or by the earth, for it is his footstool,
or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word `Yes, be Yes' or `No, No';
anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
After addressing the primacy of relationship,
relationship with neighbor
and then relationship within the union of marriage,
Jesus now looks at my relationship with myself, my personal integrity.
Swearing, making an oath, means you are bringing something of more worth
into your statement to give it validity.
Jesus says your word must stand on its own integrity as the greatest worth.
Your worth is not derivative from altar or throne
or any other position of status –
work, education, wealth, societal standing.
The courage of clarity is a clear sense of personal integrity,
willingness to stand in one’s own position and speak truth.
That expresses self-congruency and self trust,
and there is no need to resort to any other source of ego-validation.
That, I believe, is what Jesus would have us all grown into.
This is the perfection of walking in the way of God, of keeping the Law.
This is what it means to Choose Life.
And so let us pray for God’s grace
to intervene in the way we have been living our lives
and to bring us to that maturity and clarity of self-being
where relationship is primary and where our word is good.
It should become obvious that this is beyond our ability
except by the saving grace of our Lord Jesus
who himself lived out perfectly the words he preached.
Again from the collect for the day:
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you:
Mercifully accept our prayers;
and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you,
give us the help of your grace. Amen.
