God's Righteousness
This is our last week in the Sermon on the Mount.
Next week are in Lent, and from Lent 2 until the end of Easter we explore John’s
Gospel.
The trouble with the way we read these little
bits of readings each week is that we forget that they are part of bigger
sections which are set within a book with a particular plot line. In this
instance we forget that what we are reading is part of the Sermon on the Mount,
and should be read at least in the context of the whole sermon and not on its
own. And the trouble with finishing where we are going to this week is that we not
only miss out the rest of the Sermon, and especially the end. I invite you to
read the whole of the Sermon on the Mount and to ask what Matthew was trying to
say about Jesus’ teaching?
Matthew
has Jesus finish with a comparison of the wise and foolish person. “Everyone
then who hears these words of mine and acts of them will be like a wise man who
built his house on rock….” The crucial
difference between the one who is wise and the one who is foolish is that the
wise both hear what Jesus is saying and act on it, while the foolish only hear.
It is not enough to hear and understand, we must act, practicing what Jesus
says, living out his teaching in our everyday lives. David Ewart suggests that
the key question we should ask ourselves as we read both the sermon, and the rest
of the gospel is “what must I do to make this the bedrock of how I live?”[1]
A
dominant theme throughout the Sermon on the Mount is righteousness, (or
holiness or perfection). In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus is offering some radically
different understandings of righteousness. Unlike many of his day (and ours)
who define righteousness as morally upright- without guilt or sin or as the
state of moral perfection required by God to enter heaven, he seems to be
suggesting that God’s righteousness is defined by God’s character. And that
character is seen in the life, teaching, and actions of Jesus. From what we
read in the gospels, and our own experience of the risen Christ, how would we
describe the character of God, and therefore the righteousness of God?
Today’s gospel reading needs to be read in light
of the whole of the sermon on the mount, keeping in mind the requirement to
act, and holding the theme of righteousness. It can easily be read as an
invitation to not worry, (be happy – like the song says). But if it is read in
light of all that Jesus says around it, it can be read as a warning against our
selfish acquisition that seeks to secure our own wealth and security while
diminishing the wealth and security of others, particularly the poor. This kind
of activity is driven by worry and fear, and ignores God’s generosity and
compassion. It is born out of a lack of trust, and places our priorities ahead
of God, and this lack of trust deprives others of enough, and therefore of
justice. And justice is at the heart of God’s righteousness.
William
Loader offers us these thoughts.
“Out of neediness we not only diminish ourselves
- we rob others of justice and a fair share. The gospel deals with this gross
injustice not primarily by telling us off, but by offering a new centre to our
lives, a new centre of seeking, as 6:33 suggests. There is a sense in which
seeking first God's reign and God's righteousness/goodness/justice will give
you the satisfaction in life which we all need and which the gospel encourages
us to value. It does so because it teaches us to merge together in love respect
and care about God, others, and ourselves. Outside of contexts like those of
Jesus and Matthew its impact in terms of the basic necessities of life will
vary: It would be false comfort for those starving whose only hope is their
destiny with God beyond death, but before that pain and grief. It would be
false pretence for those of us whose basic needs are more than met and in gross
adversity have welfare schemes to support us. We all need to take thought for
the morrow if not for our own sake, certainly for the sake of others. But then
we can do so, not driven by the lonely greed which wants all tomorrows to serve
its ends, but in the trust that ultimately when we open tomorrow's door God
will not have gone away.”[2]
And Rob Bell in a similar vein says, ““The peace
we are offered is not a peace that is free from tragedy, illness, bankruptcy,
divorce, depression, or heartache. It is peace rooted in the trust that the
life Jesus gives us is deeper, wider, stronger, and more enduring than whatever
our current circumstances are, because all we see is not all there is and the
last word about us and our struggle has not yet been spoken.”[3]
What
then might we take into Lent? As we think about giving things up, and
developing new habits, what does Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount
invite us to?
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