Living Perfectly - again

This looks alot like the sermon I put up last week. It is. I decided it really was two sermons in one. So I preached the second half and left people with the question "What is perfection"? This week I explore that question



Gate Pa – Epiphany 8 – March 2 2014
Readings:
Hebrew Scripture:           Isa 49:8-16                          
Psalm:                                   131                                                        
Epistle:                                 1 Cor 4:1-5                          
Gospel:                                Matt 6:24-34     

What I want to say:
I want to explore what “God’s perfection” might mean, suggesting it is more about God’s compassion for all creation, mercy, justice and love. I then want to apply that to today’s readings and suggest that Jesus offers his followers a way of living perfectly (i.e. with Compassion, mercy, love justice and love) in a way that challenges the excepted norms.

What I want to happen:
I want people to rethink their assumptions around righteousness, holiness and perfection, and to begin to think about living perfectly in terms of how we treat other people and creation

The Sermon

     1.       Introduction:

over last few weeks listening to Sermon On Mount
Last week finished Jesus inviting/commanding us to “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.”
invited you think about what God’s perfection might look life
                how would you describe that
so – how would you describe God’s perfection (Discuss)

     2.       Righteousness

as I said last week and in pew sheet,
                righteousness is one key themes in Matthews Gospel
and in sermon on mount –if not the key theme
                seems to be used interchangeably with
                                God’s perfection (in last week’s reading)
                                holiness
                and righteousness
these are important words
because how we understand these terms reveals and shapes
                 how understand God
                how we really understand what Jesus was about
                what Christianity is really about

3.       A Moral Gospel

e.g. Understand God’s perfection to be without guilt or sin
and Righteousness is the state of moral perfection required by God to enter heaven.
Morally upright;
J  morally good : following religious or moral laws 
then point Jesus is provide way for us – sinner – to have access to perfect and righteous God who cannot abide us to be near without us paying the price.
Is this good definition of perfect
                how words used were defined
                more importantly – How perfection, righteousness, holiness is defined by Jesus life, ministry and teaching?
suggest that is it an imperfect understanding.

      4.       Perfect Bible Stories

Perfect tense – means completed
teleos – Greek word translate as perfect also better understood as complete
fits with whole story of Bible
story of our creation and our completion
ð  what would that look like?
J  (NT Wright) The central biblical discussions of righteousness thus principally concern membership in the covenant and the behaviour appropriate to that membership.  … these passages depend on a theology in which God is creator and judge of all the earth, and in which God’s people are to reflect God’s own character.
*      perfection is found in God’s character
*      righteousness is when we reflect God’s character
takes us back to plot of bible
some call - moral arch story of bible
moral arch of story of humanity
                bringing humanity and all creation to point where we reflect God’s own character
when we become perfect like God
God is beginning and end, last and first
God as perfection then is God as endpoint
                point of completion
we will be perfect when we reflect God’s character
This is very different way understanding Gospel
not about our moral failure
not about our sinfulness
not about someone having to pay the price so that we can enter heaven and be with sinless God after we die
this is about God ongoing work leading us, journeying with us, waiting for us
to be all that God created us to be
Point Jesus life, ministry and teaching
                show us both what character of God is
                offer example what human society might look like if we lived out those characteristics
                if we were perfect as our father in heaven is perfect
Jesus also shows us that end point of life as we currently live it is death
end point of understanding perfection, righteousness, holiness as morally upright and without sin is also death
                Paul and Jesus make that clear again and again
Jesus offers us a new way

      5.       An alternative

two weeks ago I used  Rob Bell and Don Golden talking about
                describe key characteristics of God as compassion, mercy, justice and love
                suggest God wants people who will enflesh compassion, mercy justice and love
we might add – these people will be righteous, holy, perfect
encounter this understanding   
                mosaic law
                prophets
                life, teaching and ministry of Jesus
what Jesus meant said that our righteousness needed to exceed that of Pharisees and scribes
                their God was moral judge who determined who was acceptable and who was not
                                righteousness was about obedience to moral code
                                who said who was in and who was not
                but if we read woes at end Matthew 23 that book end with Beatitudes Jesus says
(23) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
be righteous means to live compassion
be holy is to live mercy
to be perfect is to live justice
This understanding is at heart of understanding Sermon on Mount

      6.       Conclusion

about enter Lent
wonder if one things we need to give up is seeing God as perfect moral judge
        sends Jesus offer way into life with God after death
instead see God’s perfection in God’s mercy, compassion, justice. love and peace
wonder
what habits might you need to develop to grow in this understanding of God
what habits might you need nurture join God developing society  built on God’s justice, peace, compassion and love.

Jesus said – “In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.
                Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect            


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