Living Perfectly
Gate Pa – Epiphany 7 - 21 February 2014
Readings:
Hebrew Scripture: Lev 19:1-2,
9-18
Psalm: 119:
33-40
Epistle: 1 Cor 3:10-11, 16-23
Gospel: Matt 5:38-48
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
seems to me that some key themes in this are –
God’s
perfection (in today’s reading)
holiness
and
righteousness
how we understand these terms will shape how we understand
what Jesus is saying here
so what do you understand by these terms?
(DISCUSS)
what
is really important in all this is how we understand God as righteous, perfect
and holy
shapes what righteousness, holiness,
perfection means for us
as Jesus just said
looked up on internet and number definitions
J Righteousness is the state of moral
perfection required by God to enter heaven.
J Morally upright; without guilt or sin
J morally good : following religious or
moral laws
§ explore
last
week’s readings were warning about that line of thought2. An alternative
J (Wikipedia) It is an attribute that
implies that a person's actions are justified, and can have the connotation
that the person has been "judged" or "reckoned" as leading
a life that is pleasing to the god/s portrayed in these belief systems.
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.
J Rob Bell and Don Golden talking about
describe
key characteristics of God as compassion, mercy, justice and love
suggest
God wants righteous people who will enflesh compassion, mercy justice and love
righteousness, holiness, perfection are about
God’s compassion, mercy, justice and love – not obedience moral laws
Jesus points out - encounter this understanding
mosaic
law
prophets
call justice
teaching
and actions Jesus
what Jesus meant said that our righteousness
needed to exceed that of Pharisees and scribes
their
righteousness was about obedience to moral code –
but
if we read woes at end Matthew 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.
righteousness is living out covenant in response
to compassion, mercy, love and justice received.
be righteous means to live compassion
be holy is to live mercy
to be perfect is to live justice
3. Radical Scriptures
practical implications
Sermon On Mount inspired some leaders of great
movements liberation over last 100 years
inspired
Mahatma Ghandi – helped shape understanding Just society he longed for
showed him how he might work towards
it
also
basis on which Martin Luther King Jr built his understanding of what America
might look like it truly honoured constitution
again
offered him model on which develop civil rights movement.
Several suthros reas suggest should be for us
basis on which we dream of what life now might look like.
4. Not doormats
often read today’s gospel as requirement to be
doormats
used
justify intolerable abuse of women, men, poor, slaves
read it in light of world Jesus lived in
we find completely different reading
remember people being addressed here are poor,
alien, slave
poorly treated
abused
seen and treated as less than human
Jesus is not saying – get hard
tough
it out
suggesting that stand up to abuse
not
in way invite more violence and abuse
way
seems to be co-operating while bringing shame on abusers.
a. slave and master – honourable expected way
publicly discipline is though striking right cheek with back right hand
slave
is to stand still and accept punishment
what
happens if turn your left cheek?
master
either has to hit with left hand
open right hand
not hit you at all
-
act of nonviolent
opposition
b. if want coat give your cloak
coat
is outer garment kept you warm in cold winter
cloak
– undergarments
so
when someone sues you for your coat – give them all your clothes and stand
naked before them
make it clear that this act of
theirs will leave you effectively naked
-
So why not publicly expose the shame which allows someone with wealth
and privilege to take away the only thing a poor person owns by going naked!
Give him your underwear. Let him explain why you are naked.
shame them with your nakedness
c. forced to go the mile
soldiers
conscript civilians, especially peasants
rule
was only one mile
effectively
meant loose a day’s work
therefore
day’s food family
offering
the second mile exposes the unjust hardship this custom poses to peasants
while
seeming to co-operate.
act
of nonviolent opposition
d. give to all who beg – only care for your
family- all about kinship ties (they are your neighbours)
this
suggests that should treat all as your kin, as family
Jesus goes on to suggest that we should treat
even our enemies as our kin
“NOT mean to try and feel affection
for them.
It means to
be attached to them;
to be devoted to them;
to be loyal to them;
to be bonded with them;
to join one's fate with theirs;
to seek for their welfare, their
fair and just treatment.
And to
behave outwardly in ways that correspond with our inner attachment.”[1]
put all this another way
so not be ruled by anger, hate, lust, self-importance
that
allows you to see others as less than you.
be ruled by God’s compassion, mercy, love and
justice.
5. Conclusion
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
[1] http://www.holytextures.com/2011/02/matthew-5-38-48-year-a-epiphany-7-february-18-february-24-sermon.html
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