Join the Resistance

This sermon can be listened to here

Gate Pa – 7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year A - 2020

Readings:

Psalm Psalm: 119: 33-40
First Reading Lev 19:1-2, 9-18

Second Reading 1 Cor 3:10-11, 16-23

Gospel Matt 5:38-48

What I want to say:

We continue our journey into the sermon on the Mount, holding the beatitudes as our map and key, exploring how Jesus explicated the intention of the law and the prophets. That intention is the creation of a community which mirrors the love of God, in which all flourish, that gathers around all, where the common good is held as paramount, all are treated with honour and respect, and all are given what they need to thrive. When we act out of this we are perfect – whole, complete, devoted to the way of God and the other.

So how does that apply to people we dislike or who wronged us, or who we might describe as our enemy. And how do we act in the face of such people in a way that honours ALL that God invites us to.

What I want to happen:

People to reflect on their own reactions to all this.

The Sermon

1. Introduction:

Jesus calls some people who have been engaging with him
fisherman and others

inviting them to follow

To embrace a new identity

A new way of seeing the world

A new way of understanding themselves

To be his disciple

And after a short while he gathers them

Up a hill

Overlooking their world

All they had known of life

Violence always lurking on the edge

Poverty defining each day

The constant demand of upholding honour

Surviving Rome

Paying the masters

And gesturing at this world

he invites them

To imagine another world

a world where the most important people are:

the poor in spirit,

those who mourn,

the meek,

those who hunger and thirst for God’s justice,

the pure in heart,

the merciful,

the peacemakers,

those who are persecuted for the sake of God’s justice,

How different would this world be?

This is a world where all flourish

A community that gathers around all

Where the common good is held as paramount

A world where the needs of the poor are placed first

Where ALL are treated with honour and respect

And given what they need to thrive

This was not their world

This is not our world

So again, Imagine this world for a moment

When we imagine THIS world

Live in this world

Help this world come into being

Then we are the salt disc of the earth oven;

helping God’s reign to bubble away

When we imagine THIS world

Live in this world

We are light

living the reign of God

living so others will see God's goodness.

He continues

Don't think that my teachings replace or reduce the law and the prophets.

And don't think you can skip the details.

Details count.

But something more than the details is also needed.

Don’t get stuck on what the law just says

Get behind it

Find the intention

Live that

In doing that

You will align your whole self with what God desires

And what does God desire?

This world just described

Held in the beatitudes

This is the reign of God

This is what the law and the prophets are all about

2. He goes on

As we hard last week Jesus went on to offer examples of what he has been talking about so far

It’s important we hear that

Jesus in not offering a new law here

But a reading of the law based on everything he has said before

- based on the beatitudes

- And the world imagined in them

In his teaching he warns that when our relationship with each other are broken

When we fail to see the other as our sister or brother

When we place our own flourishing ahead of everyone else

Then our community is not all that God desires

The beatitudes are not lived out

We open the door to exclusion

Belittlement

Violence

Sexual violence

Adultery

Murder

3. Enemies

All this is very well

But what happens

When we are talking about people who do you wrong

Law allows for limited justice – an eye for an eye and no more than that

But Jesus says even that is too much

Do not seek revenge

“Do not violently resist the evil doer”

If your master strikes you on the right cheek with the back of his hand

As socially allowed

Resist

Turn your cheek so that he either has to hit with the palm of his right hand

Or with his left hand

Both of which will bring shame.

If a tax collector takes you to court to take your clothes because you have nothing else to pay with

Resist

Give him all your clothes and stand naked

He has brought shame on himself and his family.

And if a Roman soldier commands you to carry his bags for a mile as allowed by Roman law

Resist

Insist that you take them for two miles

Your day of work is ruined anyway

It will spare another.

And what about those we name enemies

Those we loathe and detest

Who are outside the boundaries of our community?

How do we act with them?

It is said that we are to love our neighbour

- Those like us

- Our family and kin

- Those in our community

It is also said, (not in the law) that we are to hate our enemies

But Jesus is having none of that

To live the beatitudes invites another way of being

Another way of acting

“I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

"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, all other, ALL others, the way God lives toward you.”[i]

Be perfect therefore as your father is perfect

4. Be perfect

Given everything that Jesus has said to this point

What does he mean “Be perfect”

What might we do about that

What might we take into Lent

Talk to neighbour

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