Join the Resistance



This sermon can be listened to here

Gate Pa – 7th 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”
“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




[i] Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.


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