Struggling to Live the Gospel

 You can listen to this sermon here

Gate Pa –  6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year A - 2023

Readings:
Psalm                                      Psalm: 119:1-8                                            
First Reading                             Deuteronomy 30: 15-20             
Second Reading                       1 Corinthians 3: 1-9                      
Gospel                                        Matthew 5: 21-37                        

What I want to say:
What does it mean for Jesus to fulfil the law? This week we are given examples of how Jesus reads the law. It is to create a community where all can thrive, not just the rich and the powerful. Where the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn etc… are able to be all God desires for them. This happens when we see and treat each person as our sister and brother, and when we take responsibility for our reactions to each person.
What does this mean as we approach an election year?

What I want to happen:
People to reflect on their own reactions to all this.

The Sermon

1.     Introduction:
We have spent last few weeks in Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
The danger is that we read it in little bits
And that we read as unconnected with what comes before and after.
This block plays a central role in Matthew’s gospel
-         Gives words to what Jesus has been doing
-         Lays the theological foundation for what he will say and do for the rest of the gospel.
-         Reminding his listeners of what Torah and the Prophets have always taught about what the Empire of Heaven looks like,
o   what life looks like (Deuteronomy 30).
 

2.     The Story 
So to remind us
Jesus returns from wilderness
Where his Identity has been sorely tested
-         Which we will hear in a couple of weeks at the beginning of Lent
He hears of John baptiser’s arrest
And responds by returning to Galilee
To the small fishing town of Capernaum
Where he teaches and heals
Crowds come to him
Poor people
Sick people
Invisible and broken people
Crushed by Rome’s empire.
Mourning the deaths of children and family members
Mourning their lives
Longing for another way.
Jesus brings healing and hope in his actions and his words.
Eventually he calls some people who have been listening to him
fisherman and others
He invites them to give away all they are
To let go of who they are
Their family
Those relationships and roles that sustained and defined them
He invites them to follow
To a new identity
To be his disciples
And some follow.
After a short while he gathers them
Up a hill
Overlooking their world
All they had known of life
With its grief and despair
Violence always lurking on the edge
Poverty defining each day
Jesus looks around
At his new disciples
And those others who saw them go
Who tagged along to listen in
Gesturing at this world
Gesturing at the place he has taught and healed
He gives words to his deeds
And says
Imagine a world where the most important people
Are the poor
The broken
Those who have lost hope
How different would this world be?
Can you imagine a world where we look up to those who mourn,
Or where people aspire to be like the humble.
That is what the empire of heaven looks like
 I long for people to join me in honouring those who hunger and thirst for God’s righteousness.
 where we all revere the merciful.
not the powerful
and where all have enough to thrive
and hunger and fear are no more.
Imagine a world where the pure in heart receive greatest honour.
Or where children grow up aspiring to be numbered among the peacemakers,
For the sake of all you see out there
All who are listening
All who have come for healing and hope
Hold in the greatest honour those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the empire of heaven.
 
How different would this world be?
 
This is not our world
 
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 heaven’s reign to bubble away
 
When we imagine THIS world
Live in this world
We are light
living the reign of heaven
living so others will see God's goodness.
 
He continues
Don't think that my teachings replace or reduce the law and the prophets.
Don’t think for a moment this is all new
And don't think you can skip the details.
Details count.
But something more than the details is needed.
You must align your whole self with what God desires
And what does God desire?
This world just described
Held in the beatitudes
This is the empire of heaven
So different from Rome’s empire
This is what the law and the prophets are all about
 
3.     He goes on  
But Jesus doesn’t stop there
He goes on
He offers examples of what he has been talking about so far
What he meant by
“I say to you that unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the legal experts and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Only most of the time
Because we cut up the bible into little bits with separate headings and chapters
And because we chop it up Sunday by Sunday
And because we hardly ever read the whole sermon on the Mount in one hit
We miss it
We hear Jesus doing the very thing he said he was not doing
We hear him offering a new law.
But this not a new law
This is a reading of the law
A reading based on everything he has said before
A reading based on the beatitudes
And the world imagined in them
A reading that invites his hearers to not so much obey the law
But to be transformed by the law and the prophets
So that they might be salt and light
Living the world of the Beatitudes into being.
 
4.     Don’t Murder

He begins with a commandment
-         “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times,
o   a way of speaking honourably of one of the commandments
-          ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’
-         But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.
When our relationship with each other are broken
When we fail to see the other as our sister or brother

When we fail to see each other as children of God
When we see others as objects of our scorn, derision, hate
-         Objects of our fantasies and desires
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
Racism
Sexual harassment
Rape
abuse
Murder
 
5.     Hard work
This is not about obeying rules
This is about paying attention to how we see other people
This is about paying attention to our own motivations, desires and needs
Last few years have shown us how desperately we need to do this
-         Mosque shooting
-         Protest in parliament grounds last year
-         Torrent of abuse directed at Jacinda Ardern – in part because which was a woman
Which happens we stop seeing people worthy of our care
But simply as the other.
It’s difficult
Too easily we can put people in boxes
And start the journey of no longer seeing them as people
This election it will happen all the time
-         Māori
-         Unemployed
-         Homeless
-         Beneficiaries
-         Lowest paid
-         Refugees
-         Immigrants
And so it goes
The empire of heaven as described by the Beatitudes invites us to live another way
To re-evaluate our priorities and motivations
Live with the beatitudes at the centre of our lives.
 
How do you respond to all that?