Matthew
5:20-37
Ordinary
Time 6A
February
12, 2017
Fondren
Presbyterian Church
The
Rev. Dr. Robert Wm Lowry
Our
text from Matthew today is from the Sermon on the Mount.
I
am going to go out on a limb and guess that you may not have known that after
all the lyrical language of the “blessed are they…” formulations and the
affirming metaphors of salt and light, Jesus, in the very same sermon, moves on
to murder, adultery, and lying. Jesus must have skipped that day in preaching
class when Dr. Black-Johnston warned that we needed to keep in mind the
weariness of our listeners.
Blessed
are the weak, you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, and oh
by the way,…
The
word radical is probably not one most of us associate with this text. That blessed are the peacemakers bit, that
was radical stuff, but this whole adultery in your heart thing feels a
little…fundamentalist!
At
first glance it seems that what Jesus does here is take the law- that register
of commandments on how to order spiritual and worldly living- and make it even
more difficult to hold. The law that was
already strict becomes entirely inflexible.
When I think of the radical message of the gospel, I think of Dr. King
on the Mall in Washington or Dorothy Day’s non-violence in the face of power or
tens of thousands of Christians marching alongside their neighbors in protest
of political policies that target the beliefs of people they have never
met.
What
I don’t think of is taking legalisms and making them more legalistic and less
forgiving and, if I am honest, at first glance that is what it seems like Jesus
is doing here. The one who calls us to
radical hospitality and radical love has become a purveyor of fundamentalist
moralistic judgment.
At
first glance it seems that way.
And
if anyone else was doing the talking here, it might be reasonable to understand
this text that way.
But
this is not some politician trying to score cheap points or a preacher trying
to scare their flock into submissive obedience to their interpretation of God’s
own law. This is God incarnate; this is
joy of heaven to earth come down; this is wonderful, counselor, mighty God,
everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace speaking and if we are to hear the
truth in the words we must keep in mind the truth of the speaker.
Two
of my friends in Little Rock build pipe organs.
They have built them all over the world from small country churches to
some of the largest cathedrals in Europe.
Each instrument, they say, has its own voice. You can play the same piece of music on two
different instruments and there will be subtle differences because each one has
its own unique voice.
Nothing
less is true about Jesus so how do we hear these words in HIS voice?
How
do we hear them in the voice of the one who is in fact a bearer of radical Good News?
The
root of the word radical is the Latin radix
which means root or in some
circumstances foundation. The radix is what lingers below to give
strength and stability to what is above.
If you ever visit the 9/11 memorial in NYC, you go into the basement to
what is known as the bathtub. There you
see the enormous concrete footings with tiebacks holding them steady and
keeping the seeping waters of the Hudson River at bay. That radix-that foundation- is all that is
left of the shimmering pillars of glass and steel that once towered over lower
Manhattan.[i]
So
what is Jesus the radical- Jesus the one who presses us toward the foundations
of our faith- doing here in this odd and off-putting exegesis of the law?
He
is radicalizing it. Jesus is
radicalizing the law. At least he is
radicalizing it in so much as he is pressing us to look past the words and into
the foundational spirit of God’s law.
Jesus wants us to get beneath the surface and see what is down below,
out of sight, yet essential to holding our world of faith upright.
From
the outside looking in, it seems as thought what Jesus does here is tighten the
vice of the law and make it even more difficult- in fact impossible- to keep. But seen from the radix- from the view not
outside but deep within- we find that what Jesus is doing here is not
tightening the grip of the law but sharpening our understanding of it.
“You have heard that it was said to those of
ancient times, ‘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.”
The
words of the law are about murder but the foundation of that law- the radix
that Jesus the radical calls to our attention- is not merely about not taking a
life. It is about the way we live
together. The law forbids the most
egregious end to our anger, but it is the anger itself that God wants us to
deal with.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall
not commit adultery.’ 28But I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his
heart.”
The
words of the law are about adultery but the radix of that law is about our
failure to see the other as more than the potential solutions to a momentary
need.
“Again, you have heard that it was said to
those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows
you have made to the Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at
all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for
it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.”
The words of the
law are about not lying when under an oath to God, but the radix of that law is
about the need to enter every relationship, large or small, with integrity and
honesty.
Far from reducing
the law of God to a reactionary literalistic moralistic code up to which none
of us can ever begin to live, Jesus the radical takes us to the radix- the
foundation of all law…the ordering of our relationships.
And that, more
than any possible checklist of do’s and don’ts, is at the heart of God’s
law.
Still, even that
feels out of reach. Not only do we need
to guard against breaking the letter of the law but also the unintended
consequences of walking down the road toward breaking it; not just taking
another’s life but devaluing it; not just breaking our covenant vow but
reducing another person to an object of momentary desire; not just refraining
from lying but refraining from thinking of another as unworthy of our truth.
The purpose of the
law is human flourishing and that cannot happen as long as we manipulate,
objectify, or scorn our neighbor.
Jesus calls us in
this text to really do some deep self-examination and soul searching about our
own relationships.
I heard one
preacher reflecting on this text who said that after pondering these three
admonitions from Jesus he thought to himself, “well, two our of three ain’t
bad.”
He never told us
which was the third one. Though I think
I have a clue.
The first command
Jesus draws us into considering is the prohibition on killing and with it this
call to resist living with such anger that we simply disregard our
neighbor. I would wager to say that
there have been times in all of our lives when we have let our anger or
frustration with someone get the better of us and, in my life at least, I have
murdered more than one personal relationship with my inability to get past my
anger.
Still, though I
sin and fall far short of the glory of God, I feel like I am at least on the
right track with this one.
That’s one.
The second command
Jesus draws us into considering is the prohibition on adultery. Easily reduced to a law solely about marital
fidelity, this commandment is also much more.
In Jesus time, marriage was the most common personal relationship shared
by his audience. It’s demands and
traditions were well known and in it Jesus saw an opportunity to underscore
God’s provision and care for all of God’s children. It is about covenantal relationships in
whatever form they take.
Anytime we see in
the other a means to an end rather than an end in itself, we diminish that
person and fail in our covenant relationship with our neighbors. As surely as if we had broken a marital vow,
when we break the command to love neighbor AS self we have broken God’s
command.
Any well-examined
life will reveal times when we have failed to value our neighbors as
ourselves. I like to think that as I get
older and learn from my failures in life, I have grown more toward obedience to
this law rather than away from it. So
hopefully on the right track here too.
That’s two.
The third command
Jesus draws into considering is the prohibition on swearing falsely. Listen again to what Jesus says:
“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You
shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the
Lord.’ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by
heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his
footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do
not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes
from the evil one.
Jesus’s first two
trips into the radix of the laws reveals a need to be even more attentive to
the spirit of each one. Here, however,
Jesus takes a different turn.
“Do not swear at
all.”
You heard that
right.
“Do not swear at
all.”
It is tempting to
hear in this final exhortation on the law as a repudiation of it.
Wishful thinking.
There is no way
that Jesus, whose character we have come to know through his teaching and
speaking and centuries of faithful encounter through the church would have
said, “don’t worry about that whole not lying thing. Lie away, truth be damned!”
What Jesus does
here is not excuse us from swearing in God’s name truthfully, but remind us
that swearing in God’s name at all is a mistake. Not because God’s name is not worthy of our
truth, but because our truth is never full enough to bear God’s name.
Or heaven’s name.
Or even
Jerusalem’s name.
And to say
otherwise, to pretend that we are in possession of a truth so fulsome that it
might bear the name of God, is the doorway to hypocrisy and we all know how
Jesus felt about hypocrites!
When Jesus tells
us, “do not swear at all,” he reminds us that however confident we are in our
truth, however fulsome we are in our beliefs, however convinced we are that we
are right and they are wrong, we still see through the glass dimly, we still
fall short of the glory of God, and none of us ever poses the fullness of God’s
truth.
Like the wise
preacher said, two out of three ain’t bad!
I like to think
that my confidence in my own understanding of what is right and what is true
leaves room for the possibility that I am mistaken or misguided.
I like to think that,
but then I get on Facebook and see a post from someone whose shared opinion
hits me like a personal affront.
Or I turn on the
news and I see my government doing things in my name that I cannot conceive how
anyone thought it to be an idea worthy of a great nation.
I get myself
worked up into a real lather of frustration with these otherwise bright people
who say and believe such foolish things, who are so wrong headed, who see the
world through these bizarre glasses.
I might be wrong,
but I KNOW they are wrong!
Really, I do. I KNOW it.
I am positive that
my point of view is right.
Truly.
Just read the
bible!
Just look at the
words of Jesus!
I am not perfect,
but I think I am on safe ground saying that on some of these current issues I
am right and they are wrong. I am not a
little sure of it I am positive.
Really.
It is the truth.
I swear to God…
Oops…
As we continue to
live into this season of discord and disagreement in our culture, it is perhaps
more important than ever to remember that the truth is not something we can
monogram and call exclusively our own.
Truth in its
fullest sense belongs to God.
And so do those
with whom we disagree.
And just as it is
essential that we as disciples of Christ stand up for what we believe including
the dignity and promise of all God’s children, we must live that belief even
with those children of God in whom we struggle to see dignity or promise.
In our text last week, Jesus said that he did
not come to abolish the law but to see its fulfillment. He links his ministry to the gift of the law
the foundation of which is at the heart of his ministry; the building and
bettering of human relationships and communities and the proclamation of hope
in the kingdom of God.
In the coming
days, I hope that we will all seek to see our world and especially our
neighbors through the lens of the radix of the law. That we will seek out those places where our
relationships may be repaired or rebuilt.
That we will remember each and every day that the truth of Christ is not
ours to posses but ours to proclaim…
…with love,
fidelity, and compassion for ALL of
God’s children.
Let us pray.
Giving Lord, you build our lives on the
roots of your promise. Fill our hearts
and our lives to overflowing with the hope and love of Christ. May we see in each of your children the
value, dignity, and love you see in all your creation. Give us hearts of generosity, spirits of
gentleness, and the courage to share your truth in a sinful and broken world.
Amen.
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