“Wholly Holy” – sermon on February 23, 2014
February 23, 2014
Scripture: Matthew 5: 38-48
Jesus taught them: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
“Wholly Holy” – sermon on February 23, 2014
Rev. Doreen Oughton
Well I am so very grateful that the weather finally cleared up on a Wednesday morning this week, allowing our bible study group to meet. We got to study the lectionary passages for today. We spend some time with each passage individually, then look for themes that tie them together. I usually try to preach on the Gospel lesson, because I am just crazy for the wisdom of Jesus. His sermon on the mount has been so rich in its themes. It’s been such a blessing to ponder such passages for the past month. And I am grateful to have pondered this passage in light of the Hebrew scripture passage, which we used as a responsive reading, and with the Epistle, which I will tie in as we go along.
Let’s start with the Gospel passage on its own. As with the reading from last week, Jesus cites the law as handed down to the Israelites, then offers a different interpretation of it. Here he notes that the law will allow you to strike back at someone who strikes at you, but only to the same degree. This law was meant to keep things from escalating. If someone takes your eye, you cannot take their life, only their eye as well. And that should end things. Even Steven. But Jesus is not looking to make things even. It is not his goal to simply keep things from escalating. His mission is to bring people to the fullest, best life possible. So he says don’t even worry about getting even, not when it means harming another person. Now I preached about this particular aspect of this passage 3 years ago, and it was a pretty good sermon I thought. It is still on the website, so if you never heard it, you may want to check it out. I’ll just give the main point, which is that this teaching of Jesus is not to urge you to be a doormat, to accept abuse without retaliation or complaint. It is a teaching about non-violent response to abuse that shames the abuser and interrupts the whole pattern of abuse. It is more than clever. It is profound.
Today I want to focus on the second and third parts of this message: You have heard it said that you shall love your neighbor, but I say to you love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you. He talks about God’s equal treatment of those we consider righteous or unrighteous, the evil and the good. The rain fall on them all, the sun shines on them all. Loving our neighbor and hating our enemies is easy stuff, he says. Why even the gentiles and the tax collectors do that! Jesus exhorts his listeners to be like God, be perfect.
As we talked about in the children’s message, Jesus’ exhortation is not to be without flaw, not to strive to avoid mistakes, but to fulfill our purposes, to be what we are meant to be. And this is where the other readings come into play. In Leviticus God tells Moses what our purpose is, says what we are meant to be – Holy, as God is Holy, and because God is Holy. I changed the response line in the reading. Where I have the people saying “You are our God and we are your people,” the actual scripture passage has God repeating the phrase, I am the Lord. After each teaching on what it means to be holy, leave plucking for the poor, don’t steal, don’t lie, etcetera, we are reminded that God is our Lord, God, who is holy. And I go back to the first line, because God is holy, we are holy.
Let’s consider the word “shall” that Leviticus uses over and over. Now not all translations use that. Some replace it with “must”, and some say “don’t” instead of “shall not.” But I like the shall and shall not, because there is some nuance of interpretation where it is not a command but a prediction. You are holy, and so you will not lie and steal and cheat. You are holy and so you will judge justly and leave pluckings for the poor. And that is our purpose, that is what we are meant to be. Holy. When Jesus says, “Be perfect as God is perfect, perhaps he is not just inviting us to live a new way, but assuring us that it is possible to do so. Because God is perfect, so can we be perfect. We can truly become who we are meant to be.
But God’s people were not living that way. They were not leaving pluckings, they were lying and defrauding and cheating. They were judging unjustly and slandering and holding grudges. Now that doesn’t mean the people were no longer holy, only that something was blocking them from fulfilling their purposes. We don’t earn our purpose. It is not given to us for being good. Our purpose comes from God and God’s holiness. Because God is holy, we are holy. This is true of us as individual, but also as a community. The epistle for today is Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. He says in chapter 3: “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”
Paul is talking about the churches he founded. He is a master builder and laid a foundation – and the foundation is Jesus Christ. Anything that is added is added atop this foundation. What is added matters – will it be good materials that will last, will it be beautiful? – but nothing that is added can change the foundation. Paul goes on, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
He says, “All things are yours, whether the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.” Again it is there, the truth of what we are – God’s temple in which God’s spirit dwells. A temple with its foundation in Jesus Christ. Paul is writing not to an individual, but to a church. And by church I don’t mean a building, but a group of people. And that group of people reaches out, I believe, to include all people.
Paul also talks about how the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, just as the wisdom of God is foolishness with the world. It would be foolish in this world to turn the other cheek, to love not just a neighbor, but an enemy. The wisdom of this world blocks our holiness, interferes with our perfection. But, as we talked about last week, we don’t even know it. It feels so wrong, so scary to live the way Jesus encourages us to live. It is really hard. I had an experience this week that brought home to me just how difficult it is, and it was something Jesus poo-poos in his sermon. He says anyone can love a neighbor, try loving an enemy. Well I had trouble loving not just a neighbor, but my own sister.
I have five brothers and sisters, and there seems to be this dynamic between us where this one sister is seen as a bit different from the rest of us. She has stronger opinions, firm ideas. And sometimes that is a blessing, but sometimes it is difficult for the rest of us. The rest of us have gotten into a bad habit of scapegoating her. And I am embarrassed to say, it can be fun. There is nothing like scapegoating to bring a bunch of people together. So anyway, I have become aware of this pattern and have a goal of breaking it. And I got a chance to try again this week. I had made plans to see my parents, and then this sister came up with a different idea that seemed it would interfere with my plans. I didn’t resist, but it began to bother me. And then a thought pops into my head, I should call my other sisters and tell them what she did. We can all talk about it and shake our heads. I would get sympathy and we’d have a laugh. I noticed what I was doing and told myself to stop. But I argued back with myself, I would just be venting, she wouldn’t have to know, it is a good way to deal with this. No, stop it. Let it go. But the incident kept bugging me, and each time my annoyance peaked I wanted to gossip about her. Finally I had a thought. I’m pretty sure the holy spirit put it there – why don’t you talk directly to the sister you are upset with. Now talking seemed really scary, so I sent an e-mail. I told her I was troubled by the change in plans, told her I was hurt, asked if she had given consideration to my plans, and asked why she hadn’t made her plan for another day. I read it before I sent it and it sounded a little snippy, so I added a line saying it sounds more aggravated than I really feel, but I wanted her to know I had some feelings. I got a response pretty quickly. One that seemed even snippier than my note. She said there was no reason her plans should interfere with mine as she would have my mother back in plenty of time for my planned visit. She made some comment, sarcastically, that she didn’t know she had to check with me before making her plans. And again I was tempted to forward her note to my other sisters. I resisted.
Then another note came from her, this one even worse. She swore at me, she guilt-tripped me, she said I’d been nasty. It was shocking. Surely this one should be forwarded, just to check out if my initial note was as nasty as she said. I told myself she was probably calling everyone telling her side. Thank God I’ve been pondering these scriptures for the past month because they gave me strength to resist. I stuck with it. I sent back a response that I thought Jesus would like even if I didn’t really mean it when I wrote it. I apologized, though I thought I had nothing to apologize for. I told her I had not intended to be nasty, which was true. I told her I hadn’t been clear on her plans, and that it was my mistaken understanding that led to my hurt feelings, which was true. It was short because it was all I could do to not get into justifying myself and pointing out her nastiness. I hit send and prayed. And pretty quickly my apology was heartfelt. I truly was sorry. I began to see things from her perspective, I had greater insight into the stresses she has been going through. I realized I had been out of touch with her, not supportive of her in a difficult time. I realized how guilty I sometimes feel that I don’t see my parents more, and I projected that on to her. I got back on the computer to see if we were okay. There was another note there accepting my apology and asking that the situation go no further. I poured out my appreciation for her understanding, expressed my regret and my love, assured her I would not be telling tales, and felt transformed. Oh, so this is what Jesus was talking about! Life in the kingdom. Holiness.
I tell this story not to boast about being holy, but to share about how very difficult it is, at least for me, to live into the kindom. And to share the rewards of the effort. And I think, when done with a willing heart, the rewards will always be there. The foundation is laid. We don’t have to do things perfectly to be perfect as God is perfect. We can make mistakes and miss the mark as we begin, little by little to clear away the stuff that blocks the fulfillment of our purpose. For me some of the obstacles were self-righteousness, guilt, a need for approval from others, the powerful connections built by the ugly means of scapegoating.
God tells Moses that because God is holy, so God’s people are holy. Jesus tells his listeners to be perfect as God in heaven is perfect. Paul assures us that “all things are ours, whether the world or life or death or the present or the future—all belong to us, and we belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.” There is nothing that can change that, but there are things that can block our awareness of it, and block our fullest living out of it in this life. What are some of the obstacles for you individually? What steps have you made to get past them? Can Jesus help you with them? Can the church? What are some of the obstacles for us collectively, as a church? What keeps us from living the fullest expression of holiness that we can embody together? Let’s take a moment of quiet to consider this. ….. O Holiest of all, you are our God and we are your people. May it be so.
