Reflexion Connexion

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, Join us here today

Eagerly we thank you.
For all the good you give us
Every grace
Every mercy
Every reassurance
Every redirection
Every happy surprise
Every warm smile
Every hope

And for those things that confuse us
Upset us
Disappoint us
And those things that generate fear
And resistance
And resentment
And for those things that sap our joy
Undermine our confidence
Overwhelm us
Discourage us
Knock us down
Throw us back
We thank you just the same

Knowing all along of Your great love for us
Your abiding care
Your steadfast presence
How you catch us when we fall
How you make things new
How you repair what has been broken
How you walk beside us through everything

Thank you, Lord
Thank you, for all of it
Thank you, for every little thing
For this moment
For each breath
For life
Thank you, Lord
Thank you
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, they have received their reward.”
Matthew 6:5

Intro: The next point of Jesus’ sermon has to do with prayer

I don’t think you need me to teach you anything about prayer
– one year in Russia, an orphan tried to teach me the alphabet
• but she gave up on me – there was just one letter, I could not pronounce well enough to please her
◦ I couldn’t even hear the sound she was making when she said the letter
• prayer isn’t like that– prayer is the native language of every child of our heavenly Father
◦ we may feel we’re not doing it right,
◦ but God hears what we feel and need even if we can’t put those things into words
– there’s no Christian life or experience without prayer
• if you want lessons on prayer, read the Psalms
◦ there you’ll find every prayer imaginable, and nothing is out of bounds
• otherwise, there is also Paul’s explanation of how God’s Spirit helps us and prays within us
◦ and in those instances, words are optional

Jesus doesn’t begin here by teaching us how to pray

He first tells us how not to pray
“you must not be like the hypocrites”
– for the people Jesus had in mind, prayer wasn’t primarily about seeking God, or his help
◦ they may have used familiar words of praise or petition.
◦ but that wasn’t what was in their hearts
• for the hypocrites, prayer was a means to draw attention to themselves
◦ to put their “deep devotion” to God on display

Let’s go back over the ground Jesus has covered one more time
– if his disciples were going to enter the kingdom of heaven,
• their righteousness would have to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Mt. 5:20)
• they had to live closer to the heart and spirit of the Law
◦ that meant being devoted to right relationships
1. Their relationship to God had to be right
• not by being religious and legalistic
◦ or be doing the bare minimum of what the Law demanded
◦ but in loving God above everything else; trusting him and obeying his voice (cf. Jer. 7:22-23)
• this devotion had to be internalized
“the LORD said to me, ‘I have heard the words of this people which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart as this always to fear me and to keep my commandments . . .” (De. 5:28-29)
2. Their relationship to everyone else had to be right
• acting toward them in loving ways had to be the priority
• and this had to be internalized as well
◦ it’s not enough to not cause harm to others, but they had to not want to cause harm to anyone else
– the scribe’s and Pharisee’s “righteousness” was inferior, because it was only external and grossly compromised
• they didn’t get it right, because God’s Law was no written in their hearts

So now, when it comes to prayer, what hypocrites loved about it,
– was the attention they got when others noticed them praying
• the hypocrites used prayer to enhance their image
◦ they were not praying with the proper purpose in mind
• to be seen praying, gave them instant gratification
◦ they immediately received the reward they wanted
◦ and, in the process, forfeited any reward they could have received from God

Is it possible to offer a prayer in public and not be conscious of others who are present?
– probably not – but even then we cannot lose prayer’s essence
• and that is to be aware of God’s presence and speak directly to him

Jesus recommends a better environment for prayer
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” Matthew 6:6

Make it private and make it personal
– last week, Jesus told us when we give to charity, to do it in secret
• he gives the same instruction here
◦ but he adds something
• he uses the same phrase twice, changing only one word (in English):
“your Father who is in secret” and
“your Father who sees in secret”
– this is my greatest frustration with prayer: God’s hiddenness
• we do not live in the same dimension as God and we do not share his “nature”
◦ God’s existence transcends our existence
• so we cannot see, hear, touch, or physically approach God
◦ I assume this was also a frustration for the prophet Isaiah
(when God had made awesome promises that seemed impossible to ever fulfill)
“Truly, you are a God who hides himself,
O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isa. 45:15)
◦ God’s response to Isaiah, in essence, was
That may be so, but,
“I did not speak in secret,
in a land of darkness;
I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
‘seek me in vain.’
I the LORD speak the truth;
I declare what is right” (Isa. 45:18-19)
– it seems to me that Moses spoke to this issue too
• he told Israel they didn’t have to go searching for God’s will
◦ it wasn’t far off, somewhere up in heaven or beyond the sea
“But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (De. 30:11-14; cf. Ro. 10:5-11)

Now we can understand the importance of contemplative prayer
– and why it plays an important role in the life of Reflexion
• it is one of our spiritual disciplines in seeking God
• we bring our awareness to God’s presence here and now
– when we approach our heavenly Father in prayer, we find him in secret
• and even if we don’t see him, he “who sees in secret” sees us

Jesus raises one other concern
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” Matthew 6:7-8

Already, Jesus is giving more space to prayer than he did with charity or will do with fasting
– it seems to be important to Jesus, as though he wants to help us make the most of our prayers
• Luke provides several examples of Jesus encouraging his followers to pray
• so he tells us no not be like the hypocrites, on the one hand,
◦ and not be like the Gentiles on the other
– these are two opposite ends of a religious spectrum:
• the hypocrites were obsessive about their one true faith
• Gentiles were pagans who did not know Israel’s God
◦ The New Living Translation may get us closer to the point Jesus is making:
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again”

In the past couple of years, I’ve begun to catch myself praying “empty phrases.” It’s like I have, over the years, developed prayer habits, so that I make repetitious requests without any thought or sincere attention to what I am saying. God neither desires nor deserves this nonsense.

I want to clarify two points so we hear Jesus correctly
– first, Jesus is not saying we should not pray long prayers
• there are several long prayers recorded in the Scriptures
◦ in fact, Jesus prayed a long prayer in John 17
◦ he could also spend an entire night in prayer
– second, Jesus is not saying we can never repeat a prayer
• I’ve heard some preachers say, “Faith means you ask just once”
• when Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, Matthew tells us,
“So leaving [the disciples] again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again” (Mt. 26:44)
– give as much time to pray as you feel you need
• ask and keep on asking until you receive your request, or
◦ until God lets you know you can stop asking
“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Lk. 18:1)

What Jesus does here, is correct our assumptions regarding prayer
– there are gimmicks or devices we can use to try to make prayer “work”
– Jesus wants us to know that instead of those things, we have a heavenly Father,
• and he knows our needs, but still wants us to bring them to him
Amy-Jill Levine, “The purpose of prayer is not to get God’s attention. We already have God’s attention.”
• Jesus has more to say about this later in this same chapter

Conclusion: One of my resources this time, going through the Sermon is Jonathan Pennington’s
excellent commentary
Pennington wrote that Jesus’ point here wasn’t to “provide instructions on proper mode of praying”
I would not dare to disagree with such a wise, educated and gifted scholar,
yet I feel differently about this
Since personal and private prayer is the heartbeat of our spiritual life,
we need helpful, truthful, insightful teaching to get it right
So, even if the “proper mode of praying” is not Jesus’ main point,
he is at least reporting an assumption he has regarding his view of prayer
A proper mode of prayer includes having a secret place you share with our Father,
and that, in itself, forms a special bond between you and God

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord and join us today.
Some days Lord I shudder
Shaken to my depths
And I wonder how I How we
Will ever rise to the needs of this day.

How will we ever rise to truth
with both courage and grace
Even when ridiculed
Even at great cost?

How will we ever rise above our fears
Our anger
Our resentments
Our contempt?

How will we ever rise to care for the weak
The vulnerable
The needy
when hate is rewarded,
celebrated, glorified?

How will we ever rise to goodness
and gentleness
and kindness
When empathy has run dry?

How will we ever find joy
As your humble servants
Your grateful servants
when power is wielded like a hammer
Like a scythe?

Pull us near Lord
Hold us tight
Keep us close
Help us show up
Help us rise up
And do
Your work
Your way
In your love.
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven Matthew 6:1

Intro: Peter and Andrew were knee-deep in Lake Galilee. A school of fish swam near shore, so they threw a net into water, dragging out whatever it collected. Jesus, walking the shore that morning, stopped and called to them. When they turned and looked at him, he said, “Follow me.” It was as if they were waiting for that moment, because they dropped everything to go with him. As Matthew tells the story, it was not long after they got the call that they were sitting on a nearby mountainside, listening to Jesus teaching lessons on True Righteousness and how to walk that spiritual path. They heard, first the Beatitudes, then the impossible requirement (5:20), after that Jesus ran through several examples of what the True Righteous looks like.
Now Jesus takes them to a new gate, where written on a sign hanging from it was the word “Beware.”

Verse 1 is an “introduction” to Jesus’ next lesson (that will continue to verse 18)

The message he delivers here is a warning
– back in the day we had “Driver’s Ed,” we learned about “blind spots”
• in everyday life, all of us have blind spots
◦ things we haven’t seen– and we don’t know we haven’t seen them
• after my worst mistakes, there has always come a realization:
◦ “If only I knew then what I know now”
– imagine that you and I have begun to live the Sermon as Jesus taught it
• we have a keener insight into God’s will, we’re growing in humility and integrity
◦ that’s all good – very good, in fact, but now Jesus tells us, “You have blind spots, so beware”

Having explained to us what true righteousness looks like,
– Jesus warns us about a wrong way of practicing our righteousness
• what we are doing may be good,
◦ but something in our heart or mind could sabotage it
• what Jesus addresses is a hidden motive:
“in order to be seen by others”
– this particular problem is not unique to Christians,
• but it is a temptation that’s especially easy for Christians to fall into
◦ am I a good person, or do I just want others to think I’m a good person?
◦ some believers show off how many verses they’ve memorized,
◦ or make sure that we discover how many hours they spend in prayer
• this is the key role that public relation firms play
◦ they arrange events and photo opportunities to “create an image”
◦ but an image is not an identity

The value of having a practice of righteousness is:
– first of all, there is the good it achieves in the world (blessing others)
• secondly, the progress we make in becoming good people through steady disciplines
• third, the rewards we receive from God
◦ not trophies or blue ribbons,
◦ but we are given greater opportunities, responsibilities, and resources
– no one, this side of heaven, knows the wonder of those ultimate rewards
• it might help if we realize that our entire physiological and psychological existence is shaped by internal reward systems
• if we avoid an open flame, we’re rewarded with not getting burned
◦ such lessons are encoded in the human nervous system
◦ the Bible is all about positive reinforcement

Jesus points out three activities that we’re to keep “secret”

Keeping in mind that righteousness is relational:
The first is horizontal righteousness and applies to our relationships with others
The second is a vertical righteousness and applies to our relationship with God
The third is an inner righteousness and applies to what we do out of a spiritual need
• not one of these activities is meant to call attention to itself
• the only audience is our heavenly Father
◦ in fact, Jesus stresses this specific aspect of our relationship with God
◦ he refers to God as our “heavenly Father” or “Father” ten times in these eighteen verses

The first example is charitable giving (“give to the needy”)
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you Matthew 6:2-4

Preachers will typically point out, “Jesus says when not if ”
– I would avoid saying that, except for what happened last week
• the world has been plunged into crisis, creating emergencies all over the planet
• in defunding government agencies meeting world needs,
◦ millions of people will soon be dying from starvation and disease
◦ and the majority of them will be children
– in the past, the rationale for meeting world needs has been, “America is a Christian nation”
◦ no other reason or justification was necessary
• it was not as painful to pay taxes when we knew that some of our money was feeding the hungry and providing shelter and protection for refugees
– now each one of us must ask, “What can I do?”
• there are needs that are within our means and ability to meet
• regardless of how small a gift or an action seems to be, we can find our conduit to assist others

I assume that Jesus placed this concern first for a reason
– here in Reflexion, we emphasize the “spiritual disciplines”
• ways to practice prayer and listen to God in scripture that lead to a greater awareness of his presence the here and now
• but that is not the sum total of our Christian experience
◦ in fact, spiritual disciplines serve to enhance and empower our mission in the world
◦ to reveal God’s love to others through caring for them
– let’s remind ourselves of what Jesus said about us:
“You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world . . . let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 5:13-16)
• he could have added, “The light is not on you, but in you”
• Paul reiterated and reinforced this when he wrote:
“For by brace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ep. 2:8-10)
◦ this is where the practice of righteousness leads

Jesus tells us how NOT to give to the needy

He tells us not to make a show of it
– again Jesus is using hyperbole to emphasize a point:
“sound no trumpet before you”
• we use a similar figure of speech: “Don’t toot your own horn”
• who does this? Jesus says this is what “the hypocrites” do
– they act like they’re doing something noble, charitable, big-hearted
• but in fact, they are drawing attention to themselves
◦ Jesus says they’re looking for praise from others
◦ we must admit, this is a powerful motive
in fact, it kept some people from following Jesus
“. . . many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” (Jn. 12:42-43)
• can we be okay with only God knowing our good deeds?

We encounter more hyperbole when Jesus says,
“do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing”
– again, I can imagine Jesus saying this with a smirk
• your gift is definitely secret if not even your left hand knows what your right hand is up to!
• don’t let this anonymity bother you – your gift has not gone unnoticed
“And your Father who sees in secret will reward you”
Amy-Jill Levine, “Jesus raises several questions worth considering: Do we want our names on the buildings, and if so, why? To honor ourselves? . . . We do not need, and should not even desire, public recognition; nothing could be greater, of more value, than God responding, ‘Well done.’”

Conclusion: When we have to put new tires on our cars,

Dealers often let us know they will also rotate and align them
(out of alignment: cars can pull to one side, be harder to handle, and use more fuel)

Jesus is putting our spiritual practice into alignment,
matching our inner motives to our outward actions
We’re old enough to know, that sometimes
there are wrong reasons for doing the right thing
A couple days ago, it occurred to me grace is God’s generosity;
they’re practically synonyms!
God’s way is always the right way,
and the right way is always the way of grace

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord and join us here today
You Lord, you who are rich in mercy
Even when we were dead
Have made us alive

Teach us now
The work of mercy
The ways of compassion
The practice of forgiveness
The life of serving others
So our neighbor
Each, one by one, individually
Can know
Can feel
Can experience
Mercy.

Give to us a name or a face to hold with mercy
Or a prompt in the moment to be especially kind
Receptive
Gentle
Tender
And patient
So that together
Our neighbor and ourselves can know your loving care
To know your goodness in action
To know you are near
To know we are not forgotten
To know all shall be well
Tangibly
In real time
In that given moment
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

“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 the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you” Matthew 5:38-42

Intro: Today we reach the end of this second part of the Sermon

But not until Jesus takes us all the way to end of the trail we’re on
– we’ve been following a theme that began with Jesus saying,
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. . . . For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 5:17-20)
• we’ve seen the heart of the Law and Prophets is relational
• Jesus will confirm this later on in Matthew’s gospel when he is tested by a lawyer
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 22:35-40)
◦ notice he makes reference to “the Law and the Prophets” again,
and he says that love for God and others is the summation of those Scriptures
– so after issuing the challenge to live a true righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,
• Jesus demonstrated what that righteousness looks like, using four examples:
◦ murder, adultery, divorce, and swearing oaths
◦ it’s not only what we do or don’t do, but it is especially what is in our hearts
• now we’re down to Jesus’ last two examples
◦ all his examples have challenged what we think we know, but
◦ his last word on this theme will be his most disturbing

“An eye for an eye”

How do you respond when you hear about a gross injustice?
– is it mildly annoying?
very frustrating?
infuriating?
• what if you’re the one who suffers the injustice?
◦ have you ever felt it so intensely that it kept you awake at night?
◦ I’ve never met a child who hasn’t cried, “That’s not fair!”
• the passionate reaction of being treated unfairly,
◦ can be so overwhelming we feel its strain physically as well as mentally
– it is a perfectly natural response to want to “get even”
• but sometimes it isn’t enough to “even the score”
◦ the imbalance requires a more severe penalty — so,
“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep” (Ex. 22:1)
◦ but this has to be tightly controlled, because if it’s left to us, restitution can turn into revenge
• a vendetta between two communities or two families,
◦ can continue in ongoing retribution after retribution over many years

The regulation Jesus quotes is found in three times in the Law
– the best way to understand it, is as setting a limit to revenge
• in fact, God says, “Vengeance is mine”
◦ for Paul, this means God takes revenge out of our hands
• so Paul says, “never avenge yourselves” (Ro. 12:19)
Amy-Jill Levine suggests that the intent of the command, “an eye for an eye” was not “physical mutilation.” She says, “Indeed, almost all rabbinic texts suggest that the formula must mean financial compensation. They get there by logic: since no two limbs and no two eyes are equal, the destruction of one could not be compensated by the destruction of another.”
– this is the first insight we need in order to appreciate what Jesus is talking about
• we know by now, that he will take us behind the command to the spirit of the Law
• he shows us what the Law was meant to work within us, what it was to make us
◦ Jesus is telling us, “You don’t have to get even; you can travel a higher road”

In case you forgot, each example Jesus gives follows a pattern:
1. Jesus begins with a quotation, “You have heard that it was said”
2. He then presents his alternative, “But I say to you”
3. Then he provides an illustration of what that looks like
– here, his illustrations are outrageous
• but we’ve already come across outrageous illustrations,
◦ like, tear out your eye and cut off your hand
• I believe we’re to handle these rules of responding to an offence in the same way

Last week I explained how the Bible sometimes uses hyperbole
– exaggerations that are not meant to be taken literally
• that is what Jesus is doing here
• he exaggerates to intensify the impact of the point he is making!
From My personal meditations on scripture: If someone slaps me in the face, it may take great self-control to not slap back, but what is the point of offering my other cheek as if saying, “Here you go, slap me again”? Am I supposed to offer myself to the abuser for more of the same? How does it help? Does it resolve the problem? Would that please God? Well, it might please him more than if I were to take revenge. [At this point I got distracted by asking myself, “Why do we say ‘take’ revenge?”] Is turning the other cheek truly what our Father wants?
Anyway, if I’m insulted what would be the appropriate response of love? What would be an extreme example of that response? Perhaps Jesus is saying, better to error on the side of not reacting in kind than proliferate antagonism, animosity, and aggression.
I need more wisdom, more light on this passage. For now, I do believe Jesus is using hyperbole and perhaps even almost comically, (exaggeration is sometimes comical).
– it’s my opinion that at times Jesus intentionally used comical exaggerations
“If asked for your coat, give your undergarment too, and then hurry home because now you’re naked”
• I think his listeners most likely smiled – but got the point
• verse 42 is more along the lines of a realistic response
◦ give to the beggar, loan to the borrow
Another personal meditation: I believe Jesus wants to mold each disciple into a certain kind of person, from the inside out. In this specific example, he is illustrating the generous heart he wants each one of us to have.

“You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy”
“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 sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 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, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” Matthew 5:43-47

The “love your neighbor” is a real commandment
– “hate your enemy” is the liberty we take after we’ve done our duty to love
• this is pretty much normal human behavior
◦ in fact, it’s exactly how many Christians currently operate
• Jesus repeats two ideas we found in the Beatitudes:
◦ first, how the blessed person responds to persecution
◦◦ only this time he goes beyond rejoicing in anonymous persecution
◦◦ now we’re to love and pray for our actual persecutors
◦ second, the peacemakers will also be called “sons of God”
(here a specific identifier, “sons of your Father who is in heaven”)
◦◦ the Greek word “sons” includes daughters
◦◦ the point is that there is a family resemblance
these children of the Father behave in a way that is characteristic of God
– “For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good”
• the Greek word for evil is notoriously tricky to translate
v. 37, ponerou – v. 39, ponero – v. 45, ponerous
◦ it can mean sexual immorality, hardship, being overworked, pressured, diseased, wicked, and an evil person
◦ here it refers to the person who wrongs you

We find the command to love our neighbor as self in Leviticus 19:18
– in that context, it means others in the Israelite community
• but later in the same chapter is something we don’t often hear
“You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself . . .” (Lev. 19:34)
• did you know that?
◦ we are to love the stranger who comes into our land as we love ourselves!
– if I were God, I would water the yards of all my children,
• and dry out the yards of the heathen
◦ I would discriminate in the ways I delivered my sunshine and rain
• that’s exactly the attitude when religion has gone bad
◦ like a baker who refuses to provide a cake for a gay couple
◦ we’re not God, so we’re not supposed to make discriminations he does not make

When Jesus says when we love only those who love us, we remember:
• that tax collectors were unpopular (associated with sinners, as in Matthew 9:10)
• and Gentiles were unacceptable to God, because they lived outside his covenant with Israel
– Jesus is asking, “What’s so special about your love?”
• “Do you expect a reward for loving only those who love you?”
◦ the implied answer is that there will be no reward for the love that does not go beyond one’s family, friends, and associates
(rewards will be a central theme in the passages that follow)

And now Jesus drops the bomb
“You therefore must be perfect, as you heavenly Father is perfect” Matthew 5:48

“Perfect” translates a word I told you about last week: teleios
– it means complete, whole, a perfect fit
Jonathan Pennington, “To say that disciples must be teleios as God is teleios is to say that they must be whole or virtuous—singular in who they are—not one thing on the outside but another on the inside.”
– I think about integrity a lot – I admire people who have it
• I trust those people
• they live the truth of who they are – that is beautiful

Conclusion: I will leave you with these lines from Psalm 15

“O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?
Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right
and speaks truth in his heart (Ps. 15:1-2)

When the truth of our hearts, matches the truth all that we say and do,
we are living the Sermon On the Mount,
and becoming the people Jesus wants us to be

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Welcome and Introduction: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today

Tomorrow the powers that run this world will be Rearranged
Reallotted
Taken away
Surrendered
Divvied up
Handed down
And there will be upsets
And disasters
And victories unexpected
And the world in its way will keep spinning
And changing
And staying just as we know it
All at the same time

Some among us tremble in expectation
While others may tremble with dread
Each of us looking forward
Whether in anticipation or apprehension
Recognizing this kingdom isn’t your kingdom
That we are visitors
Called to serve in love
Our lives living sacrifices
Show us what you will have us do

And let our lives be overflowing with your love
With patience, goodness, gentleness, kindness
And full of peace and faith and joy as we go along
Following the path you have made for us
Keeping focused on you through all the
Strife and celebrations
Dirty deals and back stabbings
And distractions, misdirection and disappointments
Comeuppances and hopes fulfilled and victories won

Staying true to you
In word and deed
In body and spirit
Come what may
No turning back
No turning back
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell” Matthew 5:27-30

Intro: There’s a fateful story in the Bible that begins like this:

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (2 Sam. 11:2-4)

This afternoon fling would result in a series of tragedies for David–it’s a sad tale that follows
– the Old Testament Scriptures openly address sexual misconduct, and,
“You shall not commit adultery,”
• is the first of a number of laws related to sexual sins
◦ other references appear in Job and especially the Proverbs,
◦ where young men are warned to avoid loose women
Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes (Pr. 6:25)
◦ in the prophets, the focus shifts to God and his adulterous wife Israel,
and some of the references there are explicit
• the New Testament, mostly, is more reserved in its depictions of sex,
◦ but equally clear regarding violating the lines God has drawn
– Jesus isn’t adding something new to the Law
• he is quoting and emphasizing what’s already there
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s” (Ex. 20:17)
◦ The Greek translation of the Old Testament word for covet is the word Matthew uses here, “lust”
• imagining an affair isn’t the same as having an affair
◦ but the point is, if the desire is in my heart and my imagination,
◦ then it’s part of me and therefore has a role in defining who I am

So Jesus is making a course correction in how they interpret Law

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’”
They’d heard that much of the command, but stopped there!
– people considered themselves righteous if didn’t commit adultery
• but to Jesus, that was an inferior righteousness
◦ and, as such, a righteousness his disciple-students were to “exceed”
• Jesus was centering in on the heart
(of the six examples Jesus gives, this is the only one where the word “heart” appears, so it is important especially for that reason. Also, in this sense, “heart” represents the total inner person, including mind and emotions)
◦ Jesus told the Pharisees,
“You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts” (Lk. 16:15)
◦ it’s not enough to look like I’m a good person, I must be a good person
– this connects with the Beatitude, Blessed are the pure in heart
• purity is free from contamination
◦ it’s not one-half something and one-half another thing
◦ it’s not even 99% something and 1% something else
• purity is wholeness – for instance, pure love for God is
◦ loving the Lord your God with all your heart
◦ all through Bible, “the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7; cf. 1 Ki. 8:39; Ps. 44:21; Jer. 11:20; etc.)

Jesus is teaching his disciple-students about integrity
– the last verse of this chapter has often shocked and confused Bible readers
“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”
• “perfect” translates teleios – a project that has been completed
◦ Jesus, from the cross used a cognate of teleios, “It is finished” (Jn. 19:30)
• here in the Sermon, Jesus integrates the heart and body
◦ the complete person–internal and external
– the emphasis in all six examples of “true righteousness” is integrity
• the root of integrity is “integer” – one whole number – integrity is oneness
◦ think of Jesus’ statements regarding “one thing” (Mk. 10:21; Lk. 10:41-42)
• Jesus informs us that righteousness is the trait of one whole person
◦ the inside matches the outside
Jonathan Pennington, these examples “reveal the true depth of the matter. They are a strong push against the human tendency to focus on external actions and make godliness a matter of appropriate behavior regardless of the heart’s intent.”

Last week I explained that these six examples make the same point

And they all share the same pattern, so once we see the pattern,
• we can move through the examples quickly
• however, there are some things that require explanation
◦ and explanation is especially necessary here
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away”
First, the eye and hand refer not to the organ or limb, but represent sight and action, seeing and doing
– Jesus is stressing the necessity of working on the inner person
• the kingdom of God works from the inside out
◦ amputating a literal body part would not change the heart
• so that’s the first thing to recognize regarding removing the “right eye” – it’s a figure of speech
◦ Paul also makes metaphorical reference to our “members” (body parts) in Romans 6 and 7
◦ besides, there’s still the left eye!
Second, the average Christian gets confused and frustrated with the Bible
– and that’s because our tendency is to read it literally (like a text book)
• biblical Hebrew has a small vocabulary (much fewer words than modern Hebrew or the English language we speak)
◦ so biblical Hebrew makes up the deficit with word pictures and metaphors
◦ for instance, it exaggerates numbers (the polite expression is not exaggerate, but hyperbole)
Robert Alter, “. . . ancient literature (Greek as well as Hebrew) has little notion of numerical accuracy in the way it conjures with numbers.”
◦ their concern was not literalness, but making an impression (like when someone says, “gazillion”)
• so here, Jesus is using figurative language to make a strong impact
◦ he knows we’re going to struggle with taming our hearts
◦ so he uses a radical analogy to stress the importance of applying ourselves to the challenge

Another related issue comes next
“It is also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery Matthew 5:31-32

What I hear Jesus saying is, divorce is always wrong when:
– a person divorces their spouse in order to be with someone else
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery” (Mk. 10:11-12)
• this is not everything Jesus has to say on this topic
◦ he gives a fuller teaching in Matthew 19
◦ and we need to study that to appreciate his position on divorce
• but it’s worthwhile to note that even his disciples struggled with it
“If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry” (Mt. 19:10)
– this passage is not the entire New Testament teaching on divorce
• Paul releases the believing spouse from hanging onto an unbelieving spouse who wants divorce (1 Cor. 7:15)
◦ we would want to include instances of domestic abuse and so on
• in our time, we must be really sensitive to these issues
Amy-Jill Levine, “Far too many people have been trapped in loveless or abusive marriages because of a narrow reading of Gospel passages. The message of the text [in 1 Corinthians 7:15] is one of peace, not war; it speaks of the Christian home as the model of the love between Christ and the church.”

The next example is also relevant, having to do with keeping our commitments
“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath 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 take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil” Matthew 5:33-37

The Bible doesn’t say anything about wedding vows,
– but they’re appropriate to the commitment required to keep a marriage together
• the Lord’s concern is about swearing an oath
• regarding swearing, we tend to confuse three separate activities:
First, we mistake taking God’s name in vain with everyday cussing
– that’s not what the commandment means
• using God’s name when cussing or cursing is “blasphemy” which is obviously forbidden
Second, what the commandment forbids is using God’s name to support a lie
– it was common to call on God (or a god) as a witness in business, trade and treaties
• people still do this all the time, though with less weight
“I swear to God, it’s the truth”
• the commandment is against swearing by God, to bolster a lie
◦ that’s what it is here in verse 33, to “swear falsely”
Third, there was the swearing a vow (oath-taking)
– a promise to give God something or to do something for God
• rules for it are found in Leviticus chapter 27 and Numbers chapter 30
◦ people would sometimes do this as an act of special devotion to God (e.g., the Nazirite Vow)
• it was often used in a somewhat mercenary way:
“Lord, if you do this for me, I’ll repay you with a sacrifice and public praise”
“I must perform my vows to you, O God;
I will render thank offerings to you” (Ps. 56:12)
My meditation: Oaths and vows (like signed contracts and promissory notes) seem a necessity simply because we know human society is corrupt and we can’t trust each other. Jesus wants us to be different from our society. He wants us to be true; true to ourselves, true to God, true to others, true to what is; to live the truth so that no word we speak ever needs an oath to guarantee it. This doesn’t apply to judicial requirements, but to us volunteering an oath to convince another person we’re telling the truth. The scribes and Pharisees had made swearing a fine art of telling lies while swearing you are telling the truth (Mt. 23:16-22).
– that’s what Jesus meant by the scribes and Pharisees’ inferior righteousness
• the misuse of swearing vows was a way of working around the intent of the Law
Pennington, “The external matter of vow making is but an illustration of the real issue, being people of integrity, singleness, or wholeness in our speech, actions and intentions.”

Conclusion: Jesus did not intend to make us feel bad about ourselves

Perhaps he wanted to shake some people up so they would take him seriously
But his goal with us is to work a transformation
This is not something we can do on our own
But we can cooperate
Try to keep that in mind this week,
because that’s where God’s grace will meet you

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here this morning
In the back of our minds we know that all of our work can go down the drain
or up in smoke.
It can happen in the blink of an eye
or with a moment’s notice
or with no notice at all.
We know this can happen,
but live,
most of the time denying it is so.
We hold our lives,
our work and our dreams as given,
immutable, rock solid until they aren’t.
And just now they aren’t.

So many chased out of their homes
By winds and flames
And so many,
With only ashes and smoke
Where there was once a home
And so many now numb
Dumbstruck
Beat down
Overwhelmed
Angry
Resentful
Broken
Afraid of drowning in it all
Afraid to let it out
Or to hold it in
Afraid it is a very bad dream
A bad joke
And devastated, that it is all too real

We know in time
the winds will die down
Every cinder will stop glowing
And the long hard work of putting lives back together will begin
We pray for our family and friends
We pray for our neighbors who just by happenstance live in a different neighborhood
On different streets than we do
Who have lost it all.
We pray they have safe housing, food, and clothing
We pray they remained employed through all of this
We pray they receive kindness, patience, and understanding
from family, friends and strangers
We pray that they get the mental health help they need in the wake of this trauma
We pray they find guides to help them navigate the systems meant to help them
The governmental, the bureaucratic and the maze of insurance
We pray each community, each church, each family, each person will be able to rebuild their lives and thrive

We are thankful for the fortitude and determination
and training of those fighting the fires
And thankful for those attending to the needs of those out of their homes
We ask every blessing be granted to them

For those of us who are safe
out of destruction’s path
we ask that our gratitude be deepened
That our generosity be expanded to a fault
that we treat each moment of life as a gift
An opportunity for loving

And we know
Somewhere in the back of our minds that
All shall be well
And even in life’s catastrophes
Even in our overwhelm
Even in our deepest sorrows
You are with us
Bringing us along
Our rock
Our fortress
Our hope
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the [fiery Gehenna]” Matthew 5:21-22

Intro: You know the directory in the mall, with the little star that reads, “You are here”?

Well, let’s figure out where we are in Jesus’ Sermon
– we’ve been through the Beatitudes
• we’ve made the transition from Jesus’ closing remarks to his declaration that he had not come
“to abolish the Law or the Prophets,”
• but to empower them so they do in our lives what they’re meant to do;
◦ and that is to turn human hearts toward God

Then he made that terrifying demand:
“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”
– rigid obedience to minute details of the Law was the trademark of the scribes and Pharisees
• but Jesus didn’t mean we must be more rigid or rule-based than they were
– Jesus is teaching us a new way to read the Law – his correct way
• following Jesus, Paul made a radical statement regarding circumcision
(a badge of God’s covenant with Abraham that confirmed the identity of his offspring)
“For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [of the Law]” (Ro. 2:28-29)
(this idea was appeared first in Deuteronomy [the Law] and Jeremiah [the Prophets]; De. 30:6 and Jer. 4:4)
◦ a little later Paul writes:
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it–the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Ro. 3:21-22)
• Jesus was not teaching a greater religiosity,
◦ but what Jonathan Pennington refers to as “a greater righteousness”
◦ and Amy-Jill Levine, “a higher righteousness”

I see three important characteristics of Jesus’ “true righteousness”
First of all, it is relational – every command is rooted in love
Second, it doesn’t focuses on the surface of the Law, but the spirit of the Law
Third, the work it does is not on surface of our lives, but in our hearts
• what the Law and Prophets produce is a whole person–undivided–,
• where our external behavior matches our hearts’ commitments

As we move into the passage we’re covering this morning, we could begin, “For example”

Six times, Jesus shows us how he interprets the spirit of the Law
– he arranged all of these according to the same design
• Jesus begins, “You have heard that it was said” or “that it was written”
• next, he says, “But I say to you”
• then he provides at least one practical application
◦ the only example that lacks an application is the one on divorce
◦ there the application is obvious

Jesus’ first example, “You shall not murder”

What usually happens when we read these verses,
– is we immediately react to specific words and miss the point
• so let’s look closely at the big picture
◦ if all we have to do is obey the letter of the law,
◦ then it doesn’t matter what is in our hearts
• that’s the mistake Jesus wants to correct
◦ my heart matters, because it determines the kind of person I am
– having never murdered anyone does not make me a good person
• Jesus gives a good deal of space to clear up this issue
◦ it was a concern and goal of the Law and the Prophets
• the Law isn’t about setting boundaries and punishing bad behavior
◦ it’s about making us good people, inside and out
◦ righteous people, who love God and love others

Jesus takes us into what the Law says on the surface to its deeper message
– it’s clear the Law prohibits murder – it’s a “punishable offense”
• but Jesus says that anger is also a punishable offense
• then it seems like he is stepping up degrees of anger,
◦ and also stepping up the punishment:
◦ from being cited, to taken to court (Sanhedrin), to fires of Gehenna

(Gehenna was a valley outside the walls of Jerusalem where rubbish was burned and always smoldering – obviously an “unclean” place that became a symbol of extreme punishment)

– what I think Jesus is saying us that unresolved anger intensifies
• if you hold onto anger it mutates and increases
• murder is just one expression of it
◦ but you can do a lot of damage to another person before it comes to murder
Amy-Jill Levine, “Jesus sees connections between murder and insult, death and name-calling. He’s right. We’ve heard that ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never hurt me,” but the saying is wrong. Names hurt. Names kill. In our call-out culture, children are cyberbullied to death; people take their lives because of the barrage of insults. Names kill. Jesus was right: if we would only listen to him.”

Anger is a normal, natural, and automatic emotion (everyone gets angry)
– at times, and in specific instances, anger is appropriate
And [Jesus] looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart . . . (Mk. 3:5)
• of course, not all anger is appropriate
◦ in fact, it is almost always the wrong response to frustration, noisy neighbors (or children), and traffic
• like other negative reactions and emotions,
◦ anger has to be managed or controlled
◦ it’s energy can be useful, but we can’t hold onto it
– anger is always wrong if it settles into a permanent state
• if it becomes habitual or a personality trait
◦ if anger settles in our hearts as resentment, it festers
• some people choose to live with compromised health,
◦ physically and mentally, rather than let go of resentment
◦ remember, Jesus is trying to clean out our hearts

We cannot always forgive – or let go of our anger by ourselves
– but we can always turn to God for assistance
• what Jesus wants to emphasize, is what we carry inside
– in Matthew chapter 15, Jesus is asked a question regarding hand washing
• in answering, he moves from the hands to the heart,
◦ from the external to the internal,
• then he dives deep into the heart, exploring what’s there
◦ Jesus’ diagnosis of the human condition is that,
◦ all of us have heart problems

Jesus presents a case that shows how to diffuse anger
“So if you are offering you gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” Matthew 5:23-24

The assumption is that you have wronged someone
– if that’s the case, Jesus says you can fix it (or at least take a first step)
• you can go to that person and offer to repair the relationship
• it may be up to you to begin the process of reconciliation
◦ it may be within your power to make things right
◦ however, you’re not responsible for other person’s response
– there may be other times when you have been wronged
• if another person comes to us seeking reconciliation,
◦ we have the opportunity and obligation to forgive
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Mt 18:21-22)
• there Jesus emphasizes forgiving others “from your heart” (Mt. 18:35)
◦ which is the whole point
◦ this is the path to spiritual wholeness and healthiness

Jesus presents a second case where this applies
“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny” Matthew 5:25-26

This instance is very different from the first one and more difficult!
– this time the problem is not with a brother, but your “accuser”
• this could be with anyone, even a stranger
• Jesus isn’t giving us legal advice,
◦ but he’s telling us to quickly resolve interpersonal conflicts
◦ he’s saying, “Don’t escalate the disagreement. Don’t let it go all the way to court”

Conclusion: Going through these verses, it occurred to me,

If the Sermon On the Mount were all we had of Jesus’ teaching;
– if there were no Gospel of Matthew, or the other gospels, or the New Testament,
• the Sermon would be enough
◦ enough to know God, his kingdom, and his will for us
Amy-Jill Levine, “It is impossible to sustain the sense of the kingdom’s presence. Stuff gets in the way. Life gets in the way. Failing bodies get in the way. We can’t be perfect all the time. These moments of doubt, frustration, jealousy, greed, or despair are not failures or disappointments; they are opportunities.”

Taking Jesus’ sermon into our hearts,
brings us closer to what’s in God’s heart
If more people,
if more Christians,
actually lived the Sermon,
it would change the world

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today.
Thank you Lord
Thank you
Thank you

Thank you for a year of goodness
For a year of tender care
For a year of abiding patience

Thank you for your unending love
Your constant presence (as a simple matter of fact)
Whether we could perceive it or not
And for the drips and drops
The nudges and pokes
To help us know you are near

Thank you for the stumbles on the path
The false starts
The brick walls
That had us calling out your name
First in frustration or fear
But in time with affection

It is more difficult to thank you for
Our disappointments
Our losses
Our failures
Our loneliness and isolation

And even more so for
Our need to grow
To step into the next thing you have for us
To take full advantage of an unexpected opportunity
To heal our deepest wounds
Because we are afraid
Afraid we will lose who we are today
Afraid that we won’t be able to rise to the challenge
Afraid that everything we know will collapse
Afraid that we will be judged and discarded
Again

But Lord, even for our need to grow and our need to heal we thank you
Trusting you will hold us
Lift us up
Carry us along
And take us through
Even if we freeze
Even when we turn back
Even if we fight you
Even if we must start again again

So we thank you for all the fresh starts and second chances
For the third chances
And all the times we get to try again
For the grace of living life in you
For the seven times seventy you grant us
Because this is what we need as humans
Frail, flawed and finite
Dependent upon you
Wholly
Gladly
Thankfully
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them Matthew 5:17

Intro: We need to know where we are in Jesus’ Sermon

Verses 17-20 are the heart of the Sermon (perhaps the heart of the entire Bible)
– these verses hold the key to interpreting the rest of Sermon
• unfortunately, many Christians read this passage, but don’t understand it
– speculations have resulted in some big errors:
• one, is that Jesus and St. Paul were not on the same page
◦ i.e., Jesus taught we’re made righteous by the Law
◦ Paul insisted we’re righteous by faith, and not works of the Law
• another error: the Sermon was meant for a Jewish audience not for Christian disciples
◦ because of this kind of misreading and faulty interpretation, it’s really important that we get this right

I want to give you a layout of the terrain we’re going to cover

Jesus reveals two big ideas in verses 17 and 20
– in between those verses, Jesus drives home the first big idea
• his emphasis is so strong, it sounds like he’s exaggerating
◦ v. 18 stresses the permanence of the smallest details of Law
◦ v. 19 addresses the way people treat Law–and the consequences of their actions
• then, in verse 20, Jesus drives home his second big idea
◦ it would have sounded to his disciples even more preposterous than the first
– after these big ideas, Jesus illustrates them with six examples

V. 17, Jesus begins with a caveat and a shocking surprise

A surprise, because we’ve heard that Christians aren’t under the Old Testament Law
– Paul, writing to the Romans (and to the Galatians, who had disappointed him in this regard)
For by works of the law no human being will be [made righteous] in [God’s] sight (Ro. 3:20)
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Ro. 10:4)
• ever since the Reformation, this has been stressed so strongly
◦ that it has become the key doctrine of salvation for many believers
– being grounded in this belief, we’re shocked by what Jesus says
• “Do not think I have come to abolish the law”
◦ Do not suppose or imagine – Do not draw this conclusion
• this does make sense when you consider that Jesus is Son of the Father, who delivered his Law to humankind
◦ he also ties the Law in with “the Prophets”
(which between the two of them often stand for the entire Old Testament)
◦ after his resurrection, Jesus told his disciples
“. . . everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Lk. 24:44)
– “fulfill” is same word he used here in Matthew 5:17
Amy-Jill Levine, “When Jesus speaks of ‘fulfilling’ the Torah, he signals that he is drawing out its full implications.”
• Matthew is fond of this word “fulfill” and its significance
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet” (Mt. 1:22; the same, or a similar phrase appears also in Mt. 2:15, 17, 23; & 4:14)

What “fulfills” the Law and Prophets?
Something we’ll come to later in the Sermon gives us a clue
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Mt. 7:12)
◦ then Jesus totally gives it away in the last week of his public ministry (Mt. 22:34-40!)
• how I understand the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets:
◦ it has to do with the power of God’s word (demonstrated on Mt. Sinai and in the visions and oracles of the prophets)
◦ there’ a spiritual potential in all God commands and promises
◦ Jesus actualizes, or releases that potential
he brings God’s word to its fullness in the lives of his disciples

Even though Paul was correct regarding the Law; i.e., that it can’t make us right with God,
– the Law is still is a vital and valuable revelation and also a connection with God
• but even more important is it’s fundamental significance
◦ it was never about making people perfectly obedient slaves,
◦ but it represented the formation of a bond with God
• in normal course of human affairs, people made agreements
◦ relationships were built on those agreements
◦ this involved a formal process in which they swore loyalty to each other
– the most intimate bond was the marriage covenant
• that is the significance of the Law
◦ it was Israel’s sworn covenant with God
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples (Ex. 19:5)
And [Moses] wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments (Ex. 34:28)
• this is the first indication that the Law is primarily relational
Jonathan Pennington, “This [view of the Law] is a far cry from the images of dusty old law books, large marble-filled rooms, and powerful judges standing coldly and objectively over us as we sit fearful in a box awaiting sentencing. Tora is covenantal and relational.”

Vv. 18-19, Jesus takes us deeper into the surprise

First (v. 18), the Law is here for the entire duration of the universe
– reading through the Law, some of it is obviously irrelevant
(when was the last time you saw your enemy’s ox stuck in a ditch?)
• but though the particular situations don’t fit our context,
◦ there are general principles behind them that do
◦ so we can still find relevant applications
• to make certain we do not shrug off chunks of the Law, Jesus adds,
“not an iota, not a dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished”
◦ we would say, every ‘t’ is crossed and ‘I’ is dotted
– “until all is accomplished” – or all his come into being
• “accomplished” signifies the same thing as “fulfilled,” simply from a different point of view
• honing in on the smallest details of the Law adds force to the point Jesus is making

Secondly (v. 19), there is no tension between the Law and the kingdom of God
– God’s faithful teacher will not avoid or disrespect the Law
• one thing is certain: the Law was adored by spiritual souls we encounter in the Hebrew Scriptures
“O how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97)
• we don’t have time to look into their great affection for it, but many instances occur in the Psalms

V. 20 provides the key to interpreting these four verses

This would have struck terror into hearts of those who heard it
Jonathan Pennington, “On the one hand this is shockingly bad news, because in Jesus’ day the scribes and the Pharisees were the righteous untouchables who were obviously far superior in righteousness to the mere masses.”
– but we have to immediately discard this reaction
• Jesus is not putting us in a piety competition of with the scribes and Pharisees
◦ he is not saying we must work harder to obey the letter of law
• it is not a matter of volume (how many commandments are you faithfully obeying) but of essence
◦ Jesus is not saying, “You must be more religious, more devout, more intense or passionate than the scribes and Pharisees”
◦ He is saying, “You must go about this differently from how they observe the Law”
– what was the problem with righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees?
• we find out all through Matthew in Jesus’ conflict with them,
and then Jesus provides us list of their failures in chapter 23; for instance,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Mt. 23:23)
(a significant contrast between law keeping in minutia, while neglecting the truly important broad strokes of the law)
• the Scribes and Pharisees missed the spirit of the Law, the true heart of the Law, and the heart of the Law is everything
◦ they missed the forest for the trees
– what Jesus illustrates is that the law is relational
• the scribes and Pharisees treated it as if it were moral
• what happens when we treat the Law as a moral code?
◦ we become fixated on ourselves!
“How am I doing? Have I broken a commandment recently?”
◦ we have less love or concern for others
◦ and we tend to become judgmental and treat others as being inferior to ourselves
– Mark gives us an insight into the Pharisee’s type of righteous
“For the Pharisees . . . do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, the do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe . . . .” (Mk. 7:3-4)
• these are all add-ons that are not found in the law, but in the tradition embraced by the Pharisees

My med: A few weeks ago, while reading Mt. 12:1-8, I had this thought: “Whatever a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees means, it is not a more meticulous adherence to the letter of the law. This is proven when Jesus argues from the case of human need and compassion, demonstrating that specific stipulations of the law can be overridden in certain cases. It seems the question that determines the case, is this: What action best fulfills the spirit of the law, which is love for God and love for others. AND, it is here in verse 14 that the Pharisees show their true colors in conspiring to destroy Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath. That is why (and in what way) their concept and practice of righteousness must be surpassed.”
• Paul cuts to the chase by declaring, “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Ro. 13:8-11)
• this is the essence of the “new covenant” (cf. Hebrews chapters 8-9)
◦ God gets his Law written inside of us and not merely to us
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:31-33)
◦ the Law is fulfilled in our lives, when the spirit of it is written in our hearts

Conclusion: Many Christians practice the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees

They go to church, pray, read their Bibles (infrequently), tithe, and they may attempt to live virtuous lives and convert others
The law of love, however, is much more challenging
(We will see this when we get to verse 44, where Jesus says, love your enemies! )

We might want to begin this way of fulfilling the Law by admitting that we’re broken
The world is hard on people – but then, so is the Church – and so are many families
We love imperfectly – sparingly – prejudicially
We are broken, but there is healing – in the love of Jesus
Receiving his love, love for God is birthed in our hearts,
and love for our neighbor as well
And THAT is what fulfills the Law!

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today
This week we will be consumed with giving and receiving
With tokens, symbols, expressions of our affection
For our circle of family and friends
Large or small
According to our means
All of this to celebrate your coming,
Emmanuel, God with us
Our hope
Our salvation
And anticipating your coming again, to set things right

And we and our gifts are like echoes of the Magi
The wise men
Bringing gifts to you, when first born.
Deepen our impulse to bring gifts in your honor
And round them out with more kindness
More gentleness
More patience
For those we hold in our affections
And for those we are called to love
Who we hold no natural ties or bonds
Deepen our love with courage
Humility
Reverence
And steadfastness

And help us to live in this moment
Fully giving ourselves to you
In your presence
Just now
Full of joy
Taking another step forward into
The mystery of your coming
Becoming, each of us, in the flesh, peace in this world
Becoming the embodiment of goodwill for all
In our loving becoming Shalom
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp to put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven Matthew 5:13-16

Intro: Back in the days, when I was the pastor of a sizeable church,

We would celebrate Christmas with big productions. One year, when the stage was crowded with props and children, the music still ringing in our ears, I went to the microphone with my Bible in hand. As I began to speak, a girl six or seven years old, who had been sitting on a step right in front of me, stood up. She turned around, and with hands on her hips looked up at me and said, “Boring!”

– Christmas is a challenge – we run through the same story every year
• but here’s a twist:
◦ we’ve heard (plenty of times ) that Jesus is God’s Christmas gift to world
◦ but coming to Christmas through the Sermon, we hear something new
• Jesus announces that he is not God’s only Christmas gift
◦ we are also God’s gift to the world–we’re not the big one;
◦ we’re more like stocking stuffers – but still, we’re salt and light

The Big Idea
Jesus’ positive influence in your life
makes you a positive influence in the world

Jesus has shown us a portrait of his “Beatitude people”

The Beatitudes describe character traits, alien to human nature
– they won’t help you achieve success in any human culture
• they appear as weaknesses, not strengths; deficits, not assets
◦ so there must be some secret behind them that makes sense
◦ and there is! Later in Matthew, Jesus explains it to his disciples,
“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Mt. 13:11); “secrets” translates the Greek musterion – mystery
• everyone in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ time knew about the kingdom
◦ it was in the prophecies of Isaiah, especially – the coming Messiah and restoration of the Davidic dynasty
◦ they were waiting for the kingdom to come, praying for it, longing for it
◦ but the mystery was that the kingdom had arrived
George Ladd, “The most distinctive fact in Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom was its present inbreaking in history in his own person and mission. . . . There are several texts that speak of entering the Kingdom as a present reality.”
– in the next chapter, Jesus will teach his disciples to pray,
“Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10)
• God’s kingdom is where everything runs according to his will
◦ that’s heaven – everything perfect, good, beautiful; everything done in, through, and around love
• so Jesus’ “Beatitude people” live in two realms:
◦ the present, natural world and also a present, yet heavenly, realm
◦ in his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote:
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13)

We need this insight regarding God’s realm to understand Jesus
– to appreciate where he is taking us and we need to be willing to embrace it
• but most of all, we need to experience the mystery
• the more we move our lives toward Jesus,
◦ the more real the presentness of God’s realm becomes

In these verses of the Sermon, Jesus uses two metaphors

They are obviously connected, because they have same pattern
– both begin with “You are”; both locate us on earth/in world;
• and both emphasize the importance that we be what we are
– when Jesus says, “You,” it’s the same you as in the last Beatitude
• “You who are poor in spirit, who are meek, who mourn,” and so on
• the point of the metaphors is, Jesus’ “Beatitude people” have an influence in the world

“You are the salt of the earth”

What can this mean?
– salt is a necessity for both physical and mental health
– salt is used to purify water
– salt is a preservative
– salt adds flavor to foods
– salt was added to Israel’s sacrifices, to sanctify them

Jesus doesn’t designate a specific interpretation of “salt”
– biblical examples of the above possibilities include families and cultures that were:
• “preserved” by the presence of God’s people
• “cleansed or purified” because a servant of God was present
• “made healthier” by habits they shared with God’s people
– but I also like to think, that when Christians are at their very best,
• they add flavor to the life of a community
• I wish we were all as lively and confident as Paul, who wrote:
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14)

Jesus raises the possibility that salt might not do its job
– he doesn’t describe what is lost in the environment–e.g., without salt meat stored at room temperature would go bad–
• but he tells us what happens to the useless salt–it’s “tossed out”
• technically, salt can’t lose its taste (any more than light can lose its visibility)
◦ but “lose its taste” translates the Greek word is moraino; it’s root is moron and is translated “foolishness” elsewhere
◦ through foolishness, disciples can forfeit their influence in the world
– useless salt is tossed out and trampled
• trampled, perhaps, because they don’t stand out and so no one sees them
• or maybe they’re so beneath others that no one bothers to look out for them
– the value of salt is in what it IS
• not what it has to try to be or must be trained to do
◦ salt is its essence, its nature
• I think it’s beautiful to think of our new nature in Jesus in this way
◦ we don’t have to try to be anything we are not
◦ we only need to be our true selves (e.g., Ep. 4:20-24)

“You are the light of the world”

Like salt, there are different meanings that light can have
– obviously, to illuminate a dark environment
• but also as a beacon – like a lighthouse, where we look at the light
• for centuries, we’ve known the healing properties of sunlight
◦ some internal lesions are now treated with light’s energy by way of fiber optics
• also recently, crime scenes can turn up evidence through the help of forensic light
– again, Jesus does not identify a specific quality of light, other than it is useful in dark environments

Jesus says something so obvious, that we may pass right over it
– you don’t light a lamp or flip a switch just to cover the light that is emitted
• why would Jesus even bother to make this point?
◦ I would say it’s because he knows us so well
◦ sometimes we do want to hide our spiritual life
• we’re with people whose reaction to us being disciples would embarrass us
◦ or we want to cross a line, without being held accountable to Christian beliefs
◦ or we don’t want to be identified with all the nonsense and ugliness
– whenever someone asks my wife Barb if she’s a Christian, she asks them, “Tell me what that word means to you?”
• their answer may not match hers or the life she wants to life

“let your light shine before others . . .”

Jesus does not say, “Get out there be my sales force”
– or “Be my police in the world, passing and enforcing religious laws”
• what he says is, “Just live truth in you define who you are, and let that be your witness to the world”

“so that they may see your good works . . .”

There are Christians who have a totally wrong idea regarding “good works”
(one Bible commentator wrote, “Good works are good for nothing”)
• Paul’s criticism of “works righteousness” is related specifically to works of the law with the intention of earning salvation
• but when it comes to good deeds, or “random acts of kindness,” Paul is all over that
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ep. 2:10)
◦ and he makes similar comments in at least eight other places in his letters

“and give glory to your Father in heaven”

Christians doing good in the world reflects well on God
– here is the first time in the Sermon that Jesus refers to God as Father
• and when he does, he says God is your Father in heaven
◦ which is also how he taught us to pray: “Our Father”

Eddie Piorek began teaching and demonstrating “The Father’s Love” after he discovered it for himself in a profound encounter, that was both healing and enlightening. Since his initial experience, he has been asked to share what receiving the Father’s love can release, heal, and empower in God’s children here and around the world.
• “The Father’s love” is a new vision of a true Father–our heavenly Father

Conclusion: I want to stress on last thought

There are “good works” that come naturally for you
Ways that you assist others, meet needs, provide care, and so on
Those good works are not like chores for you–you may not even think of them as a big deal
It doesn’t feel like you are going out of your way,
nor do you groan when the opportunity comes for you to share what you have to give
You don’t have to mimic others.
You have your own brand of good works
And . . .
Christmas is the perfect opportunity to go wild with good works

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here this morning.
Every breath is a gift.
And so is everyday.
The moment by moment
Connection with you
The life abiding
Our lives abundant
With you
In you
Have us crying out in joy

Yes, there are challenges
And sometimes we feel our joy being taken from us
By circumstance
By the grind of financial pressure
By the pain of physical or mental illness
By the challenge of relationships
By a world gone wrong
And they pull us away and we lose focus
And our joy fizzles
And we turn aside
As if, somehow, we know better.
Let our focus be you
Your coming
And your coming again
Your presence just now
Your long considered care
Your tender affection
Your good great love
Knowing every raindrop is a gift
Every morning sun
Every gentle breeze
Every shining star.

Knowing nothing can separate us from your love
That you are with us always
Redeeming us
Healing us
Making us whole
And it is enough
More than enough
to fill our hearts
With joy
Amen

Morning Talk: Eddie Pioreck

THE MIRACLE OF THE INCARNATION
The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God
became Man. Every other miracle prepares for this, or exhibits this, or results from this.
C. S. Lewis, “. . . In the Christian story God descends to re-ascend. He comes down; down from the
heights of absolute being into time and space, down into humanity . . . down to the very
roots and sea-bed of the Nature He has created.” (C S Lewis)

Incarnation literally means “embodied in flesh…or taking on flesh”
The union of the Divine Nature with human nature…as the Son of God assumed our
flesh, body and soul.

Anticipation of the Incarnation

The fortress will be abandoned,
the noisy city deserted;
citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever,
the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks,
till the Spirit is poured on us from on high,
and the desert becomes a fertile field,
and the fertile field seems like a forest. Isaiah 32:15

The words, “to come upon” is an idiom used in the Septuagint (a translation of the Old Testament into the Greek language). This same idiom recurs in the famous prophecy of Joel:
And it shall come to pass afterword,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh . . . . (Joel 2:28-29)
You might remember that Peter quoted this verse on the Day of Pentecost to explain what was happening to Jesus’ disciples in the temple (Acts 2:14-18)
Word Bible Commentary, “This is the eschatological coming of the Spirit that will cause the wilderness to become a fruitful field.” (WBC)
This prophesied coming of the Spirit looks forward to the transformation of all
things through the Incarnation of the Son of God. All of Creation eagerly awaits
His Coming.

Announcement of the Incarnation

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” 
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her Luke 1:26-38

Prior to Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, Israel lived in expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promise that he gave through the prophets. This is now the unfolding of his promise. So this is a big moment when Gabriel delivers the message.
The angelic announcement to Mary, that she had been chosen to conceive the Son of God while
still a virgin, is understandably a bit overwhelming, eliciting her question of “How?”

The answer, in the same language as Isaiah 32:15, is that, the Spirit will come upon you
and the Glorious Power of God will bring about the Great Incarnation that will change
everything.
Word Biblical Commentary, “By the sheer power of God a child will be born whose origin is not that of normal human generation.

The moment of the miraculous conception is hidden in the silence of Scripture while John
makes clear the result:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14)
The Greek New Testament has two words for “flesh”; soma refers the physical body, but sarx, though it is related to the body with is needs, drives, and desires, is used (especially by Paul) in reference to the human condition, which by nature resists God (Romans 8:3-8).
That the “Word became flesh” tells us that Jesus entered fully into the depths of what it means to be human.
Paul comments on the Mystery of it all:
“Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:
He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Tim. 3:16)

Apprehension of Incarnational Presence
(My Franciscan tendencies will become obvious in this next section)

What has happened, is that God has come to us, entered into the heart of our humanness, and what is left for us it to become aware of this miracle. We apprehend the Incarnation on three levels.

Personal Level

Jesus promised his disciple that the Holy Spirit would “come upon them” and they would “receive power”
(Acts 1:8)
Jesus was using the same “come upon” idiom we found in Luke 1:35. On Pentecost they are filled to the
depths of their personal being. Paul’s description of the result of God’s Spirit dwelling in us and coming upon us is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27)
Richard Rohr suggests that the Spirit fills us to a “cellular level.”

When I began to experience the Spirit of God in this way, it opened my eyes to a whole new reality. A whole new way of being in the world. The Spirit works in the depths of our being, bringing to life the peace, mercy, love, goodness, and all the other spiritual virtues and fruits.

Panoramic Level

In Colossians, Paul speaks of Christ as being “before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). Jesus does not exist outside of our lived experience of reality.
The way I imagine this, is that Jesus is sort of the “Cosmic Glue” that, to a subatomic state, holds the material universe together.

A few of the Psalms express the wonder, the goodness, the faithfulness, even the joy of God in the natural world. Paul picked up this revelation, and though less poetic, but every bit as profound, he wrote:
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20). When we know this to be true, the world around us opens in new ways.

During a period of uncertainty, I walked the beach near our home to clear my mind. I know that asking for a sign from God can seem silly, but I did it anyway. Suddenly this osprey, with wings spread wide, was gliding over my head. Right then I understood that God not only speaks to me through the Scriptures and quietly within my heart and mind, but through the natural world around me. He assures me of his presence, his faithfulness, and his love. Since then, there have been other times when, not a dove but an osprey has brought the goodness of God to me. I am now trying to make as many of those connections as possible.

The Presence of Christ in creation is a mystery, but his Presence can manifest itself in wondrous ways to the contemplatively aware.
Bishop Kallistos Ware, “The creation in its entirety is God’s handiwork; in their inner essence all created
things are ‘exceedingly good.’”

People Level

Humankind bears the “imago Dei,” the image of God, and as such each person has intrinsic value
and a spiritual inscape. (Gen 1:27) When we see persons at that divine depth it is
possible for the miraculous to happen! It could be “blurred,” but it’s there.

When we see others in this way, we are seeing them through the eyes of Jesus–family as well as strangers, enemies as well as friends. Everyone unique, everyone valuable, everyone reflecting something of the God who created each one of them.

Thomas Merton describes such a moment:
“In Louisville…in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed
with the realization that I loved all these people…There is no way of telling these
people that they are all shining like the sun.
“It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light of heaven. It is in
everybody, and if we could see these billions of points of light coming together in
the face and blaze of a sun that would make all the darkness and cruelty of life
vanish. I have no program for this seeing. It is only given.”

Benediction

Blessed be your name, our Lord and Christ,
May your Glorious Presence within us, warm our hearts,
and open our eyes to see the wonders of your love
permeating the beauty of Creation,
and mankind created in your image.
Amen

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Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us today
You have come to bring us peace
And yet we are consumed with turmoil.
Needs unmet
Desires left dangling
Expectations real and imagined
Spoken and unspoken
fair or unfair
unfulfilled.
Relationships stressed and strained
Tattered, broken
And instead of peace we have anxiety and worry
Instead of peace we carry resentments
Instead of peace we hold judgements, harshness, bitterness
Save us from this path Lord
Help us reset
Help us realign
Help us start fresh

With every twinkling light help us
With every worn out Christmas song.
With every Santa clause
With every glint of tinsel
With every gift we buy or receive
Help us remember that you came to bring peace to the whole world.
For each of us
For all of us

And then remembering
For every bad driver
Let us pray for peace
For their peace and ours
For every annoying interaction
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and for ours.
For every resentment,
for every wrong remembered
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and ours.
For every enemy we confront
Let us pray for peace.
For their peace and ours.
For you are our peace
And the peace of the world
And we are overjoyed that we
Can live into our life
abiding with the Prince of Peace
And in turn
become peace embodied for our neighbor
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you Matthew 5:10-12

Intro: These last two Beatitudes on Jesus’ list are not easy to digest

Jesus envisions a grim future for us – and if so,
– we’re expected not only to survive it, but to rejoice and be glad
• John Chapman was the Abbot of a monastery in Britain
• he was also a spiritual director to others, especially through letter writing
◦ one man who wrote to him, wanted his insight as to
◦ how he could extricate himself from a painful situation
Chapman, “I cannot possibly show you a way out . . . . [what you have is] the simple experience that suffering is really suffering and that the chief feeling it causes is rebellion against it, and even against Providence for allowing it. ¶ It is all a nasty medicine, but works wonders.”
– we agree it’s a nasty medicine, but doubt it works wonders
• we’re more of the opinion expressed by Helmut Thielicke,
Thielicke, “What a ghastly prospect! It makes one ask in all seriousness how Jesus could ever have gained disciples with an appeal like that.”
• so I think what we need to do first, is back away from these verses
◦ and get an aerial view of the entire Sermon

The backdrop for the Sermon’s central theme is in chapter 4
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 4:17)

This tells us what Jesus is doing with his Sermon:
– he is preparing us to enter and live in God’s heavenly realm (“kingdom”)
• our experience of his realm begins in this life, though does not come to its fullness here
◦ that is the main thrust of Jesus’ message: our spiritual formation to live as residents of the realm here and now
• there is a second theme that is just important: “Repent”
Jonathan Pennington, “. . . the whole of the Sermon relates to the call to repentance in [Matthew] 4:17.”
– I grew up thinking repentance was a dramatic ordeal
• we learned how evil the smallest misdeeds were in God’s eyes
◦ by seven years old, we had already earned the punishment of eternal hell

Growing up, my parents were so sensitive and opposed to profanity that they would discipline us if we said words that sounded anything like a “dirty word”; for instance, we could not say dang, heck, shoot, crude, or fudge.
I did not carry on that tradition with my children. So one year when Christmas came around, we were to meet up with my parents with along with Aunts and Uncles in the home of one of my cousins. On the way there, I warned my kids not to say any of the substitute cussing words we permitted them to use. At one time in the evening all the guys were in the garage, and my cousin Bob was demonstrating his skill with darts. He nicely grouped three darts near the bullseye, and my son Will, who was seven years old, blurted out, “Oh my gosh!” Then he looked over at me and I was giving him the stink eye. He quickly corrected himself and said, “I mean, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.”

• anyway, to repent we had to feel immense guilt, regret, and remorse
◦ then confess our sins and beg God for forgiveness — adding tears with our confession was a nice touch
◦ but that is not the biblical meaning of repentance
– a few years ago we spent several weeks studying this word
• metanoia, translated literally, is a change of mind or thought
• and I believe this is what literally happens in our brains when we repent
◦ old habits are hard-wired between neurons, and those habits must be ended to break the neural connections
◦ repentance is a process of re-wiring the brain with new connections
– changing our “minds” in this way, changes our thoughts, words, and actions

In the Sermon, Jesus is redefining reality–and it is different from the world’s view of reality
(which, while growing up, was programmed into us through family, school, and culture)
– Jesus is reshaping our beliefs, values, and behavior through the lens of God’s realm
• the previous Beatitudes reveal this upside-down worldview of our Lord
• those who are poor in spirit, mourn, and hunger . . . are blessed
– this is the way of repentance — a transformed worldview and a transformed life
• the Sermon is meant to adjust our perception to the realm of heaven
◦ and in the process, reshape our lives accordingly
• I realize this can sound rather mystical,
◦ but the goal of Christianity is to live in world as Jesus lived in the world
◦ our total transformation is yet to come, but this is preparation for it
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself (Php. 3:20-21)

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

The first line of each Beatitude has been a challenge, but this one is the topper
– historically, persecutors have been very creative
• they have devised the most ingenious ways to inflict pain and death
• persecution has been ongoing throughout church history
◦ down to the present day–i.e., in China, Iran, and Sudan and forty-seven other nations,
◦ Christians are suffering and dying for their faith
– I don’t want to minimize the experience of Christians in the US,
• some, because of their faith in Jesus have been passed over for promotion, lost a career or clients,
◦ or were perhaps verbally or physically abused by a parent or other family member
• but for most of us, what the writer of Hebrews told his readers applies to us
“. . . let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
◦ all things considered, we have it pretty easy
Abbot John Chapman, “I think it an excellent thing to laugh at one’s self a little whenever one feels [like] a martyr.”

I think it’s critical to focus attention on Jesus’ qualifier in this verse, which is,
“for righteousness sake”
– if you’re being annoying, starting arguments, constantly raising your voice,
• or if you’re behaving like an aggressive salesperson for Jesus,
• it’s not persecution when people shut you down

The previous Beatitudes describe a person’s character;
– poor in spirit, meek, merciful, and pure in heart
– or point out what they are feeling or doing; mourning, hungering, making peace
• but in this instance, Jesus is telling us what others are doing to them – they’re persecuted
◦ and it is not rare at all for a peacemaker to die by assassination
◦ Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you”

The final Beatitude is an obvious reiteration of what Jesus just said
– so we want to pay attention to the alterations from verse 10 to verses 11-12
• first we notice that with a slight shift, Jesus personalizes the Beatitude
◦ from “Blessed are those” to “Blessed are you” – for the first time addressing his disciples directly
• like Jesus, St. Paul took for granted, persecution would be a normal Christian experience
◦ writing to Timothy, he recounted his ministry, emphasizing his “persecutions and sufferings”
◦ and then:
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted . . .” (2 Tim. 3:12)
– with a second shift: Jesus identifies the underlying reason for persecution from “righteousness sake” to “on my account”
• for me, this produces a dynamic change in my attitude; that is, if there is a good reason or purpose for my suffering
◦ of course, if there is a good reason, it is often hidden from us

As a prisoner and doctor in Nazi concentration camps, Viktor Frankl noticed some people died who were in better health than others who in poorer health survived. This piqued his curiosity, so he began an informal study comparing the survivors to those who did not survive. Eventually he concluded that the men and women whose death had no apparent cause had lost hope and gave up. But the ones who survived believed that in spite of all the hardship, their lives still had meaning. For “righteousness sake” and for Christ’s sake, gives our live a meaning worth living for through suffering and persecution.

• suffering for Jesus is also a suffering with Jesus
“Remember the word I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:20)
– there’s a third difference: where, in verses 11-12, Jesus adds a list of abuses as examples of persecution
– in a fourth difference, he tells (us) to rejoice and be glad when persecuted (!)
– a fifth difference is his promise of a reward (more on rewards when we get to chapter 6)
– a sixth difference, is that here Jesus connects our experience with the fate of the prophets

Perhaps persecution has a unique function we have yet to discover

Anyway, Jesus knew what persecution could do to half-Christians
– that is, people who go to church, enjoy the preaching, and love the music,
• but never gave God’s word enough space in their hearts and minds to sink deep roots
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.” (Mt. 13:20-21)
• Jesus wants our faith to survive every sort of challenge and suffering
– so Jesus gives us this warning:
• persecution is not a sign of a breakdown in the system
◦ it isn’t an anomaly, as if it weren’t supposed to happen
• this Beatitude reveals the heresy of the “health and wealth,” “Prosperity Gospel,” and “Name It and Claim It” doctrines
– Jesus experienced the sharp edge of persecution
• he confessed that his soul was troubled over what lay ahead of him (Jn. 12:27)
• he begged the Father to spare him the bitter cup
◦ so he understands our hesitation to embrace this Beatitude
Abbot John Chapman, “It is not an imperfection to find it painful to submit to God’s will. Our Lord showed us that, by His Agony in the garden.”

Conclusion: Personally, I want my life to count for something

And if my death can count for something too, that’s even better