Epiphany 7, Year A

Leviticus 19:1–2, 9-18; Psalm 119:33–40; I Corinthians 3:10–23; Matthew 5:38–48  

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, February 23, 2014.

“CREATING AN INSULATING BARRIER”

(Homily text:  Matthew 5: 38–40)

            We continue, this morning, hearing more of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount.

            In the past couple of weeks, the Lord has been giving us some challenging things to think about, laying out the way the people of God are to behave and think.  Two weeks ago, for example, the Lord told us that we are to be “salt and light” in the world.  Then last week, He said that our outward actions are to be matched by our inward dispositions and thoughts.

            Now, this morning, we hear the business about “turning the other cheek” and “loving our enemies”.

            Last week, we said that what we are hearing from Jesus are some of His “hard sayings”, those things that we may not particularly want to hear, things that are challenging to accept and, sometimes, even harder to follow.

            So let’s unpack the set of hard sayings we have before us this morning just a little.

            We’ll begin with an analysis of the first one, the business of turning the other cheek.

            The Greek word for “slap” usually indicates some sort of an open-handed, insulting sort of blow to the face.  It does not refer to the sort of attack that might endanger one’s welfare or life.

            So, taken with that meaning in mind, what Jesus is saying seems to be, ‘Don’t engage in getting back at someone.”  What He has in mind has to do with retaliation, it seems as though.

            Now, let’s turn to the next hard saying, the one about “loving our enemies.”

            Here, Jesus precedes the hard saying by using the formula we’ve been hearing over the past two Sundays, as He says, “You have heard that it was said.”  And as has been the case earlier on, He follows that formula with the statement about loving our enemies, and praying for those who persecute others.

            Jesus turns the way the world usually works on its head, doesn’t He?

            After all, isn’t it necessary to hate our enemies, and to seek to crush and destroy them somehow?  Isn’t that the way one will survive in the world?

            The conventional wisdom of the world says “Yes” to those questions.

            The conventional wisdom of the world says, “Hit your enemies before they hit you.”

            What is Jesus trying to suggest to us this morning?

            What implications do His statements have for the people of God, in particular?

            As I reflect on those questions, it seems to me that Jesus is trying to tell us that – as His people – we, in particular, are to serve as insulation, as a barrier, to the spread of actions that alienate people from one another.  And in the process of alienating us from each other, we also run the danger of alienating ourselves from God.

            Essentially, the Lord is telling us that we are to live by another set of values, a set of values that instructs us not to engage in getting back at someone, a set of values that tells us that we must always regard others as human beings, and not as objects that are to be hated.

            As I think about the Church, which is made up of the Lord’s people, and the Church’s history, it saddens me to think that there are chapters in our lives as Christians when hatred and retaliation have marked the ways in which Christians have dealt with each other.

            Some scholars have suggested that the number of Christian denominations now numbers in the tens of thousands.  While, in part, that many expressions of the Christian faith can be a testimony to the richness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the sad fact is that, many times, new groups of people who claim to be Christian spring up because they’ve had an argument or a falling-out with another group of Christians.

            So instead of loving someone with whom they disagree, many times Christians turn their backs on these fellow believers and separate from them.

            The outside world looks on at our disagreements and the ways we treat one another, and the conclusions those who look on at us come to often suggests that we don’t live out what we profess to believe. 

            I cannot resist saying that The Episcopal Church’s treatment of those who have felt that they must leave the Church falls into the category of shameful behavior, a violation of this morning’s instruction to refrain from retaliation, a violation of this morning’s instruction to love one’s enemies.  One observer has suggested that nearly $40 million dollars has been spent in recent years pursuing lawsuits to recover property that those who have chosen to leave have taken with them.  Inevitably, one result of treating other Christians so harshly will be a permanent estrangement from these other Christians.  The fact that some have chosen to leave will be nearly impossible to overcome, given the hard feelings and bitterness that result from being so harshly treated.  Most likely, there will be practically no possibility that a reconciliation will ever be possible, and so the divisions that have taken place will, most likely, be permanent.  This must sadden the Lord tremendously, for it is He who prayed that His disciples would all be one (see John chapter seventeen).

            So, then, we come back to the matter of integrity, for the Lord demands that our outward actions be fully integrated with our inner thoughts and intentions.

            By mixing our intents with our actions, we stem the natural tendency to get revenge.  We block the progression of hatred that makes other human beings into an objects, robbing them of their humanity.

            God’s people are to do all that they can to act as insulation against those actions that destroy relationships between people and God.  For we cannot approach God’s altar in holiness if we have a disagreement brewing with a sister or brother Christian, as the Lord instructs us in Matthew 5: 23 – 24.

            For the Lord has shown His people a better way to live, a way to live that abides by higher standards than those of the world.

            May we bring into being that better way to live, abiding by the higher standards that the Lord demands.

AMEN.

Epiphany 6, Year A

Deuteronomy 30:15–20; Psalm 119:1–8; I Corinthians 3:1–9; Matthew 5:21–37

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. Thomas Church, Salem, Illinois, on Saturday, February 15, 2014, and at St. John’s Church, Centralia, Illinois, on Sunday, February 16, 2014.

“BUT YOUR STANDARDS ARE TOO HIGH!”

(Homily text:  Matthew 5:21–37)

We begin with an old musical joke:

How many sopranos does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer:  Only one, but when she sees how tall the ladder is, she exclaims (in a high-pitched voice), “But it’s too high!”

Maybe that’s the way we might feel as we read Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount which is before us today….We might be tempted to say, “But your standards are too high!”

After all, Jesus has just said (in verse 20 of chapter five, which we read last week), “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven,” now He  proceeds to explain in the text before us today just how our righteousness is to exceed that of these ancient religious experts.

The way we are to exceed their righteousness is seen in Jesus’ three comments, all of which begin with, “You have heard it said,” which is followed by the comment, “But I say to you…”

As we look at the three pronouncements that follow this pattern, “You have heard it said…but I say to you,” we see that Jesus takes two of the prohibitions that are found in the Ten Commandments (“Thou shalt not kill”, and “Thou shalt not commit adultery”), and one having to do with oaths, to outline the perfect path of righteousness.

As we look at each one, we can see that the Lord cites outward and visible actions, but then He ties those outward and visible actions to the inner and invisible attitudes of the heart.

So, for example, Jesus begins with the prohibition against murder, but then says that if we harbor anger in our hearts toward someone, we are just as guilty of sin as if we had actually murdered someone.

“Lord, your standard is too high!” we exclaim.

Who can possibly follow that path of righteousness perfectly, we ask.

Jesus also takes another of the Ten Commandments and says, “You have heard that is was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Again, we may be tempted to cry out in response, “But Lord, your standards are too high!”

Here again, Jesus ties together outward actions with inner dispositions of the heart. 

Why does the Lord do this?

I think a good answer lies in the account of the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, as we read of the actions of the serpent in tempting them to eat of the tree which was forbidden to them.  We read the account in Genesis 3: 1 – 6.  There, the serpent makes the suggestion to Eve that she should sample the fruit of the tree.  Having listened to the serpent, she then notices that the “tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise….”

Notice the progression from the point of suggestion by the serpent to her thoughts as she looked at the tree, and noticed its desirable qualities….Eve conceived of eating of the tree because, in  part, it appealed to her basic needs in some way or another.  Her thoughts preceded her actions, and formed the path which she would follow to transgress God’s commands.

Essentially, Jesus is outlining the dangers that Adam and Eve faced, dangers that overcame them.  Jesus wants us to see the dangers for ourselves, so that we might conquer the dangers and not become victims of them.

So, for example, we return to the matter of adultery….Here, Jesus cites the same issue that Eve faced, for Jesus says that if a man looks at a woman with lustful intent, he is just as guilty as if he had actually committed the act of adultery.  Eve saw that the fruit was good.  She saw that it was a delight to the eyes. Jesus warns us of the dangers of the power of sight and things that might appeal to our sense of delight in the area of our relating to one another where sexual attraction is concerned.

We would be remiss if we didn’t return to the matter of the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, for their righteousness was based on what actual things a person did, and not on the intent of the heart.

Their approach seems to be very legalistic, for it concentrated on the physical behaviors of people.  We can see this clearly in Jesus’ arrest and trial, for these scribes and Pharisees, along with the Chief Priests of the ruling council wanted to kill Jesus, and yet they were very concerned to keep their purity according to the Law of Moses intact, because the feast of Passover that was approaching.

As we look at the behavior of these rulers of the Jewish people 2,000 years ago, we can see that a great emphasis was placed on the actions they took, but, by contrast, their thoughts and intentions were manifestly evil.

So Jesus outlines the path of righteousness, a standard that is, indeed, very high.

What one of us can meet that standard, or keep it?

The answer is, “No one can.”

But the standard remains, for it sets the height of righteousness that God has established.  Without that standard, we would have no set goal to aim for as we walk the path of righteousness with God.

Will we fall short of that standard now and again?  Absolutely, we will fall short, sometimes tremendously so.

But God will forgive our shortcomings if we will acknowledge them to the Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be guided, enlightened and strengthened to strive to meet the standard God has set for us.

Only by His power can we ascend the heights that lie before us.

Come, Holy Spirit, come, and empower us to keep God’s standard of righteousness.

AMEN.

                                               

Epiphany 5, Year A

Isaiah 58:1–12; Psalm 112; I Corinthians 2:1–16; Matthew 5:13–20

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, February 9, 2014.

“GOD…GOD’S PEOPLE…GOOD WORKS”

(Homily text:  Matthew 5:13–20)

“Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father, who is in heaven,” Jesus says in our gospel reading for this morning.

Light figures prominently in the Bible.

For example, looking at Genesis, we see that the first thing that God created was light.

Later on, God’s people were told that they were given by God to be a “light to the nations”.  (Isaiah 42:6)

Jesus says about Himself that “I am the light of the world.”  (John 8:12)

As we think about light, we notice that as it casts its rays onto an object, those rays allow the object to be seen.  As we become aware of the object, we are also aware, to some extent or another, of the light itself.

However, more often than not, we don’t consider the source of the power that creates the light in the first place, kerosene (in an earlier age), or electricity (today).

When we come into the presence of light, more often than not we are aware of the objects we can see because of the light’s presence.

Jesus begins with the light itself, saying that God’s people are to let their light shine so that the results of that light can be seen in the good works that are seen by others.  Just as light allows something to be seen, so too does the light of God result in something that can be seen:  good works.

But Jesus completes the process, instructing us to let our light shine, so that God can be glorified.

With the mention of giving glory to God, we now have all the ingredients of a well-balanced life of faith.

Simply put, the equation works like this:

God is the source of the power to create the light.

We, God’s people, are the means by which God’s light shines into the world.

Good works are the result of the relationship between God and God’s people.

Good works are the necessary fruit of the power of God, flowing through us like electricity flows through a light fixture.  Good works are the tangible results of an often intangible relationship between God and God’s people, the things that can be seen which are the products of a relationship that can’t always be seen.

However, as we look back into the Church’s history, we can see periods of time when serious imbalances in the relationship between God, God’s people and good works were to be found.

At some times and in some places in Christian history, God’s people have focused almost exclusively on their relationship with God, cultivating a rich worship practice, studying Holy Scripture extensively, engaging in an active life of prayer.  However, sometimes these very desirable things were done with little-or-no attendant good works.  The needs and cares of the world went unnoticed, unheeded and unanswered.

Conversely, at other times and in still other places, Christians have engaged actively in doing good works in the world, caring for the hungry, the neglected, the homeless, the destitute, and so forth.  But the need to cultivate a strong relationship with God, which forms the basis of who we are and whose we are, was lacking.

To neglect either our relationship with God, or our need to be doing good in the world risks turning the Church, which is the body of Christ, into a club.

Perhaps this remark could use some unpacking.

To turn the Church into a place of worship, prayer and study alone risks making the Church into a closed society for the benefit of those inside its ranks.

To turn the Church into a social service agency risks turning the Church into just another service club which is dedicated to doing good things.

Yet a well-balanced approach, which incorporates – first of all – a strong and abiding relationship with God, a relationship that is consistently harnessed to actively doing good works for the benefit of others, incorporates all that God has in mind for His people.

As has been said:  “The Church is the only institution known which exists for the benefit of those who are outside it.”HiHHH

May we, as God’s people, receive the light and power of God, that we may let God’s light shine through the good we do, for the benefit of others, and for the glory of God the Father.

AMEN.