Leviticus 19: 1–2, 9–18; Psalm 119: 33–40; I
Corinthians 3: 10–11, 16–23; Matthew 5: 38–48
This is the written version of the homily offered by Fr.
Gene Tucker at St. John’s in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, February 19, 2017.
“THE PRINCIPLES ALWAYS REMAIN”
(Homily texts: Leviticus
19: 1–2, 9-18 & Matthew 5: 38–48)
This
morning’s Gospel text puts before us two more of Jesus’ teachings which begin
with the formula “You have heard it said…but I say to you….”. We heard the
first four of these teachings last week, and conclude this section of the
Lord’s Sermon on the Mount with these last two.
Since
today’s text concludes what we heard last week, let’s review a little what we
said in connection with the first four sayings:
The
scribes and the Pharisees seem to be the intended target for these
sayings, for in the verses immediately preceding the beginning of these six
teachings, the Lord tells the audience that had gathered around Him to hear the
Sermon on the Mount that, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 5: 20)
Inner
and outer holiness seem to be at the core of Jesus’ teachings that we
hear in these six sayings. For the scribes and the Pharisees, this truth lies
at the heart of what these two groups missed about being faithful to God’s
commands. The scribes and the Pharisees were good at doing the outward and
visible stuff of keeping the Law of Moses, but they didn’t allow the rituals
and the practices the Law required to seep into their hearts and minds, in
order that they could reflect outward some visible proof that there’d been an inner
change in their attitudes. No wonder that the Lord called the scribes and the
Pharisees “white-washed graves, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within
are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23: 27b)
Now,
as we look at these sayings, our first reaction might be: They are impossible
to keep. The standard that Jesus sets before us is perfection, plain and
simple.
Yes,
perfection is what the Lord has in mind. In fact, He makes that very clear as
He concludes this set of teaching by admonishing His first hearers and His
contemporary hearers: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father
is perfect.” (Matthew 5: 48)
I
don’t know about you, but as I stare at the lofty height of the standard the
Lord has set before us, I simply want to give up, right at the outset, and tell
God that I just can’t do it. I want to say, “I can’t measure up to your perfect
standard.”
Now,
it seems to me, here’s the problem: You
and I don’t live in a perfect world. We live in an everyday world, full of
challenges, full of decisions to make (all of which require us to try to bring
together the perfection that God requires with the realities of living life…sometimes,
that’s a huge challenge).
Consider
the apparent clash between the perfection Jesus outlines and the realities of
life:
As
much as I would want to turn the other check to one who is assaulting me,
(verse 39 of this morning’s reading), I know that if I do, I might get beaten
up, so perhaps it’s better for me to resist. As much as I would like to allow
someone to sue me and take away what I own, I know that – unless my adversary’s
cause is right – I’d better “lawyer up” and defend myself.
And
what would we make of the Lord’s command to “give to anyone who begs from you”?
Just this past week, my older grandson and I had a discussion about that very
issue as we drove around the city where he lives. Unfortunately, the street
corners – nearly all of them – have at least one person holding a sign which
says “Homeless”. So my seven-year-old grandson (who’s a very bright and
inquisitive person) asked about that. I said a brief prayer for God’s wisdom to
be contained in my response. Then I said something about people who are
homeless, adding some of the reasons why they might be in that condition. The
next thing I said was that we all needed to be concerned about these people,
and we need to try to help them. But then I said, if we give them money, which
is what they want in many cases, the money can be used to buy things that
aren’t good for them. So, I concluded, that’s why we have places where people
can go who don’t have a place to live, so that they can have a place to sleep
and food to eat. That, I said, was the
better way to care for them than just giving them money. Finally, I added that
we have to help keep the places open that help people without a home so they
can continue to help them.
This
brief conversation with my grandson highlights both sides of the situation we
find ourselves in: The principle the Lord lays down for us is one of compassion
for those in need, which guides our response to a thoughtful and appropriate
way of helping others.
At
this point, it’s probably good if we articulate the core principle that seems
to lie at the foundation of Jesus’ teachings we hear in these six sayings:
The principles of
the kingdom of heaven remain and are enduring.
The
principles of Jesus’ teachings are to inform our response to the temporal
conditions that life puts before us. Going back to the issue of homelessness,
our response cannot be “Oh, those poor souls, those unfortunate people who’ve
made a mess of their lives…they need to get back on their own two feet and be
successful, get a job, and live a productive life.”
Such
a response would be very much in keeping with the approach the scribes and the
Pharisees took, for they believed that, if a person was poor, or sickly, or in
some awful condition, their condition was directly due to some major sin that
had caused God to turn His back on them. The response to such people was to shun
and avoid them at all costs. So it is that they accused Jesus, time and again,
of hanging around with the notorious sinners: the tax collectors, the
prostitutes and others. To the Pharisees’ way of thinking, if Jesus is keeping
such company, then He, too, must be a sinner.
The
attitudes and the behaviors of the scribes and the Pharisees lead us to the
conclusion that they’d either forgotten or had ignored some of the requirements
of the Mosaic Law. Consider some of those we hear this morning from our reading
from Leviticus: Here in the Law is a concern for the plight of the poor, for
Moses tells the people that God requires them not to glean their fields to the
very edges of the fields, for the gleanings are to be there for the poor and
the alien (yes, even the alien!) who is in their midst to gather. The same was
to be true of the vineyards, as well. (Leviticus 19: 9, 10)
God’s
people are required to keep their eyes on God, first of all, and on other human
beings, second of all. This bifurcated vision never goes away. We cannot live
in a world that’s all-about-us. (I cannot resist saying that the self-centered
attitudes of many in our society today presents us with one of the major
challenges of our time.) We are to be connected to God, and connected to
others. That God-connection informs who we are and whose we are. Our
God-connection requires us to believe and to act in such a way that we reflect
God’s perfection in meeting the day-to-day challenges that life brings our way.
In so doing, we will do our part to bring the kingdom of heaven into being,
until that day when the kingdom comes in all its fullness and in all its
perfection. As we work toward that goal, working under God’s guidance and
inspiration, we recognize that full perfection hasn’t come yet, but by taking
the small steps that God requires, we are assisting God in implementing the
perfection that belongs to God alone.
