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.
