Matthew 5:21-37
We are still with Jesus at the sermon on the mount. These sayings go on for awhile yet. It is hard to imagine people understanding all of this in one sitting. There is a lot to digest here and today isn't any different. We are lucky because we get to take this one step at a time. Today Jesus takes us further. Further than we think when we think about the law and how we are supposed to act. This is the wonder of the ten commandments though. They take us further.
They take us further because they are rooted first and foremost in God. God, the creator of all of us, every living thing: birds, animals, trees, plants, waters, us, well you get the idea. If God has created everything why wouldn't he tell us to go further. To think bigger about how we think of the commandments. When we turn them into legalistic laws, kept just as they are written, we miss the point.
Loving our neighbor demands if we know we have wronged someone we leave our gift behind at the altar and go and be reconciled first. Because a gift to God given when we are divided against the creation is not what God wants. It all has to be right, to be righteous. It's a tall order. It's a lot easier to just follow the letters written in the law then to truly embrace it in our lives. Especially right now at this time.
We have divided one another out. We are right and others are wrong and that is just the way it is. We can take the high road of rightness, right? Not by what Jesus says today. We have to be reconciled with one another. This is the point of giving peace before we receive communion. It is not to just casually throw out peace, it is to become reconciled with those in the community who we might have offended last week, to set things right. So that when we come to the table we are free to take the forgiveness Jesus gave to others.
Lets see how this story sounds. Jesus died on the cross and then came back. When he came back he made sure to punish every one who put him on that cross and killed him. Wrong, he came back to his disciples, to help them get through this horrible thing. So they might understand, love wins. Not the hatred people felt, not the powers and principalities which can exert their energy to kill us, no, love had the final say. It fooled death. Because when love is this big, this full, this encompassing it can come back from death.
It is the story we adopt. It is the story we are supposed to live in our lives. And it is the hardest things we will ever do. If we take the commandments further, we will be learning about how we are supposed to act all our lives long. It will also ask us to question ourselves and our motives for what we are doing.
Do we show in with our lives we love God? Do we keep sabbath and enjoy full, lovely rest? Do we treat our neighbors, any neighbor with love, respect, listening even when we don't fully agree, or do we think we have it right and are allowed to shove that down our neighbors throat and label them an enemy? Even labeling them an enemy of God because we know God's mind?
Living into this demands our very lives. We surrender again and again and again because we realize we don't know it all. Yet Jesus tells us, shows us what God would like us to do with one another. We have a long way to go. Yet we can try every day of our lives to come within an inch of doing what God demands of us.
We are still with Jesus at the sermon on the mount. These sayings go on for awhile yet. It is hard to imagine people understanding all of this in one sitting. There is a lot to digest here and today isn't any different. We are lucky because we get to take this one step at a time. Today Jesus takes us further. Further than we think when we think about the law and how we are supposed to act. This is the wonder of the ten commandments though. They take us further.
They take us further because they are rooted first and foremost in God. God, the creator of all of us, every living thing: birds, animals, trees, plants, waters, us, well you get the idea. If God has created everything why wouldn't he tell us to go further. To think bigger about how we think of the commandments. When we turn them into legalistic laws, kept just as they are written, we miss the point.
Loving our neighbor demands if we know we have wronged someone we leave our gift behind at the altar and go and be reconciled first. Because a gift to God given when we are divided against the creation is not what God wants. It all has to be right, to be righteous. It's a tall order. It's a lot easier to just follow the letters written in the law then to truly embrace it in our lives. Especially right now at this time.
We have divided one another out. We are right and others are wrong and that is just the way it is. We can take the high road of rightness, right? Not by what Jesus says today. We have to be reconciled with one another. This is the point of giving peace before we receive communion. It is not to just casually throw out peace, it is to become reconciled with those in the community who we might have offended last week, to set things right. So that when we come to the table we are free to take the forgiveness Jesus gave to others.
Lets see how this story sounds. Jesus died on the cross and then came back. When he came back he made sure to punish every one who put him on that cross and killed him. Wrong, he came back to his disciples, to help them get through this horrible thing. So they might understand, love wins. Not the hatred people felt, not the powers and principalities which can exert their energy to kill us, no, love had the final say. It fooled death. Because when love is this big, this full, this encompassing it can come back from death.
It is the story we adopt. It is the story we are supposed to live in our lives. And it is the hardest things we will ever do. If we take the commandments further, we will be learning about how we are supposed to act all our lives long. It will also ask us to question ourselves and our motives for what we are doing.
Do we show in with our lives we love God? Do we keep sabbath and enjoy full, lovely rest? Do we treat our neighbors, any neighbor with love, respect, listening even when we don't fully agree, or do we think we have it right and are allowed to shove that down our neighbors throat and label them an enemy? Even labeling them an enemy of God because we know God's mind?
Living into this demands our very lives. We surrender again and again and again because we realize we don't know it all. Yet Jesus tells us, shows us what God would like us to do with one another. We have a long way to go. Yet we can try every day of our lives to come within an inch of doing what God demands of us.
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