Be Perfect? Right. Preached at the Wollaston Congregational Church On February 19th, 2017 Scripture: Matthew 5:38-48 We have been reading from the Sermon on the Mount for the past several weeks. This is a lengthy section of Matthew’s gospel, in which Jesus teaches his disciples and the crowds who have gathered around on a hillside. It is the core of Jesus teaching, interpreting and building on the Jewish law of his religious tradition. The Sermon on the Mount is the lens through which many Christian theologians interpret all other biblical scripture. The passage we read this morning breaks down into three sections… The first part has three well known sayings of Jesus. They could be thought of as catch-phrases. They’re a little weird, definitely Jesus-y. “Turn the other cheek … give your cloak as well as your coat … go the extra mile” The second section, as I see it, is the command “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” This must be among the most widely known verses in the Bible. It doesn’t come up much in popular lists of inspirational verses. That probably does not surprise you. This command is challenging to say the least, and offensive for many. How is that even possible – to love an enemy? Am I supposed to love the student who bullied my child in middle school? Am I supposed to love the one who assaulted my daughter in college? Am I supposed to love the dealer who sold my beloved the fatal dose? Or the gang member whose stray bullet killed my grandchild? Or the drunk driver that crashed into the car of my now disabled sister? How can Jesus possibly ask this of us? Then, in the final section, Jesus rounds the passage off with a lesser-known instruction: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” So, just in case turning the other cheek, loving you enemy, and praying for your persecutors was too easy, here is a command to be perfect. Right. There’s a lot to unpack. I had thought that I would pick just one of these sections as the theme for the sermon today. I thought I’d need to narrow down the scope. Yet as time went on, I realized that we need the first section, the Jesus-y catch phrases, to understand the call to love enemies. And to understand any of it, I think we need to have some understanding of who Jesus is, too. We need to understand what Jesus’ life tells us about what it means to be perfect, as the heavenly Father is perfect. So … let’s begin with those catch phrases. As we will see, they are not so much catch phrases as strategies. As always, we begin with context. Because Jesus is teaching his disciples in the very specific context of 1st century Palestine and Roman occupation. The first strategy is: “if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” This is best illustrated by acting out the scene. Is anyone willing to volunteer? <Name>, how am I going to strike you on the right cheek, (I can’t use my left hand, that’s reserved for something else)? If I was in a fist fight with you, my punch would land on your right cheek. It is only by means of a backhanded slap that I would hit your left cheek. In Jesus’ culture, a back handed slap is a rebuke or an insult. It is the way a master would slap and slave, or the way a husband would beat a wife. So, how do you respond? You could cower, shamed and submissive. Or you could stand your ground. Which would take the most courage? Turn your cheek <Name>, now what am I going to do? Do I get embroiled in an undignified fist fight, or walk away acknowledging your dignity? Now the next strategy: “if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well.” I won’t ask anyone to act this one out, because it involves removing your only two garments: your cloak and your undergarment. If you are indebted to me I have a right to take your cloak as collateral. But if it is your only means of keeping warm, I should return it to you for the nighttime. Let’s imagine I am wealthy in a position to make you a loan. Like before, I’m in a position of power and respect. Perhaps I’m known for giving a payday loans. You must be poor, if your cloak is your only option for collateral. I demand it of you, though, and so instead of refusing, you insist of giving me both your garments. You strip naked for all to see. In Jesus’ time the shame was on the ones who saw nakedness, not on the naked one. And so here the one who is exposed, is the one who would strip the poor naked simply to become richer. And then the final strategy: “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” At the time of Jesus, Rome did not have sufficient “troops on the ground”, so local civilians could be pressed into service. One rule was that a soldier could recruit a man on the street to carry his pack for him for one mile. This was done frequently, and the rule was frequently violated, so that people were forced to carry loads much further. But, the rule about only one mile is widely known among the military. For the civilian to cheerfully offer to carry the pack an extra distance throws the soldier off guard. Is it an insult to his strength or manhood? Is the civilian being kind? Is he trying to get the soldier into trouble? The civilian has no choice but to carry the pack the first mile, offering to go the second mile is his own choice. This puts him in a position of power.[1] So, in these strategies, Jesus seems to be saying that the disciples are not supposed to take abuse lying down. They are not supposed to experience injustice without drawing attention to it. These strategies were adopted, centuries later by the non-violent resistance movements of Monhandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. I think of the carefully rehearsed lunch counter sit-ins of the civil rights era as perfect examples. These strategies are not passive, and they do not accept violence and abuse as normal. They are techniques that hold up a mirror for the “evildoer.” They show that individual, or that system, what their actions look through the eyes of God. Loving your enemy might well mean turning the cheek, offering the coat, going the extra mile. But the objective is always justice, especially for those who have less power in the equation. It isn’t loving, in God’s eyes, to enable someone commit any kind of violence. And it is certainly not loving, in God’s eyes, to enable someone to abuse you, as a child of God. When we come to the question of loving our enemy, we might well ask the question “what does that look like?” And this is where Jesus comes in. Because Jesus is what that looks like. Jesus teaches on the mountain, with stories and with examples, but he also teaches by using the actions of his life. As his ministry goes on, Jesus moves steadily toward Jerusalem. He knows that this is a dangerous destination, especially as he preaches the strategies of nonviolent resistance and radical love of enemies. And so, in the end, he is arrested, he is stripped. He is slapped. And as the soldiers take him to be crucified, they press Simon of Cyrene into service, to carry Jesus’ cross to the site. This is what love looks like. This is what being perfect looks like. There are not many people who have had the courage to enact this kind of love, but there are some. These people, of course, have not been perfect in every way. I don’t think that is what Jesus saying here. But, they have followed the path of love, love for enemies and persecutors. One example that comes to mind is that of Janet Connors from Dorchester, MA. In 2001 Janet’s son, Joel, was stabbed to death, and two young men went to prison for the crime. But Janet did not let depression and vengeance into her life. Instead she began a victim-offender dialogue through the prison system. She began writing to and visiting her son’s murderer, and eventually when young man was released from prison, she and he visited Joel’s grave together. Today, Janet Connors teaches public school students about “restorative justice.” [2] I could not imagine how I would respond if such a crime was committed against one of my family members. I hope and pray that none of us find ourselves in that same situation. But what Janet did provides a wonderful example of what it means to resist evil. She resisted evil, by adopting love, even love for the ones who had killed her son. The resistance of evil means we do not take injustice lying down. We do not apologize for the space we occupy. We do not stand idly by. Instead of returning violence with violence, even on our own selves, we respond with love. We hold abusers accountable. Where have you seen evil? Where have you seen abuse? Where have you seen violence? Are you ready to hold up the mirror of Jesus’ righteousness in those situations? Are you ready to adopt strategies of non-violent resistance? Are you ready to mirror God’s love in the world today? These are challenging words for challenging times. Let’s pray that our God, who loves us just the way we are, and yet loves us too much to let us stay that way, will give us the courage we need in these times. Because, as Paul says in the letter to the Corinthians, we belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Amen. [1] Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination, Fortress Press, Minneapolis MN, 1992, 175-189 [2] http://www.humanmedia.org/catalog/program.php?products_id=314, access 2/18/17
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