Matthew
5:21-37
Brothers
and Sisters
I am not a subscriber to the 19th
century addition to Christian piety often referred to as “rapture theology,”
but I do feel somewhat left behind on this particular Sunday, in this
particular congregation. The last count
I heard was thirty-two – thirty-two of our beloved sisters are spending the
weekend at Lutheridge for the “Wild Women Weekend.” This is a good thing, this is a great thing,
this is a thing to celebrate. But I do
sort of feel this morning as if the rest of us were simply left behind.
Every group is going to have sub-groups
and small groups. One of the challenges
is for each of those sub-groups to build bonds between its members without
diminishing the impact each of those members has on the whole group. I do not worry that this is happening as a
result of “Wild Women Weekend.” In fact,
I am taking advantage of it in order to encourage all of us to think about what
it means to belong, and to pause for a few moments to think about our status as
one involved and engaged in such a way as to affect the whole.
Let me make it absolutely clear
where all of this is going. Both the
reading from Deuteronomy 30 and this passage from Matthew 5 invite us into a
relationship with God. That relationship
with God finds expression and promise in the relationships we form with the
others invited into God’s family.
“You have heard it said…” Jesus
says. “But I say to you…” And over and over and over Jesus illustrates
how the way we think of one another exposes the path we prefer to follow. To use Deuteronomy’s language, will we choose
life and prosperity or will we follow the path which leads to death and
adversity?
Which path have we chosen in the
past? Which will we choose this
day? Are we aware of the significance of
the choices we are making?
I always look back at old sermons,
and sometimes I find something there worthy of using again. That was not the case this week. This is one of the texts which I tend to talk
around – particularly those verses regarding adultery and divorce and
remarriage. Not that it is any more
comforting to consider the red-hot anger which too often courses through our
veins. Or swearing. I realized a tendency to become fixated on
the trees rather than seeing the forest.
It is way too tempting to look at each of the examples Jesus uses and
not realize the point he is trying to make.
The examples Jesus uses speak of
what happens when we fail to remember the relationship into which we have been
invited. We must rush to come to terms
with an accuser only when we have allowed that person to slip out of the grasp
of our brotherly love. We will not look
at another lustfully – reducing them to an object for our enjoyment – when we
see them first and foremost as a sister.
There is a clear choice to be made
here. And that choice is whether we will
see others the way that Jesus sees them.
It is life or death, prosperity or adversity – depending on the choice
that we make.
Open your bibles again to Matthew
5. Actually, we might need to start a
bit earlier. Look at the closing verses
of Chapter 4. Chapter 4 ends with the
acknowledgement that Jesus is beginning to attract a crowd. The crowd is quite the collection of
persons. Matthew 4:24 tells us they are
bringing to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases
and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics.
Not only are they diverse in their
physical capacities, they are also from all sorts of odd places. Who can read Matthew 4:25 for us? “And great crowds followed him form
Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” How well do you know your geography?
All of that is happening in Chapter
4. Then we turn the page and in Chapter
5 we find Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
Often called a complete summation of everything Jesus will teach; this
is Jesus lying out his hopes as well as his expectations. The Sermon on the Mount (sometimes chopped
into more reasonable parts) is the most widely preached sermon ever
recorded. Shouted it from the towers of
the cathedrals and proclaimed it in every valley. Yet, Jesus isn’t delivering a sermon to the crowds
when he speaks these words for the first time.
Matthew 5:1 makes it clear that when the crowd begins to press upon him,
Jesus retreats up the mountain. He has a
seat. When his disciples gather, he
begins to speak to them. The sermon on
the mount may have become a proclamation of what it is we believe and teach but
it gets it’s start in Jesus telling his disciples that there is a choice being
set before them. Choose life and
prosperity, or death and adversity.
“You have heard that it was said” do this
and you will be adhering to the law. “But
I say to you” that there is no need for rules and regulations when you
remember that these are not adversaries or enemies or competitors. They are your brothers and sisters. See them as a child of God and allow them to
treat you as a child of that same heavenly Father.
Four times – four times – in those
opening verses Jesus reminds us of our relationship. Look at verse 22. Of whom is Jesus speaking? Brother/sister. There it is again, for a second time in Verse
22 – Brother and sister. When we get to
the altar and remember someone has something against us – we are also to
remember that person is what? A brother;
a sister.
There are many ways in which we can
harm another or ways in which they might bring harm to us. But this would never happen were we to
remember or be reminded that they are in fact our brother, our sister.
Let me interject here an
acknowledgement of reality. Not every
brother/sister relationship meets the ideals hinted in the name. There are stresses and strains in many if not
most of our brother and sister relationships.
Where it is true that irritations exist between those who share DNA
markers, surely there is an even greater desire to make sure that such
irritations do not make it into the family which shares the blood of Jesus.
Church is not a dispensary where we
come to get a dose of that which is going to ward off death and evil. Church is the place we gather in order to
move more deeply into the relationship which Christ has established for us. Even the Sermon on the Mount is less about
knowing what is required of us and more of an exercise in what it means to live
in the new relationship to which Jesus has called us.
There are great crowds who will be
attracted to Jesus’ words and impressed by his powers. The transformation comes when we begin to
understand ourselves as part of new family with a new identity. I was born into a family that includes
Carolyn and David. I have chosen to make
my home with Keith and Elaine and Gina.
Life and prosperity come when we
choose to live as the son/daughter of God.
Death and adversity fade when we find our trust in those who journey to
Jerusalem.
Amen.
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