A sermon for the seventh Sunday of Epiphany, February 20, 2011, given at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH.
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Psalm 119:33-40
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48
In Leviticus 19:2 we read God telling Moses: “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”
There is a parallel to this in today’s gospel reading when Jesus tells his disciples: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
When I think of perfect, I think of cleanliness, tidiness, a sort of obsessive compulsive attention to details. I find this drive to perfection in myself and try to tell myself to get over it. It causes anxiety, guilt, frustration, and -- sometimes -- a sort of despair.
I think this is what a lot of us hear when we hear someone say “perfection”.
This is not the perfection that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5:48.
The word Jesus uses here is the Greek word τέλειός (teleios -- pronounced tell--ay--oss).
This word is translated perfect probably out of tradition. But it does not mean some saintly ethical ideal of perfection. It should be heard as:
Be ye therefore complete, even as your Father which is in heaven is complete.
Be ye therefore mature, even as your Father which is in heaven is mature.
Be ye therefore whole, even as your Father which is in heaven is whole.
The root of our English word holy is the concept of wholeness, completion, and health.
And so we can see that Jesus is not saying anything new, but what was said to the people of Israel by God in Leviticus 19: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
To become τέλειός, to become whole, to become mature is to become by the grace of God, all that we’ve been designed and called to be.
When Jesus says this to his disciples, it is concluding his teaching on how to deal with people who are violent toward us -- verbally, emotionally, physically
Violence is in many ways the opposite of wholeness. One unifies and harmonizes different things the other tears them apart.
One seeks to build and the other to destroy.
One seeks to mend and the other to break.
And so we can see a connection between Jesus’ injunction to be τέλειός and not to return violence for violence.
He begins:
People in all times and all places have known what this phrase means. This is retribution. This is justice. This is fairness. This is the world’s normal.
The world’s normal is turned upside down.
We shouldn’t see Jesus as rejecting justice here. He is not promoting abuse or exploitation. That would be to encourage greater violence -- further division to the point that wholeness would be forgotten altogether.
Rather, Jesus is giving us a greater way to handle violence than justice. Beyond mere containment or retribution.
But what’s greater than Justice?
Mercy. Forgiveness. Love.
The world’s normal is to give a due punishment for the wrong and to balance the scales once again. The wrongdoer who is taken to court will be given a punishment that depending on the offense will land him in jail for a number of years. But jail cannot change a man’s heart. Jail will not expel the violence from inside of him. Jail will deliver justice and justice is good. But justice alone cannot restore a soul that has become violent.
I think we have to remember that Jesus desires wholeness in the world in people.
This is why he brought healing to those afflicted by disease.
This is why he brought truth to those enslaved by the lie.
Jesus desires for people to be made whole like they were designed to be.
But this wholeness cannot come by the methods that humanity has devised. It cannot come through some effort of the will to be a better person, from some self-help plan that helps us to think better of ourselves, or through striving after material success -- wealth and power and the American dream.
Wholeness comes through forgiveness and forgiveness comes from God.
When Jesus tells us to love our enemies he is telling us to imitate the mercy of God who faithfully reaches out with grace to those who have for so many years and generations and ages have rejected him.
Our ability to forgive, our ability to love the enemy, our ability to not resist the one who is evil is directly related to our recognition of our own state as forgiven before God.
God has been merciful, therefore be merciful. God has forgiven, therefore forgive.
Once we recognizes and accept God’s forgiveness, we can begin to become whole. We begin to be restored to our proper place in this world as created to Creator and as children to our heavenly Father.
We realize that the way God has made for humanity to be healed from its violent nature is the way of forgiveness.
It’s then that Jesus’ commands begin to make a lot of sense.
All throughout this Sermon, Jesus has been telling his disciples to not just take the commandments of God that they’ve always heard at face value but to go to the root of their meaning and significance and interpret them in light of the character of God as just, merciful, and humble.
You have heard it said... But I tell you...
Jesus is getting at the root of the law -- the spirit behind the letter, the attitude behind the action.
And at the core is love.
Love which desires to make the other whole not just to bring them to justice.
Love turns the other cheek. Again this is not convenient. Love does not seek personal convenience or pragmatic efficiency. Love seeks health for the one loved.
So we can in some ways interpret Jesus’ command to love our enemy as a command to see our enemy for who he really is. Someone who is broken, consumed with violence, in need of the mercy of God by which we are restored, by which we are healed from our violent, selfish ways.
This is the light that overcomes the darkness. And we are to be lights to the world.
But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:
Non-resistance refuses to play the game that a violent individual invites it to. It hears the invitation to a heroic struggle for greatness -- a challenge to not be seen as weak -- and it turns it down.
Why? Because more than greatness, more than power, more than the appearance of strength the Christian loves mercy!
The Christian is the one who hungers and thirsts for wholeness in themselves, in the creation and in their neighbor.
The Christian recognizes that the violent one has not known the forgiveness of God, the generosity of God’s love and still lives in the porcupine defense of their accumulated earthly wounds -- rather than health, they’ve sought to nurse the wounds of insult and hatred and violence and consumed by their own hurt, in anger they pass it on to others.
The Christian has been given the clarity of vision to see that the violent do not need violence, the violent need love.
This is the maturity that Christ has called us to. This is the τέλειός that Christ has called us to. This is the heart of God for humanity.
Let us consider our calling, let us consider our name. We are Christians. Named after the one who, in the midst of suffering evil from the ones he came to save, yelled “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Let us not “be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
Amen.
There is a parallel to this in today’s gospel reading when Jesus tells his disciples: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
When I think of perfect, I think of cleanliness, tidiness, a sort of obsessive compulsive attention to details. I find this drive to perfection in myself and try to tell myself to get over it. It causes anxiety, guilt, frustration, and -- sometimes -- a sort of despair.
I think this is what a lot of us hear when we hear someone say “perfection”.
This is not the perfection that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5:48.
The word Jesus uses here is the Greek word τέλειός (teleios -- pronounced tell--ay--oss).
This word is translated perfect probably out of tradition. But it does not mean some saintly ethical ideal of perfection. It should be heard as:
Be ye therefore complete, even as your Father which is in heaven is complete.
Be ye therefore mature, even as your Father which is in heaven is mature.
Be ye therefore whole, even as your Father which is in heaven is whole.
The root of our English word holy is the concept of wholeness, completion, and health.
And so we can see that Jesus is not saying anything new, but what was said to the people of Israel by God in Leviticus 19: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
To become τέλειός, to become whole, to become mature is to become by the grace of God, all that we’ve been designed and called to be.
When Jesus says this to his disciples, it is concluding his teaching on how to deal with people who are violent toward us -- verbally, emotionally, physically
Violence is in many ways the opposite of wholeness. One unifies and harmonizes different things the other tears them apart.
One seeks to build and the other to destroy.
One seeks to mend and the other to break.
And so we can see a connection between Jesus’ injunction to be τέλειός and not to return violence for violence.
He begins:
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
People in all times and all places have known what this phrase means. This is retribution. This is justice. This is fairness. This is the world’s normal.
But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.
The world’s normal is turned upside down.
We shouldn’t see Jesus as rejecting justice here. He is not promoting abuse or exploitation. That would be to encourage greater violence -- further division to the point that wholeness would be forgotten altogether.
Rather, Jesus is giving us a greater way to handle violence than justice. Beyond mere containment or retribution.
But what’s greater than Justice?
Mercy. Forgiveness. Love.
The world’s normal is to give a due punishment for the wrong and to balance the scales once again. The wrongdoer who is taken to court will be given a punishment that depending on the offense will land him in jail for a number of years. But jail cannot change a man’s heart. Jail will not expel the violence from inside of him. Jail will deliver justice and justice is good. But justice alone cannot restore a soul that has become violent.
I think we have to remember that Jesus desires wholeness in the world in people.
This is why he brought healing to those afflicted by disease.
This is why he brought truth to those enslaved by the lie.
Jesus desires for people to be made whole like they were designed to be.
But this wholeness cannot come by the methods that humanity has devised. It cannot come through some effort of the will to be a better person, from some self-help plan that helps us to think better of ourselves, or through striving after material success -- wealth and power and the American dream.
Wholeness comes through forgiveness and forgiveness comes from God.
When Jesus tells us to love our enemies he is telling us to imitate the mercy of God who faithfully reaches out with grace to those who have for so many years and generations and ages have rejected him.
Our ability to forgive, our ability to love the enemy, our ability to not resist the one who is evil is directly related to our recognition of our own state as forgiven before God.
God has been merciful, therefore be merciful. God has forgiven, therefore forgive.
Once we recognizes and accept God’s forgiveness, we can begin to become whole. We begin to be restored to our proper place in this world as created to Creator and as children to our heavenly Father.
We realize that the way God has made for humanity to be healed from its violent nature is the way of forgiveness.
It’s then that Jesus’ commands begin to make a lot of sense.
All throughout this Sermon, Jesus has been telling his disciples to not just take the commandments of God that they’ve always heard at face value but to go to the root of their meaning and significance and interpret them in light of the character of God as just, merciful, and humble.
You have heard it said... But I tell you...
Jesus is getting at the root of the law -- the spirit behind the letter, the attitude behind the action.
And at the core is love.
Love which desires to make the other whole not just to bring them to justice.
Love turns the other cheek. Again this is not convenient. Love does not seek personal convenience or pragmatic efficiency. Love seeks health for the one loved.
So we can in some ways interpret Jesus’ command to love our enemy as a command to see our enemy for who he really is. Someone who is broken, consumed with violence, in need of the mercy of God by which we are restored, by which we are healed from our violent, selfish ways.
This is the light that overcomes the darkness. And we are to be lights to the world.
But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes:
The only way to overcome evil is to let it run itself to a standstill because it does not find the resistance it is looking for. Resistance merely creates further evil and adds fuel to the flames. But when evil meets no opposition and encounters no obstacle but only patient endurance, its sting is drawn, and at last it meets an opponent which is more than its match. Of course this can only happen when the last ounce of resistance is abandoned, and the renunciation of revenge is complete. Then evil cannot find its mark, it can breed no further evil, and is left barren.
Non-resistance refuses to play the game that a violent individual invites it to. It hears the invitation to a heroic struggle for greatness -- a challenge to not be seen as weak -- and it turns it down.
Why? Because more than greatness, more than power, more than the appearance of strength the Christian loves mercy!
The Christian is the one who hungers and thirsts for wholeness in themselves, in the creation and in their neighbor.
The Christian recognizes that the violent one has not known the forgiveness of God, the generosity of God’s love and still lives in the porcupine defense of their accumulated earthly wounds -- rather than health, they’ve sought to nurse the wounds of insult and hatred and violence and consumed by their own hurt, in anger they pass it on to others.
The Christian has been given the clarity of vision to see that the violent do not need violence, the violent need love.
This is the maturity that Christ has called us to. This is the τέλειός that Christ has called us to. This is the heart of God for humanity.
Let us consider our calling, let us consider our name. We are Christians. Named after the one who, in the midst of suffering evil from the ones he came to save, yelled “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Let us not “be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
Amen.
Great sermon notes once again! Something that popped into my head while reading; could non-resistance itself be considered a form of resistance? Also, what instances warrant a stronger resistance (I'm thinking of Jesus in the temple with the money changers)? As Christians when should we turn the other cheek and when should we fight for our God. In short, when are we called to be a Daniel, patiently waiting and trusting the Lord in the lion's den and when are we called to be a David, standing up to those who defy the armies of the living God? Just some thoughts to consider.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated the comments about "perfection". God surely wants us to be whole, complete - all that He created us to be. And I thank Him for the grace to do so.
ReplyDeleteRemember the time we taped a drumstick to your cast? That was fun
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Dan. Non-resistance is definitely a form of resistance in its own right, resistance of resistance -- yikes. I prefer to think of peacemaking as the actual activity -- nonresistance is a means of peacemaking, refusing to participate in violent struggles. But the refusal to participate should not be the end. Peacemaking, then, will include truthful speech and action which may at times turn tables, I think (I'm thinking of Martin Luther and MLK Jr.). Bold prophetic speech concerning the injustice and lies of the present culture will often be a sort of table turning event. But it will never be done out of revenge. Vengeance is God's. All retribution is to be left to Christ's judgment. And the call to nonresistance should not be abstracted from the call of the Christian to recognize God's forgiveness and love and to be that love to the other at the expense of our own self-interest.
ReplyDeleteI think we are always to be a Daniel AND a David. Daniel and David both believed that God would fight for them. So does the Christian. God's judgment will avenge, so the Christian leaves present injustices in his hands, not taking up arms. John Howard Yoder shows the continuity of this idea of "God will fight for us" through the Old and New Testaments in his book, The Politics of Jesus. I very strongly recommend it.
The pacifism inherent in the above remarks is a very difficult life. But the more I read, the more I'm convinced that this is the life that Christ has called his church to.
Thanks for the thoughts, Dan!
I do remember taping a drumstick to my cast. No infirmity has the right to stop rock and roll.
ReplyDelete45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
ReplyDeleteClearly David believed that the LORD fought for him, not the other way around. Over and over in the Old Testament, you see that when Israel went to war in their own strength or in their own way, they failed. But when they followed God's command, even with weakness (tiny, whittled down army--Gideon, no weapons at all--Joshua at Jericho) He gave the victory.
Great stuff. In all these things the most important thing is to be seeking God first and being sensitive to how He wants to use us. The battle is always the Lord's and we are to be continually seeking what our role is. I am in complete agreement that the Old and New Testament show a people God fights for, my concern is when we become so focused on pacifism that we are unwilling to consider that God might want us to be used like David, Gideon, or Joshua. If we make pacifism our god rather than Yahweh, then we have failed just as mightily as if we were to try to fight a war that God is not fighting through us.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right, Dan. Our temptation is always to try to make a code of law to follow that we can then try to master, "be perfect" and consequently judge others by our own attainment. That's not the purpose of Christ at all. Christ seeks to establish a kingdom community, where violence in ourselves and the neighbor might be healed through grace and love. Imposing system on to God's story (ie. making just war, crusade, or pacifism an overarching foundational narrative by which we interpret scripture) is always problematic. The two temptations are to reduce the gospel to pacifism and to throw out nonresistance altogether as a impossible lifestyle (an "unattainable ethical ideal"). Neither are compatible to God's story -- both are results of our own inability to exist in the complexity of life by the grace of God. Christ did not come to give us an ethical-epistemological system by which to judge others and build up our own self-concept, but to call us into a community which recognizes the love of God and seeks to be that love.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
ReplyDelete