Advent Lutheran Church

"Dear Pastors: Tell Us the Truth (7th Sunday after Epiphany)"

            This past week, a pastor friend of mine posted a link on her Facebook page of Rachel Held Evans’ Blog titled, “Dear Pastors – Tell Us the Truth.” It was rather disturbing to me to read all the posts about pastors who were afraid to be authentic, to be honest about who they are and what they believe.  They all seemed to be severely limited by others’ expectations of them, living in fear of failure, retribution, loss of members, friends or status.  They were being held captive when all their folks really wanted was honesty about their pastors, the Bible and their own lives.  And at that point, I have to say “thank you” that Pastor Roger and I have never felt that we could not be honest with you, or live our lives as authentically as we can.

            So, today, I’ll tell you a truth:  Being a Christian is not easy. These last weeks in Epiphany, we are hearing a hard-hitting Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teaching on the “Kingdom of God” and “righteousness.” Now you may not have recognized it as “hard-hitting” because the very beginning of this sermon is the Beatitudes, those lovely “blessed are you” passages that Pastor Cynthia reminded us are part of a wonderful vision of God’s desire for the world. But then Roger and I talked about Salt and Light and how we already ARE what God needs to carry out and complete the Kingdom Vision.  Then Roger focused our human emotions and how we practice righteousness through our faithfulness  and today, I’m going to build on that and go a bit further to talk more about righteousness as a process of “setting right.”

            The common thread is that for the Kingdom of God to be fulfilled, God’s people must embrace who God has made them, and then be part of setting things right: God’s Work. Our Hands.  That is the easy truth – the hard truth is that righteousness, as in “setting things right” cannot be done in isolation.  It isn’t good enough to have a wonderful relationship between you and God.  It isn’t ok to be happy with you and your sweet Jesus.  It isn’t helping the kingdom come to be focused on your own faith journey and fulfillment.  Our faithfulness, our discipleship, is an ongoing recognition that we cannot do this work by ourselves, on our own, and that we only truly catch the vision of the Kingdom of God as we become more and more part of God’s community and less and less a rugged individual.  That’s what Jesus was teaching; that’s what Jesus was living.

            So let’s look more closely at Jesus while he interprets the Law of Moses.  His audience on the hillside of Galilee would have heard echoes of the Ten Commandments, and some of today’s Old Testament lesson from Leviticus.  Rules were given while God formed a people. Rules exist so that people who wander too far off the mark, can be brought back in to live together in community. Over the years, as religion had become institutionalized, people had adapted the rules more and more as individual requirements, rather than marks of the People of God.  “You have heard that it as said, but I say…” Jesus was not RELAXING the former Laws that ordered the people’s lives together. Jesus was suggesting that Kingdom folk have even HIGHER standards!

            Let me give you a real-life example.  Many of you know that I am a Big 12 basketball fan. After the recent “Big Monday” game between KU and K State in which one young man distinguished himself on the court by scoring 38 points in the game, KU Coach Bill Self spoke about how impressed he was that K State’s Jacob Pullen did not take the last shot (which would have broken both his personal and the school records at 40 points in a game. But Pullen took the ball and instead of shooting for his own glory, he passed it off to a teammate. “That’s class,” said Self.  Just so, Jesus is challenging his followers to meet greater expectations.

            “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” With a majority of humanity being right handed, the only way you could be slapped on the right cheek is if the person facing you had given you a slap with the back of their hand. Jesus is saying that “turning the other cheek” means you should regain your footing and stand with dignity in front of your assailant, leaving your other cheek vulnerable, and let the community see.

            “If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well”  In ancient times, your coat was the basic body garment.  The cloak was the outer wear used for protection against the elements and for cover when sleeping.  A cloak was so valuable that it could be used as collateral in these proceedings, but it would be returned to the owner each night so that he would have a bed, and then brought back to the court in the morning.  Therefore, if someone sues for your coat and you give up your cloak as well – well, that pretty much leaves you naked, and the community will see. And as we’ve watched in the Middle East in the past few weeks, groups of people in the square, communities of people of one mind - the power of the people can be a force to be reckoned with.

            “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Yeah, right. Is Jesus really saying that we have a chance at living a perfectly moral life, with no misbehaviors and not mistakes?  No.  But Jesus wants the "default setting" of our hearts to be shalom — which is the Hebrew word for peace, for wholeness, for perfection - for us and for others.  Some might call that “class” others might call it “neighbor,” some might call it the body of Christ in the faith community.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer once called followers of Jesus "surprising people." They are the people who pay back debts in even measure, who do not allow another’s strike to start a war, who give not only what is needed but more and who go the extra mile.  They are the people who give to those who do not have, and share with joy.

            Jesus is suggesting that we, the people of the Kingdom of God are DIFFERENT – we think differently, we act differently.  We are, (as Paul says in Corinthians) God’s temple. WE are the holy place where God’s Spirit dwells.  Let me say that again, slowly.  YOU are the holy place where God’s Spirit dwells.  Therefore, without you, without this community, God is homeless.  Wow.

            Living where God dwells and setting things right is hard, I won’t lie to you.  And as C.S. Lewis said, “everyone agrees that loving enemies and forgiving people are great ideas, until they are confronted with an actual enemy or a real-life hurt.”  We get wounded so badly we can only love from a distance.  We think we've finally forgiven, then a word or an action drags us back to square one again. We are NOT perfect – or whole or complete without God and God’s people.

We are self-centered, selfish and we never have enough.

            But Jesus is trying to model a certain kind of heart:  one that recognizes, “God makes the sun rise on good and the evil; and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Common Grace for all – with talents and love, success and health, sun and rain and moon and stars to all kinds of folks – which is Good News for us who wake up some days as saints, and some days as sinners.  We poor followers of Jesus and would-be members of the Kingdom of God’s vision - who need constant reminding that even when the world tells you something completely different about what’s important, “God loves you no matter what.”  That is the truth, and the truth will make you free.  Amen.