Matthew 5:38-48
38 "You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41 and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42 Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
… The Gospel of the Lord...
May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be ever pleasing to you o Lord, our Rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Do you sometimes find that a book you are reading speaks so directly into your experience that you have to wonder if it wasn’t written just for you in that time and space...
It happened this week...
William Willomon, the current Methodist Bishop of Alabama has a book called “Peculiar Speech: Preaching to the baptized. And he writes:
“Unable to preach Christ and him Crucified, we preach humanity and it improved.”
This is a critique that William Willimon has of his church and the wider protestant church would do well to listen to this critique.
“Unable to preach Christ and him Crucified, we preach humanity and it improved.”
And if I was going to try to preach humanity improved, I think I would speak with the Leviticus text... it seems to give some straight forward directions on a good moral law. It obsesses with individual self-righteousness and shows the path on how to be right with neighbor and with God. How to live in community.
Admittedly it has some strange laws like “don’t mix fabrics” and “don’t eat shell fish” but... on the whole... as a system of morality and righteousness is it a lot more straight forward than the message that Jesus is bringing us today.
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Well... for these past four weeks as we have gone deeper into the Sermon on the mount - Jesus has taken us on quite a ride.
First Jesus is blessing the poor and destitute... where we see a curse, Jesus is showing and giving blessing. Where we thought God was not turns out to the be the very place God is most present.
Then Jesus declares us Salt and light. The flavour for the world... a light that shows the nature of God and God’s work for the world.
Then it got awkward... law after law is being shown to be so much more than simple prohibition... but in fact Jesus takes the law further to be much more than external acts... but in fact speaks deeply into our relationship with God. Rules are shown to be impossible to follow.
And today Jesus continues down the path that shows the futility of self-righteousness... and reveals the nature of God.
It’s hard teaching that does not fit well with modern local and global politics.
How could revolution occur without some killing? Could the people of Egypt have pushed out a dictator with this philosophy of turning the other cheek? Should Libyan protesters just stand and be shot? How can anyone escape a bad relationship if if their operative theology is to sit and take the abuse? What sort of abuse would we experience as a community if people realized that we never said no to a loan, always went the extra mile, and never demanded repayment? We would be the doormat of the world. We would be open to abuse and basically we would be entering into slavery.
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Well...
Our Church... ELCIC is in the news this week. We are one of the primary church organizations that support an aid organization called KAIROS. CLWR is our Lutheran aid agency, and KAIROS is the one that we work through as an ecumenical aid agency. Catholics, Presbyterians, Anglicans, United etc...
Just over a year ago CIDA - the Canadian International Develop Agency - severed a 32 year long relationship between KAIROS and the Federal Government by surprisingly denying KAIROS 7 million dollars - crippling the efforts of the programs that KAIROS was running all over the globe.
Having built a reputation for great work internationally and having started many excellent partnerships and development programs with long term goals, the surprising funding cut came as a great surprise to all.
The official reason at that time was a vaguely worded letter and some public insinuation that KAIROS was ineffective and anti-semetic and that the Federal Government was no longer going to fund them for these reasons.
And take notice Grace Lutheran Church... when someone calls you ineffective and Anti-semetic you need to respond... the Lutheran relationship with our Jewish Brothers and sisters is strained enough through our past... and our current position is decidedly not anti-semetic. This is a lie. Take and eye for an eye.
Further ro KAIROS problem, with so many aid agencies under tight scrutiny for mismanaging or stealing funds, the negative press of this event cannot be under estimated.
The reputation of KAIROS has been smeared... and by association... so have we.
This week it is big news because there is some questions around the way that the money was denied.
And so let us turn to our passage for insight...
Turn the other cheek.
Do no resist the evil doer.
If forced to go one mile, go two.
Give to all who beg.
Lend to all with no thought of return.
Pray for those who persecute you.
Be perfect. Just like God is perfect.
Having watched the debate in the House of Commons this week... I did not once hear these Jesus ethics discussed... I heard a call for people to be fired... a call for retribution... a call for justice.
In fact... anyone here who subscribes to the synod of Alberta news list - an online list serve that announces breaking news in the synod would have received many emails this week calling us to action... calling us to write our MP’s and condemn the way that this funding application was handled - and to defend ourselves and our organization Kairos. We were called upon to encourage the opposition to demand that answers be given. We were called upon to write to the Prime Minister and out MP’s and demand that the funding should be restored... and that further money given to Kairos for the loss of reputation. Justice must be served!
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So what can we do? How do we take these words of Jesus seriously when the call to action is all around us?
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“Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”
Jesus shows that the old law didn’t go far enough. Jesus gives a law that is impossible for us and... in the end... we need to realize that this passage isn’t directly about us.
The old law didn’t work, and no moral system will work... we do not preach humanity and it improved.
Instead... Jesus gives us a foreshadowing of his ministry.
Jesus will turn the other cheek. And be beaten.
Jesus cloak will be taken.
Jesus will walk all the way to the cross.
Jesus will love his enemies and pray for those who persecute him.
It’s not about us or humanity improved.
It’s about God’s system to bring wholeness and hope to all of us who are dying under a system that can only produce guilt and shame and retribution.
It’s about God coming to us breaking the cycle of retribution and death.
It’s about a God that gives and gives and then gives some more.
And all this only makes sense in the context of Jesus who opened up new life by travelling the path of death. And in defeating death, Jesus hands us a new way to live.
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We don’t know what the best response to poverty and aid agencies and supporting the poor and working with government funds.
I don’t know what will happen to KAIROS and the CIDA funding.
I don’t know what to tell the people in foreign countries who suffered this last year due to a sudden cut in funding. Humanity has yet to make a system that does not end with a few wealthy and many many poor.
But I do know that God has called together this church to be a light to the world. To flavour the decisions made in this town... in our province... in our country and our world. I know that we are called to be a light to the nations and bring good news and blessing to the poor. And I know we do this not because of our self-righteous actions or perfect ways of being.
God continues to enter into our broken world and shatter systems of injustice and bring healing and wholeness. God continues to find new life in death - within our best efforts and sometimes despite our best efforts.
God finds redemption and blessing amongst the cursed. And much of this is done through and with the church.
God calls us together under Christ, the crucified one, to become this body, this church, this community... Made perfect by Christ to bring light to the world.
Amen.
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