Year A

Matthew 5:20-37

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Forgiven and Loved

Who among us has not had the misfortune of wandering into the middle of a conversation and completely misunderstanding what was being said because we missed the first part of the conversation. Misunderstanding is also particularly easy when someone is speaking to those with whom they’ve shared a great deal of common experience, and then another listens in without the benefit of the mutual background. We may even have had the embarrassment of mistranslation. I had this happen to me several times while working in the Dominican Republic. Today, in the Gospel of Matthew, we are listening in as Jesus talks to his disciples about some of the more contentious issues of his day that really are still contentious issues in our world today over two thousand years later, and half a world removed. Yet, because of the difference of time and space we may find ourselves at odds with the teaching or at least in some disagreement.

Today, we continue to work our way through the Sermon on the Mount. This is the third week in a row that our Gospel has come from that sermon. In the first week, we heard the Beatitudes and I spoke in my sermon about how we could live into the spirit of the Beatitudes by living lives of simplicity, hopefulness and compassion. Last week, we learned that Jesus called Israel, along with his modern day followers, to be salt and light; salt, to flavor the world and light to point to the truth. Today, in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, we get to learn what Jesus thinks about some of the Ten Commandments. Jesus takes the commands of the law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai and contrasts them with a renewed way of looking at these laws. He delivers a new interpretation of the law to folks who had lived their whole lives under the law.

He begins the statements with “You have heard that it was said” and he concludes, with, “but I say to you”; thus, presenting the true intent of the law through the lens of his life and message. The coming of Jesus moved people beyond mere observance of the law because, following the will of God as revealed by Jesus is more complicated than simply observing a list of rules.  This new renewed way goes deep into the roots of personalities to produce a different pattern of behavior altogether. It produces an understanding of the law that would bring health and wholeness among God’s people. St. Augustine of Hippo stated in his book “Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount,” that as we consider the sermon, I think that he will find it, so far as regards the highest morals, a perfect standard of the Christian life.

Yet, at first glance, it looks as if Jesus is instituting a get-tough policy, cracking down on the moral codes tightening up the strictures. But this get-tough policy doesn’t really fit with what we know of Jesus’ life and teachings. If we could travel back we would realize that Jesus was attacking and zeroing in on the way some of the religious folk of his day had twisted the intent of the law for their own purposes, with no regard for others. They were very cleverly using the letter of the law to do whatever they wished while covering themselves to look blameless under the literal rubric of the law. So Jesus points out several glaring examples of religious loophole living and he could have said, hey look, you know you shouldn’t kill; but you think nothing of your anger. You insult one another, demean your brother and sister, you encourage anger and hold it against one another, and then you say, “I haven’t killed anyone; I’m blameless before the law.” Their response to God’s law had been distorted into “How much can I get away with?” or “What is the absolute minimum I am required to do?” And possibly not much has changed from Jesus’ day.

For those Jews who heard this message, it represented an important change and was essential to understanding Jesus’ teaching and ministry. Jesus didn’t lighten the expectations. Rather, he asks for a deeper connection between the inner attitudes and the outward actions. Whether it has to do with anger, adultery, divorce, or swearing; Jesus says, “If you want to be judged by the law then you have to remember that the law was originally given so that people could live together in love and compassion.” We still need hear the call of this radical claim of love in our lives, so that we aren’t doing things merely because they are expected or because they look good. This means looking at our priorities, the choices we make and the motivations for our actions and be willing to hold them up to the new standard of honesty, compassion and love which Jesus gave to his followers.

Yet, we live in a broken world. While we strive for Jesus’ ideal sooner or later each of us must inevitably say, “Lord, I am guilty, who can be saved? And Jesus would say to us what he said to his first disciples: “With humankind it is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” which is a shortcut for such responses as “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” or “I forgive you, neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” Coming to this altar each week, asking for forgiveness and offering one’s gift, is not a bad place to start afresh. Jesus invited all sorts and conditions of people to his table and it served to encourage those at the table to begin life again, committed to living faithfully and in harmony with each other.

We are brought in touch with the reality of the love of Christ every time we celebrate the Eucharist. This reality of God’s presence is available, not just for personal renewal and strength, but for strengthening the community for living this radical new claim of love. In Eucharistic prayer C in our liturgy it asks that we be delivered “from the presumption of coming to this table for solace only and not for strength, for pardon only and not for renewal. We are called to go beyond mere observance of conventions and commandments, to go deeper into a relationship which calls us to respond and show that we are different from the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day.

“But I say to you,” keep your word, love your spouse, care for your neighbor and as we struggle to do these things, Jesus continues to love and forgive us. We are not condemned in our sinfulness. We are forgiven and loved by God. Today, as in the previous two Sunday’s readings, we are reminded in these Sunday’s after the Epiphany that Jesus reveals God…Jesus reveals God’s nature and intent for us because Jesus is God in the flesh. We as disciples of Jesus are to continue to listen for and to follow the Jesus, the God, who came to be with us because of love. Today we hear the loving words of Jesus, “You have heard it said”….then, however he may finish that sentence, one way or another he takes us back to the old, old law of God: “I say to you….love one another, as I have first loved you.” These are words to live by.