Don’t Worry, Strive…

Matthew 6:24-34

Jesus knew that there were famines and droughts from the history recorded in the Old Testament, not to mention His own experience.  Thus Jesus knew that there are times when there is not enough food for birds, or enough water for lilies to bloom.  It is clear that Jesus is not saying we should not set our alarms for the next day’s work, or not to plan for retirement.  Rather Jesus is telling us not to worry, and specifically in relationship with His statement of serving two masters.  If one chooses to serve wealth the worry will be inevitable, but if  you serve God you will not need to worry. 

This metaphor Jesus uses of the the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, speak to us about following Jesus in three ways.  The first being of ecology, that is how the earth operates.  Clearly God created a world where the animals and plants depend on each other to survive, therefore they actually depend on God.  Even in Jesus’ day people were beginning to be separated from the natural world, and today we are even more separated from the reality of how God’s creation is good and provides for itself.  We should see in this metaphor that we need to appreciate the wonderful miracle of this world as we work for the Kingdom of Heaven.

The second way this metaphor speaks to us it that of equality.  It relates to the first, in that we are to see the interconnectedness of humanity as we observe in nature.  For we know there are some people that do not know where their next meal is coming from and Jesus knew that also, as he included in a parable:

And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” (Matthew 20: 6-7)

This is a reality for people throughout history and continues today.  They don’t even have the luxury of the same type of worry people with wealth would worry, they simply live as lilies and birds, dependent on God’s Grace.  Those of us with some time, wealth, and ability become the Body of Christ for these people that live not knowing what tomorrow’s troubles is as they need to met today’s. 

The third aspect is the greatest and that is of celebration.  That if we do follow God (not wealth) we are to be taken care of just as the beautiful flowers and birds.  I generally start my sermon preparation on Tuesday, but because of a funeral on Wednesday, I had to prepare for, I did not start until after the funeral was complete and some other important work was done.  Late in the afternoon, I had the idea I would go home and rest, but realized I was going to be in a meeting all day on Thursday (it was on my calendar but it was not on my mind).  I then got another cup of coffee (thank God for “dancing goats”).  Read the scripture two times when two friends arrived at my door.  I could feel the anxiety mounting as I considered sending these two away, who obviously wanted to talk and ask questions.  I then glanced down at my open bible and saw verse 34 whish was  highlighted from a previous time: 

‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

I then thought, I should be here now with these friends.  I then asked them to help with the sermon.  I told them that there were still some flowers in the sanctuary from the funeral, and if they could go and observe them and tell me about them.  They ran to see the flowers and ran back to tell me something about the arrangements.  I should probably tell you that these two friends were young children.  “They smell good,” “I like the purple one" etc.  Then flowers and pieces were taken to my desk for decorations.  I then realized that children do not worry about tomorrow.  They may ask what is for dinner or what is next, but I have observed they often ask again for they forget.  Then the scripture that was part of the service earlier that day was put on my heart by the Holy Spirit. 

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.’And he laid his hands on them and went on his way. (Matthew 19:13-15)

Jesus tells us to be like children to inherit the Kingdom.  Children appreciate the wonderful nature that is Creation.  Children love and do not worry about tomorrow.  Children celebrate when they know love.  Paul says it well in Philippians 4:4-7:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Let us go out in the world serving only Christ.  Not worrying but striving for God’s Kingdom, like the children who made a beautiful arrangement on my desk with broken flowers and pedals. 

 

 

Special note to Hare, Douglas in “Matthew” edition of Interpretation.  John Knox Press 1993

Plumb Line

Amos 7: 7-9, Matthew 5:38-48

Jesus is asking us to not retaliate and to even go as far as to offer more to an enemy, to someone attacking you.  This is a hard scripture.  Jesus asks us to pray for our enemies, and love them.  I do not believe Jesus wants us to get on our knees and propose to an enemy, nor have warm fuzzy feelings for said enemy, but He is asking us to love them, just as God loves us.  We can pray that they will change their hearts and actions and that is certainly a fine and healthy prayer, but in this context I do not believe that Jesus is even upholding the Proverbs that Paul quotes (proverbs 25: 21-22)":

If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat;
   and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink;
for you will heap coals of fire on their heads,
   and the Lord will reward you.

In the Matthew passage Jesus is asking us to pray for our enemies so we may see them in God’s eyes, and to show them love.  We actually determine our enemies generally by who is outside our group.  Be it nation, religion, clique, for it is rare that we actually have someone who is specifically attacking another, without the support direct or more likely indirect from others.  When we see someone as God seems them, it is hard for us to act as an enemy.

A great example of a man that knew he had an enemy is that of Dietrich Bonheoffer.  See Dietrich watched as his church, the German Church, began to ignore the cross of Christ, so to be able to support Hitler.  Bonheoffer knew Hitler and his followers as an enemy, and despite his Christian ethics, felt a need to participate in an assassination attempt.  Eventually Bonheoffer was jailed.  Despite being an enemy of what we, as humans, considered to be one of the most evil leaders, Dietrich treated each of his captors with respect and compassion.  They may have locked him up and may be called on to execute him at any moment, Dietrich saw them as children of God.

The plumb line is being consistent and perfect like our Heavenly Father is perfect.  To understand this, I share with you my experience of plumb lines. When I was a child we lived in a relatively new home and thus my father, the engineer, would require shelves and the like to be plumb level, that is the plumb line was based of gravity.  And it worked.  I then went in my early adult life on a mission trip to Virginia, where we were to reroof, put up siding, hang doors, replace windows, and put up a ramp to the front door.  This group tackled this project in three days, and on one of the days I was helping with the ramp.  Well the building was old and leaning some, it was not obvious to the naked eye, but when we started considering putting the ramp on the house we realized if we made it plumb to the building it would look very slanted, and if we made it plumb to gravity it would look slanted in the opposite direction.  One of the elder contractors shared his experience, that in this situation you make the plumb line the average of the two.  Sure enough that worked well, after carefully cutting the dowels in a specific order about an 1/8th of an inch different from the proceeding one.   (We may had changed the design if we had more time or was aware of the plumb line issue previously).  It worked out aesthetically wonderful, and even allowed for the water to run off well. 

Jesus tells us that our plumb line is to not retaliate, to love and pray for our enemies, and thus as Jesus says:

…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. …Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:45 & 48)

This plumb line cannot be averaged with the world.  When we follow this line, it will be noticeably different then the world.  When we love as God Loves, we bring Heaven to Earth.

Traction

Matthew 5:21-37

The week before there was a wonderful children’s moment, in which the facilitator, Chris Pierce, gave the children each a candy bar, with the rule they could not eat it until after church.  Chris then began to eat one himself as the lesson was on temptation.  He suggested they open the wrapper and enjoy the aroma, and made it clear they were allowed to open the wrapper, but the rule stood that they could not eat the candy bar.  Not one of the children would open the candy.  It seemed as if they knew if they opened it they would have a hard time following the rule they were given.  This is not unlike how rabbis interpret the Law, the Torah.  They will add additional restrictions to the law so to insure following the original law.  One of the greatest example that goes on today is how some Jews will respect the Sabbath with no work at all, including hitting a switch or pushing a button.  While others are more liberal about their interpretation.  The levels of restrictions differ, but they are to keep the original law followed.

With these antitheses Jesus seems to following in the rabbinic tradition of adding more layers on the law to insure the laws fulfillment.   Jesus had made it clear earlier in this Sermon on the Mount, that He came to fulfill the law, and these additional requirements will certainly make sure one follows the ancient laws.  However, I believe Jesus is not simply adding hoops, but is attempting to have behavior match intent.  It is about having all of us try to be more like our Father in Heaven, as Jesus says in verse 48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  After Jesus tells us that the Father makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good.  We are to be consistent like God’s Grace.

Jesus uses three illustrations to make this point.  The last was to not bother with oaths, or swearing on heaven, earth, or one’s own head.  Our word should be consistent. I do not believe that Jesus has a problem with our courts using oaths, or Doctors taking the Hippocratic Oath, the issue is if one’s word is only good when one swears.  The first illustration was that of someone bringing an animal to the temple for sacrifice, realizing that their brother or sister has something against them, they are to leave the animal at the altar until they reconcile.  This is truly not practical (first of all since Christianity and modern Judaism does not practice animal sacrifice), even then, for someone to return home to reconcile may mean days of travel from the temple.  The animal could not be left at the altar for that amount of time.  Even then this was a metaphor as we read it, that one’s behavior match intent.  That the law is not just a rule, but the way to live.

The other illustration, is that of the right eye and/or hand.  Jesus even uses this same illustration in chapter 6: 2-4:

‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Does Jesus believe we are like Peter Seller’s famous character from the movie, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,”  Dr. Strangelove.  Who was a former Nazi whose hand seemed to have a mind of its own.  Jesus knows that our body does not actually have its own quarrels or need to hide something from itself.  Jesus is emphasizing that we do have a conflict between following God and our “earthly desires.”  We are to find where we are going toward sin and these desires based on others and attempt to remove them.

This reminds me of driving.  Driving is a life or death act that most of us participate in as a driver or at least as a passenger.  Yet we all go out on the road in our vehicles and travel at a high rate of speed with others next to us or coming toward us a few feet away, without thinking about the reality.  We find ourselves talking to passengers, or on the phone, listening (and singing) to the radio, looking at the landscape, and I recall once seeing someone eating soup.  It seems to me that this very dangerous mode of transportation is not taken seriously until we do something that reminds us of the reality.  Like crossing over the line and hearing that “beep” from the other car.  Or think about how it was going out these past two weeks with ice and snow on the ground.  I am sure everyone was much more careful driving.  When you have to think about the traction you will be much more attentive to your driving.  Jesus wants us to live realizing we need to be consistently acting as if it is all for God and not for our earthly desires.

A great example of someone following his “earthly desires” over that of God’s is that of Jacob.  To be clear when I say “earthly desires” I do not meant the desires that are based of that of the body or physicality alone, but what is created by desires of others.  Jacob wanted his brother Esau’s birthright and thus tricked his way into getting it.  Jacob wanted something that others had, and when he had it he assumed his brother would want vengeance.  God wants Jacob to return and Jacob says to God in Genesis 32: 11-12:

Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may come and kill us all, the mothers with the children. Yet you have said, “I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.”

Despite knowing God wants to do him and his offspring good, Jacob is terrified of his brother’s anger, for Jacob was angry enough himself for being born second that he lied and cheated his brother.  How much more would Esau be angry for actually being tricked then being born second?  Well then this occurred the night before Jacob met Esau, according to Genesis 32: 24-30:

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’

Jacob still did not get it, until he fell before his brother the next day ran to him to embrace him and weep. 

We need to be engaged with God at all times.  We are to deny our earthly desires, as best we can.  The good news is that Jesus says we are to hide what one hand is doing, or to cut it off, or to cut out an eye, for this means that Jesus knows we are in conflict.  While we are to be like our Heavenly Father, Jesus forgives us all from the cross.

Snow, Seeds, & Soil.

Feb. 11 in The Durant Daily Democrat
At Durant Main Street & Community Theatre’s Dinner Theatre Monday Night at Roma’s, I heard an old but powerful idiom during the performance: “A mighty oak tree was once a nut that just held its ground.” Before I go on I must compliment everyone that made this night out tremendously entertaining and fun. So if you were not there, I am sorry you missed it, and I encourage you to be at one of the numerous performing arts events in town.
However, I am not writing this to persuade you about the importance of art in culture, but because of the small nut that lies below the snow and ice-covered earth. This past Sunday, my wife sung the hymn by Natalie Sleeth and the first verse goes “In the Bulb Is a Flower; in the seed, and apple tree; in cocoons, a hidden promise; butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.” We know as we look out at the cold and seemingly dead landscape, life waits beneath the ground for the season of spring.
Jesus tells us the parable of seeds, according to the 13^th chapter of Matthew. The first seeds were eaten by birds, some fell among the rocks and were scorched, some grew among the thorns that choked them “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (verse 8). This parable speaks to us on many levels, and I suspect that many of you concentrate on the importance of the soil, for I usually do the same. It is clear that throwing seeds on the roadway, among the rocks, or among the thorns will not produce much yield. This is the most important lesson, I believe, of this parable, thus I am always trying to tend to the “soil” as much as I am planting “seeds.” Today, though, I noticed something that the hymn I quoted above makes clear, “God alone can see.” Each of the seeds planted in the good soil as per Jesus’ parable does not yield the same amount, as verse 8 clearly states. Clearly even when the seeds are in the same soil, there will be different outcomes and that is for God alone to see. Jesus even explains the parable in full in the next part of chapter 13 and states in verse 23 “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Clearly there is no perfect formula.
We must continue to nourish seeds in the best possible soil. We know resurrection moments happen when we do that, as when someone gives their life to Christ. As Christians we are continually sharing the Good News with our friends and hopefully strangers, so they may get their roots in the good soil and turn toward the SON. We then must remember that once growing with and/or toward Jesus, their yield is in God’s domain, not ours. We can help with the soil, but God is in charge of the growth. This is a difficult part of discipleship, remembering that God is truly the only gardener and we are simply other seeds in His garden.

Low Salt Area

Matthew 5:13-20
We have to follow the law even greater than the Pharisees and Scribes?  That seems quite difficult since they were the experts in the Jewish Law, the Torah.  Jesus says He came to fulfill the law not abolish it, so we need to explore what is the law according to the Rabbi Jesus.  The best example would be in the Gospel of Luke when a young lawyer tests Jesus on the law.

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’ (Luke 10:25-28)

The lawyer answers with the Shema with an additional caveat of loving your “neighbor as yourself,” which is confirmed by Jesus as being the right answer.  Of course the young lawyer is not satisfied with this, and asks who is his neighbor, which is when Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan.  Making it clear our neighbor is not simply the person who lives next door.

There is this children’s book about two boys living in Jerusalem.  One Jewish and one Muslim, who were both feeding the same stray white cat.  Both had been raised on the rules of their religious tradition, and both thought the other was not their neighbor, until the day they both worrying about the cat who had been missing for a while.  When they went looking for the cat and  met each other, they followed the rules of their society and fought (specifically over whose cat the stray was).  They followed the cat to a litter of kittens as a rare snowfall began concerned about her freezing.  They realized that she wants peace and they worked together for their love of the cat.  The book is called “Snow in Jerusalem” and is truly a oversimplification of peace in the Middle East.  Or is it?  The boys realized that love took precedent over the rules they had learned.  They saw how the snow fell, as we noticed this week in Durant, on everything.  Reminding me of Jesus’ saying in the end of this chapter five of Matthew:

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 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. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The boys realize that the snow represents the Grace of God that falls upon everyone, so we are to love everyone as God does.  That is the real law.  It is not simply about the rules.

So what about this salt?  It is a very strong metaphor that is understood when you explore how it was used in Old Testament.  How the first believers would have understood salt as a religious metaphor.  First of all culturally, one would say in the first century, “sharing salt” to refer to table fellowship.  That is certainly powerful for Christians, whose worship centers around a holy feast.  In Leviticus 2:13, “  You shall not omit from your grain-offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” Which tells us to specifically to put salt in all offerings, because as the first half of the text says, it is a metaphor for the covenant itself.  The next piece of scripture I have us turn to is Numbers 18: 19, “All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the Lord I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due; it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord for you and your descendants as well.” Again telling us that salt is a sign of the everlasting covenant.  And a very powerful sign of the covenant.  We have been iced over the whole week and we have not had salt to through out on the roads to melt the ice.  Up north we would call it a Low Salt Area, which you would see signs for such areas around reservoirs.  Salt is so strong it  contaminates the water supply, and I have known of houses whose wells are no longer good to drink from because of the salt that is put down on the roadway.  This idea of salt being so powerful is also found in 2 Kings 2: 19-22

Now the people of the city said to Elisha, ‘The location of this city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.’He said, ‘Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.’ So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw the salt into it, and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.’ So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

Now we know that salt is seen as very powerful and even purifying, a symbol of table fellowship, and the Covenant, the Law.

Jesus says to the believers who were listening to him on the mountain, “You are the salt of the earth”  You are the very powerful purifying, table fellowship that is the covenant.  You are the Law.  You are the law as He teaches and fulfills which is love of God and of humanity, our neighbor.  We are not to lose our saltiness but to permeate the world and change it.  To be a light for the true covenant that is embodied by Jesus’ love that He went to the cross for all of us, leaving us to be the church the body of Christ, the fulfillment of the Law, SALT.

Go out in the world as salt demonstrating this love and flavoring the earthly world with Heaven’s law.

Blessings

Matthew 5:1-12

“The best thing since sliced bread,” hearing that I cannot help and wonder what people said before sliced bread.  Many times in human history there has been moments that improve life, in many various ways.  One of the greatest in history was when God gave Moses the Decalogue, better known as the Ten Commandments, or my favorite name for them comes from a Sunday School curriculum, “The ten best ways.”  Moses went up the mountain to met God as they were wandering between the promised land and Egypt.   God rescued them from Egypt, but there was a risk that they would turn back to Pharaoh.  Some even wined that it would be best to go back to what they knew in Egypt, or worse establish a state like Egypt in the Promised Land.  Thus God establishes laws for the people as a covenant between God and them, and thus between people.  These Ten Best Ways are to establish a new society here on Earth, a society free from Pharoh and in relationship with God (the story continues with breaking and coming back to the covenant throughout the Hebrew Bible).

In this passage from Matthew, Jesus, who is God, is on the mountain.  He does not tell the people not to come up, rather He is going up to rest, as I read it.  He sees the crowds and goes up the mountain.  There are many other scriptures that share that Jesus did need time alone, and time of rest and thus support this idea.  The clincher for me is that it says that the Disciples were the ones who followed, which usually refer to the twelve, and while it may be more or less then the twelve, it was not a crowd if He sat to tell them of these blessings.  These blessings are for those who believe; for the insiders.

The Beatitudes are different from the Ten Best Ways, as they are not simply rules that apply to society in relationship with God, but are telling the believers through the promise how radical Grace is.  First of all, they use to verbs, “are” and “will.”  Meek are blessed, and will inherit the Kingdom. While Jesus is telling us that the meek, the persecuted, the poor, the hungry, the peacemakers, pure in heart, merciful, and those mourning, are Blessed, they still need to await the fulfillment of the promise, the New Covenant.  Christianity is not sliced bread, it does not promise to take away the headaches and the pain, but we are blessed knowing we will be with God’s inevitable victory.  The Ten Best ways are also a covenant, and the promise does not insure no trouble or pain, but its promise is fulfilled with the freedom from Pharaoh and a new society. 

These blessings being to the believers, the insiders, thus the church, is important.  To tell someone that are poor (in spirit or financially as per Luke) that they are blessed, or if meek, that they are blessed, would not make sense to them unless they believe in Jesus and the new covenant.  These blessings are for those that know they are part of the Body of Christ, the Church.  While not everyone is poor, hungry, pure of heart, etc. there are people in our midst who are, and we know that we are all blessed not because we have the greatest military, but have enslaved ourselves to each other, including those that are not considered by society to be a blessings. 

Jesus went to the cross, scolding Peter for cutting of the guard’s ear and even healing the victim.  Jesus did not call the Heavenly Hosts down to rescue him from the cross.  Jesus took on the violence and modeled what it means to be a blessing.   His resurrection demonstrating the promise to come for us all, victory over death.  Paul writes, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)  So for us to say “God died for your sins” to someone who doesn’t understand salvation through Jesus will think us foolish, just as the blessings seem foolish to outsiders, until they understand Jesus as savior.  Thus model and preach Jesus’ love for humanity, Love for that person.  Tell them your story how you realized God loves you and sent His Son to live with us, and they will with the help of the Holy Spirit understand the blessings and thus what happened on that tree.