Living into God’s Holy Presence

One of the vows we make in our covenant with God is to “strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.”  In our relationship to God we remind ourselves of this when come together for worship.  In worship we recognize our faults by confessing our sins against God and our neighbors, and through forgiveness we strengthen our unity with Christ and one another.  Worship is a constant reminder that God was in Christ reconciling the world to God; and it reminds us about what is required for living into God’s holy presence.

Our readings appointed for today concern what it means to be the holy people of God.  We heard in the Book of Leviticus, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the congregation, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’”  St. Paul, writing to the Church in Corinth said, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple?  God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  Then, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to his disciples, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

A discussion in the book of Leviticus is about what it means to be holy.  The Israelites were freed from bondage and slavery in Egypt.  Through the exodus theirs was a special covenant with God, and holiness included wholeness, perfection, and relationships among people.  God is holy and we are to live in the same way, lives that are holy.  Genuine holiness is about caring for the poor and the alien. 

In using the metaphor of a farmer the author of Leviticus said that those who left the remnants of the harvest on the edges of the field, were not to “strip your vineyard bare; [but] you shall leave the fallen grapes for the poor and the alien.”

The commandments about relating to others focused on justice and responsible behavior.  You shall not lie or steal, nor swear, nor keep for yourself wages of someone you hired until the next morning.  “You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great; with justice you shall judge your neighbor, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Living a holy life is about being responsive to the needs of the larger community.

St. Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth concerned the community.  He wrote that everyone belongs to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.  The context for his letter was a divided church in Corinth.  Some of its people were loyal to Paul and others to pagan gods, Apollos or Cephas.  To use today’s terminology, we might say that the church was in need of conflict management.  What mattered to Paul was a loyalty that was much greater than loyalty to the leaders of the local community.  He stated, “everyone belongs to Christ” and said, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”  He then asked, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? … God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

Today’s gospel continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that we have been reading during the past several weeks.  It has to do with being holy and what is involved in being perfect as God is perfect.  Being perfect is Matthew’s way of calling the disciples to holiness, to being fully committed to Christ. Christian living calls us to live into the fullness of the commandments; it is a life of maturity, wholeness, holiness, and perfection as a disciple and follower of Christ. 

Jesus began each commandment with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said…, but I say to you….”  He then used the examples of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” and “you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”  These commandments reach their fullness when one can turn the other cheek, not refuse anyone who wants to borrow something, and when one can love one’s enemies and pray for those who oppress or persecute. 

Jesus pointed out how much easier it is to do the limited things, the least demanding things.  There are people who love others who love them, so they greet their brothers and sisters.  But Jesus asked, “What more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”  Then came the real challenge: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  This is the challenge for all of us today.

Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary, commented on this challenge.  Brueggemann writes: “Christ’s human possibility [is] a defiant alternative to the human self proposed by the dominant values of our culture.  Our culture offers an autonomous self accountable to none; the new self in Christ is accountable to God in obedience.  Our culture offers an anxious self who is never safe or adequate; this new self is safe with God.  Our culture offers a self that is one-dimensionally profane in self-regard; this new self is authorized to holiness in attentiveness to the poor, the neighbor, and finally the enemy.”

The take-home message is that the holy people of God live a different kind of life.  As holy people of God we are to live lives that are characterized by a generosity and a grace that goes beyond the accepted cultural norms and the usual laws so easily taken for granted.  Our is to be a life devoid of fear and hatred, a life filled with love and respect for every person, whether the poor or an enemy or the marginalized.  The Christian life is a holy life built on a foundation of love seeking to be perfect as God is perfect. Amen.

Making Hard Choices

Today’s Scripture readings appear dueing the season of Epiphany only when Easter is late in the year.  They are readings about making choices.  The choices presented are clear: either love the Lord your God and observe his commandments so you will live and be blessed; or, if you are led astray and bow down to other gods, you will perish. 

The Book of Deuteronomy says, "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses."  It is the ultimate choice: life or death, blessing or curse.  Because we are free, created in freedom with responsibility for our decisions, we must make choices of good or evil, choices of life or death.  There are great differences in the choices we make. Sometimes they are obvious and clear like rescuing someone who is in trouble and needs help; and sometimes they are more subtle like honoring a person's desire not to be treated for an incurable illness even though non-treatment might result in an earlier death.  And, sometimes they are the hard choices, the consequences of which are often fuzzy and not very clear.

In the days of the first Christians, the written law of God, the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), stood as fixed and unalterable.  Even so, there were situations the law did not seem to cover.  Different interpretations emerged to address them.  The first of these was a conservative response held by the Sadducees.  Sadducees were the priestly, aristocratic party in Judaism, whose interest was in the temple.  They held that the law was to be observed as written, but beyond the written limits of the law a person was free to do whatever seemed best.  

A second interpretation was favored by the community of Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They rejected the Mosaic law as inadequate and drafted an idealized version of the Torah that would apply in all circumstances. 

The third interpretation was that of the Pharisees, the most influential party of Judaism.  Theirs was the "liberal" option that recognized that the law applied in all circumstance, even if the prescriptions of the Torah did not specifically address them.  Adherents to this view were required to remember how the law had been interpreted and applied in the past. 

Jesus' teaching differed from that of the Pharisees.  He did not treat the Torah as the final expression of God's will.  Jesus said, "I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  Unlike the group at Qumran Jesus did not hope for a new, idealized version of the law.  All law will finally be inadequate to the human condition.

Jesus invited his disciples to be fully faithful to God's will even if that required someone to go beyond a literal reading of the Torah.  Fidelity to God requires thought and intention as well as action.  The role of the Torah is to serve as the most familiar and complete expression of God's will but Jesus challenged his followers, and he challenges us, to seek God's will in every situation.  

Examples of this are in Jesus’ discussion of the Ten Commandments.  He began each commandment with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said….” Then he addressed the commands to do no murder, not to commit adultery, and not to swear falsely.  

Jesus elaborated on the command not to murder by focusing on anger, insults, and calling another person a fool.  His point was that reconciliation takes priority even over worship.  Worship was the most sacred act for the Jewish people.  But Jesus said, “When you are offering your gift at the altar, if your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”  This is an instruction about the proper use of anger and the need for forgiveness.  Anger should be constructive rather than destructive, and forgiveness is to be practiced as a mutual interaction in order for reconciliation to be achieved.

Another example is the command not to commit adultery.  God expects purity of thought and desire as well as action.  I especially like the phrase in the Collect of Purity that we use at every service of Holy Eucharist: “Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.”  Adultery, more broadly defined, is the betrayal of relationships.  Right relationships with God and neighbor are what matters.  Purity of heart is the perfect way to love God.

As for the command, “You should not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord,” Jesus admonished his listeners always to tell the truth.  Jesus actually said something like, “let your ‘Yes’ be yes and your ‘No’ be no.

Each of us has at times labored over a difficult decision.  Hard choices might range from decisions about a career or a vocation, choosing a spouse or partner, placing an elderly parent in a nursing home, or seeking intervention for someone caught in the grips of chemical dependency.  The ability to choose is often difficult and complex.  We may be fearful or anxious, or we may experience a deep sense of frustration and anger about the very necessity for making a decision.

Regardless of the circumstances of our lives we should remember that our free will, our ability to reflect, consider and decide, is a hallmark of our humanity.  Jesus retained his Jewish understanding of the law as God's gift.  But instead of serving as an arbitrary and capricious limitation of human freedom Jesus focused on the fulfillment of the law.  The list of blessings in the Sermon on the Mount focuses on our relationship to God.  What it means to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves concerns our relation-ships with one another. 

Love is the fulfillment of the law; it is the bedrock of Christianity, and it forms the foundation for all the decisions and choices we make.  Amen.

The Light of Christ

The overwhelming theme of our Scripture readings this morning is about light.  The prophet Isaiah said, “Let your light break forth like the dawn.”  The Psalmist proclaimed “Light shines in the darkness for the upright.”  Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” 

Christians throughout the world proclaim light in the midst of the darkness of the world, especially the darkness for those who are suffering and oppressed.  The darkness is real; it is the violence that people use against others; it is the discrimination against people of other faith traditions; it is the fear that builds walls to keep immigrants out, and it is the selfish greed that results in social and economic divisions between the richest and poorest people of our communities and nation.

Isaiah said, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.”

Isaiah spoke to the injustices of his day and offered a practical remedy to correct the conditions that perpetuated it.  Jesus also spoke to the problems of his day in proclaiming that his followers were the light of the world. The light of Christ is the way to loosen the bonds of injustice and to let the oppressed go free.  Today, we celebrate the light at the birth of Jesus during the Christmas season, and again during this season of Epiphany as we proclaim that Christ has caused a new light to shine in our hearts, and finally at Easter with the light of Christ’s resurrection from death.

During the great Vigil of Easter we pray to God who has bestowed on us through his Son the “brightness of his light.”  We light a fire in the darkness of night and proclaim the Light of Christ rejoicing in radiant light and resounding with praise.  It is a night of remembering the liberation of Israel from bondage in Egypt; a night when all who believe in Christ are restored to grace and holiness of life; a night when Christ broke the bonds of death and rose victorious from the grave. It is a night when we light candles in God’s honor driving away all darkness as light is bestowed on all creation.

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp-stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Brian Maas, a bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, writes, “We too often hide our light—or at least contain its glow—under a bushel basket, fearful that letting it shine farther might make it less bright in our immediate vicinity. It is as though there are corners of God’s world unworthy of the illumination they would know if we let our light be placed on a lamp stand rather than under the security of a basket. We should not be surprised that many would rather stand with others in the darkness than be cursed by light that shines only on some.”

Jesus told his disciples, and he tells us, to be examples to others, examples of God’s ability to change lives. By letting the light to shine for those in need Jesus’ followers will make known and spread God’s power to transform lives. The life of disciples must be visible and it must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

While the scribes and Pharisees were religious and observed the Jewish law, Jesus said their conduct was inadequate for entering the Kingdom of God.  The religion that Jesus preached went beyond the Law; it was the command to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love the neighbor as one’s self.  His law was love and compassion; and the good news of the gospel goes beyond the law by adding the grace of God.  The point Jesus stressed was that his disciples should respect God’s law of love as he does in order to gain entry into the Kingdom.

There is a lot of darkness and uncertainty around us.  We are living in the midst of people who are anxious and afraid.  They want to build walls of separation and keep people away who are not like themselves.  We should remember that last October, prior to our election Pope Francis said, “The contradiction of those who want to defend Christianity in the West, and, on the other hand, are against refugees and other religions. is something I see in the newspapers and on television every day. The sickness or, you can say the sin, that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy, which is precisely what is happening when someone claims to be a Christian but does not live according to the teaching of Christ. You cannot be a Christian without living like a Christian.  You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes. It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of help.”

What is needed is for people to show how the light of love and compassion, of acceptance and respect, of understanding and reconciliation can transform lives and the larger society.  If we are truly followers of Christ then we can support our culture of pluralism and inclusion.  We must let our light shine before others so that they may see our good works and glorify our God in heaven.  Amen.