turn the other table Epiphany 7a Sermon

Matthew 5:38-48
"You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.
But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;
and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well;
and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.
Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
"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.

Sixteen chapters after this morning's Gospel reading,
in the Gospel of Matthew,
there is another story.

It goes like this:

(Matt 21:10-13) :
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?”
The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple,
and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
He said to them, “It is written,
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”

John's Gospel adds this detail:
Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple,
both the sheep and the cattle.
He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’

In our reading from First Corinthians this morning, St. Paul asks us, passionately:
(1 cor 3:16) :
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person.
For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

If you are involved in an abusive relationship,
if you have ever been involved in an abusive relationship,
if you have ever been abused or assaulted—sexually or otherwise,
if you ever find yourself in that position in the future,
for the first time, or again,

(God forbid),

the call of Christ to “turn the other cheek” when struck,
and the call of Christ to “not resist” an evildoer,
as spoken in today's text
is
NOT
for you.

If you are involved in an abusive relationship,
if you have ever been involved in an abusive relationship,
if you have ever been abused or assaulted—sexually or otherwise,
if you ever find yourself in that position in the future
for the first time, or again,

the call of Christ to “turn the other cheek” when struck,
and the call of Christ to “not resist” an evildoer
as spoken in today's text
is
NOT
for you.


You are God's holy temple.

God's Spirit dwells within you.

And when someone abuses God's temple,
we learn in the Gospel of John,
Christ makes a whip of chords and kicks
the abuser
out of God's house.

You are God's holy temple.

And God's Spirit dwells within you.

And when someone abuses God's temple,
Christ makes a whip of chords and kicks
the abuser
out of God's house.

It might do us good to remember (by the way)
that we, collectively,
are the Body of Christ in the world.

It might do us good
to think about
how we
(how you)
(or I)
might have a Divine Calling
to intervene,
to advocate,
to interrupt,
to butt-in
if we hear of a sister or brother
being struck or violated or threatened with violence.
We just might be called, at times, to drive out the abuse.

(Something to think about).

You are God's holy temple.

God's Spirit dwells within you.

And when someone abuses God's temple,
Christ makes a whip of chords and kicks
the abuser
out of God's house.

Today's Gospel text
is not a call
for God's people
to allow
for the perpetuation
of cycles of abuse
or of violence.

If it was,
it would not
be in accord
with Christ's call to God's people
to love God
by loving one's neighbors.

And, so we would have to call it 'anti-Christian,'
And we would be obligated to disregard it,
for the sake of Christ.

I believe, however, that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
is
definitely
Christian.

(Imagine that.)


In first century Israel and Palestine,
(where and when Jesus lived and taught),
it was believed that one's enemies had something like:
“cooties.”

Touching one's enemies, it was believed culturally,
would lead to a kind of impurity.
It would leave one defiled,
dirty,
un-clean.

One would especially not touch
one's enemies
with one's right hand,
because that was one's food-eating hand.


The left hand was used for toilet-related activities.


So apparently,
if one was to strike one's enemy,
back in that day,
one would backhand one's enemy with his or her left hand.

If you were backhanded by your enemy,
and responded by,
then
“turning the other cheek,”
then you'd be inviting your enemy to defile his or her self
by striking you again:

either with his or her food hand
(which would allow the impurity “cooties” to enter through one's mouth)

or, with his or her poo hand
(which would allow the impurity “cooties” to enter through a more southern route).

Either situation would defile one's enemy in one's enemy's eyes.

Such an action: turning the other cheek
(rather than exchanging violence for violence)
would then be seen as an act of defiance,
an insult,
a form of what we have come to call “passive resistance.”
But definitely a form of resistance.

Jesus, it seems, if this scholarship is correct,
(and I pray to God that it is)
to be calling the meek and the poor and the cracked people
who are the light of the world and the salt of the earth
(to whom he is preaching this
Sermon on the Mount)
to stand up for themselves.
In a way that doesn't perpetuate a cycle of violence.

Such an action
(rather than exchanging violence for violence)
just might lead,
sometimes,
to breaking a cycle of violence.
Stopping the violence.

It just might lead to peace.

(If only it were that easy).

It's not.

Nevertheless,

Christ's call to
live as God's people,
Christ's call to
strive for God's
Kingdom-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven,

is a call to live alternatively to the kingdoms of the world.

And one part of that call,
is choosing
love of neighbor
over using violence to get one's way.

choosing
love of neighbor
over using violence to get one's way.

And
Confronting violence and abuse as sin.

(The Church as a whole needs to get better at this. We don't like talking about stuff that makes us uncomfortable. But we're called to.)

...confronting violence and abuse as sin
And casting it out
when it is defiling our sisters and brothers,
who are temples of the Living God.

Casting it out
when it is defiling our sisters and brothers,
who are temples of the Living God.

Such, I think, is the very difficult call of Christ.

The call to love which, it seems to me
means to intervene, interrupt, butt-in.
To be impolite at times.
The call to love actively
even when that love-in-action
makes a bunch of folks uncomfortable.
Even when it is inconvenient.

Love that breaks cycles of anti-love,
Love that breaks cycle of violence,
Love that affirms each of you,
and respects each of you,
and cares for each of you, for each of us,
and the holy, Spirit-filled temple that you are.
That we are.

You are God's holy temple.

And God's Spirit dwells within you.

And when someone abuses God's temple,
Christ makes a whip of chords and kicks
the abuser
out of God's house.

May God give us the courage to love.
May God give us the courage to act lovingly.
May God's Kingdom be built among us.

Amen.