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"You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, "You shall not murder'; and "whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, "You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that 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.
"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, "You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.' But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be "Yes, Yes' or "No, No'; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
- Matthew 5:21-24, 33-37
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“To walk with Jesus, to side with the God of the Cross,
is to walk and side with the ones that Power crucifies.”
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For the last several weeks,
in this church season we call “the time after the epiphany,”
that is:
the time after
the magi
(or the “wisemen” or the “We Three Kings” or whatever),
follow a star
to a manger
where they discover and proclaim that God has been born.
Since that time…
In this “time after [that] Epiphany,”
(that there, on the hay, laid God)…
Since that time,
we have been digging through scripture,
seeking out for ourselves other epiphanies,
other illuminations and insights,
other secret keys that might unlock for us
something of the Gospel of Jesus’ love,
that God’s love might move more deeply through us,
and that our hearts,
our minds,
and our worlds
might expand as a result.
Amen? Amen.
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“To walk with Jesus, to side with the God of the Cross,
is to walk and side with the ones that power crucifies.”
This was our last key.
It was preceded by others.
Some quite familiar.
And others which we still find difficult to handle.
These keys are heavy. They are awkward.
But when given and used,
they certainly do unlock to us
something of the Gospel of Jesus’ love.
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The other keys were these:
To love, serve, and honor God, is to love, to serve, and to honor the Other, our neighbor.
Amen? Amen.
This was our first key.
God does not discriminate.
Amen? Amen.
This was our second key.
God calls us together. It’s hard to go it alone.
Amen? Amen.
This was our third key.
To follow Jesus and the Gospel of Jesus’ Love,
sometimes we are called to leave everything behind.
Even the people and things that define us the most.
(Sometimes, heeding God’s call we need to re-identify,
to redefine,
Sometimes we need a radical change in our lives so that we might better follow.)
Amen? Amen.
This was our fourth key.
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So many keys!
So many possibilities of having opened to us our hearts,
our minds,
our worlds…
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Today, as we gather again with the crowds, up on the mountain,
and as we sit to listen to Jesus’ famous sermon on the Mount in Matthew,
our keys—the ones we’ve already dug up—will serve to guide us in our understanding.
In general,
these keys will help us to unlock scripture,
especially when scripture seems to be a riddle.
That’s why we’ve been digging them up!
Amen? Amen.
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Today, on the mountain, in his famous sermon,
Jesus speaks of oaths and of anger,
of gifts and of violence and of reconciliation.
When Jesus speaks, to whom is he speaking? Who is among the crowds?
With whom is Jesus concerned?
Our keys thus far would tell us that when Jesus speaks of violence and anger,
oaths and reconciliation,
that Jesus’ hope…
that Jesus’ hope is that the words that he offers
will be words of inspiration
and words of help to those who suffer,
that is: to the Crucified — to people like him,
(and even people like some of us?).
Amen? Amen.
Because, Jesus stands with Crucified!
And in one way or another,
we all have crosses, pains, oppressions, afflictions,
deep within us, deep inside.
We all feel pain.
When Jesus speaks, it seems to me,
Jesus always speaks to move the crowds out of the wallowed-in pain of isolation and into loving relationships
As we’ve discovered: We cannot do this alone!.
Amen? Amen.
And when Jesus speaks, he speaks that all (everyone) might be fed
As we’ve discovered: God does not discriminate!
Amen? Amen.
Jesus speaks that all might be nourished to join together in desire for the Reign of God of which he speaks,
where the lowly are lifted,
the tyrants are brought down from their thrones,
and all people can live and thrive,
and eat and play
and celebrate that we are truly alive and thoroughly living.
Jesus speaks that w might desire, for us and for all people, God’s Reign “on earth as it is in heaven.”
(To stand with Jesus is to stand with the Crucified.
To love Jesus is to love our neighbor, the Other.)
Amen? Amen.
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You see how these keys are beginning to work?
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And so our question becomes, how does this piece of scripture speak through the openings created by our newly found keys?
And what new keys might we find beyond our new thresholds?
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Now, I need to be honest:
I isolated some of the Gospel text today.
I cut some of the verses out.
Many of you know this is the opposite of what I usually like to do. I like more context. Not less! Right?
I want you to know what you’re reading, when you’re reading it.
We’ll read the whole chapter if we have to!
But this week the lectionary wanted us also to read a piece on divorce and a piece on “adultery.”
And honestly, I didn’t wanna read before we talked about our keys.
Because without understanding what Jesus is trying to do—and I hope what we are trying to do—to create solidarity, to Resurrect the Crucified, to give grace to those who are shamed…
without that understanding,
we might be prone to use the scripture not to Resurrect together, or to Resurrect one another, but, rather, to crucify one another.
without our keys,
we might be prone to use the scripture not to Resurrect together, but, rather, to crucify.
I’ve seen it done! Can you believe it?
Can you believe people would actually take the words of the savior and use them, rather, to condemn?
Can you believe people would do that?
Can you believe that people would actually take the words of the Liberator, and the Redeemer, and use them to control and to oppress, and even to put others into slavery and debt and guilt and shame?
Can you believe that people would actually take the words of the healer, and use them to make scars?
It happens. I’m not making this up.
That’s why we need secret keys to unlock to us the gospel of Jesus’ love.
So we don’t abuse and misuse the Holy Scriptures.
So we don’t continue to crucify.
Remember: At Jesus’ temptation, even the Devil quoted scripture, and used it to try to take down the Son of God.
But Jesus resisted.
Amen? Amen.
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So, how are we going to use scripture?
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There is so much good to dig up and soak in from our text today.
But for the sake of time,
I wanna focus on just one short line here,
and suggest what I think might be yet one more secret key
meant to unlock to us
something of the Gospel of Jesus’ love,
so that God’s love might flow more deeply through us,
and that our hearts, our minds,
and our worlds
might expand as a result.
It’s this one:
“And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes' or ‘No, No!’”
Or said differently, “Let your yes be a yes, and let your no be a no,” right?
Keeping the keys which have already been revealed to us at our disposal, knowing that we need them all,
what might we unlock in this phrase,
and what might be unlocked for us?
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“For you cannot make one hair…”
I wonder, if in this phrase,
lies buried our next key:
Could that key sound something like this? :
Could it sound like:
All that we possess, all that we own, all with which we are charged or entrusted — all of that!: none of it is “ours,” forever, none of it is our “own.” ?
Or…
Perhaps we could better say the key this way:
(It’s difficult key to say, but I think we’re getting there…)
What if we said it this way:
None of our bonds, our ties, our connections,
(and that includes our ties and our property, our possessions, the things which we hold onto, and “hold dear”)
—none of these are permanent ties.
All of these are bonds, ties, that will one day be “loosed.” ?
Right?
All of our stuff, our connections, our things:
“We cannot take them with us,” as they say at funerals—though many try.
We cannot even control the sometimes terrifying reality that we are aging.
We can dye our hair (we have learned since Jesus’ time).
We can become vegans.
We can go on a south beach diet.
We can, like, drink a whole lot more water…
We can get one of those things that counts how many steps we take…
True.
But
in the end, we know that we are not permanent.
We are finite.
We are human.
And humans are mortal.
And so when we “make an oath,” Jesus reminds us on the Mountain,
even an oath to God, even an oath to each other,
when we promise to live our lives in one direction or another,
to behave in one way or another way,
when we make a promise, a declaration, a pronouncement,
we can’t even really “swear by our head.”
After all,
is my head really fully under my control?
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It seems not.
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Although we live day to day with the illusion that “this is mine,”
and even faithfully (and for the sake of generations to come) “save” and “plan” and plot for the future,
Jesus reminds us that our only enduring “oath,”
the only promise that holds an eternal weight
—not because of our eternal intentions,
but because God is “in on” the oath on the other side of it, making it to become a “covenant”…
the only promise that holds eternal weight
is our oath of allegiance to God — Beloved, Lover, and Love, and therefore to God’s desired Reign,
were the lowly are lifted,
and everyone can eat and play and celebrate and smile…
And even in such an oath, even in such a pledge of allegiance to God,
there’s nothing we can swear by—no money we can put down to “prove” our seriousness.
No checking our ID at the door for collateral.
Nothing.
God knows better than that.
No. We can only (by grace) say Yes!
Yes. I will live in love—by grace. God help me.
Yes. I will trust that God, too, will live in me—by grace. God help me.
Yes. I will pray for God’s Reign, even as I seek to live it and reflect it in the meanwhile. And this I can really only do by Grace, with the help of God and all of you. God help me. Family in the faith, help me!
(Following God’s call is tough to do on my own.) Amen? Amen.
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Ok. Great.
So the question still remains, right?
How do we say this key buried in today’s sermon on the mount?
Perhaps, finally, we say it like this:
Perhaps we say:
We alone possess nothing eternally. But when we together are possessed by God’s love, (when we live in God and God lives in us), our words, our actions, our love, too, makes ripples into forever, into eternity, and in Christ our Love, with God’s Love, has no end!
Amen? Amen!
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1) To love, serve, and honor God, is to love, to serve, and to honor the Other, our neighbor.
2) God does not discriminate.
3) God calls us together. It’s hard to go it alone.
4) To follow Jesus and the Gospel of Jesus’ Love,
sometimes we are called to leave everything behind.
5) To walk with and side with Jesus, to walk with and side with the God of the Cross,
is to walk with and side with the ones that Power crucifies today.
6) We alone possess nothing eternally. But when we together are possessed by God’s love, (when we live in God and God lives in us), our words, our actions, our love, too, makes ripples into forever, and our Love, with God’s Love has no end.
These, are our first six keys.
Amen.
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