As we come to Church today, how do you feel? Tired, after such a week of floods; needing encouragement or bouncing with energy, able to encourage others; remorseful perhaps, due to what has happened over this week; or blessed, because you have made it here?
When we are on a journey are we thankful that we have made it to our destination or critical because our failings en route?
On our walk to Church have we seen others as those who have a wonderful story to tell, or made judgements upon their behaviour?
Psalm 119 This is a Psalm with incredible beauty, but not necessarily in English. It has 176 verses in total: they are in 8 verse stanzas. Each stanza starts with a Hebrew letter, and each of these letters are in Hebrew Alphabetical order. The first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are “Aleph” and “Beth” : so we can see where our word alphabet comes from.
The Psalm speaks continually about the Torah, the Jewish Law. But please let us not interpret that as a list of strict instructions, stern warnings – these ‘laws’ are set in our heart, they are things we do, an outpouring of what we think and say. I find this astonishing as throughout my life, I was told that the Bible was the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. We live in an immersive culture where we need to be smart and cool, deny our grief, do things in an orderly manner when I have noticed that life isn’t always on straight lines but is messy and complicated. If I followed these laws I would be ok, all I needed to do was to do what it says. And then Jesus came on the scene…
Let’s not say “We are not to judge” but “can we see the blessing?”
1 Corinthians 3: 1-9 You think that Todmorden was a great place, so was Corinth. Wow what an interesting place, full of various communities, where those who were slaves but now had been set free, could find a home. They brought various different perspectives of faith into this melting pot: no wonder there were differences. Paul came here around 50-51 AD, before the first book of the New Testament had even been written. It was once he had journeyed to Ephesus that he wrote the letter to the Thessalonians and then to those at Corinth.
We might say a politician, or a celebrity, for those wise in age, it might have been Billy Graham in the past?
Who did/do we follow?
It is so easy to allow our focus to move onto a person. In Verse 6-7 Paul uses a plant metaphor: One person plants, another waters and God allows growth, we germinate with God, breaking free from the Earth into God’s Kin~dom. Paul suggests that we are not in competition with another, with other denominations or faiths, or other circuit churches or each other: it’s about being authentic with God. Note we have lost the striving to be best, but knowing that we are loved and accepted by God.
In the preceding verses to today’s New Testament verses Jesus is giving the Beatitudes: that bit where he keeps on giving statements about being Blessed. Let’s remind ourselves of a modern perspective of that text:
Nadia Bolz Weber’s Beatitudes
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who no one else notices. The kids who sit alone at primary-school lunch tables. The laundry workers at the hospital. The sex-workers and the night shift street sweepers. Blessed are the losers and the babies and the parts of ourselves that are so small. The parts of ourselves that don’t want to make eye contact with a world that only loves the winners. Blessed are the forgotten. Blessed are the closeted. Blessed are the unemployed, the unimpressive, the underrepresented. Blessed are the teens who have to figure out ways to hide the new cuts on their arms. Blessed are the meek. You are of heaven and Jesus blesses you.”
Nadia Bolz Weber
What did you make of that? Different to the usual text.
Did you react to those terms of losers,
sex-workers, the unimpressive, the forgotten?
A social media ‘beatitudes’ could be as follows:
I have started the text a bit earlier than expected so I can include a key verse for this passage, which we didn’t hear from last week: 5:19 “Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments will be the least in the Kin_dom of God” Whoa stop right there. They aren’t going to Hell? to eternal damnation? They’ll still be in the Kin_dom of God?
Whenever I have read this text I feel I should wear an eye patch and only have one arm… because of all the ramifications, the consequences of my errors, the things I have done wrong in the past.
Matthew describes Jesus speaking about four key headings: Anger; Murder; Adultery; and Divorce – wow, this is going to be a fun talk! How do these apply to us?….Don’t worry there’s hope here as well!
Have you been angry? Really?
Has anyone really annoyed you so that you lost your temper? According to this text everyone who is angry will be subject to judgement. But wasn’t Jesus angry with those money lenders in the Temple, and with his disciples? If we call another a rude name, raca in this text meaning empty headed, then we are subject to Gehenna, the name of the local area which has been described as Hell. Surely not? This sounds very rule based.
Ah next verse “Go first and be reconciled with your brother” (in those days they only spoke of men, so it really infers everyone).
Did you pick up on those words: murder and adultery etc and did we then then miss out on the meaning of this text. Many suggest that Jesus was looking to show that the absurdity of the Pharisee’s laws, that we don’t follow a rule book, but we live the life.
An adulterer…what is he going to say now?
We can take Jesus’ words and distance ourselves from murder and adultery, we can pat ourselves on the back for not committing murder while we ruin the reputation of a fellow worker or neighbour through our words–we even call it “stabbing someone in the back.” The notion that we must reconcile with anyone who has something against us before we can give our gifts to God, can stops us in our tracks. There is no easy, private relationship to God in these words. Resentment, alienation from others, prevent me from even giving my gifts to God.
We can pat ourselves on the back for not committing adultery, and yet create big relationships with work, sports, or even the internet, rather than our spouse or partner or friend. Jesus shifts our attention from particular behaviors we must avoid, to particular ways to live which we must cultivate. Note the difference: wrongs to how we live, not tick box rules ………but…. living the life. God’s love saturates our lives. It is the way of blessedness, seeing others without judgement, as loved. As we heard from the alternative Beatitudes earlier.
The discussion on divorce is very contextual – relevant to that time. The Methodist Church has given fresh perspectives on divorce and now cohabitation, on that love between people. If we have a judgement to bring upon those who have been divorced and then now cohabit, do we look with God’s love, or do we see the possible blessing of such a relationship?
Let’s not say “We are not to judge” but “can we see the blessing?”
In the Psalm it speaks of walking with God. Note the movement, the dynamism. No longer are we to stop still, read the laws; we are called into the Kingdom of God, moving, living, Blessed because we refuse to be constrained by the society’s message that we are better than others because of what we wear, eat, buy, or do, but because of our desire to show that love towards others, to be reconciled with each other and with God.
Let’s not say “We are not to judge” but “can we see the blessing?”
Time to look with a fresh perspective.
May we not so focus upon those words of murder, anger, adultery and divorce in this text but of reconciliation, of that liberating love, that we may be authentic in our lives with God.
What are your thoughts?