Sermon 6th Sunday after Epiphany

Sermon

Text: Matthew 5:21-37

It's about relationship.

To our neighbors, to our enemies, to ourselves,

To God.

That is a brief summary of Jesus' message in this section of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is expanding further upon his statement of fulfilling the Law and the Prophets. He begins to describe the Pharisee's and Scribe's interpretations of the law as a thing to be followed. A set of rules to obey and follow as is. Jesus challenges this view of mere repetition of what the law says. Asking them and us to think about what the law means. What the Law is for?

Jesus is extreme in his questioning of the understanding of the law. He begins by describing how the command against murder should be expanded to include all forms of anger and insult. He is showing that an understanding as basic as “well, I didn't murder anyone today” is not enough, Jesus asks us to look at where we were angry, who we insulted, who we pushed away. There is a reason that insults are often called “being stabbed in the back.”

He then moves on to the commandment against adultery, expanding it further than mere cheating, to an actual inner eye looking at anyone with lust. Jesus uses the extreme, hypothetical idea of tearing out your eye, or cutting off your arm to keep from this. The next target is divorce, saying that divorce is akin to adultery as well. And finally in our passage Jesus discusses Oaths and vows. He calls upon people not to swear oaths, but to say yes, yes or no, no. To say what you mean and do it. Don't even give yourself the chance to break an oath.

That is where the text for this week ends. A seemingly somewhat unconnected collection of sayings beyond their connection to the law.

But they are more connected than we see at first glance.

It's about relationship.

Jesus surrounds these sayings by introducing them in vs. 21 and 33 with the phrase. “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times.” Why does Jesus not say “you have seen it in the Commandments.” Or “in the Law?” Because it is about relationship. What is being accented, brought to the fore, is who this commandment was given to. It was given to the people of Israel as they journeyed in the desert during the Exodus from Egypt to the Holy Land. It was given at the point where God gave to them the law, but more importantly when God said to them, you will be my people and I will be your God. It is about Relationship.

What is important about the expanding of the commandment against murder to being against all forms of anger and insult? I'm thinking you are getting it by now. It's about relationship. When we fight, when we are angry at others, when we insult and push others away, we break that relationship, just as if we would have killed the other. To Jesus this relationship breaking also relates to our relationship with God. Jesus shockingly suggests that that maybe before we give to God we need to work to repair our relationships with each other. Our relationship with God is connected to our relationship with each other.

Our relationships with each other are so important to God. And especially our intimate relationships. God has created us as sexual creatures, and cares for us as such. God understands the demands of such intimate relationship and works to have us be aware of that importance. God asks us to view these relationships as carefully as God does. To see them as important and not as something trivial. Jesus' answer is to say it is better for us to be parted with our eye or arm than to risk the nature and confidence of these relationships. Amy Oden, Professor of History of Christianity Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., says:

“No longer do the teachings on murder and adultery apply strictly to acts of murder and adultery. Instead, they become doorways into the examination of many internal dynamics as well as external behaviors of one's life: anger, derision, slander, false generosity, litigiousness, arrogance, lust, temptation, alienation, divorce, and religious speech.”

Father Rick Moley of St. Marks Episcopal Church in Basking Ridge, New Jersey says.

“Jesus uses incendiary language here that is so over the top to drive a message home: sin isn't just about what we do, it's also what we think about. What we look at.”

Sin is not a personal thing. Sin is the breaking of relationships. It is not what we do, it is what results when we break the relationships around us through what we do. When we turn away from each other. When we turn away from God to the things of this world. When we break the promises that we swear to each other. When we hurt or injure each other in actuality or through word. When we violate the sacred, intimate relationships that God has given to us. That is when we sin. Sin is not a thing, it is a state of being broken and injured, being separated from each other and from the God who loves us.

And that is what God has declared. In this time of Epiphany. The time of being made aware, of seeing the light of Christ we see that despite all of our own faults we have a God who came to us, in our broken, separated states, and it is only through Christ that we are bound back together.

In the High School class on Wednesday we looked at why there are so many denominations, and one thing we saw that we need to remember is that despite all the arguments, all the infighting and separation that has occurred, what flows through all these different churches is Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. But, it can be hard to see that.

There is a painting by impressionist master Georges Seurat called “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”. When you look at this painting it is an idyllic scene in a park upon the Island. There are people sitting on blankets alongside a lake underneath trees. Dogs are romping, kids are playing. There are sailboats on the lake. It makes you wish for a perfect spring day. (The snow we have outside helps make me wish for that spring day as well.)

But, then you take a couple steps closer to the painting. And the scene disappears. It is now a indecipherable collection of dots. Seurat painted the painting in what is called Pointillism. It is a style where instead of strokes, many, many tiny dots fill the canvas and create an image when viewed from afar. But, up-close the dots become separated in our mind and we see not the painting, but each individual point.

When we become too focused on following the letter of the law, seeing the law as an individual thing, we begin to see the painting too closely. God calls upon us to see the Law not as a black and white thing, one side of the fence or the other. But, seeing it as a flowing thing that God gave to help us to be in relationship with each other. To help us stand back and see the wonderful painting of God's relationship of love with us and the world. It is a miraculous thing to behold.

Let us pray,

Thank you for giving us your blessing, thank you for making us Salt and Light to the world. Thank you for giving us the life giving relationships of our lives. Continue to show us your love, and protect us in our fear and separation. Bind us together.