Collect: we ask God: “give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments, we may please you both in will and deed.”
So let’s begin with this: What are we commanded to do? Jesus gave us several commands.
1. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind (Mt 22:37)… Mk adds: and with all your strength… (12:30) Lk adds: and your neighbor as yourself. (10:27)
a. Note: This is taken from The Great Commandment in Deut 6:5
b. Loving neighbor as self from Leviticus 19:9-18
2. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (Jn 15:12)
3. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you… (Mt 28:19-20)
It’s all about LOVE. We are commanded to LOVE.
Quote from Bp. Steven Charleston, Native American, Retired Bp. of Alaska:
Love will not lose. Even if the evidence of the daily news seems to suggest that it will, even if we despair of the values we thought we shared, even if we imagine the divisions between us have grown too wide to bridge: love will not lose. Love cannot be constrained by legal walls, political pieties, or institutional fear. Love is the subversion of power by mercy. It is the uncontrolled spirit of hope that erodes the authority of oppression. Love is the human soul made visible. Once we see it in one another’s eyes, no force on earth can compel us to deny its reality. Those who cling to what was will not win, for what is now will never cease to be. No matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, love will not lose.
WORD STUDY: LOVE agapao – agape love:
• to be full of good will
• deliberate – It’s a choice to pay attention to someone else and have regard for and respect them (sounds JUST like our Baptismal vow, doesn’t it: to regard the dignity of every human being)
• not affection (that’s eros) – we aren’t required to like the person
• is self-denying and compassionate
This is exactly what Jesus is teaching us in the continuing sermon on the mount from the Gospel of Matthew: a new way of loving.
But let’s start with Moses in Deuteronomy:
• Love of God = life and prosperity (things going well)
• But if we turn our hearts away = we are led to idolatry, which leads to death.
• CHOOSE LIFE, Moses proclaims. Obey God and cling to God so that you may live.
• (NOTE: I wrote a blog this week on the grace of obedience)
Then in the gospel reading, Jesus shows us a new way to understand these commandments:
You have heard it said… you shall not murder
But I say to you… if you are angry you will be liable to judgment
ANOTHER QUICK WORD STUDY: JUDGMENT = separation, sundering (as in: what God has joined together, let no one put asunder). This is the OPPOSITE of what our mission as found in our catechism: to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. (BCP 855)
But I say to you… if you insult a brother or sister, or call them “fool” which means empty (as in empty of the breath of life, therefore of no value), you will be liable to eternal torment (Gehenna, the garbage dump that stayed on fire)
The new way to love: be reconciled.
If you are separated from a brother or sister, reconcile first, then come to offer your life to God in worship.
This is a STRICT interpretation and in our present social and political circumstances, it’s important to hear that being reconciled doesn’t require that we agree or even like our sisters and brothers. It does require that we regard them with respect and approach them full of good will.
Do you hate someone? Do you hate a group of someones?
• Pray for them. Pray God’s lavish blessings all over them.
• Then watch what happens - prayer changes YOU and realigns your will with God’s – which as we heard in our Collect, is pleasing to God.
About Adultery, Jesus says, But I say to you… looking at a woman with lust counts as adultery.
(Jimmy Carter confession)
Adultery is a favorite sin to accuse people of – then and now.
Then that teaching that seems uncomfortably brutal and at odds with respecting our bodies – a command we’re to follow. But remember, this is Bible-talk, which like prayer, is interpreted as such.
• In Bible-talk, the EYE represents how you see, how you perceive
• the HAND represents what you do, your action in the world
If how you see/perceive the world, that person, that circumstance… causes you to sin (to separate, to sunder), then stop looking. It’s better to be unable to understand a thing, no matter how people judge you for that, than to sin.
If what you do causes you to sin (to separate, to sunder), then don’t do it, no matter how inconvenient that is or how others may tease or criticize you about it… just don’t do it.
Don’t separate. Don’t sunder. Be reconciled.
Then two even tougher examples: divorce and swearing oaths or vows.
DIVORCE: only men could do it. Jesus says, if you do that, YOU are the one who makes your ex-wife AND your new wife adulterers. This was a radical teaching in that time, forcing men to regard their wives with respect and raising women up from property to beloved of God.
SWEARING AN OATH: Jesus says simply – don’t do it. It isn’t needed. Be a person of your word. Tell the truth and keep your promises – just as God does for you.
• Anything else is a distraction.
This new way to practice love (agape) for God and one another, leads us to go deeper
• to move beyond following rules out of duty or fear of punishment toward acting in ways that regard the other in our midst with respect and kindness
This new way to practice love (agape) for God and one another
• challenges us to let go our judgments (whatever separates us from one another)
This new way to practice love (agape) for God and one another
• forces us to grow up spiritually - as St. Paul calls us to do in his letter to the Corinthians – and live into our common purpose which, I repeat, is:
to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.
Close with quote from Bp Charleston:
Kindness is not just an act, but a blessing. When someone treats you with kindness the impact of that blessing stays with you. It seeps into your spirit. It changes your self-perception and alters your outlook toward the world around you. This blessing is so enduring we can remember a single act of kindness for a lifetime. We can look back and count the people whose kindness shaped our lives. Kindness is one of the most powerful spiritual tools we possess. We should use it with intention and we should use it often. How do we change the world? One kindness at a time.
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