February 21, 2011

An eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth is the human reaction to injury.  Both of today’s Old Testament and Gospel readings preach the same message.  We are to follow the spirit of the 10 Commandants, not just the letter of the law.  Obeying the spirit of the Commandants is extremely difficult because it often goes against our human nature.

Taken as a whole, Leviticus was an instruction manual for Levites (Old Testaments priests.)  The specific chapter in the Old Testament for last Sunday is referred to as the social chapter.  It tells us, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy.”  This statement tells us that holiness cannot be an optional luxury in our lifestyle.  We are tasked to be holy, because God is holy.  This is a high expectation, one that none of us can actually achieve, but one we must strive to meet. 

The same expectation of holiness is expressed in Matthew 5:43 (last Sunday’s Gospel reading).  "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect."  This is a restatement of the demand for holiness made in Leviticus. 

Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made the statement,   "I am here not to change the law, but rather as the fulfillment of the law."  Jesus clarifies that we are to return to God’s intent when he gave us the 10 Commandants to follow.  This is in contrast to the legalistic way the law was being interpreted by the Pharisees and Scribes.   

We must keep the spirit of the Commandants in our lives every day in every way.  We must take care never to use another’s person’s labor for personal enrichment.  It means giving the poor break.  This is much more than giving a dollar or two to a beggar.  Rather, it means we are expected to give the poor a way to earn a living.  Many Christians do hire people to do odd jobs around their homes, allowing those hired to subsist in our economy.  This is an example of following the spirit of the Law.

We are to avoid making distinctions among people.  Leviticus makes this clear when it states, “we are not to be partial to the poor, nor to defer to the great.”  Jesus was not the first to use the phrase “love your neighbor as yourself “Leviticus said it first.  God is forceful on this point.  He gave us his only Son knowing that Jesus Christ would be put to death in order to bring this message to us. 

The lesson we are to learn from both of these readings is to rise above our human nature and do what is required to become more God-like.  We are to avoid persecuting others.  We must not call others to task nor seek revenge when we are being persecuted.  We must love our persecutors.

The Unites States and much of Europe are in the middle of a struggle with enemies that persecute us by attacking us where we work and live.  We must somehow learn to combat all threats like this with love, because this is what God does for us when we sin against him.

Being Godlike is difficult.  As difficult as it is, this is what God demands of us. This means loving those who hate and persecute us.  God’s love for us is all powerful and we can, by his grace, share his love through our action toward others.

January 30, 2011

An important part of Christian worship is a blessing that is embedded in our services each Sunday.  In the celebration of the Eucharist we end the service with a blessing.  A blessing is God's way of telling us that we are okay and are one of God's people. 

In today's gospel, Jesus, God the Son, is telling us the attributes that a blessed person possesses.  When examining the Beatitudes one must remember that Jesus was speaking to the core of those followers, the disciples, who believed he was the Son of God.  Through the 2,000 years since Jesus life on earth this core has expanded to include all of us who profess Jesus as our Savior.

The Beatitudes are addressed to the entire faith community, rather than to the individual.  Very few followers of Christ can claim to be meek, merciful, and pure in heart; however in every congregation there are persons of meekness, people who minister out of mercy for their fellow man, and workers for peace.  These individuals’ presence and activity among us is a sign of God's blessing and a call to all of us to make our common life more consistent with the values of God’s kingdom.

We must remember that Christianity is not an activity to reduce stress, lose weight,  nor can just being a Christian preserve us from illness.   To help us make sense of the Beatitudes we will examine two of the attributes that Jesus tells us exists in a functional faith community. 

One of the Beatitudes that most of us have heard over and over is, “blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The Beatitude actually reads, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  Most Christians have a way of not remembering the words “in spirit.”  The insertion of these two simple words radically changes the meaning of this beatitude.  The words poor in spirit, refer to a spiritual void in each of us; that can only be filled by God.  The poor in spirit know that their lives are not in their own control, and that they are totally dependent on God.

Persons who hunger and thirst for righteousness are those who neither long to be personally pious nor are they dreamers or do-gooders.  They are persons who long for the coming of God's kingdom and the victory over sin that comes with this yearning.  Righteousness in the beatitudes is more akin to the hope we all have to attain eternal salvation.  Our Christian faith is a way of living based on the firm and sure hope that meekness is the way of God, that righteousness and peace will finally prevail.  We must live in the realization that the future will be a time of mercy rather than cruelty.

We must remember that trying to use the Beatitudes as a way of life will in the end be vindicated by God and we will be truly blessed.

The blessings that we receive on Sunday’s service and in the daily office are the outpouring of Gods love for us.  These blessings serve to strengthen us so that we can live up to the standard set by Jesus in the Beatitudes.