Epiphany 6 – 16 February 2020 - Year A

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation is written in the 5^th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Matthew: Verses 21-37:

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ ²² 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. ²³ So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. ²⁵ Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. ²⁶ Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.

³¹ “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³² But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

³³ “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.’ ³⁴ But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷ Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

This is now the third week that we have been invited to gather around Jesus listen to listen to His Sermon on the Mount. Two Sunday's ago, we followed Jesus up the mountain, and listened as He opened His mouth and poured out those wonderful Beatitudes upon His disciples – one blessing after another, like the waves of the ocean breaking on the beach.

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus tell His disciples that they are the salt of the earth and they arethe light of the world. This is not a command to become salt and light or even strive to becomesalt and light. "You are the salt of the earth." "You ARE the light of the world." 

As we said last week, it's important to get the order here right. They are not to be a blessing so that they may win Christ's blessing. He blesses them before they've done anything at all. Now, they are simply to be what His blessing has made them. They are blessed to be a blessing. That's what discipleship is all about. It's simply being the person that Jesus Christ has made us when He called us through our baptism to be His disciple. 

Now this morning, we hear Jesus continue His sermon by describing just what it means to be the "salt of the earth" and "the light of the world." He is sending them into a world that has lost its saltiness and that is covered in darkness. They are to be the preservative and the shining light in the midst of decay and darkness. They are to be the spring and the fountain of God's blessing to a world that lives under the curse of sin. 

It's not that the world is anti-religion or irreligious. In fact, the way that Jesus describes the situation, it's actually a very religious world that is under the curse of sin. People are by nature, religious beings. For the most part, most people believe that there is a god to whom we are all accountable and who will determine our eternal destiny to either heaven or hell. 

But the problem as Jesus presents it, is that their religion is misguided and misinformed. It misses the mark. Which by the way, is the literal meaning of the Greek word for 'sin.' "Hamartia" means, 'that which misses the mark.' 

The question is, how do these religious perceptions of the world miss the mark? 

The most general way of putting this is, religion misses the mark when it gets the order wrong. When religion says, 'we must be a blessing so that we may be blessed,' it misses the mark and it is a religion that is in desperate need of 'salt' and 'light.' 

At the most basic and fundamental level, there are only two types of religion in the world. One religion believes and teaches that one is saved by their works; because they are a blessing. And the other religion believes and teaches that one is saved by the grace of God alone, because God has blessed them, apart from any works. The first kind of religion goes by lots of different names. But there is only one name associated with the second kind of religion and that is "Christianity." 

But even Christianity is subject to the corruption of sin. There are many who call themselves Christians, yet who believe that their salvation depends upon their own righteousness. That they must be a blessing in order to be blessed.

Due to human intervention, there are many different ways that even Christians miss the mark, but by far the most popular way, is the way that Jesus is pointing out to His disciples this morning. Christians miss the mark by adding things to God's Law that are not there. And we all do this. We add "exceptions" and "technicalities" and "loopholes." 

We do this because we believe that keeping God's Law, by being good enough, saves us. And yet we know that we cannot meet the impossible standards that God's Law demands of us. And so, we add 'exceptions', and 'technicalities,' and 'loopholes,' in order to make God's Law doable. 

Fundamentally, we do not trust that God saves us by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ who has fulfilled the Laws demands, right down to the very letter on our behalf. Original sin has so twisted our human nature that we don't trust God. 

It is to this religious world that misses the mark that the disciples are to be "salt" and "light." They are to establish a ‘standard’ on earth where true religion can be found. And from that ‘standard’, they are to preach and teach the correct order of things – ^(Eph.2:8-9) "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift from God, not a result of works". Through this power of the Gospel, men and women, boys and girls will turn from false religion to the one, true faith and eventually, they will overcome the world. 

Jesus message is to not to present a 'dumbed down' religion, with exceptions, technicalities and loopholes that make it possible to keep God's Law and present yourself to God as righteous apart from the cross of Christ. 

They are to preach that the righteous demands of the Law and the Prophets must be met, and that this is what Jesus came into the world to do on our behalf. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them." By His life and death, Jesus has fulfilled every iota and dot of the Law, without exceptions, technicalities or loopholes – for us, on our behalf. 

This is how we're to understand Jesus' words to His disciples in the portion of His Sermon on the Mount that was our gospel reading this morning. With six sweeping corrections, He wipes away all of the additions and subtractions that so many have been led to believe are consistent with God's Word. 

Six times, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said…" And then says, 'But I say to you…"
* "You have heard it said, do not murder… but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is liable to the judgment."
* "You have heard it said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her."
* "It was said, 'whoever divorces his wife must have a divorce certificate. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery."
* "You have heard that it was said, 'you shall not swear falsely… But I say to you, Do not swear at all."
* "You have heard that it was said, 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'… But I say to you, 'turn the other cheek.'"
* "You have heard it said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you."

Just to be sure we understand what He is doing here, Jesus is not 'taking the Law to a higher standard.' No, He is showing us how we have taken God's Law to a lower standard. The standard for God's Law is love; the love of God with all of your heart, soul and mind; and the love of your neighbour with the same measure of love with which God loves us. 

Each and every one of these "you have heard it said," statements are the way that we have reduced the Law so that we can technically keep it – yet never actually love. 

We believe that even though I'm full of anger against someone and I want see them suffer for what they've done, yet since I haven't murdered them, I've kept the 5th Commandment – 'thou shall not murder.' 

Maybe we're careful to keep our anger hidden inside of us so that no one can see it. We go to church every Sunday and everyone thinks that we're so righteous. But we don't love our neighbour, let alone our enemy. And so Jesus says, our worship is hypocrisy. It's false religion. It misses the mark. 

But against this, the disciple of Jesus Christ is "salt" and "light." It's not that we think we're perfect, but we do say that perfection is what God is aiming for with us – and nothing less. So we come to church, not to ask the Holy Spirit to accept our excuses or factor in certain technicalities. We come expecting that the Lord will convert the anger in our heart into love for our neighbour and our enemy – and nothing less. We come here to receive the gift from the altar that creates in us a clean heart and renews in us a right spirit and that empowers us to tear down that wall of separation that divides and alienates us from others be reconciled to them even as Christ has reconciled us to God. 

It's the same way with each of the examples that Jesus gives. 

We've added lots technicalities to the 7th Commandment – 'thou shall not commit adultery.'We say, 'it all depends on how you define the word, 'commit?' And with all of our technicalities and exceptions, we believe that we've kept this commandment even while we treat others as pure objects for our own pleasure. 

We've reduced God's wonderful institution of marriage to a matter of certificates. Whether it's a certificate of marriage or a certificate of divorce, we think we've kept the 7th Commandment as long as have the proper paperwork, even though there is no love. 

Jesus goes on to illustrate this same principle with three more examples. And we shouldn't think that if we get these six issues under control, that then our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. I suspect that Jesus could have easily listed 6 x 60 more of the same issues. 

If we think that the righteousness that Jesus is demanding here is hard, you're right. In fact, when Jesus finishes listing these six examples of how the righteousness of the disciples must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, He sums the whole thing up by saying, "you therefore must be perfect, as you heavenly Father is perfect." 

I know it sounds like an impossibly high standard that Jesus is setting for His disciples to take into in this world, but try to imagine a Christianity where everyone lived according to God's Law without the additions and subtractions. What salt of the earth, and what a light in the world there would be. 

Try to imagine a world where the One, Holy, Christian and Apostolic Church lived in the complete freedom that Christ has won for it by His cross and grave. What influence upon this world would His Church have if the men and women, boys and girls that professed to be members of it, actually believed that since He has kept the whole law for us we don't need to dumb it down so that we can keep it. 

And what if one day, this Christian Church so salted the earth and enlightened the world with this one, true faith, that it overcame the world? 

Try to imagine a world without anger, where everyone settled their difference out of love and respect for one another. In this world there is no adultery and no divorce but only holy marriages that in the image of the relationship of Christ to His bride the Church. Imagine this world where there is no need for oaths because everyone is true to their word, and the peace of Christ moves everyone to be reconciled with their enemy. 

It's hard to imagine I know. But this is precisely the world that Jesus has established by His life and death and resurrection from the dead. ^{(John 16:33)} "Take heart," He says, "I have overcome the world." ^{(Deuteronomy 30:20)}"This is the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, to give to them.". 

And so this movement of truth that God has established in this world to be "salt" and "light" goes back a long way and includes many. We are the beneficiaries of their witness to the one, true faith. May the Lord bless us to be "salt" and "light" in our generation and in generations to come. Amen

The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen