Setting High Standards

Sunday, February 13, 2011, Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Morning Service

Matthew 5:21-37

“Setting High Standards”

As we continue to work through The Sermon on the Mount, it might be helpful to look at where we’ve been so far…

Jesus opened his sermon with proclamations of hope, blessing, and grace found in God’s promises – The Beatitudes.

Then he talked about the call of his followers to be “salt and light” – to enhance and add flavor to the world; to help guide others to see God.

He challenged us to re-imagine God’s Law in a contemporary context and seek ways to live into the spirit of the Law and not so much the strict letter of it.

Today’s gospel reading, however, can be hard to hear in the midst of all this hope, grace, and promise…

Jesus picks out some very specific commandments concerning murder,
sexual immorality, and swearing…

Then he makes them even more strict and harder to obey…

Where is the grace?

He sets hopelessly high standards for our behavior…

How can we possibly live up to this?

Our dilemma exists in the interplay between the ultimate destiny of humanity in the kingdom of God and the practical reality of life in today’s Christian community in the world.

There is real tension between the vision of this ideal standard of behavior and the real manifestation of anger, sexual sin, and human ignorance.

Recognizing this tension and listening for how Jesus tells us to deal with it is vital to our life as faithful Christians.

Yes, God sets impossibly high standards; grace is how he reaches out to us to bridge the gap between the standard and our ability to achieve it.

Let us pray…

O God of all that we are,
I pray that the words of my mouth will come from You,
and that the meditations of our hearts will be pleasing to You,
in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Before we go on I want to be clear about the point of today’s message…

Part of the reason that this text is difficult for some of us is because it seems so harsh with regard to some very difficult issues in our contemporary culture.

Jesus makes very strong statements about adultery and sexual immorality that have real implications for a society with free access to pornography, sexual images in the media, and an ambiguous moral code.

He takes a firm stand against divorce that might be troublesome to anyone whose family has been involved in this painful situation.

He talks against taking an oath to our culture where litigation is all too common and many people are not trusted at their word.

Today’s message is not about tackling any of these very complex issues.

I hope that you will listen past any of these specifics this morning and hear the broader message that I believe Jesus offers us in this text.

I understand that your particular situation may cause you to have valid questions about the commandments Jesus brings up.

But, for this morning, let’s table those questions and bring them up at another time or even in a private conversation.

Today I want us to focus on how Jesus points us toward understanding this text as part of the larger narrative about our relationships with God and with one another.

OK, now let’s address another big issue from this reading…

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away…”

“And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away…”

This is what we call “hyperbole” – a deliberate exaggeration used for effect,
to make a point…

Who among us hasn’t said: “If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times…”?

The truth is that if everyone took Jesus literally here, there would be a lot of half-blind,
left-handed people walking around…

And that is the point of taking a broader look at this reading and trying to see what Jesus is telling us about how to live the Christian life.

That is where this sermon started – talking to us about what it means to be a follower of Jesus and how living this life will challenge us AND bless us; how it will sometimes set impossible standards for us to aspire to.

This morning’s reading continues from what we heard last week…

Remember Jesus said: “I have not come to abolish the law…but to fulfill it.”

Last Sunday evening we said that, while Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, he did come to change it – to re-imagine it for his contemporary culture.

He was very clear that the status quo was not good enough – that the legalism of the Pharisees was not enough.

Jesus declares that his life and teaching reveal the will of God for the world…

He tells us that it is not strict adherence to the Law that makes us holy…

It is the way we live out the will of God found within the Law that brings holiness…

I believe we must try to understand how this fits into our contemporary culture?

I believe that the spirit of God’s Law leads us into different ways of treating one another…

I believe that God’s Law is about relationships.

Jesus doesn’t abolish the Law because the Law is good…

The problem is that the old understanding of the Law has missed the mark…

The intent of the Law, the Spirit of the Law really does set impossibly high standards.

The point is for us to realize that we cannot hope to even come close to those standards without God’s help…

It’s about a deeper sense of righteousness that is only possible within God’s Kingdom.

We cannot make any progress without God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

Remember the “you are” language from last week’s salt and light passage…

Jesus didn’t say: “Please be salt and light.”

He said: “You are salt and light.” It is who you are as God’s child.

The primary function of the Law is our identity as God’s people…

“If you love me you will keep my commands.”

“They will know you are Christians by your love for one another.”

Other people know us by what we do; they recognize God’s people as those who follow God’s Law; they compare our behavior to what they think Christians should be like.

The Law is about our relationships with God and with one another…

These are the relationships that other people see and experience…

How is your ongoing behavior reflecting the relationship you have with God?

Jesus words this morning offer us, not a piety checklist, but examples of how the Law helps us to live into our identity as Christians…

We shouldn’t get hung up on the details of these examples…

We need to hear words of encouragement designed to help us improve our relationships.

As we look at these specific examples, think about how this same process can be applied to all of God’s Laws and how we can use this way of thinking to help us renew our lives as followers of Christ.

When Jesus talks about the commandment not to murder, he affirms that command…

He goes further to help us see that life is so precious that we should not harbor anger,
or insult, or ill will toward another person…

There is no room for anger in God’s community…
There is no room for gossip or hard feelings…

“Thou shalt not kill” really means that we must hold all aspects of life to be sacred.

Does this mean that we will never get angry with someone? Absolutely not! We’re human.

What it means is that Jesus offers us a way to deal with our anger and extends his hand of grace to help us through our anger.

When Jesus talks about adultery and sexual sin he doesn’t change the Law, he carries it further to help us see that our sexuality is a gift from God to be cherished and guarded.

Fidelity to your spouse is more than not being with someone else; it includes not looking at Internet porn, not imagining yourself with another partner, not flirting with someone you’re not married to.

Fidelity also means celibacy in singleness and avoiding situations that might tempt you.

Does this mean that you will never have a dream about some hot movie star? Probably not! You’re married, not dead.

What it means is that Jesus recognizes our human nature and offers to help us resist the temptations of the flesh that seem to be around every corner in America.

Jesus’ comments about divorce raise a lot of eyebrows in the 21^st Century. We need to hear his words within the 1^st Century context where he is speaking.

We also need to hear that his underlying message really is that marriage is not disposable.

We need to spend more time searching for the right partner and working on that once-in-a-lifetime marriage God desires for us.

Does this mean that people will never marry the wrong person and seek to remedy the situation through divorce? Of course it doesn’t! People rush into things and make mistakes all the time…We’re people.

It means that God is available to help us avoid marrying the wrong person in the first place…AND God is there to help us get through the pain of realizing that divorce may be the only answer.

It also means that we all must take marriage very seriously and not be so quick to think that getting married will solve all our problems, get us out of a bad situation at home, or give us the perfect opportunity to change our prospective mate into the perfect husband or wife.

Finally, Jesus uses the example of swearing an oath as being sinful to God and man.

“Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’.”

In other words, be trustworthy; be someone whose word counts for the truth.

Show others that you don’t need to swear on your mother’s grave or on a stack of Bibles to prove your honesty – simply BE HONEST all the time and swearing won’t be necessary.

I also believe that he calls us to trust others. We reap what we sow and we will be trusted as we trust other people.

Does this mean you should refuse to swear to tell the truth in a court of law? No, it does not!

That is part of man’s law and we are obligated to abide by it.

It means that we should be trustworthy in our dealings with each other;
it means we should trust God to help us trust other people.

I really think that this portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount challenges us to take a fresh look at all of God’s Law and try to re-imagine what it means in its broadest context.

“Thou shalt not steal”…How does this apply to downloading images or music from the Internet? What about making copies of movies?

“Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy”…How does that relate to sleeping in on Sunday morning, staying away from church because you’re angry with someone, or choosing a picnic over church?

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”…Is there a relationship between this commandment and gossip? What does this have to do with what we say about people from other races, religions, or nationalities from us?

I believe that Jesus wants us to realize that matters of right and wrong cannot be handled with strict rules and legalistic living; doing what’s right goes to the very heart of human life and our relationship with God and with each other.

Yes, God sets high standards; he has high expectations of us; and he offers us the grace we need to live the life he calls us to…Will you accept the challenge?