Sermon On The Mount 2 - Sermon for Week Ending January 9, 2021

Reading 1 

From Matthew, chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 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. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

Reading 2

From "The Sermon On The Mount" by Amy-Jill Levine. 

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew presents Jesus as the new Moses, who interprets Torah, offers wisdom sayings on how to live the way God wants, and provides practical instruction. As we read it, we understand how Jesus’ Jewish context and Jewish message help us make more sense of his teaching, and get a better sense of how his teachings would have resonated with his first followers, even as we see how this very Jewish message could have easily been transported to the Gentile (that, is Pagan) world. As always, we do not need to make Judaism look bad in order to make Jesus look good. And if we know the context, we can see that Jesus is even wiser and more profound than we might have imagined.  

Sermon:

We are continuing our series on The Sermon on the Mount by Jewish Scholar Amy-Jill Levine.

I like the book so much that I splurged and bought The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Levine and fellow Jewish scholar Marc Brettler, so I’m pretty sure you will be hearing much more about the Jewishness of Jesus and the echoes of Israel’s scriptures in his teachings. As we heard in the reading, Levine reads the Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew as Rabbi Jesus’ interpretation of Torah, Jewish Law. She points out Israel’s scriptures in his teachings, and shows how the threads of the teachings reach through the whole gospel. Last time, we looked at the first 2 beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kindom of heaven,” and “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted,” And we saw how differently they can be interpreted when we read them through the lens of a Jewish rabbi,  rather than the Christian church. I find Levine’s insight into the third part of the sermon, which is our gospel reading for today, the verses that begin with, ‘You have heard that it was said, but I tell you,” even more interesting, because it is the opposite of what I learned these statements meant growing up in a fundamentalist church. There, we were taught that Jesus came to save the Jews, to offer an alternative to Judaism, (even though he clearly says that’s not his purpose.)  In many modern translations of the New Testament, these verses are still labeled antitheses, which is what we called them back then, but Levine shows us that they are not. Jesus’ words are not opposite of the Law of Moses. They are extensions. He extends it by getting to the fundamentals that motivate the actions presented. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment,’ but I say to you, ‘if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, first be reconciled with them, and then come offer your gift.’” This extension to the commandment gets to its roots. Anger, resentment, refusing to forgive, are what lead to murder. So stop them when they come up. Don’t wait for them to lead to something worse. Rabbinic Judaism calls what Jesus is doing, Building a fence around Torah. Just as a fence around a house protects what is inside, “the fence around the Torah protects the commandments by creating circumstances that make violation more difficult.” That’s what Jesus was attempting to do with his disciples in this new community they were building. He was teaching them how to make a world where angry thoughts don’t have the opportunity to lead to murder. In Verse 38, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” (this law is found in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, and in each case, monetary compensation is spelled out for the offense). When he says, “But I tell you, if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also,” he is not dismissing the law. He is adding the teaching that violence can be stopped at its source, if, when you are humiliated, you neither strike back or cower. That won’t change the mind of the one who attacked you. Instead, he says, face the perpetrator and make their wrongness clear. Show them that humiliating you won’t work to their advantage. It will only make you stronger. We are reminded here of the scenes of bravery and steadfastness in the non-violent resistance that Dr. King and his followers demonstrated during the Civil Rights movement. And there are lessons for us today, as our world has become so angry, so hateful and so violent in thought and action. This past Wednesday morning, when I learned that Rafael Warnock, a black Baptist preacher from my home state of Georgia was elected to the United States senate, I realized that the threads of these teachings in The Sermon on the Mount have reached all the way to us. In his acceptance speech, he challenged all of us to stand up non-violently to the division and hatred in our country. He said, “We have a choice to make. Will we continue to divide and dishonor one another? Or will we love our neighbors as we love ourselves? Will we play political games while real people suffer? Or will we win righteous fights together, for the good of our country. Will we seek to destroy one another as enemies, or heed the call towards the common good building together, what Dr. King called the Beloved Community?” That renewed my hope. It was temporarily dampened later that day, as we all witnessed the horrendous display of white supremacist violence at the Capitol, which revealed the worst of who we are as a country. But Milt and I had a long talk about everything that had happened, good and bad, and Wednesday night, the last night of our Book Club discussion of the book Caste, we talked about all that had happened, the good and the bad. How difficult the road ahead will be.  And I thought about John Lewis, of all that he was up against and how he never stopped trying to bring about change, and about Stacey Abrams, who took up the mantle and inspires us to do the same with her actions and her words. She said, “In these dark moments, when the work doesn’t seem worth it, and change seems out of reach, out of our willingness to push through, comes a tremendous power. Use it.” Let us use our collective power to continue the work, no matter how hard it is, until the kind of community that Jesus talked about in his sermon, and Dr. King talked about in his, a community defined by doing God’s will, which is engaging in loving mutual support for one another, is realized.