3 before Lent Year A 12 Feb 2023 Sermon on the Mount
Readings: 1 Corinthians 2.1.12; Mt 5.13-20
Almighty God, together may we now hear your loving wisdom. Amen.
You may know that as the hen has sat on the egg
to warm it through its development,
when the time comes to break forth into the world,
the chick must crack the shell herself to emerge.
For it is in this process that she develops the muscle power to survive.
Likewise, the foal must struggle on its own through the birth canal,
for if the assistance of a vet is needed – my mother was among
the first women vets to qualify at the vet school in Camden in the 1930s,
if assistance is needed to pull the foal forth into the world,
his muscles will not have been sufficiently exercised
to enable him to take that great gasp of air as he emerges into the sunlight – and breathe. The launch into life is always a precarious adventure!
This year on the Sundays before Lent our gospel readings take us
through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.
Jesus’ teachings as to how we may journey into that fullness of life!
And tough indeed they are! I’m sure you know them!
They begin with the Beatitudes, that is: blessed are those who mourn;
blessed are those who seek after righteousness; blessed are the merciful.
This morning Jesus tells us: we are to be ‘salt of the earth’, ‘
light to the world’! He continues: Not one jot or tittle, not one letter,
not one stroke of a letter of the Law, will be removed,
will pass from its injunctions. Yet what Jesus goes on to teach,
is, to say the least, nothing less than a radical interpretation of that Law!
Even as our own teaching, our own following of that Law of Jesus
will be, as we have just heard, the measure of our place in heaven!
-480As the chick and the foal must wrestle their way into life,
-480so we too, must wrestle with our circumstances
in a cycle of dying to self and rising to new life,
leading us forward with the word of God into ever fuller life.
Jesus continues in his Sermon: Do not be angry.
Do not call your brother a fool.
In other words, do not rubbish one another.
Seek swiftly to be reconciled. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemy.
So that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
Do not worry. Do not judge. Do not judge.
For with the judgement you make, you yourself will be judged.
The measure you give will be the measure you get.
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard
that leads to life, and few there are that find it.
Forgive. As you seek to be forgiven.
The heart of the prayer that Jesus taught us.
These precepts are the sinews and muscles of our spiritual life!
As we exercise them in the power of the Spirit, we gulp down
the breath of life that leads to joy!
And it is in those difficult, searing circumstances of our lives,
as we come up hard against them, it is here that are the opportunities
to exercise those muscles that they may grow strong,
and we, in our inner being, grow into spiritual maturity.
We are each of us God’s beloved creation, God’s beloved child,
journeying through the terrain that will lead us into our fulness of life.
And sometimes it is, damn hard.
Together we are members of a community,
a Christian community which believes in mercy and redemption,
forgiveness of failure and in God the potential for renewal.
Here is God’s wisdom, secret and hidden
which God decreed before the ages! As Paul speaks to us this morning.
And in the first chapter of this first letter to the Corinthians:
the wisdom of God, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.
How foolish society around us finds it
that we seek to forgive the wrongs done against us.
Yet how foolish we are when we choose not to do so.
Let us pause, take a deep breath – take many deep breaths,
before we arrive at our conclusions.
Jesus tells us: take a good look at that log in your own eye
before you try to help anyone else take the speck out of theirs,.
We are afraid that an act of forgiveness
offers a green light for further exploitation. Of course there are caveats. No one should remain in an abusive relationship.
Of course we need and must protect the vulnerable.
Speak out, stand out, resist injustice and oppression.
Indeed, as I asked a few weeks ago, in a sermon on the question:
‘What is truth?’, can we sit back and consider ourselves entirely innocent of the circumstances which lead, for instance, to youth offending?
Of course we do our best.
It behoves us to be generous in our thinking towards others.
An approach I would venture, we will find surprisingly creative.
We all let people down. Other people let us down.
A reality which does not deny
all the wonder and joy of our close relationships.
Does not empty the abundance
of the good things we receive in our friendships.
When we are hurt, as we learn to go deeper into Jesus’ way of forgiveness, choose to exercise those spiritual muscles,
our inner joy is once again able to surface.
I would highly recommend daily meditation
on the Sermon on the Mount as a Lenten exercise!
As Christians we have committed ourselves to walking the Way of Jesus.
And choosing the spiritual life is no ‘comfort blanket’!
As some in the secular world would suppose!
It is the promise that in the midst of all our brokenness,
there yet remains the potential for amazing new beginnings –
when we are willing to see our world through God’s eyes, Jesus’ eyes.
The work is worth the candle!
As I so abundantly know, as I look out across our congregation,
and see a beautiful collection of amazing and kind people. Thank you!
I want to finish with those famous words of that radical theologian,
the fourteenth century mystic, Julian of Norwich:
the profound revelation she received, that nothing, nothing,
as Paul declared to the Romans in his letter,
nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus:
Julian of Norwich
Because of our good Lord’s tender love to all who shall be saved,
he quickly comforts them saying: the cause of all this pain is sin.
But all shall be well, and all shall be well,
and all manner of thing shall be well. These words were said so kindly and without a hint of blame to me or to any who shall be saved.
So how unjust it would be for me to blame God
for allowing my sin when he does not blame me for falling into it.
In these words I saw the deep high mystery of God
which he will show to us in heaven.
Then we shall understand why he allowed sin to be.
And in knowing this we shall have endless joy in God.
Mercy is a work which springs from the goodness of God,
and it will continue to work until sin
is no longer allowed to molest faithful souls. Then shall every soul
be gathered into goodness and rest there for ever. Amen