“You have heard it said that God created the heavens and the earth and everything that creeps on it in six days, but I say to you…” or
“You have heard it said that in heaven there will be seven angels carrying the seven plagues and when the seventh has been released, that will signify the end of the wrath of God, but I say to you…”
Throughout this sermon Jesus interprets what has been said by the prophets and the teachers of the law, and in some places, what is popularly know among the people listening to him, and he uses his teaching to reorient people toward God.
One of the observations the students and I made last week is that when we read or hear Scripture, it’s important to remember what we know about the character of God. As we reconcile the biblical accounts of creation with scientific evidence of dinosaurs and fossils, we remember that God isn’t a class clown, targeting us to be duped or ticked.
In Leviticus and again as we listen to Jesus, when we hear the commandments God has given us to govern our lives with God and with each other, we shouldn’t dismiss the ones that are challenging or seem improbable. God does not set us up to fail or put us in impossible circumstances to test us.
Therefore, when we hear Jesus’ command to be perfect, or complete, as our heavenly father is perfect, or complete, we can recognize that his command is not an indictment of how we have failed. And Jesus isn’t merely giving us a motivational speech, urging us to be better.
No, instead, what we should hear in Jesus’ words is
an affirmation of our identity as children of God;
and a promise that God is working out something new in each of us.
Jesus is casting a vision for the future as God imagines it.
Going back to the beginning, in Genesis, Scripture says God created humankind in the image of God. This idea that we are the imago Dei [imagō day] – that we are made in the image of God – becomes the foundation or ground of our being.
When we forget who we are, or whose we are, when we turn away from God, we are called to confess our brokenness, and live, freed as sons and daughters of God.
In the text from Leviticus, the Lord tells Moses, “Speak to all the congregation of people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” Again, this isn’t an indictment of our poor behavior or a motivational speech to encourage us to be better people. A half-dozen times, the Lord ends a command with the reminder “I am the Lord.” because it reminds us whose authority we live under.
As Luther writes in the explanation of the third article of the Creed, we must acknowledge that we can not by our own power or merit come to Christ or believe in Him, but the Holy Spirit enlightens us and empowers us to do what we cannot. [i]
God empowers us to live in God’s image, holy and perfect, as God is.
In the Matthew text, the Greek word for “perfect” is τέλειος
Its meaning better describes our relationship or orientation toward a goal than the goal itself. The goal is to live each day in the Imago Dei, the image of God.
Too often we live out of our brokenness, but as in the beatitudes, this image of who we are as God’s children is not a future state. It is who we are today, as God’s children. As Luther writes in his Large Catechism, “the work is finished and completed; Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us by his sufferings, death and resurrection.”[ii]
“[The Gospel] teaches about the right relation of the heart to God”[iii] because God imagines a world where we can live in right relationship with God and with each other.
But if holiness and righteousness, or perfection,
doesn’t look like never making a mistake;
if it doesn’t mean aging without wrinkles or scars;
if it doesn’t sound like always having the right answer, the quick reply or the comforting words,
what does it look like or sound like?
The easy answer, of course, like it so often is in church, is that it looks like Jesus. But as each one of us knows, living in the imago Dei, in the image of God and imitating Jesus, is anything but easy.
Still, I think we catch glimpses of what living in God’s image, and into God’s vision or creation, looks like
Let us pray:
Holy God,
Help us hear again that you love us very much.
Help us remember your faithfulness and trust in your promises, Lord,
that we might live in right relationship with you and our neighbors.
Ground us in Your Word and form us each into a reflection of your image, Lord.
Amen.
[i] “Small Catechism, Book of Concord, 355-56.
[ii] “Large Catechism,” Book of Concord. 436.
[iii] Luther’s Works, Vol 21., p. 108.
As Luther writes in the explanation of the third article of the Creed, we must acknowledge that we can not by our own power or merit come to Christ or believe in Him, but the Holy Spirit enlightens us and empowers us to do what we cannot. [i]
God empowers us to live in God’s image, holy and perfect, as God is.
In the Matthew text, the Greek word for “perfect” is τέλειος
Its meaning better describes our relationship or orientation toward a goal than the goal itself. The goal is to live each day in the Imago Dei, the image of God.
Too often we live out of our brokenness, but as in the beatitudes, this image of who we are as God’s children is not a future state. It is who we are today, as God’s children. As Luther writes in his Large Catechism, “the work is finished and completed; Christ has acquired and won the treasure for us by his sufferings, death and resurrection.”[ii]
“[The Gospel] teaches about the right relation of the heart to God”[iii] because God imagines a world where we can live in right relationship with God and with each other.
But if holiness and righteousness, or perfection,
doesn’t look like never making a mistake;
if it doesn’t mean aging without wrinkles or scars;
if it doesn’t sound like always having the right answer, the quick reply or the comforting words,
what does it look like or sound like?
The easy answer, of course, like it so often is in church, is that it looks like Jesus. But as each one of us knows, living in the imago Dei, in the image of God and imitating Jesus, is anything but easy.
Still, I think we catch glimpses of what living in God’s image, and into God’s vision or creation, looks like
- when a group of women gather, as women across our synod did a week ago Saturday, to proclaim the power of the Holy Spirit to encourage us and our sisters and brothers in faith;
- when churches and temples opened their doors to shelter and feed people who had been evacuated because of problems with the Oroville Dam in northern California;
- when prophetic voices, like those of Martin Luther and the other reformers, took a stand five hundred years ago against the abuses they were witnessing
Let us pray:
Holy God,
Help us hear again that you love us very much.
Help us remember your faithfulness and trust in your promises, Lord,
that we might live in right relationship with you and our neighbors.
Ground us in Your Word and form us each into a reflection of your image, Lord.
Amen.
[i] “Small Catechism, Book of Concord, 355-56.
[ii] “Large Catechism,” Book of Concord. 436.
[iii] Luther’s Works, Vol 21., p. 108.
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