Epiphany 4A

Matthew 5:1-12

One of my preaching professors reminded us to preach grace because we are all too good at preaching law for ourselves. And today’s Gospel is no exception. We live in a world dominated by rules and condemnation and motivated by rewards, so immediately, we hear Jesus’ teaching as a to-do list – a moral or ethical checklist we should pursue if we want to have God’s blessing.

But God’s blessing isn’t anything we can earn – that’s what makes it God’s action for us; there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s love and nothing that can separate us from God’s love.

So if that’s not what Jesus is on about, what is he saying?

It’s helpful to remember that, for Matthew, Jesus is the one fulfilling all righteousness, the Messiah of whom the ancient prophets told. In his Gospel, Matthew draws parallels between Moses and Jesus. And scholars draw parallels to the traditional “five books of Moses” or the Pentateuch and the five speeches by Jesus that Matthew records.

Our gospel today begins with the first twelve verses of his initial sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. Following the parallel to Moses, this speech corresponds with Genesis, when God spoke creation into being. Only now, Jesus is speaking the new creation, the kingdom of heaven, into being.

In these first twelve verses, known as the Beatitudes, Jesus is addressing the disciples, but he’s not talking about the disciples. Instead, he is drawing attention to the reversal that God is bringing about in the world.

In ancient Israel, suffering, disease and poverty were all considered to be signs of being out of God’s favor or at least signals that the person had some fatal flaw or made some irredeemable mistake.

In contrast in the Roman Empire, divine blessing belonged to those who were members of the Roman Senate, soldiers and kings. Divinity was something bestowed on, or withheld from, leaders after their death. The Empire celebrated loyalty, victory and conquest, and proclaimed that the Roman Empire was eternal and everlasting. The images of these values were everywhere, in sculpture and art, even on the coins used in commerce.

So it is against this religious and imperial landscape that Jesus goes up a mountain and begins to teach.

And immediately he tells his followers that the ones who have God’s blessing, the ones whom God honors, are not the religious leaders, the powerful politicians or the battle proven conquerors but the meek and the merciful. They are not the ones who have demonstrated loyalty to the emperor, but those who have been persecuted and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They are not those whose peace comes from the Pax Romana – the “Roman Peace” inaugurated by Augustus – but the peacemakers who work for shalom, the well-being and peace of others. And finally, the blessed are not those who propagate the Empire, but those who are pure in Spirit, or singularly focused on God.

What Jesus describes is what the kingdom of heaven, here on earth and among us, looks like.

And, because we live in the “already but not yet”, what he describes are the marks of what will be when God’s will is accomplished. And it is a transformation that only God can initiate.

In the last two verses of our gospel reading, Jesus changes from saying “Blessed are they” to saying, “Blessed are you.” It’s one word but with that one word, Jesus makes it clear that while this transformational coming of God’s kingdom is God’s will and work, his followers have a role, and it’s not always going to be comfortable. 

The words from the psalmist and the prophet Micah guide us here. What will please the Lord?Lead a blameless life. Speak truth from your heart.
Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.

Comparing his followers to those ancient truth-tellers, Jesus invites us all to participate in this new creation, this new way of being in relationship and community with each other. In the same way that Moses brought the ten commandments to the Israelites and told them how God envisioned them in relationship with God and with each other, Jesus tells us how to see the people in our lives, community and world: to see them through God’s eyes, with God’s blessing upon them, even, and perhaps especially, when the rest of the world won’t. 

Recently in confirmation, our middle-school students used their own words to write their own beatitudes. Some of the ones they wrote said,

“blessed are the ones who aren’t as fortunate as others for they will always be in God’s presence”;

“blessed are those who grieve because they realize what is most important in life”;

“blessed are those who are bullied for they will be strengthened by God”; and

“blessed are those starving for God’s grace for they will be overflowing in love”.

God wants us, God’s children, to imitate Jesus when we look at God’s people and show others how God’s blessing or honor, and God’s love, flood the world, soaking each one of us in God’s grace.

As we go into the world today and this week, may we have our eyes opened to see as God does.

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

We give you thanks for your Son Jesus who shows us your love.

We thank you for your grace, for your forgiveness, that we cannot earn, and we thank you for your promise that nothing separates us from you.

Open our eyes to see our siblings and neighbors as blessed and honored in your sight.

We pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

Epiphany 3A

Matthew 4:12-23

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

A popular question for pastors is “What is your call story?”

It may be surprising to you, but from those I’ve heard, it’s more often characterized by a persistent or bothersome nudging than the clarion call we hear Jesus make to Simon Peter and the others in today’s gospel.

My own certainly was. Although I’d considered going to seminary after college, I didn’t pursue it then. A few years later, after Jamie and I had met and married and our oldest daughter was born, I was 26 and diagnosed with cancer, and it was there that I first experienced the holy work of hospital chaplains. But it wasn’t until ten years later, when our two children were in elementary school, that I began to ask what God wanted me to do, as I was pretty sure it was something different from the work I had been doing in nonprofits. And it was in the conversations with pastors that followed, and at each step of candidacy, seminary and internship that confirmed I was listening well and following God’s call for my life.

Like the disciples in today’s gospel, I wasn’t called to work that is wildly different from what I had been doing. It’s not like Jesus called me to build wells in Kenya or teach farmers in Guatemala. God is using what I know to make a difference with God’s people.

I still have deep conversations with people and learn about their lives. But instead of connecting their interests and passions to a cause or campaign, our conversations are more often centered on their faith stories and how God is calling them to live and serve. I still talk with people about giving but now it’s from the perspective of seeing our giving as a faith practice where we remember that we are custodians of what God has first given us. One of the very best, new parts of this call God has given me is helping people hear that God’s grace is for them and not only for other people; it sounds like foolishness when we use the world’s measures and standards, but that’s why grace is God’s gift to us and nothing we earn.

Each one of us has a call story. You may say, “Oh, I’m retired” or “I never went to seminary” or any number of other things to tell yourself you aren’t called, but you are. Like the pronouncement from the heavens when Jesus was baptized by John, at baptism, God pronounces you a child of God. In this way, God calls each one of us.

There’s a saying that goes, “God doesn’t call the equipped, but God equips the called.” In today’s gospel, we see Jesus call fishermen – laborers without education, credentials or power. Jesus calls them and tells them,

“You know all you need to know – instead of fishing for fish in the sea, now you’re going to fish for people. Help people be caught by the love that God shows you and you show the world.”

 “The call that Jesus casts over the waters of today is the same as the one that those first disciples heard.” (Jennifer Moland-Kovash, “Living by the Word”, Christian Century) Our call begins with our identity as children of God and continues with using the gifts God equips us with to show God’s love to the people we meet.

In calling them to join him, Jesus tells Simon Peter and the others that what they do matters, and we learn that there is a connection between what we believe and what we do. Disciples hear God’s Word and do it.

The gospel shows us that discipleship or following Jesus means leaving what we know or what is comfortable and going into an unknown future. Following Jesus means dying to the old and beginning anew.

It is what St. Paul talks about in Romans 6:

we have been buried with [Christ Jesus] by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4 NRS)

In another of Paul’s letter, the one to the church in Corinth, we hear again about discipleship, and the importance of unity among the followers of Jesus. We don’t know exactly what is happening there, but Paul addresses the rise of factions or divisions within the community there and chastises them for placing their loyalty to one teacher or missionary above their unity in Christ Jesus. He calls the disciples there to set aside their divisions and focus on the power of God, known in the cross of Christ and what God is doing in their midst.

It isn’t easy to surrender to the disruptive love of God, leave what we know and follow God into a new and unknown future. But that is exactly what Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John to do, and it’s what God calls us to do, also.

We are called to be unified by God’s good news for the world as we figure out how God is calling us, individually and as a congregation, to bear that Good News to our neighbors and world.

As a community of God’s beloved, we’re called to be a place of welcome and acceptance, and a place where lives are transformed by hearing God’s word taught and where people experience healing. (David Lose, “In the Meantime”)

Reflecting on the gospel, as a congregation – a community of people following Jesus - we want to help catch people in the love of God.

When we share our lives with each other, when we tell others where we have seen Jesus in our day or our week, and when we invite friends to come and see what God is doing here at Grace or in one of the ministries we partner with, we are creating a giant net, woven together by relationships, where people can be caught up in God’s love.

Just imagine what that bountiful catch could be!

 

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for calling each one of us your beloved child.

Thank you for the gift of your grace that invites us to die to the old and begin anew, every day.

Help us live in your love for us and share that love with the world.

Amen.