8th Sunday after Epiphany - Year A (Matthew 6:24-34)

God instructed the Israelites not to save manna from one day for the next. In the Lord’s Prayer we are taught to pray for today’s bread. One of the saddest of the many sad reality shows on television is, I believe called Hoarders. I have run into it while channel surfing from time to time but have never had the stomach to see it through. The show is about individuals who for whatever psycho-spiritual reasons have a compulsion to hoard “stuff” of all kinds, everything from possibly useful canned goods to totally useless magazines and newspapers. Eventually these hoarders literally become prisoners of their stuff.
Most of us, fortunately, are not hoarders. But I suspect that many of us are collectors, and I’m not talking about coins, stamps or fine art. I know that I am. In our house we collect, among other things, used file folders, paper clips, and those plastic wrapped sets of eating utensils that sometimes come with takeout. There are boxes of old photographs, old letters and old travel souvenirs. It is comforting and perhaps even helpful to suggest that the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount is to free us to let go of all the “stuff” in our lives.

For better or worse, however, it’s not possible to look honestly at this text without talking about money. American’s are apparently not much good at saving. Press reports indicate low savings rates as compared to other national groups. Yet, many of us do manage to put a little bit away for a rainy day and those of us fortunate enough to have jobs with decent benefits might even have something stashed in a 401K for a rainy day. Francis of Assisi took Jesus at his word, considered the lilies of the field, stripped off his clothing in the Cathedral piazza and became the Poverello, the little poor man. In ever century since this sermon was first preached, others have done the same. Most of us have not. I’m not prepared to cash in my retirement savings and deliver it to the homeless shelter. I doubt that you are either. The best most of us can hope for is to love and serve only one master, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and to live each day on its own terms. As for the rest, we must depend on God’s grace and mercy.

7th Sunday after Epiphany - Year A (Matthew 5:38-48)

Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect?  Is this really a reasonable request?  Perhaps this is one of those obvious Semitic hyperboles scripture teachers used to speak of?  Maybe Jesus has a perverse sense of humor and the joke is on us.  This next installment of the Sermon on the Mount sounds like just more bad news about standards we can never meet.  I do believe, however that there is good news to be found here.  The demand that we be perfect as God is perfect follows a description of what God’s perfection is like.  God’s perfection consists in perfect love showed equally to all.  God’s love falls like rain, equally on the just and unjust.  God’s love embraces both the sinner and the saint.  (Luther says that each of us is both.)  God’s unconditional, unearned, and often unrequited love for humanity is that perfection of which Jesus speaks.  Sharing in this universal love frees the follower of Jesus from the need to tally points or judge motives.  It opens our hearts to acts of mutual forgiveness and genuine acceptance of the other.  God’s perfection is ultimately displayed on the cross.  In joining Jesus at the cross, we too stretch out our arms in a perfect sacrifice of love and thanksgiving, embracing the entire world.

6th Sunday after Epiphany - Year A (Matthew 5:21-37)

Having just said a few verses earlier (in last Sunday’s pericope) that he had not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, today’s verses provide an explanation of Jesus’ understanding of what this fulfillment of the law will require. For the ordinary Christian reading this Gospel text, this portion of the Sermon on the Mount seems to be somewhat short on good news. It appears that even the rigorous interpretation of the law held by the scribes and Pharisees is insufficient as this must be “exceeded”. These teaching are hard sayings. Is the Christian required to do something impossible in order to be saved? This was, of course, the question that so plagued Martin Luther. The key to seeing this passage as good news lies in paying closer attention to the words of Jesus from last week’s text. Jesus says “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” It is Jesus, and not you and me, who must fulfill the law.
But, you might argue, Jesus goes on to say that your (meaning our, the hearer’s/reader’s) righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. I don’t think it a copout to suggest that this righteousness is achieved precisely through the prompt admission of our inability to meet these requirements and our utter dependence on God’s mercy. As portrayed in the Gospels, the Pharisees are individuals convinced of their own righteousness. The bottom line is that both the ordinary Christian and the Pharisee fail to observe the law in its fullness. The difference comes from the way in which this failure is acknowledged and the honest assessment of one’s ability to succeed.

5th Sunday after Epiphany - A (Matt 5:13-20)

In pondering this Sunday’s Gospel I can’t help but be reminded of the news surrounding the federal government’s recommendation this past week that American’s lower their salt intake. Salt, while necessary and good in the right amount, becomes dangerous when overused. We also know that even from a just a taste perspective, it is easy to ruin a dish by adding too much salt. It simply can’t be eaten.



Perhaps this is a good point for Christians who have been called to be salt to ponder. The gospel text seems to suggest that one of the evangelical tasks of believers is to “flavor” the world. The text isn’t explicit about what this means, but the larger context suggests that this flavor is provided by our behavior. I suggest that when the behavior focuses on the doer of the good deed rather than Christ, intrudes on the religious freedom of the hearer, or in the worst case scenario, brings violence and discord, then there has been too much salt.
Although extreme, the recent murder of David Kato in Uganda is a case in point. While I do not agree with my Christian brothers and sisters who denounce homosexuality as an abomination, their right to believe this is not in doubt. On the other hand, to allow this belief to be funneled into acts of intimidation, violence and murder is totally unacceptable.