Trinity Church
Towson, MD
RCL Year A - Epiphany 7 - February 19, 2017
Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18
1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23
Matthew 5:38-48
Psalm 119:33-40
I’m
always cautious about having baptisms on days other than the appointed feast
days like the day we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, the Great Vigil of Easter,
Pentecost, and All Saints’ Day… And whenever the Bishop decides to visit. But
sometimes, like last week, and like today, and like next week, we make a pastoral
concession and have a baptism.
When we
do that, sometimes the lessons are difficult to deal with…
In today’s
Gospel, we just heard part of one of the most famous sermons Jesus ever gave
during his ministry. But, in a way, it is fitting for us to hear this Gospel on
a day when we will baptize (at the 9am service) and welcome Bo Brumfield into Christ’s
Body, the Church… and make promises to nurture him in the Christian faith as
part of the Trinity family.
But,
what is seems problematic, is some of the difficult things that we hear Jesus
saying in the Gospel lesson. Jesus is pretty clear and direct… “Love your enemies. Do good
to those who hate you. Turn the other cheek, if someone takes your shirt – give
them your coat also” It almost doesn’t
seem like the real world, does it… How in the world can we be expected to love
our enemies, let alone turn the other cheek…
It’s
when we get those feeling of challenge that we need to understand that Jesus is
doing it again… Jesus is inverting the value system and changing the
understanding of what society would consider normal. Jesus is starting a
revolution – or as Bishop Curry calls it, a “movement…” “The Jesus Movement!”
Jesus
is starting this movement by calling the rules of this world into question… by
describing an entirely different way for those who believe in and claim to
follow Jesus as Lord and Savior… to live in this world and relate to one other…
inviting us into relationships not governed by power or prestige, but governed by
vulnerability grounded in love and acceptance.
So, if
we want to dismiss the instructions we just heard in the Gospel as simple idealisms,
maybe we should slow down and take them more seriously. They seem at first to
be “crazy” statements. But in these few “crazy” sentiments – Jesus gives us the
plans for the kingdom he proclaims and the movement he is starting.
And
so, before joining the “Jesus Movement,” we should probably know what we’re
getting ourselves into! And we should definitely know about this movement – the
revolution, that we are welcoming little Bo into! Wouldn’t it be something to
imagine Bo – and his siblings Holly and Cole – growing up and living in a world
where we actually treat each other the way Jesus is telling us to?
Like what
it says in the baptismal covenant – those promises we all make… To seek to
serve Christ in ALL persons, loving our neighbor as our self and strive for
Justice and Peace among ALL people, respecting the dignity of EVERY human
being… Not some, not just a few, not just the ones that you like… ALL… and ALL means ALL… It’s radical, it’s
difficult, but it’s gospel.
Then,
there is the last line of the Gospel lesson, “Be perfect, therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.” "Be perfect." When we hear that command,
most of us hear an injunction to a kind of moral perfectionism. But that's not
actually what the original language says. "Perfect," in this case, is
the Greek word telos, the word used
for "goal," "end," or "purpose." The sense of the
word is more about becoming what was intended, in fullness or completeness… accomplishing
our God-given purpose in the same way that God constantly reflects God's own
nature and purpose on us...
While
telos, can indeed be translated
to be “perfect,” it typically refers to something not so much morally perfect
but means something that has grown up, matured, and now has reached completion
and fullness. That is, telos is
the goal or desired outcome of a thing. A fruit tree’s telos, we might say, is to grow and mature so that it can bear good
fruit (to use another image from scripture). So, I don’t think that Jesus
is simply commanding something of us but he is also commending something in us.
That is,
maybe Jesus simply knows that we have more to give, that we can be more and do
more than what we have settled for – and that we can absolutely make a
difference in the world if we would simply trust God and believe in ourselves.
And so
I hear in the commands in this Gospel reading as an invitation to be the people
God has created us to be so that we might not just persevere through this challenging
life, but actually flourish, making a difference to those around us by sharing
the abundant life Jesus has given us. Does this sound Crazy? Maybe.
But Eugene
Peterson's translation of the gospel passage in The Message gets closer to the mark, I think… And helps us
understand the passage.
He
says, “In a word, what I’m saying is - You’re
kingdom people. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live
generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”
Now, Does
that let us off the hook with all the other things? I don’t think so... But it
does help us get to the root of the issue. We can only do these other things – take
the higher ground, repay evil with good, forgiving and praying for those who
harm us – to the degree that we can live into our own God-given identity as the
blessed and beloved children of God that we are. You can't give what you don't
have, and so only those who have experienced love can in turn share it with
others.
Jesus,
who was human like us, not only commands, he also understands – understands
just how hard it is for us to love rather than hate, to forgive rather than
begrudge, to share rather than hoard, to heal rather than wound, especially
when we go through so much of our lives wounded and hurt.
So, today,
as we baptize Bo, and promise to support him as he grows in the Christian live
and faith, we are also there to remind him that he has a God-given identity as
a blessed and beloved child of God. And every baptism is a chance for us to
remember our own baptisms – and to remind ourselves that we too are blessed and
beloved… and why we are a part of Christ’s Body the Church in the first place.
Evelyn
Underhill, the famous Anglican writer of the 20th Century, once wrote,
“The real business of the Church is … to bind us together—the learned and
simple, the strong and the weak—in a great social act of love and worship; to
provide a home for the nurturing of the spiritual life. For we cannot get on
alone, in religion or anything else. Our
spiritual life must be a social life too. Wonder and love are caught, not
taught; and to catch them we must be in an atmosphere where we are sure to find
the germs. A living Church ought to be full of the germs of wonder and love.”
So in
a few minutes, as we remind Bo that he is a blessed and beloved child of God, surrounded
by the germs of wonder and love, I urge you to remind yourself – too - that you
are a blessed and beloved child of God.
Is
that easy to remember? Of course it isn’t. So many things get in the way. Past
disappointments or hurts that still haunt us. Old grudges and wounds that are a
long time healing. Painful memories that are slow to fade. Just for a minute,
close your eyes and think about what it is that gets in the way of your being the
blessed and beloved person that God created you to be. Then, in the days and
weeks ahead, try to grow past the things that get in your way – and remember
just how much God loves you – and that the Church is always here to support you
on your journey.
We who
are gathered today to witness Bo’s baptism, represent Christ’s Body, the Church,
God’s family on earth, and we have the God-given potential to change the world…
Change the world, and live by the radical ethics that Jesus is teaching us – right
now. We can be part of the Revolution - part of the ‘Jesus Movement,’ modeling
a new and different way of being in the world… a world that we might simply
call the kingdom of God.
Because,
as Peterson’s translation says, “You’re kingdom people (blessed and beloved by
God) Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and
graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” - Go, and be who you
are!
This message was inspired by and written in collaboration with Kathleen Capcara, Lay Associate for Parish Life at Trinity.
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