Hey All!
I’m sending out a special email, to try and clarify any confusion after yesterday’s sermon. It was a hard word. I acknowledge that! But as we draw near to Christ the light gets bright and brighter, which means that sometimes, with all that light, we actually have a hard time seeing.
If you missed the sermon yesterday, or would like to hear it again, you can do so here: The Fathoms of Existence
The following is long and essentially goes over the same ground as the sermon, but from a different angle.
- If you were confused or troubled, good!
We have read the Sermon on the Mount so many times that we are not troubled by it any more; our eyes just glaze right over it. “Don’t lust. Don’t divorce. Don’t hate. Don’t judge. Love your enemies.” Got it. Really?
If you are not troubled by the Sermon on the Mount, you are not reading the Sermon on the Mount. Your eyes are just passing over words on the page.
- The disciples were constantly confused and troubled by Jesus!
So, if you are confused, then you’re in good company! Jesus is our savior and our joy. But he is also disturbing and unsettling. The Gospel is offensive. If we are never troubled or offended, we would have to wonder if what we believe is actually the Gospel.
- I got a couple of these types of comments after the sermon: shouldn’t we stand up for the weak, the poor, and the abused?
The answer is Yes. It is always yes. We should always fight for the weak in our society. But I was NOT talking about the formation of a just society. What I was talking about is YOU. What will you personally do? You as an individual, as a human being, as a Christian, what will you do? For example: let’s imagine the worst. Let’s say you’re a slave. And you’re beaten. You, as a slave, are still called to love your enemy. The commands of the Bible still fall on you. You don’t get out of them just because someone is mistreating you. You don’t get out of them even if you’re right and they’re wrong. Now, you may gain your freedom. Great. Or maybe you even escape. Great. But you don’t hurt your enemy. You don’t kill them, even if they deserved it! All that doesn’t have anything to do with a just society. It only has to do with YOU. What will you do?
- Since, this remains lodged within you personally, I can’t apply it for you.
And it may look confusing, because you might think, “Tom, you don’t know my life. You can’t say those crazy things.” Well, I can say them. But I can’t apply them. You’ll have to figure out how it looks in your life. I would never try and impose on you. Your life is too complicated for me to assume I could tell you what to do in a specific situation. My job this past Sunday was to give you Matthew 5. And Matthew 5 is insane! So, if you felt a little insane, then I did my job.
(PS: I don’t pick those passages! The same readings are given to all Episcopal Churches. If I had to pick my own readings, I probably wouldn’t pick such hard ones!)
- Now, someone could say, “Well, if you’re not supposed to resist your enemy, then what about someone in an abusive relationship. That’s dangerous.”
First, remember, you’re not struggling with me here; you’re struggling with Matthew 5. And that’s good! Struggling with the Word is good!
Two, if you think taking Matthew 5 seriously is dangerous, you’re right. It is. That’s why I said a number of times yesterday, “Christianity is at times terrifying.”
Third, here is a mystery: the Gospel may put you in a situation that you feel called to, but looks stupid to everyone around you. Jim Eliot went to be a missionary to cannibals in Ecuador. His family and friends could have said, “That’s insane! Don’t do that! You’ll get yourself and everyone else killed!” And you know what? He did get himself and his friends killed. He left his wife a widow and his children fatherless. Was that stupid? Or do we just think it’s ok because he’s a missionary? Don’t you see? It’s the same for you, even if you don’t go to Ecuador!
Or take Abraham. We’ve read the story so many times that we forget how crazy it is. God called him to murder his son! We can’t say, “Well, Abraham didn’t have to go through with it.” Sure, but he didn’t know that when he was called to do it. If one of you told me that God called you to murder your son, I would say, “There’s no way God would call you to do that. I don’t know what you heard, but it wasn’t God.” But see! That’s exactly it! It was God who called Abraham to do that!
Now, go back to someone staying in an abusive relationship (and if we’re going to seriously contend with Matthew 5, we might as well test in on the some of the hardest examples we can think of.) Staying in an abusive or adulterous relationship would look foolish to us. That person is going to get themselves and maybe others hurt. God couldn’t possible ask them to stay in a relationship like that. But what if, what if, they felt called to stay? What if they felt called by God? What if they felt called to go back home everyday? Should we be so quick to say it’s wrong? It will look crazy to everyone else, but to that person it may be exactly what they are called to do. It would be too hard for us to say or judge. And do realize this: God himself stayed in an abusive and adulterous relationship with his people. The Israelites constantly took advantage of him and cheated on him. But he stayed. And it hurt him and eventually got him killed.
Now, that doesn’t mean at all that a person has to stay in hard relationship. They could leave. And maybe we should even help them leave! But if they decided to stay, we would have to be very careful in telling them it’s wrong. Since we know that Christ said, “Do not resist an evil person,” you may someday find yourself in a situation that you feel called to, but looks crazy to everyone else around you. Take Christ himself. When he said he was going to be killed, what did Peter do? “Not so Lord!” Going to the Cross looked insane to Peter. Jesus shouldn’t do that. He’s going to get himself killed and maybe the disciples with him. Hmm…
- How can any of this be done?
By faith in the Son of God, who raises the dead. You can put yourself in a position that looks crazy to the world and maybe you’ll even put yourself in danger. But, God raises the dead! You are never abandoned. He will never leave you or forsake you. So, we can witness to the Cross in any situation. We can think of others better than ourselves (even people we know are wrong!). We can love even our enemies (and I mean that literally!). Easter is coming. And if we haven’t walked through the darkness and come close to death, what good is Easter to us? The Easter resurrection is only good for dead people. Easter is only good for those who have gone to the Cross.
- Fear not, my people, no matter where you find yourself, you are held fast by the Love of God.
What did Paul say? “Neither death, nor life; neither persecution nor hardship, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Fear not. A Christian can put themselves in situations that are at times terrifying (Paul was beaten, stoned, and eventually killed!), because we know that nothing can separate us from his love! And if we should die, then he will raise us up! Fear nothing! Go! Love! Run! Walk on water! All things are yours in Christ Jesus!
- Do you see what many preachers do?
They jump to the what I wrote in number 7, but they totally skip over the hard word of the Cross (numbers 1-6)! Of course everyone wants life and resurrection, but did you skip over the Cross and everything it might mean in your life to get there?
- Maybe you don’t always see what I’m doing, but I’m going to make missionaries out of all of you.
Tom+