Rev’d Jonathan Gale
Isaiah 58:1-9a
False and True Worship
Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practised righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgements,
they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,
and oppress all your workers.
4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator* shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
1 Corinthians 2: 1 – 12
Proclaiming Christ Crucified
When I came to you, brothers and sisters,* I did not come proclaiming the mystery* of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 4My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom,* but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
The True Wisdom of God
6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. 7But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But, as it is written,
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived,
what God has prepared for those who love him’—
10these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.
Matthew 5: 13 – 20
Salt and Light
13 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
14 ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
The Law and the Prophets
17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter,* not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks* one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Wow! I class that as an almost threatening statement. I mean, who on earth is able to live up to that?
You know what our normal reaction to that kind of statement is? To pretend it didn’t happen. We’re good at that. Faith and I were praying for someone a little while ago who, due to traumatic events in her life, would occasionally experience great fear. She admitted, when describing one such event, that all she could utter was, “Not here,” meaning, “I’m not here. I’m not experiencing this. If I ignore it, perhaps it will go away.”
When we feel overwhelmed by demands, we shut off. How do you feel when you hear Jesus’ words 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven?
I feel pretty hopeless reading that, and especially the Sermon on the Mount. The standard is so impossibly high!
This is what some [1]people have thought of Jesus’ teaching over time:
Tolstoy, Kierkegaard and others thought that Jesus in his teaching was setting out the moral and ethical standards you must have to become his follower. It seems to me this confuses the results of the Kingdom lifestyle with the means of entering and living in the Kingdom. We can only become his follower by receiving his undeserved favour, the grace and love he demonstrated on the cross.
Martin Luther regarded Jesus’ words as an impossible level for humans to reach. Therefore, he thought it was an ideal intended to show us our need of salvation. He was clearly thinking of Paul’s telling the Galatians that the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith (Galatians 3: 24). In other words, the demands of the Law are too great and we turn to Christ to help us fulfil them.
However, it is clear that Jesus was mainly speaking to disciples who had already responded to his call to repent. Yet, some of his teaching was intended to draw unbelievers to him.
Schofield and Albert Schweitzer saw the Sermon on the Mount as a set of instructions for the age just before or after the Second Coming. Both of them thought it was not directly related to our lives before Jesus’ return. We can argue that the coming of the Kingdom is less limited than this. Jesus has introduced it in part, and it will be fulfilled at his return. But nonetheless the teachings apply in the meantime.
Thomas Aquinas taught that these teachings were given for a select group who would pursue a higher ethical and moral life. The select group were clergy and monks. However, one of the principles reclaimed by the Reformation was the priesthood of all believers. The only distinction which is made in the text is between believers and unbelievers. All his followers are called to follow him; there is no suggestion of an elite.
There are some truths in these interpretations. The fifth view is that Jesus tells us what Kingdom life looks like. It is not about our earning our acceptance. This Kingdom life is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus died for our sins on the cross. When we put our trust in him, God forgives us and gives us new life. We are filled with the Spirit. It is from this transformation and empowering that the Kingdom life can start to grow.
The true Kingdom approach is from the small to the large, from the inside out. Elsewhere Jesus told the parable of the woman adding yeast to dough. A little yeast affects all of it, inner life will inevitably transform the outer life.
There is a delightful description in Ezekiel that always reminds me of a reluctant swimmer at the beach entering the sea in stages. Ezekiel 47: 1 – 12 has often been taken as a prophetic vision of the believer growing into the Kingdom of God – and importantly – the growth in our experience of the benefits of the Kingdom as we submit more and more to God.
47Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple towards the east
3 Going on eastwards with a cord in his hand, the man measured one thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was ankle-deep.
4Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was knee-deep.
Again he measured one thousand, and led me through the water; and it was up to the waist.
5Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed. 6He said to me, ‘Mortal, have you seen this?’
The writer then describes how the waters heal the sea and an abundance of sea life results, how many trees grow along the banks of the river and how they bear fresh fruit every month and how the leaves are used for healing.
Yes, as the scripture tells us, we are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light, but the nature of our taking on the characteristics of the Kingdom is one of progression, one of gradual growth.
In the face of the overwhelming wisdom and perfection of God we take courage from the words of Paul to the Corinthians: I did not come proclaiming the mystery* of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
You want to fulfil Jesus’ command to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world? That too is a pretty big ask. Follow Paul’s example and ensure that at the centre of your faith (your looking to God), is the cross. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. As the hymn says, “simply to Thy cross I cling.”
Acknowledging the cross as not only the source of the only grace that can save us, but also as the instrument that puts to death our grossly insufficient efforts to please God, opens the way for God’s Spirit to begin creating within us the kind of Kingdom values that lead to the good works that bring light to the world.
Not what Scripture calls our dead works, those done in our own strength, but those that stem from a crucified life because only a crucified life can accommodate the resurrection power that is at the centre of the Holy Spirit’s activity in helping us give expression to a lifestyle that shines a light on Jesus and turns us into beacons of hope.
So whether it is receiving the grace of God for salvation, or whether it is demonstrating a righteousness that passes that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is only one place to start and that is at the foot of the cross.
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator* shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
Amen.
Rock of Ages Cleft for Me (Augustus M. Toplady lyrics)
[1] Sermon at St Stephen’s Whangaparaoa 2014 citing Wilkins M.J., 2004, The NIV Application Commentary – Matthew, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, p195-198