Tough Love (Sermon based upon Matthew 5:38-48)

This past week, we celebrated Valentine’s Day. This day has become of symbol of love filled with red hearts, candy, flowers and gifts. From the time we are little kids, we get in on the action by taking the “Be Mine” valentines to hand out to our classmates. I still remember getting excited about Valentine’s Day in elementary school because I would get that little slip of paper from the popular kids, who otherwise never gave me the time of day, and, for just a moment, I could feel wanted. “Be mine” – as a child that was all it took to give me hope. 

The invitation to belong – to be loved – is something we all strive for but as we get older we realize love is never as easy as we’d like to think. Jesus spent much of his time issuing an invitation to “be mine” as he sought to show us that we are loved and wanted by God. Jesus also taught us that love is essential to who we are as Christians…

We find our call to be love in scripture

            For God so loved the world…(John 3:16)

            1 Corinthians 13 Love is patient. Love is King. Love is not

boastful, envious or rude.

We find our call to be love in song

            “For they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our

love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

(Our Faith We Sing 2223)

We find it in our missions and ministries

            We name our churches Love’s Chapel, or our missions

Agape Ministries

Love is supposed to be who we are so we must follow Jesus in such a way as to reflect the love of Jesus to the world around us. Jesus reminds us, however, in the Sermon on the Mount, that love is never as easy as we’d like to think.

Matthew 5:38 "You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41 and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42 Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

I think we can all admit to the first question that pops into our head here…. “Is he serious?” Is Jesus truly serious about not retaliating when we are abused, assaulted, and oppressed? Maybe for just a moment, your mind flashed a picture of Jesus in Pilate’s courtyard. He is battered, bleeding, humiliated, and stands silently as false witness is given and he is condemned to die. Is Jesus serious about the kind of love he just preached? I think it is safe to say he is. He is serious enough to die on love's behalf. 

Our mind may still reel for a way out. After all, we are not the Messiah so surely he isn’t calling us to do the same. He can’t really be calling us to be run over by the world, give away all our possessions and be seen as weak? Well, it is kind of a yes and no answer. No, he doesn’t expect us to be weak, run over, and passive. Yes, he does expect us to love in ways that are radically different than what the world teaches.

See, I don’t think Jesus intends for us to take this teaching literally; he doesn’t expect us to go around naked, abused, and penniless. He does, however, want us to take love serious in terms of how we respond to a world that is always out to serve self rather than other.

Let’s look at it this way…

“The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. Written by James Madison in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties, the Bill of Rights lists specific prohibitions on governmental power.” (Bill of Rights)

As Americans, we understand and highly value our rights as citizens of this nation. So, let’s step back to look at the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel had laws that we could say served as a version of a bill of rights. The glaring difference being that Moses, not Madison, declared these laws on God’s bequest. Nevertheless, there were laws that were set in place that established a person’s rights and placed limits on their ability to exceed those rights in ways that were unjust.

For example: You had the right to retaliate against someone for harming you. “You have heard it said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” The limitation being if someone caused you to lose an eye you weren’t allowed to then take both their eyes or their life, you could only take one eye. Equality.

You had the right to seek justice. You could certainly take someone to court and demand payment for a wrong.

You had the right to a limitation of government interference. This of course was not a law from Moses but it was a law in effect during Jesus’ life. For example, a Roman-occupying soldier had the right to demand of any citizen that they carry the soldiers heavy equipment for them as a service. The law, however, limited that service to no more than one mile. In that way the citizen couldn’t be enslaved or abused.

Jesus has laid out for his disciples examples of the “rights” afforded to them by the law. Then he drops the bombshell of the toughest love requirements we can imagine: Give up those rights for the sake of love.

You have the right to retaliate a slap in the face, I say, give up that right and turn the other cheek.

You have a right to limitations on justice and not lose everything in court but I say, offer everything anyway.

You have a right to limit what you do for others, but I say, go the extra mile for those who seek to control you.

On the surface this loves doesn’t sound so attractive does it? It sounds like it is calling us to be weak, but look again.

In truth, what Jesus is asking of his disciples is a radical, confident boldness that defies anything the world has ever seen. What he is actually saying is stand tall and confident as Children of God who live under the authority of God, an authority that exceeds all authority of man or government.

Let’s look at it this way…

Jesus specifies a slap to the right cheek is not to be retaliated, but instead we offer the left check as well. If you are facing someone and intend to strike them most of us would be hitting the person’s left cheek. The only way to strike the right cheek is to backhand them, which is not intended to injure but to demean or insult. Someone who thinks they have authority and power over you would strike you this way. Jesus says, however, to turn the left cheek to them as if to say, “Go ahead and hit me but hit me like an equal.”

                       

If someone wants to take you to court and take what is yours say, “Take it all, I don’t need anything beyond what my God provides.”

If someone says they have the authority to force you to walk a mile? Say, “I will walk on my own terms, let’s walk two.”

Is Jesus calling us to be rebels? In a way, but his is also teaching us about loving resistance to abuses of power. How do we know this? He says so in verses 43-44: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,’”

Loving resistance that benefits the very enemy we are standing up to. Wow. How radically brilliant! Lest we be tempted to say, “but Jesus doesn’t get our enemy today…or Jesus doesn’t understand how undeserving my enemy is.” Well, let’s stop and remember that we don’t really deserve Jesus’ love and grace either but he loves us enough to bless us with both no matter how hard hearted we are.

Look what Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”

Here is another hard teaching but hear it anyway – Jesus loves your enemy as much as he loves you. Fact. He said it. If we are to love as our Christ we too must love our enemy as much as we love our self.

Jesus says, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. This is our last bit of teaching, and this is important: Perfect doesn’t mean without blemish or mistake or fault. It is too easy to dismiss the call to “perfection” by saying no one can be perfect but Jesus. So, we must remember Jesus spoke a different language and sometimes meanings are lost in translation.

The word for “perfect” in the Greek language of the Gospels is telos and it means: to reach your intended outcome. I love how Dr. David Lose explains it, “The telos of an archers arrow is to reach its target…the telos of a peach tree is to bear a peach. What Jesus is saying is, be who God created you to be. Be the person for whom Christ died. Be Christ’s love for all the world, neighbors and enemies alike.”

The invitation to love is beautiful but as Jesus shows us, it is a lot tougher than we’d like to think.

Salty and Shiny (Sermon based upon Matthew 5:13-16)

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 hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In 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.

Last week, we read the first part of the Sermon on the Mount and discovered Jesus had some wonderful news for his new community of disciples. He declared them blessed. In other words, God had gifted them with many things that would go on to serve them in powerful ways. Yet we understood that they would have heard the Beatitudes as an echo from God’s promise to Abraham: blessed are you…so that you may bless others. Jesus goes on in today’s scripture to drive this point home.

The good news, or Gospel, continues as Jesus tells his faithful community that they indeed have already been given everything they need in order for this promise to be fulfilled. What they do with those things, however, is totally up to them. What Jesus expects of them seems simple enough. He expects them to be Salty, Shiny Christians. But what in the world does that really mean?

“You are the salt of the earth…” Notice Jesus doesn’t say you “could” be salt, or you “should” be salt. They already are salt. In this age of heart disease we may struggle to understand this opening metaphor because we have been taught that salt is bad for us. In Jesus’ day, however, salt was a valuable and coveted commodity. Salt wasn’t just about adding flavor to food, it was also an essential preservative in the days before refrigeration. It was used to purify, especially to purify meat and remove blood, which was important to the Jewish dietary laws that prohibited the consumption of blood.

"You are salt," Jesus says. "You are valuable. You have purpose and meaning. If, however, you lose your saltiness…"

Have you ever known salt to lose its flavor? We don’t have to be a chemist to know that is impossible, right? Salt, Sodium Chloride, cannot be anything other than salt. The only way for salt to not be salty is if it is applied poorly. What would that look like?

1. If it is diluted it will be less salty.

2. If it is carelessly thrown about it can be blown away or dispersed

with no useful intent.

3. If it is blended with so many other spices it can be overwhelmed

and indiscernible. It will still be salt but it will be useless if applied poorly.

Can salt lose its flavor? No way. Can a Christian lose their saltiness? Absolutely. How?

1. We lose our saltiness when we dilute our faith. When we water down the Gospel so much that it no longer holds power and meaning in the world. We know we are doing this when our witness resembles the world more than it resembles our Christ.

2. We lose our saltiness when we aren’t intentional about our faith. When we just throw around Christian platitudes without deep, thoughtful, theologically sound purpose. We know we are doing this when our faith only informs a few areas of life but doesn’t have hold in all areas of our life.

3.  We lose our saltiness when we decide salt isn’t enough. We want to be more exotic. We want to be the cumin of the world instead. We might begin to blend other beliefs and ideologies in with our Christian faith and give it equal or heavier weight. We know we are doing this when we mesh our Christian faith with other beliefs in such a way as we see no difference in the two. One example of how easy this is for any of us is when we can no longer separate our faith from our patriotism. Patriotism is a wonderful thing, there is no sin in being patriotic. Where we get into trouble is when we mesh our patriotism with our faith in God in such ways that we can no longer separate the two. It is then too easy to get confused or misguided in what is of God and what is of Caesar.  We need to be cautious or we will have overwhelmed our saltiness. When we apply our saltiness poorly we end up with water-down, disturbingly thin, mixed-up theology that is all but useless to Christ’s purpose in the world.

Jesus goes on to echo the promise to our ancestor Abraham when he declares, “You are the light of the world.” Remember, in Genesis, this is why God blesses Abraham and his descendants, so that through their blessing they will become a light to all the nations of the world. ALL families of the earth, God says, will see God’s light through God’s people.  

We are salt and we are light, not for our own benefit but so that others might be able to taste and see that the Lord is good. We are salt and light because others are supposed to see our faith, how we live, how we carry ourselves, and be so drawn to our witness that they see God’s glory in us and thus are drawn to God through us. The light is our witness so why hide it under a bushel basket so that it would no longer be of any good? Why would you not put the light on a stand so all would benefit?

Can a light be hidden under a bushel basket? We don’t use bushel baskets much any more but we sure can find other ways to hide our light from the world. It is far easier than we like to imagine to cast just enough shadow that God’s light is too dim for the world to notice and to be attracted. If you don’t believe me try asking someone who doesn’t go to church why they don’t go and I bet their answer will reveal God’s light hidden behind some barrier of faith.

Maybe we can find some comfort in the fact that Jesus knew faithfulness was going to be hard, that’s why he warned his disciples of the dangers. He knew that he was sending them out to be salt in a world that prefers honey. (1943, Besser). He knew he was sending them out to be light in a world that prefers shadow. He also knew, however, that they carried with them all they would need to succeed.

Folks, in today’s polarized world we must be more vigilant than ever in remaining Salty and Shiny Christians. God had given us the tools to do so, the blessing to do so, and a purpose to do so. The only way for us to mess it up is to apply those blessings poorly.