Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 7

Brene Brown is a social researcher and author, who writes and speaks about issues like shame and vulnerability. In one of her books she mentioned the very simple, but wildly scandalous idea that most people, most of the time, are just doing the best they can.[i]

This isn’t easy, because if we are honest, most of us are our own harshest critics. When we live with putting ourselves down, for each tiny failing, or perceived failing, it becomes easy to treat other people the same way.

As humans we also tend to be self-focused, so if someone cuts in front of me in traffic, I get annoyed and wonder who they think they are; but maybe …

And when children spill water on the table, they don’t do it to make my life difficult, though that thought has crossed my mind.  

The Mum in one of the Friday families was telling me how hard it is to go out with her children, one has special needs and can go from a happy child to having a meltdown in seconds, and people judge her for her child’s behaviour, often quite loudly.

What is everyone is doing the best they can with what they have. I then have a choice, if someone hurts me, I can forgive; if the relationship is toxic or dangerous, I can walk away. [ii]

The chapter this morning starts with a reminder that ‘God will be as hard on you as you are on others!” sometime this reading is about not judging others, in this translation it is about not condemning others.  From my reading the original meaning was about condemning to hell or judging harshly. We all make judgements, and we need to be discerning –

will I accept the invitation of a ride home from someone I know is drunk?
Will I attempt an open ocean swim when I am not a strong swimmer?
Will I discourage someone from entering a marathon who has not trained?

We make judgements all the time, here we are being reminded that when we condemn another, we are answerable to God.

This idea continues in the next part, don’t offer to remove the speck from your friend’s eye, without removing the log from your own. We are reminded how easy it is to see someone else’s shortcomings and not recognise our own faults.

These sayings are hard.

The Sermon on the Mount is not easy teaching.

Forgiving others, not condemning, recognising our own shortcomings – none of these are pleasant; but these are not ideas or theories. The Sermon on the Mount is about how we live, not what we believe.

Later in the chapter we heard that not everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, now that sounds weird to me, but it also reminds me of the teaching of the prophets, such as in Jeremiah [chapter 7]:

Don’t fool yourselves! My temple is here in Jerusalem, but that doesn’t mean I will protect you. I will keep you safe only if you change your ways. Be fair and honest with each other. Stop taking advantage of foreigners, orphans, and widows. Don’t kill innocent people. And stop worshiping other gods. Then I will let you enjoy a long life in this land I gave your ancestors….

You are thieves, and you have made my temple your hideout. But I’ve seen everything you have done….

.. I won’t accept sacrifices from you. So, don’t even bother bringing them to me. You might as well just cook the meat for yourselves.

The Sermon on the Mount is not easy to live up to.

It includes what has been called ‘the Golden Rule’, you may have grown up with ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, but in this version it reads ‘Treat others as you want them to treat you.’

If you want to be forgiven, then forgive
If you want to be treated with kindness, then be kind
If you want to avoid being condemned, don’t condemn others

The section Ask, Seek, Knock, has often confused me, God hasn’t given me everything I have asked for.  But when we read it in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount, and look at the verses that follow Ask, Seek, Knock, we see something more nuanced.

In these three chapters we have been challenged to not condemn, to forgive and to love our enemies,

None of this is simple, and I would venture that it is impossible to live this way all the time, we are human. By asking, seeking and knocking, that is through prayer, through relationship with God we can find the grace to obey these impossible demands.[iii]

When we take seriously the demands of the Sermon on the Mount, we need to also take seriously God’s readiness to help us in living them out.[iv]

 [picture - from https://www.stevethomason.net/studies/the-bible-bookshelf-archive/loj/matthew/ ]

Looking again at the Sermon on the Mount as a whole:

We see who is blessed – the poor, the meek, those who mourn – not the wealthy or high status.

Then we are told we are salt and light, not for ourselves, but for all of creation.

Then a series of “You have heard what was said to people who lived long ago. ….. But here is what I tell you….”

Now not only do not murder, but also do not hate or become enraged

Not only do not commit adultery, but also do not lust after another

not hate your enemy, but now love your enemy.

Then the section we heard last Sunday:

Don’t show off

pray in private
give in private
fast in private

how to pray

Don’t worry about tomorrow.

Then this series of teaching

Do to others as you would have them do to you

The Sermon beginning in Matthew 5 addresses the question … what sort of life does God’s reign shape?[v]

Gracious

Forgiving

Generous

Self-aware

What would it look like to assume the best about people?
Who in your life needs you to assume the best about them- could it be yourself?
Where do you need an extra dose of forgiveness and freedom?[vi]

---

[i] http://www.hannahrcollins.com/blog/2016/5/8/what-if-everyone-is-just-doing-their-best

[ii] http://www.hannahrcollins.com/blog/2016/5/8/what-if-everyone-is-just-doing-their-best

[iii] Interpretation: Matthew, Douglas R. A. Hare, p 79

[iv] Interpretation: Matthew, Douglas R. A. Hare, p 79

[v] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3863

[vi] http://www.hannahrcollins.com/blog/2016/5/8/what-if-everyone-is-just-doing-their-best

blind spots

Introduction to the reading

This morning we will hear another reading from John’s Gospel, another encounter between a person and Jesus, that is life changing.

We have heard about Nicodemus who came at night, asked some questions, and wasn’t ready at that point to show himself as a follower. Last week we heard John 4, an unnamed woman, an outsider in so many ways, also confused by the words of Jesus. She went and told, and many believed.

We skipped some chapters, which included Jesus telling a man to take up his mat and walk - on the Sabbath; feeding of the 5,000; Jesus walking on water towards the disciples in the boat during a storm; the woman caught in adultery “If any of you have never sinned, then go ahead and throw the first stone at her!”

John 8: 12 Once again Jesus spoke to the people. This time he said, “I am the light for the world! Follow me, and you won’t be walking in the dark. You will have the light that gives life.”

This morning, another unnamed person, also an outsider. There is a healing in the story, but also much more.

Reading: John 9: 1-41 in 3 voices

Where to start?

The passage begins with the disciples asking who is to blame for the man being blind. Who sinned.

Just as today we ask what parents did to have a child with a disability; or what did a person do to get a chronic illness. Surely, they have made some bad choices, they have sinned, they have displeased God in some way.

In the gospel of John, sin is not doing something wrong;

sin is not believing in Jesus, or not being in a relationship with Jesus.[i]

Jesus is saying that we are asking the wrong question.

The question is not: who sinned?

The question is: what can God do from here?

What healing grace, what possibilities, where will God go from here, and what is God calling us to do as part of that.[ii]

I know some people here are concerned about the future of the Parish, we are a long way from having to close. What if the changes we are seeing in the Parish and community is God encouraging us to look at opportunities for the future, what if they are opening up new possibilities.

Last week we saw how the way the woman addressed Jesus changed:

Ø  a Jew

Ø  Sir

Ø  a prophet

Ø  Messiah

Ø  the Saviour of the world

this week we see a similar pattern.

Ø  Someone named Jesus

Ø  Jesus

Ø  “He is a prophet!”

Ø  “I don’t know if he is a sinner or not.

Ø  Jesus could not do anything unless he came from God.”

Ø  “Lord, I put my faith in you!”

The man born blind, who does what Jesus tells him, and goes and washes the mud from his eyes, has not seen Jesus. So, when the religious leaders ask who healed him, he only has a name to go by, a name that was not unique. It isn’t until towards the end of the reading that the man sees Jesus, and man puts his faith in the one who gave him sight.

While this story is about the man being able to see, it is about more than that.

One of the quotes I put on Facebook this week:

The transformation of the blind man is important, but it’s his surrounding community’s resistance to transformation that the passage really wants us to see. Oh, how we hate change. Oh, how often we choose to keep mud in our eyes, so we don’t have to grow. And who can blame us? new sight is scary. It requires us to give up a lot. We have to throw out old familiar maps before new ones can be drawn up. Everyone’s roles get reshuffled. And nobody can claim certainty about what will come next.

It seems we are called not just to new sight, but brave sight.

Are you ready?[iii]

The religious leaders do not believe, will not believe, that Jesus is able to heal the man born blind. For them it is not possible for someone born blind to see. I wonder how often we do the same thing?

What areas or topics do we close our eyes to?

In what ways are we like the religious leaders, rejecting facts when they do not confirm our long-held beliefs.[iv]

You have probably heard the saying: None so blind as they who will not see.

[image on screen https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/matthew_henry_189365?img=3]

We all have blind spots, about ourselves and about other people and situations. Our blind spots usually make perfect sense to us, just as it made perfect sense to the religious leaders that a man born blind will not be able to see.

Our blind spots may be about young people, older people, immigrants, indigenous people, unemployment, or a range of other topics. And we are usually unaware of them, that is why they are blind spots.

In the church I notice that at times people have blind spots about the Scriptures.

In all these areas: No matter what anyone says, their way of looking at things is the only way.

It is not uncommon for people to only read stories and watch TV programs that agree with their existing viewpoint.

Change is hard, changing our ideas, or changing where we shop.

When people encounter Jesus, Nicodemus, the woman at the well and the man born blind, all are changed. Yes, there is confusion, there is uncertainty, but there is new life and new understandings.

Are we brave enough to ask God:

·         to open our eyes?

·         to unblock our ears?

·         to soften our hearts?

·         to open our lives?

are we willing to see new possibilities for life:

·         for ourselves?

·         For those around us

·         For this Parish?

---

[i] https://www.workingpreacher.org/narrative_podcast.aspx?podcast_id=971

[ii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/narrative_podcast.aspx?podcast_id=971

[iii] https://scontent.fsyd5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/27628840_1537601666287106_5270463692127532460_o.jpg?oh=9cc78d513dd255d16fb22ba62f2523fd&oe=5B24EA79

[iv] Thomas B. Slater, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3387