Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Epiphany: Servants of the Lord


"Happy are those (Psalm 119)  who choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19), for we are God's servants (1 Corinthians 3:9). You've heard it said ______, but I say to you_______ (Matthew 5: 21-37)." These are all sayings from our readings this week. Strung together, they point us towards a God who is trying to speak direction into our lives. 

Jesus speaks to those as the interpreter and fulfill-er of Scripture. He has not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is demonstrative of the intricacies around interpretation of Scripture. We pit Jesus against the law, without remembering Jesus’ own words, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Jesus himself shows us how the complexity of making sense of faith is inherent to having faith.
We live in a world of black and white, right or wrong, left or right. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.” But to paraphrase Jesus as saying, “I am right and you are wrong” would be the equivalent of Jesus saying to God, “you were wrong.” Jesus engages in the hard work of the necessity of Scripture to be reinterpreted for new times and places. This is when the words of the Psalmist should come to our lips, “O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!” (Psalm 119:5).
The less talked about character in all of these kinds of these right/left, black/white, right/wrong debates is God. We forget that adherence to certain claims, and particular ways of being in the world are not just your opinions, your beliefs, but also reveal who you think God is. When was the last time you connected what you said and what you did with who God is for you? Our actions and our words reveal our theology.
The antitheses are all about choosing life. In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists that life is threatened when anger and judgment and insult take hold of your life. Life is threatened when we engage in these certain activities mentioned. Women, for example, Jesus insists, are not culture’s for the taking. Life is threatened when women are consistently reduced, even discarded, based on their capacity to satisfy privileged and patriarchal needs and their capacity to bear children. Life is threatened when you do not follow through with oaths you make.
In other words, Jesus is saying that interpreting the law is far more complex than you make it out to be. And if your interpretations lead to death -- the silence of voices, the discounting of one's sacred worth, the disrespect and demeaning of entire groups of people, the labeling of people -- then you have to think long and hard about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, to choose life, to be one of the happy ones.
If “choose life” was the test case for what we did and said, the canonical marker, if you will for disciple-speak, we may pause before we lash out in anger and fear. We might take a moment before we label someone pro-life, pro-choice, pro-abortionist, (or anti all of those things). We might stop and think, is what I am about to say and what I am about to do something that would be recognizable as life-giving, life- upholding, life-empowering?
There is an alternative, and the poet Marilyn Maciel tells me what it is:
i
you
us
them
those people
wouldn’t it be lovely
if one could
live
in a constant state
of we?
some of the most
commonplace
words
can be some of the biggest
dividers
they
what if there was
no they?
what if there
was only
us?
if words could be seen
as they floated out
of our mouths
would we feel no
shame
as they passed beyond
our lips?
if we were to string
our words
on a communal clothesline
would we feel proud
as our thoughts
flapped in the
breeze?*
What if we chose life? What if we were one of the happy ones? What if we were truly a servant of God? What if we took Jesus' words on the Mount and let them transform our lives?

Prayer:
O God, send your Spirit upon us and light our path
that we may travel the road you have prepared for us
enable our hearts and minds to more fully understand
your goodness and your grace.
Help us break free from ideas that no longer bring life,
that we may embrace the life-giving work of your Spirit.
Challenge us to forsake paths that ask little of us,
and help us resist the evils and temptations of this world,
that we may truly follow the way of kingdom living. Amen.**

*"clothesline," poem by Marilyn Maciel. Published in Patti Digh, "Life Is a Verb: 37 Days To Wake Up, Be Mindful, And Live Intentionally." (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 42.

**posted on the Ministry Matters website. http://www.ministrymatters.com/

In Christ, 

Jack

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