29 May 2005

Proper 4

Based on Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28

Matthew 7:21-29

When we were (are) children, we always had our parents telling us what to do – and when it wasn’t our parents, then it was our teachers – and with our teachers, not only did we have to do what the teacher told us to do, but we had to do it her way. Whether it was forming our alphabet letters properly or solving a math problem, it didn’t matter if we thought we understood it, or we thought we had the correct answer, if we didn’t do it Mrs. Whoever’s way, it was still wrong.

Based on today’s second lesson and gospel, God, likewise has given us specific instructions. Today’s gospel comes at the tail end of the well-known Sermon on the Mount. As a quick refresher, the Sermon on the Mount starts in Matthew chapter 5 with the beatitudes. It then goes into such ideals as keeping promises, loving your enemy, letting your light shine, fulfilling God’s law, not murdering, not committing adultery, and turning the other cheek. In this section Jesus also gives the Lord’s Prayer and discuses giving to people who are needy and fasting among other things. These ideals are known as the “new kingdom ethics.” The ethics is a radically new interpretation of law- of God’s will. God’s law had been something very different for Jews, such as his disciples, before this new interpretation through Christ. These new ideals give a high reaching but direct explanation of what is expected of Christians. Indeed, in today’s gospel Jesus points out that it is not those who did extra ordinary things – not those who healed and prophesied in Christ’s name who gained entrance into the Kingdom of God, but those who did the quieter, but much more difficult tasks – those tasks assigned – dictated by God - who were given that blessing – it was given to those who lived the steady and constant life of God’s will – those who continued the law, not the same literal, day by day instructional law that the Jews followed to obtain righteousness, but God’s will as observed through this new lens of Christ.

Like with students in a school classroom, like the school teacher, it is not a matter of getting the answer to a math problem correct once or twice, but of understanding the formula – of understanding what the teacher wants – of understanding what will always give you the correct and sure answer.

Paul’s letter to the Romans, however, brings in a new element: human frailty. Indeed, the ethics – the ideals set forth in the Sermon on the Mount, such as those I mentioned earlier were, and quite frankly are – well, at least for me, for the most part completely unattainable. Indeed, as Paul points out, simply by being human we fall short of the glory of God. And, there isn’t really fully anything we can do about this – I mean, God’s glory is quite high, but God understands this. Indeed, as we cannot reach God’s glory ourselves, it is through God’s merciful gift of grace that we can be made righteous.

Paul speaks of God’s grace being offered to all, both Jews and Gentiles alike. He also speaks of the law of the Jews remaining a law for the Jews. This does not, however, get us off the hook. Paul’s concept of grace becomes alive through faith. Indeed, for Paul, the law by itself doesn’t even cut it anymore; it takes faith in what God has done through Christ to be able to utilize that grace. This grace lets us turn to God; it makes us want to turn to God and makes us want do those things set forth in the Sermon on the Mount. Grace as a response makes us want to do these more difficult things – it makes us want to have that house that Jesus speaks of in today’s gospel the one on the rock and not on the sand. True faith turns us to God, and turns us away from ourselves, and allows us to become righteous. Thus, according to Paul, faith, by grace to become righteous.

In both the gospel and the lesson from Paul, we hear of people boasting – in Paul’s letter, those that boasted, boasted that they did some part of the Jewish law and in the gospel those boasting were boasting that they healed and prophesied in Christ’s name. These people, these people are trying to do the right thing, but missing the mark – they have heard the law – indeed, many of those mentioned in the gospel surely heard the law many times, but they did not do the law. Indeed when one truly has faith, we can finally turn past ourselves and turn to God, we can manage to both hear the law, and truly desire to do the law – to do God’s will . Yes, we can never manage to keep God’s will perfectly, but that’s the point of grace. God knows us, and our desires, and makes us righteous ???

You have to realize, I mean, God wants the world redeemed. It isn’t God’s goal to have his creation condemned. Creation has fallen short of God’s glory, and now, through God’s gift of grace, creation is being given a great opportunity. God is offering us the opportunity to become righteous, it is through faith that we can aspire to this righteousness, and through faith that we can desire to do all the things that God told us that he wants us to do. This kind of faith seems hard though… doing all that stuff that Jesus said we should do in the Sermon on the Mount is difficult. I mean, forget about being difficult to execute, quite often, I just don’t want to do some of that stuff, yeah, turning the other cheek sounds like a great thing, but when someone does something mean to me, sometimes, just sometimes, you just want to get them back. Or when you’re fasting, or doing something difficult, say, in Lent, and you see someone, oh I don’t know, eating a big piece of chocolate cake, and they offer you some, or even if they don’t, its like, what you want to say, or at least what I want is say, is “Well, no I can’t have some of your chocolate cake, because I’m fasting.” But, Jesus has clearly told us not to do that. So yeah, while those ideals that he has set forth for us are great and desirable things to do, sometimes, you just don’t want to do them. So where does this leave us?

It leaves us well, in great need of said merciful grace. Like the gospel said, do we want to build our houses on a rock or on sand? Do we want to trust in ourselves, or in God? Do we want personal glory – the glory we get from telling of our accomplishments and loudly proclaiming what we have done, whether asked of us or not, or to quietly do that which we are told? Do we want to get the answer to our school teacher’s question correct one time, or do we want to understand the formula? Don’t we want to know what the teacher expects of us for the long haul – regardless of whether it’s the easier way, the most popular way, or the way we want to live our lives? We have to have faith – faith in what God has done through Christ, and in God and his merciful grace that we can desire to fully turn to him and live God’s way throughout the day.