[Propertalk] Sermon tips for Matthew 5:38-48 - Part 3

Sat Feb 19 19:51:28 EST 2011

The middle-aged, unadventurous hobbits Frodo Baggins and
Samwise Gamgee are mysteriously elected to destroy the Ring of
Mordor-which, because it grants its bearer unassailable power, is
the treasure sought by the Dark Lord Sauron bent on dominating
Middle-earth. What draws us into their tale?
"The hobbits' struggles are our own. Like the other nobodies of
this world, we remain at one with the hobbits in being summoned to
resist-if not to defeat-the enormous forces of evil,"

http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/Inklingsstudyguide4.pdf

Robert B. Kruschwitz, 2004
- - - - -

The measure of justice and righteousness is finally taken by the standard of mercy. This
may seem to be a strange way to order a society, and it is probably not being advocated as public
policy. The logic of such a system is completely dependent upon an astonishing vision of mercy
which transforms one's entire perception of reality. Only those who have been forgiven much
could ever grasp it. Only those who have been loved beyond all deserving could begin enacting
such a program with a straight face.

http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/4-1_1984/4-1_Tiede.pdf

David L. Tiede, 1984
- - - - -

Stories like Carol's and Larry's may be most powerful of all. In 1999, their twenty-six year old daughter Amy was killed in a mugging. She was a social worker living in Brooklyn and on her way home from a support group meeting for abused women. Amy was an ordinary girl from Kansas, good looking and loving. She was killed with a knife on the streets of New York carrying her groceries home from work. Her murder went unsolved for 17 months before a tip led police to Margo's son. He confessed. Instead of enmity and revenge, Carol and Larry offered Margo friendship. They have bonded they say. "Margo is our sister in Christ," Carol declares. It is a Matthew 5:44 story, one of the rare ones.
<>
"Perfect", it turns out, is not only a sermon in itself but the theme that makes sense of the entire passage. Whether you translate it "complete" or "true", "integrated" or "whole", it underlines and unites all that Jesus has said so far: you are to love as God loves, wholly, completely, consistently. In such love is the fuel for the kind of radical forgiveness and generosity Jesus lives and teaches.

http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28

Jana Childers, 2011
- - - - -

Loving, praying for, and forgiving one's enemy is an extension of Jesus' broader teaching about the perfection of God (5:48).  In typical fashion, Jesus provides an intriguing image to capture the meaning of this quality of God, one that God's followers should emulate.  Later in Matthew's story, Jesus confronts a rich man, who has faithfully followed the commandments of his religious tradition (cf. 19:16-22).  This man still recognizes that something is missing (19:20).  Jesus' response is shocking: "sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor" (19:21).  Like most of us, this man can't carry out that challenge.  Only in Matthew's account is such an action classified as what it means to be "perfect" (teleios; 19:21).  This is the type of maturity Jesus desires from his followers.  Jesus' teaching stems from a theological conviction that since God is perfect, so should the followers of God be. 

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=2/20/2011

Emerson Powery, 2011
- - - - -

...the translation, "Do not resist an evildoer" fails to convey the full meaning of the underlying Greek. It would be better translated as, "Do not violently resist an evildoer." Thus the teaching is primarily about non-violence. It is not about acquiescing to evil.
<>
..."to love" our enemies does NOT mean to try and feel affection for them.
It means to be attached to them; to be devoted to them; to be loyal to them; to be bonded with them; to join one's fate with theirs; to seek for their welfare, their fair and just treatment. And to behave outwardly in ways that correspond with our inner attachment.

Yikes. Maybe it would be easier to try and merely like our enemies.

http://www.holytextures.com/2011/02/matthew-5-38-48-year-a-epiphany-7-february-18-february-24-sermon.html

David Ewart, 2011
- - - - -

In her book The Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, Karen Armstrong begins by writing about our "reptilian brain," the one that is still present underneath the more developed brain. The "reptilian brain" is responsible for the fight/flight response in animals and the need for revenge and retribution. It is a necessary part of life when danger is near and a quick response is necessary, but it is not attuned to living in societies nor, one might say, for the life of faith. In that sense, Jesus is inviting the crowds to consider embracing a life that is in many ways counter to our very basest instincts for survival. He is outpacing our reptilian brain with a call to the highest and best within us, to raise our sights and join him in creating a more compassionate world, and to create among us a true community of respect based on self-giving.
<>
The final sentences of the passage have also caused some confusion. The directive to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" has caused some a good deal of anxiety as they drive toward perfection, as they would imagine God to be perfect. In our hectic, ego-driven world, this directive can become a spiritual legitimation for all sorts of Type A activity, from physical beauty and intellectual acumen, to spiritual heroics of all kinds. However, as Fred Craddock writes, "'Perfect' can also be translated 'complete' or 'mature.' It is not here referring to moral flawlessness but to love that is not partial or immature" (Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year A). To be perfect is to love in the way God loves, to practice the way of compassion and giving as God has demonstrated it to us in Jesus. Because this perfection has to do with love, which is self-giving, it is geared toward the other, and has little to do with our concepts of perfection. In fact, the perfect life might just be seen as the life of love for God, for self, and for others (which of course, are the two gospel commandments) that takes us out of our nervous self-concern into relationships within community. In fact, "the root meaning of the word 'perfect' is undivided, whole, complete," Ronald J. Allen writes, and "it means perfection in the sense of treating people in the same way that God treats people in the divine realm" 

http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/february-20-2011-seventh-sunday-1.html

Mark J. Suriano, 2011 
- - - - -
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20110219/e3927adb/attachment.htm>