#9. Give

Matthew 6:1-4, (10:8,19:16-22)

While Jesus was teaching his followers on the mountain, he said:

……..“It is good to put the disciplines of godly living into practice, but be on your guard against the temptation to start doing it for show. The God who conceived you knows what’s going on, and if the good things you do are done only to impress people, you’ll get no credit for them in heaven.

……..“Don’t go blowing your own trumpet every time you do something charitable. If you give money for the relief of poverty, don’t go asking for public acknowledgement. The world is full of sponsorship schemes and naming rights’ deals, but it is all hypocrisy; it’s got more to do with image management than with concern for the poor. Of course it works as a business strategy, but I can assure you that there will be no rewards beyond that.

Laughingbird.net

The term Godly living has always made me cringe as I reflect on the numerous sermons and apparent ethics lessons that have been dictated by pastors from the front of churches. We seem to get caught up in the idea that living a Godly life has only to do with me the individual and sometimes forgets that what is mostly preached about is only part of the conversation.

Here in Matthew there is a clear call to not be ‘show boating’ or ‘gloating’ about your good deeds, but rather to do them as part of who you are. I like the fact that Matthew assumes that good deeds happen, and the encouragement to do with them without the need for validation. This connects into a greater question of identity, asking ‘do we need to be recognised all the time for things that are inherently part of our greater call to love thy neighbour? Or do we just get caught up in the love thy self first?’

Today I think Matthew asks us to consider ‘why do we do what we do? Is it because we have too? Is it because we must? Is it because we want to be seen as do gooders? Or is it because within each of us the hope of God is in living out the gospel message to be salt and light in the world?’

Perhaps the image above is a bit tongue in cheek but I reckon it does suggest that we need to rethink the things we do and why we do them. I recently heard a story from a member of my congregation who had lent her car to a young man to help him get to a job interview. The car was old and was always a worry to drive but it never broke down on her. This day whilst the car was out it burst a pipe and apparently it had simply perished over time. The young man driving was trained in mechanical works and fixed it quickly; getting him to his job interview and for the kind lady her car kept going. A simple act of kindness of lending her car but this woman could not believe how lucky she was that someone else had borrowed the car and that the right person was driving at the right time.

Our Godly living need not be complicated. For me Godly living means offering love, receiving hope and being light in the dark places of life. Sometimes it is not always easy and sure I will fail at times, but Godly living is not achieved by a simple Sunday sermon of call to change, it is a choice to be a people of God, following God and realising that with that comes not much thanks, but rather a life of love that will mean more than the praise of the people around but rather an identity that is in God, of God and for God.

Practice

Today there is an opportunity to pause and reflect on what godly living really means for each of us. Its time to loose the age old doctrinal statement lead Godly life style and really embrace what love means.

Take a look around and perhaps today is an opportunity to offer an act of love, take in someone’s wheelie bins, give the guy 10 bucks who cleans your windscreen at the traffic lights, look for something that you can do that no one really needs to know about.

I guarantee God is looking….

Peace

Luke Bowen

#8. Nonviolence

Matthew 5:38-48

 ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, 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. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  – NRSV

I made mentioned of the ‘dissonant transformative power’ of Jesus teaching in the Sermon of the Mount.

Today is out there dissonant!

In my closest relationships, when one of us is getting a bit obsessive about something we are passionate about (for me it’s cricket, or it could be work or parenting) someone who cares about me will often drop the line out loud “Perfection is a myth”! It breaks the intensity!

But here it is today straight up…

Be perfect!… not do the best you can , not be balanced and level headed about the limitations of reality, not be all that you can be.

William Brosend says we shouldn’t be surprised,

“Jesus pronounces a series of patently ridiculous blessings then seems to moderate with sayings about salt and light that end up making equally ridiculous claims.  This is followed by an assertion that he himself has come to fulfil the law, not curtail in any fashion, and then he tosses in a warning to any who presume to lessen the demands of the law, bringing the section to a rousing coda with an insistence that his hearers righteousness exceed the most notable standards of the day…. then…not to resist evil and to love one’s enemies.  After all that are we really going to be surprised that Jesus wraps things up by telling us to be perfect!”

He goes on to say that it’s all impossible in a way that I think dismisses too much of the ethical content of the Sermon.  (eg. Turning the other cheek in this culture is not passively ‘NOT resisting evil’, but is a victim honouring their own dignity, breaking the the cycle of violence through engaged, active, assertive, creative non-violence which shames and confronts the perpetrator according to the custom  and laws of the day.)

I do however like Brosend’s contention that “What he (Matthew) seems really to be after is not an improvement in our morality, but a recasting of our theology”…. God as our ‘Father in Heaven’ is a big motif in Matthew’s story…  what does it mean to be a child of, family of, flesh and blood, a chip of the old block, descendants and heirs of of legacy such as God.  Does this sound  awesome or terrifyingly daunting to you.

“What if t is, as already hinted, a “Perfection is not an accumulation of good deeds, restrained actions, and pure desires. What if “Perfection is a state of being… our birthright” (according to Jesus)! … bit like “You ARE the salt” heard earlier.

“The command to be perfect is not a call to devout and holy actions, it is an invitation to self recognition, to a level of theological awareness that requires an embrace of the gift given at creation.  To be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect means height more nor less than to be who we already are, in God’s image. “

He goes on about not being God’s ourself but their being a family resemblance and talking about how kids enter the kingdom naturally  ‘as if they owned the place’  As we shall consider in WAY #32.

I love the grace of all this but it lacks the grounded-ness of the ethics.  Yeah I get that but that doesn’t mean we just flippantly lose the substance of ‘devout and holy actions.’ What about the challenge of people like Gandhi who seem to be able to live the ethic in life and society changing ways a whole lot more ‘perfectly’ than many followers of Jesus.  Surely recognising we are children of God means we at least have some means to reflect the character of God in loving our enemies as God does.  To imagine that it IS possible in new ways.

Steven Eason says,

“Can we challenge the church to love and pray for it’s enemies… to go deeper and be that kind of extreme church in the world?  Go past sending get well cards, visiting a few homebound members, potlucks, Sunday school… Be such an extreme church that somebody would want to be a part of it.  Live in such a way that somebody would beg you to take their money, their time, and their talents to promote such a church in the world today.  We had better pray that Jesus was serious and that he still is”

Practise

Pray for an enemy, inside the church or out.  How may Jesus teaching be guiding you to become the answer to your prayer?

Much Grace,

Marcus Curnow

#7. Bloody Oath

Matthew 5: 33-37

 ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.” But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Australia is currently fractured by the broken promises or twisted truth of our political system. The inability to trust people at their word undermines the fabric of our society – there is no firm platform beneath our communal feet. This is the sort of situation that Jesus is speaking into. The religious and political system in his time had devised ever-increasingly complex oaths to add gravitas and believability to their words, which continued to strain credibility. Jesus cuts across all the heaping up of words – let your Yes be simply Yes.

Today we are still asked to swear on the Bible in court, or those who are ‘non-religious’ can make an affirmation, instead of an oath. It is assumed that we are not truthful, and have to be made to feel somehow threatened by a sacred object, in order to encourage us to speak the truth. There is a bizarre irony that those who espouse a faith are given the option to swear by almighty God, when it appears that Christians have been told by Jesus not to do so!

Our Anabaptist forbears took these words literally and refused to take any oaths. This rendered them very unpopular during the American Revolutionary wars. Amish, Mennonites and Quakers all refused to take the Oaths of Renunciation and Allegiance. Their refusal to take these oaths on religious grounds, and also to swear allegiance to the Crown, meant that they became ineligible for jury service, for public office and unable to buy and sell land.  Their desire for simplicity and integrity effectively rendered them lesser citizens.

Today we no longer expect our politicians to tell the whole truth. Promises can be broken because they were not “core promises”. “White lies” are the acceptable lubrication of social discourse and the ground beneath us becomes ever more unstable.

It is costly to let your Yes be Yes. Your believability rests simply on the evidence of your life. Am I a trustworthy person? Do people trust my word because my life has integrity, or do I need to convince them with added extras? Jesus is challenging us not to justify ourselves by any other means.

Just watch today how many times you seek to add a justification to your actions or words. “Can you come to the meeting tonight?” “No…..I promised my mother I’d drop in”. We need to add the extra explanation: “Have you finished that piece of work?” “No…..I was sick over the weekend, and our internet went down”.

Practise

As a “Practice“ today, try to simply let your Yes be Yes and your No a No. Resist the embellishments of oaths or justifications. Note how you feel when you leave people with mono-syllabic responses, and watch their reactions. What might God be saying in this? What are you learning?

– Anne Wilkinson Hayes