"The Manifesto of the Kingdom"    Judy Skaggs, UPC

Selections from Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount

In our summer sermon series on trying to rethink and rediscover the message of Jesus, it seemed to me that we just had look at one of the most concentrated example of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 5-7, usually called the Sermon on the Mount. In some ways this is one of the most straight-forward collections of the sayings of Jesus. Brian McLaren even calls this passage the Kingdom Manifesto. I’ll be reading several sections of these chapters as we go along this morning.

This sermon begins with blessings, but not just any blessings. Jesus says that there are eight kind of people who, in Jesus’ perspective, are fortunate and blessed. But these blessings turn our normal expectations upside down. We might expect – blessed are the rich, the clever, the bold, the happy, the winners, the ones on top. But Jesus begins his teaching by blessing the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted.

Perhaps Jesus begins here to catch everyone’s attention, but also to set the stage for talking about his radical, surprising, counterintuitive kingdom – a kingdom that turns normal perspectives upside down.

Jesus then describes his disciples in Matthew 5:13-16.

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

 We are to be salt – adding flavor, bringing healing, preserving life. We are to be light – penetrating and doing away with the darkness. But the reason for everything we do and everything we are is to give glory to God. Think about how radical that thought is in the culture in which we live.

McLaren sees the next section of the sermon as the thesis statement of the sermon. Matthew 5:17-20.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The scribes and the Pharisees saw themselves as the guardians of personal piety, morality, goodness, decency and fairness. It would be quite scandalous to think that they would not enter the kingdom. And even more ridiculous to think that those who wanted to enter must be more righteous that they were.

Jesus explains to the crowds that he did not come to abolish the Sacred Writings of his people. He did not come to break them or even water them down – no, but to fulfill them. And so Jesus gives them several examples of what fulfillment means.

“You have heard it said…but I say to you…” Jesus introduces a teaching from the Law and the Prophets, but then follows with an invitation not to lower those standards, but to raise them, to deepen them, to full them up, to take them above the level of the religious leaders and scholars, from the level of outward conformity to an internal change of mind and heart.

From Matthew 5:21-22.

You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.

The Law forbade murder, but Jesus calls us to a deeper meaning – to look at our anger, even at insulting people. God’s kingdom calls us beyond simply doing no physical harm, but also no harm even with our words.

And Jesus goes on and on, calling people to a higher way of life that both fulfills the intent of the Law externally, but also internally by a changed heart and mind that is being made more and more like the mind of Christ.

Last Sunday, San preached about how Jesus would have us approach the evil that is in the world. He quoted from this section of Jesus’ sermon. 5:43-45.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor 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.

We have heard these sayings of Jesus so often, that we do not always realize how radical they really do sound. We are not to respond in kind. If someone hates us, we are to return love. If someone thinks badly of us, we are to pray for them.

Jesus is calling us to be generous, to be creative. This reminds me of a section in the pre-marriage counseling materials that San and I use. In talking about conflict resolution, the method suggests a time of brainstorming about the problem. Sometimes when we get in conflict over something, we get entrenched in one way of thinking and we cannot get past it. So if the two parties can, even for a moment, set aside that one way of thinking and try to get creative, they may come up with something neither of them have thought of that just might be the answer.

In many ways, it seems that is what Jesus asks us to do – to not just jump to the first conclusion we might have about any situation that comes into our lives, but to pause and consider how generous we can be, how creative we can be – for the kingdom calls for a very counterintuitive way of thinking and acting.

This Kingdom Manifesto calls us to a higher way of living. We are called to love enemies because the King of this Kingdom loves enemies. We are called to forgive because the King forgives. We are called to compassion that transcends the way the world around us might think and live.

As we read on, we come across very familiar sayings of Jesus that reflect this call.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust

consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?   But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your neighbor ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

     And on and on. As you see, each part of this Manifesto could be the text for a whole sermon. I was thinking that if we did not have anything else out of Jesus’ teachings, these three chapters might be all we need to live toward our calling.

This sermon of Jesus could be thought of in several different ways. We might think of it as a check list. If I can just do everything Jesus says, then I’m on my way to the kingdom. But then we remember that this was the thinking of the scribes and Pharisees, and Jesus began by saying that our righteousness (our being right with God) had to exceed theirs. It had to go deeper into our being, into our heart.

We might think of this sermon as the New Testament’s version of the 10 Commandments. Some scholars have written that Matthew saw Jesus as the new Moses. But when Jesus quotes the laws, he doesn’t just stop there. As he says, he fills them up, he deepens them.

So another way to think of this sermon is that it describes how we want to live in response to God’s grace to us. In some ways, this is a reformed way of thinking. In Calvin’s order of service, the 10 commandments were always read after the reading and preaching of the Gospel. For Calvin, the Commandments were a way to respond to the good news of the Gospel. Because of Christ, here is the way I want to live – I want to worship only God, I want to honor the Sabbath, I do not want to murder or steal or take God’s name in vain and so on.

But the way I personally like to think of this sermon is that this is a description of what the Spirit of Christ is able to do within us. If we are willing, if we give ourselves to Christ as fully as we can day after day, then the characteristics described in Jesus’ sermon will become more and more a part of who we are. And so we are being formed into the image of Christ. And it is not something that we make happen. It is the work of Christ’s Spirit within us. Now we have a part – we have to be open. We have to trust God with our whole being as we live toward the kingdom.

And at the end of this sermon, Jesus reminds us, as we heard in the children’s sermon this morning – we are not only to hear these words of Christ, but we must live by them and act on them. And when we do that, we are building our house upon the solid rock of the love of Christ. The rains will still come; the storms of life will still rage against our house, for there is no promise that we are exempt from the sufferings of this life. But the promise is that our spiritual house will not fall. The foundation is Christ himself. And Christ promises to always be with us.

Jesus teaches disciples that another world is possible, that the kingdom is now, the kingdom has come near. May God grant us grace to live toward the realization of that kingdom within our hearts and minds. Amen.