The impossible or the possible?

Matthew 6: 19-34

22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; ²³but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Jesus of the Nazareth Sermon, in presenting Himself as the fulfilment of the prophecy of the Kingdom of God contained in the book of Isaiah, is from that point on, formally and publically, inaugurating the Kingdom of God. This is done by presenting Himself and His teachings as the expression and revelation of the Messiah the Creator-Sustainer-Redeemer of the whole of creation. The story of Jesus is the continuation of the story that began back in Genesis; the story of the provision of plenty in and for all creation. The creation story reveals how it all went badly wrong, not by design but through decisions. Looking at, considering and desiring that which seems to hold such potential for personal  fulfilment but is known deep down as self and other destroying results in being overwhelmed by desire and the decision to meet human needs our own way. We lose it all or at least the best of it and find ourselves ‘East of Eden’ because we were prepared to look and consider meeting our personal needs at the expense and exploitation of others now and in the future. Jesus counsels us not to look, never to consider never mind to practice self-centred wealth creation. This is not simply a rule but Jesus is appealing to us not to engage in the impossible. It’s impossible to serve God and self-centred wealth. Don’t even look, consider, ponder or wonder because It’s impossible. It doesn’t matter the philosophy, the maths, the economic theory, the political justification; it’s impossible. We cannot meet our needs our own way. It’s clear and its official if we meet our needs our own way we will lose it all, find ourselves east of where we were created to be and we will suffer the; physical, social, psychological and environmental consequences. Worry will consume us, we will work till we drop and we will slave away our lives; dying alone, one by one stretched out in shrouds with no pockets; poverty stricken. The alternative?  Be transformed! Participate in the Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus. He taught the way that is possible and it is provided by Him. Jesus said in our passage: ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his (your Heavenly Father’s) righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Jesus, His teachings and practices reveal Him as the ‘Creator-Sustainer-Redeemer’. We don’t have to decide to throw it all away it’s not designed that way. We are all invited to decide to be transformed by hearing and putting into practice the teachings of Jesus.  

Kingdom economics....

Matthew 6: 19-34

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

As we have seen in the previous section of the Sermon on the Mount, Piety is: the practice of justice through generosity, prayer, forgiveness and fasting. Jesus goes on to teach in our current passage that the living out of this type of piety results in a practice of Kingdom economics within the lives of individual disciples and the communities that they form. The witness of the community of disciples will be demonstrated in the economic practices of the community. There is much political debate and squirming around these passages by theologians and denominations. Some people are always trying to get Jesus to endorse their system, politics and economics. The disciple of Jesus does not look for personal endorsement of our own lifestyle from Jesus words and practices; we look for personal and community transformation. We presume we have a tendency to meet our needs our own way and we look to Jesus for the liberation He promises from poverty, imprisonment, and blindness of meeting of our needs our own way.  It is a sad reality that for most of the history of the church, the church has preferred to endorse political and economic systems now abandoned to the trash heap of history. In the West since Constantine there has been a general reluctance to radically live out the teachings of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon (Luke 4: 16:30; Matthew 5-7 and many other passages). The idea that it is possible for the State to practice and enforce the teachings of Jesus while its members remain alienated from the transforming power of the teachings of Jesus is not only bizarre but socially repressive. The ‘separation of Church and State’ ensures that the opportunity to follow Jesus and participate in the inaugurated Kingdom of God by Jesus is authentic, real liberation and the expression of God given freedom. It allows the people of God to witness and speak truth to power through radically transformed lives and it safeguards the right of others to dissent and practice their way of worship and life in the same freedom disciples of Jesus cherish. Jesus teaching on economics and wealth is therefore ‘trans-cultural and trans-historical’ that is to say; they are to be practiced by His followers no matter the historical / political circumstances we find ourselves in. Jesus is not endorsing or indeed calling us to undermine contemporary secular historical political and economic systems; He is calling us as individuals and as community to be transformed and proclaim through participation and practice the ‘in breaking’ of Kingdom of God, soon to be completed at His coming. Transformation is achieved by putting into practice the teachings of Jesus.  It is transformation through accepting the Grace of God and living it out in circumstances that may not be of our personal choosing.  Our heart is our identity and source of commitment. Jesus calls us as His followers to be transformed in the production, storage, exchange and distribution of our wealth. Kingdom ethics is most visible through Kingdom economics practiced and advocated for in the community of disciples. If we will not practice these principles we have no right to advocate that others do.     

Fasting

Matthew 6: 1-18

Fasting: giving up something we love; who’s into that? God made us to enjoy many things especially food; that’s why He gave us a need for food, taste buds and a sense of smell. God gives us the gift of hunger (only a problem when there is no food or we cannot eat), food, taste and fellowship. We love to share food. Jesus provides us with a meal to remember Him. Jesus promises that we will eat with Him in the consummation of His Kingdom that He has inaugurated and invited us to participate in. Eating is not meeting our needs our own way it’s how we have been made by God. Let’s face it though, it’s possible to get hooked on things that in themselves are not wrong but we get obsessed with them and use them as a form of avoidance of meeting the other needs that we should address in God’s way.  Eating to reduce anxiety is a good example. However NOT eating to reduce anxiety is equally as damaging and self-destructive.   

In the bible there is only one compulsory fast recorded in Leviticus 16:29-31: ‘²⁹This shall be a statute to you for ever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny yourselves, and shall do no work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you.’ By Jesus time the religious had turned this one command into a two day per week public event and a show to the community of how holy the ‘religious’ were. We have been noting how Jesus is teaching that He is the fulfilment of the promise of God that He would establish a Kingdom where He reigns and we are free. We have noted how Jesus is presented as the inauguration of the Kingdom of God and we are invited to participate and be transformed by the participation.  In our passage Jesus presumes that we will fast and this is linked with the experience of some deep rooted need.  For example in Matthew 9 14-18 the fasting of disciples is linked to the deep rooted need within the disciples to experience the transforming power and presence of Jesus in their lives. When the disciple is consumed with need for the transforming power of Jesus they may well fast as they seek Him. But Jesus teaches that His disciples will not turn this need into a public theatrical event? What will we fast; our food? How will we seek Jesus day by day?  How about fasting as recorded in Isaiah 58?  Let’s remember Jesus of the Nazareth sermon is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah. We could fast: injustice, anger, avarice, non-forgiveness all the stuff we love to feed our needs our own way with. Yes, we are expected to fast but as Isaiah 58 records

⁶ Is not this the fast that I choose:
   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke? 
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 

Just like the disciples prayer we can fast like this all day and every day.

Pray

Matthew 6: 1-18

To participate in the Kingdom of God is to be transformed. Kingdom living is a commitment to ongoing personal and community change. This cannot be emphasised enough. Often becoming a Christian is presented as a one off realising that we meet our own needs our own way and this has led us into a state of alienation from God and our community; we turn to Jesus   making confession of this sin and earnestly seek His forgiveness. It all sounds so simple and on one level it is simple and beautiful.  However is misses the mark of the realisation and commitment to ongoing change and the day by day and moment by moment prayer of the acceptance of Jesus not only as Saviour but as Lord. It is true to say, that we often miss the power of discipleship change because we do not seek and accept Jesus as Lord. The solution to powerless living is following Jesus; putting into practice His words and patterns of life. Being a follower is not so instantaneous and straight forward as becoming a believer in Jesus. Jesus called this following of Him the practice of ‘piety’ in verse 1 of our passage. There are three ‘whenevers’ (2, 5, 16) in the passage related to this ‘piety’; giving, praying and fasting. These are all to be practiced but in a new genuine God loving and neighbour honouring way.  The power to live and be transformed is through living out this Kingdom way of life. Prayer in Jesus terms becomes the way of living out our communication to God and about God.  Personal and community transformation is driven by ‘prayerful living’ and Jesus teaches His disciples to pray, that is, to live in a very different way to the cultural norm of His day. In this ‘disciple’s prayer’ the key emphasis in on genuine commitment of our life to being known as a people who in their lives reveal who God is. Our lives should be characterised by generosity not avarice, forgiveness not revenge, inclusion not exclusion and the ongoing recognition of our vulnerability to relapse into old life destroying patterns of behaviour. The disciple’s prayer is short there is as much silence as talking, simple, to the point, heartfelt and personal. Personal prayer is the genuine communication of the heart to a loving common Father of all; the opportunity to express our deep seated desires, vulnerabilities, interdependencies and fears. In Jesus teaching on prayer we have the private genuine personal communication with God our Father and the public living out of God’s sovereignty in our everyday lives as revealed in scripture. Discipleship prayer, the way Jesus taught is the personal commitment to transformation.   I have witnessed this transformation in people’s lives; Kingdom living works in the here and now. However I have also witnessed people holding on to the old rituals of prayer as if it’s a job that just needs to be done; a means of accumulating personal merit to make us good enough for God. Jesus way of praying that is, living life His way,  is the breathing of the body of Christ; we have to pray and live life His way or we stop breathing with the obvious consequences. Paul emphasised this in  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Let us pray and let us be transformed.

Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name. 
¹⁰   Your kingdom come.
   Your will be done,
     on earth as it is in heaven. 
¹¹   Give us this day our daily bread. 
¹²   And forgive us our debts,
     as we also have forgiven our debtors. 
¹³   And do not bring us to the time of trial,
     but rescue us from the evil one. 

Beware

Matthew 6: 1-18

1‘Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

The danger of all this instruction in ethical living is that we turn it into a legalistic practice of rules which everybody sees or its gets elevated to an impossible idealistic standard that can never be achieved and so is abandoned from the everyday concern of disciples. This results in us living like everybody else in our culture and reducing the teachings of Jesus to simply internal and non-transformational ‘believing’.  The followers of Jesus are very visible; they live counter cultural lives if they live out the Sermon on the Mount. This presents a danger to us if we want or have a deep rooted desire to be seen; the needs we are seeking to meet is the recognition of others and through that meet other physical, social and psychological needs. Our ‘good works’ become the vehicle for meeting our needs our own way. Jesus was aware of the danger of this perversion of the practice of the Justice of God and so in chapter 6 Jesus introduces us to the three broad elements of discipleship practice given the name ‘piety’ or the practice of the Justice of God. Jesus is teaching us again about the transformational power of His gracious invitation to participate in the Kingdom He is inaugurating. Piety (dikaiosuné) that is to say, the practice of the Justice of God taught by Jesus has three parts: alms giving (the practice of compassion and mercy in its physical, social, psychological and environmental forms), prayer and fasting and forgiveness. The practice of following Jesus and living out Kingdom values, attitudes and beliefs is therefore composed of these three elements of discipleship. There can be no discipleship without giving and serving, prayer and fasting and practicing forgiveness. Discipleship living is empowered through the practice of private prayer and fasting not public recognition; where there is no forgiveness there is no discipleship. ‘Beware’ is the instruction from Jesus because if we want to be transformed through discipleship practice and not just recognised we need to practice piety as defined by Jesus. We are expected to live lives of justice and these lives are lives of compassion, prayer and fasting and forgiveness. Our practice must be so personally and culturally immersed in the transforming power of Jesus teaching on behalf of others that we lose ourselves; ‘it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’ was Paul’s expression of this in his letter to the Galatians 2: 19-21. Piety reveals Jesus not me! Over the next few days we will explore these life transforming practices. 

Love your enemies...

Matthew 5: 43-48

43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” ⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so 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. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The Dead Sea scrolls contained this saying: ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy…’ it was obviously put into practice and did not reflect or was it written in the teachings of the ‘Law and the Prophets’ that Jesus came to fulfill. The transformative act that Jesus is teaching in our passage today is the positive practice love: to wish well, take pleasure in, long for the best; to have esteem; ‘for our enemies’. The second transformative act is prayer; interaction with God on behalf and for the best possible outcome for those who would harm us. Jesus lived out these principles to the full. He died for His enemy. So, this morning: the Lord ’s Day: have we identified an enemy? Then the transformative act is simple really; be motivated by their well-being and be transformed by doing for them what they would not do for us at least while they see us as the enemy. This will lead us to a maturity in discipleship that will change the world as well as our own lives.                

Red Letter Wake Up

Red Letter Wake Up