SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2023 | EPIPHANY (A)

Preliminary

Matthew

heavy reading

not easy to process

Actions matter and do our thoughts

It’s not just about what we do...

Purity culture beware - Jesus points out that the one experiencing lust is ought to do something, not to limit the person of lust!

Jesus re-actualizes the law, giving it his twist to it - you have heard, but I say to you.

According to Hauerwas, he is community building - through these antitheses he spells out “the kind of community the law requires” (Hauerwas-Matthew, 67)

The life of Jesus makes possible “our reconciliation with the Father and with one another [and thus it creates] a community of reconcilliation, a community of peace” (ibid, 67) -> it is unsurprising he spends so much time on reconciliation, harboring anger - it is not enough to offer a sacrifice, it requires reconcilliation)

This kind of community requires for the accuser to work it out with the accused - holiness of the church requires it.

Good morning church!

Another week and well, the world at large seems to be in a rough place at large - be it the catastrophically deadly earthquake in Turkey (more than 25 000 people have died) and the resulting looting, Russia bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, mass layoffs affecting all kinds of industries, on top of the daily reality of mass shootings or extreme weather patterns. Let’s be real - it’d be nice to say that Jesus is exaggerating with the topics he chose to speak about, but that wouldn’t be true then and definitely not now - all kinds of relationships are broken and in need of healing, on the macro scale and also on the micro scale.

Drawing again from Bohnhoeffer - the necessity of oaths is indicative of living in a world of lies - if “we could trust ourselves to tell the truth not only to others but especially to ourselves, oaths would not be needed. Oaths hope to safeguard us from lying, but they also can encourage lying just to the extent that the very existence of the oath grants a certain right to the lie. “

Yikes…and well, I think many of the earthly laws (many of which are derived from one religion or another) are similar - we have murders, we have slander, we have infidelity, …the list could go on. And of course, Jesus adds his Jesus twist to things: “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times (archaios), ‘you shall not murder’…But I say to you that if you are angry with a [sibling], you will be liable to judgment… (Mt 5:21-22a) Just with that we have quite a bit to talk about - the work of Jesus here on earth is, to put it broadly, about reconciliation - reconciling God with God’s creation, people with each other..And Jesus, again primarily addressing disciples, is looking to build a community of reconciliation. Jesus is very realistic about it - it would be foolishness to expect that the disciples of Jesus Christ would never have a quarrel, an argument, get mad at each other, curse at each other and so on, you get the idea. So, he calls on his disciples to do the right thing and make it right through reconciliation!

Lust is similar - Jesus knows that lust is one of our weaknesses, we can assume Jesus was tempted by it as well. And puritan culture beware - it is not the subject of lust that is liable, it is the one that lusts! If we look at the history of Christianity, I feel like there was some VERY selective reading of this passage as in combination with the story of Eden, it was used to condemn and marginalize women as temptresses. And also some VERY literal readings, when a renown early church theologian Origen of Alexandria allegedly castrated himself to avoid temptation, which may have happened and if so, his bishop condemned him for it and Origen himself wrote later that we should not read the passage literally. So what do we make of such passage? Hauerwas in his commentary writes Jesus wants his disciples to take hold of the purpose that can be found in laboring for the coming kingdom of heaven that helps not only to stop dwelling on sinfulness, but to find a demanding purpose that helps discover that there are better things to do than to dwell on lust. Or in his words:

“If we are a people committed to peace in a world of war, if we are a people committed to faithfulness in a world of distrust, then we will be consumed by a way to live that offers freedom from being dominated by anger or lust.” Freeing and challenging at the same time, isn’t it.

And then there is divorce - a very hot button issue, of course. The average U. S. divorce rate among vomen has decreased to 14 per 1 000 women, Arkansas leads with 21 divorces and New Jersey is almost the lowest with 9.6 according to a study. Not bad, but the likelihood we all know several people that have gotten a divorce is still pretty high, regardless. I am not going to over-analyze as the world of marriage and partnering is so complex these days - civil marriage, common law marriage, marriage of different religions and between different religions, countries having differing attitudes who can marry…Personally, I am happy as long as those that want to consensually marry can marry and where there needs to be separation and/or a divorce, one occurs carefully and equitably - even if those are my parents or my sibling. And then there is all the gray in between. Our laws reflect this brokenness and steps to alleviate hurt and toxic relationships and Jesus, albeit somewhat harshly, addresses that, perhaps to highlight the favorable treatment of the man divorcing the wife. Applying again the Hauerwasenian community focus - Jesus is being countercultural here, of course. Getting married and having children was a big and important milestone in the life of a Jew, “for to be a Jew means first and foremost to have a child, a child whose very existence is a sign of God’s care of God’s people. “ An idea that is embedded in many of the cultures that are experiencing a baby boom right now. But Jesus intends to build a different community, one where the biological reproduction takes a backseat, and the witness and conversion takes a front seat of building up the community. Neither celibacy, nor marriage is made into a required program within such a community and I’d say, as a progressive theologian, also the gray areas in-between, inasmuch they remain wholesome and life-giving. In such a community, re-marriage may not be necessary - it may be enough for such a person to be sustained through friendship and common purpose. I watched far too many friends fall into the trap of the endless circle of break-ups and immediately finding someone else, often with similar characteristics and flaws, just so that they are not lonely. In a caring community, once can take time or even remain single, should they choose. Marriage is not a sacrament in our church, we do not have to choose it alongside our baptism and confirmation.

So what of this all, this cut through the issues Jesus addresses? Can you see the common thread? A thread that is at once liberating and challenging - being freed by the truth, yes, but not quite in the way we may wish. Just like Christ’s sacrifice removed the sting of death, but not death itself or just as

The Book of Concord (Article II: Original Sin)

baptism [according to Luther] removes the guilt of original sin, even if the “material element” of sin, as they call it, remains, namely, concupiscence

the strong desire, or in Paul’s words “rebellion of the flesh against the spirit.”

We are called towards a higher purpose and through the Word and sacraments we are given the sustenance and helpful pointers to keep going, but that doesn’t make the realities of our world and the temptations and desires contained within disappear. We are called to a shift of our minds, to do our best to live out God’s grace and love we are given to absorb and pass onto others, not to become bogged down by our (or other’s) imperfections and sins - as we call it, we ought to be spiritually baptized daily, again and again being made whole thanks to a merciful and loving God. Or as one chasidic wisdom says: “Begin with self-examination....but THEN think of the world!” Amen.