Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (2)

Lord, help us to see others as you see them. To pay attention to how we act, not to what others do. Keep us always focused on you, Lord, so that we cannot turn from you because you are all around us. Amen.

A PRAYER OF ADORATION

God of Integrity, God of truth and wisdom, we worship and adore you. Jesus who lived without sin, who lived life in all its fullness, we worship and adore you. Holy Spirit, who leads and guides us to live with honesty and sincerity, we worship and adore you. Amen.

A PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Reconciling God, forgive us when we make wrong choices, when our decisions are not of honesty and integrity. Forgive us when we hurt others by our words and actions. Forgive us when we judge others and think ourselves better.

Forgive us when relationships break down and we do not want to repair them. Forgive us when we don’t strive for peace. Reconciling God, we choose life – life in all its fullness in you. Amen.

ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS

Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that in you we have new life, We choose life today through the cross, We are healed and restored, We are reconciled with one another in you, We thank you that we are forgiven and can again live in love and peace with all. Amen.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

(Offering during Hymn)

(StF 409) Let us build a house where love can dwell.

READING

Deuteronomy 30: 15-20

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before your life and death, blessings, and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

(StF 610) Best of all God is with us.

Matthew 5: 21-37

21 ‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, “Raca,”[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.

23 ‘Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

25 ‘Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you; you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Adultery

27 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.”[e] 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Divorce

31 ‘It has been said, “Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.”[f] 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Oaths

33 ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not break your oath, but fulfil to the Lord the oaths you have made.” 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply “Yes,” or “No”; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.[g]

(StF 242) A new commandment I give to you.

SERMON

We are asked this simple question from our reading from Deuteronomy and it is simply this…

Do we love God or not? Do we make excuses why we don’t hear Him? Today God has given us the choice between life and death, blessings, and curses. Heaven and earth it is our choice.

God’s hope is that we would choose life!

Leo Tolstoy told a story of a man in a boat: He was told to aim for the opposite shore, he has been given a pair of oars and then left alone. He rows a short time but he found the current drove him away from the shore. He saw other boats in the same stream. Some were struggling against the current trying to reach the shore while others are just drifting along. “Is this the way he asked those floating downstream?” the man asks. “Of course, it is! What do you think? There is no other way.” So, the man relaxes and allows the current to take him. But suddenly he becomes aware of the menacing sound—the roar of the rapids. He suddenly realises he is in danger he then remembers what he had forgotten—his oars, and the course he was told to aim for the opposite shore. With all his might he rows upstream crying in terror, “What a fool I was to drift!” Tolstoy interpretation of this parable is—the current is the tradition of the world which sweeps away countless people. The oars are the will of the individual and the opposite shore is God. A person can either give into their temptations or set their minds and hearts against them.

But we need to ask ourselves is this, when you look at the image of God do you see God as vengeful, angry, full of wrath who sends to the wicked to hellfire or do you see a loving, kind, forgiving God.

Hopefully for most of us this is an easy question to answer because when we think of God, most of us accept that our God is a God’s love for each and every one of us, he is forever saving and forgiving. Jesus came into our world to take away our sin by his death on the cross and showing God’s victory over sin, death, that first Easter morning.

But then I looked to our text for this Sunday, that follows the beginning of great promises of the Sermon on the Mount. But as we may know along with the promises there is also warnings.

We can find forgiveness, healing, and salvation in Jesus Christ. We are saved by grace through faith not through works of the Law. But todays reading also deals with what happens after we believe. It focuses on the second part of the law not how we are to fear and love God above everything else—but how we love, serve, and obey God in daily life. The question is simply do we go with the flow? Or do we hold ourselves to a higher standard as Christians? What do we do after we say we believe?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes back to the Ten Commandments and broadens them. In particular, he takes the sins of anger, sexual immorality, lies, —and warns us we should always take them seriously.

In these commands there is a structure which goes: there are the old commandment, and Jesus’ new commandment.

He then expands them dealing with Anger first: “21 ‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.” 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister[b][c] will be subject to judgement. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, “Raca,”[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.” The commandment against murder is the most obvious of them all and probably the best place to start. But Jesus says we are not to be angry with someone else?

But which of us have never been angry with someone.

I remember a story the preacher was speaking on this subject, and asked “is there anyone here who does not hold a grudge against anyone?”

The Church was silent then a lady who was around 90 years old held up her hand. The preacher said look at this lady who has no anger for anyone, please come forward” the old lady does so. Then is asked “please tell the people how you can be at peace with everyone” she shuffled forward and said, “I’ve outlived them all.”

But joking apart Jesus is dealing with a very important point while we are unable to forgive, how can we receive forgiveness, we are told about this in many parables that tell us we must not hold grudges.

Jesus says we shouldn’t hold on to our anger. And There is no cause that justifies it. OK, as human beings we may get mad—We can get carried away by the madness of anger. In Ephesians we are told, “‘Be angry, and don’t sin.’ Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26 WEB). As Christians we are told do not hold on to your anger. If we do get angry, we are told don’t try to get even but instead be reconciled with our enemy. Jesus tells us just what to do: leave your gift at the altar and go make up with your brother and sister. Paul says in Romans, “If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men” (Romans 12:18 WEB). We may not be able to change the other person, but we can change ourselves. Forgive the trespasses of others so that God forgives you yours.

If uncontrolled anger is the greatest of sins, then sexual immorality follows right after. “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery.” And here Jesus expands the commandment as well. It is not enough to avoid the act of adultery, but lust in the heart also breaks the commandment because that’s were it starts. The words here do not mean a passing glance that notices beauty and appreciates it, but the leering, ogling, staring at the other person that is wrong. Unbridled anger destroys communities and relationships; so, does uncontrolled lust. Jesus says it is better to tear out your eye, cut off your right hand, than to end up in hell. I don’t think Jesus means this literally or there would be a lot of one-armed one-eyed people, but it is to demonstrate the hurt it not only those who receive the unwanted advances, but the person who does this.

Jesus’ teaching on divorce is really part of this same commandment. In Jesus’ time, there were two parties within the Jewish community that took opposite stands on divorce. Rabbi Shammai interpreted Deuteronomy 24 strictly: “Suppose a man enters into a marriage with a woman but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, so he writes her a certificate of divorce.” To Rabbi Shammai “something objectionable.”was possibly unfaithfulness, but Rabbi Hillel interpreted the passage very loosely, “something objectionable” could really be whatever the man thought “something” was. interpreted to mean: “if she is no longer beautiful to the man.” Men were divorcing their wives for burning the dinner, for losing their looks; maybe the man had found a younger, prettier woman. Jesus takes Shammai’s strict position and makes it stricter yet.

We are called to godly living in thought, word, and deed. Words too—the next commandment that Jesus expands is the eighth: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Jesus counters, “Again you have heard that it was said to them of old time, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,’ but I tell you, don’t swear at all” (Matthew 5:33-34 WEB).

Have you ever heard someone say, “I swear it is the truth,” or “I swear on a stack of Bibles that it is the truth!” I do not know about you, hearing that always makes me think that everything else that the person says must be a lie. Jesus simply tells us, “Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ Whatever is more than these is of the evil one” (Matthew 5:37 WEB). Christians are to be honest people, speaking the truth clearly. We are called to “speak the truth in love.” Paul advises Timothy to be kindly to everyone, patient, correcting with gentleness. Words can hurt. Some words hurt so badly that relationships are destroyed. Jesus is telling us to make sure our words are truthful and loving, building up and not tearing down. Luther got this commandment right when he explains, “We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander or lie about our neighbour but defend the neighbour, speak well of the neighbour and explain the neighbour’s actions in the kindest way.”

Jesus addresses his followers’ behaviour, and the thoughts and feelings that give rise to it. Disciples of Jesus must be faithful, trustworthy, and reliable. Right thinking – what is in the heart – is as important as right action.

There are no half measures with God, so we shouldn’t need to think about what is right or wrong. When we have chosen life with God, his standard of integrity should always guide our actions and reactions.

A contract needs terms and conditions. These days, your TV or tablet can warn you that you have been watching for too long! We all need guidelines; they are useful for our well being. The thread running through Jesus’ teaching is that we should ‘choose life’ not by remembering rules, but by living with integrity in all aspects of our life. Jesus points out that there are not ‘big sins’ and ‘small sins’ – there are sins! And thinking about doing something offensive to God reflects the state of our heart. The guidelines given are for us: we cannot enforce them on others. But we should recognise that God knows our hearts.

We are called to be, all the time, wholehearted, sincere, honest, pure, not rude, not angry, and so on. If we have fallen out with anyone, it’s our responsibility to sort it out, no matter who started it, even if that takes as much courage as cutting off a hand. Don’t let bad thoughts win, but ask ‘What would Jesus do?’ When someone offends you, will you ‘get your own back’? It is for God, not us, to judge and respond to you and the other party. They will be judged for what they did to you. How will God judge you for how you respond? Cutting off hands and plucking out eyes is not our punishment for wrongdoing, but radical changes we may need to make to our lives to prevent us going astray.

It is important how we live our life as God’s people. We are held to a higher standard just because we know God and love God, because we have had our sins forgiven and been given the Holy Spirit. We are not just drifting along but called to take up the oars and row our boat to the other shore. We are expected to help one another, forgive one another, respect one another. It is hard work being a Christian, loving God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and then loving our neighbours as ourselves. But remember this, if God asks you to do something, God will give you the necessary strength to carry out the task. Amen.

(StF 254) Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

PRAYERS OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION

Jesus, we thank and praise you, that you have taught us another way, that you have given us life in all its fullness. Thank you that when we seek you with all our heart, we are choosing that life. Thank you that you have offered us a different path: a path of truth, a path of humility, a path of wisdom, a path of integrity, a path of honesty. Through your example here on earth you showed us how to live peaceful lives, how to reconcile with others, how to follow you and seek wholeness. Thank you that we have all of that in you. You reconciled us on the cross and we are truly grateful. Amen.

We pray for all those whose growth has been stifled. For children abused, neglected, criticised and bullied: God of grace, may they know your love.

For those in war zones, whose lives and homes have been destroyed: we think of those suffering in the Ukraine.

And our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Turkey and Syria who are reeling from the devastating earthquake. God of growth, may they know your love. For those suffering from illness, whose choices have been taken from them: God of grace, may they know your love.

We pray for churches, communities and nations where division and prejudice have undermined trust and where pain and discord go unhealed: God of grace, may they know your love.

We pray for animals captured and caged, for those who never feel the sun on their back and whose lives are cut terribly short: God of grace, may they know your love.

We pray for ourselves, in every area of our lives, where we have not grown into the people we could be: may we know your love. Amen.

(StF 545) Be Though My Vision

BLESSING

The LORD bless you and keep you,

‌

The LORD make his face shine on you and be gracious to you,

‌

The LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace. Amen.

Related Media

Related Sermons