To listen to the sermon as it was preached at the 9:00 am service, click here.
To listen to the sermon as it was preached at the 10:45 am service, click here.
St. Charles Episcopal Church - Saint Charles, IL
The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany - Epiphany 6 RCL – Year A
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 – Psalm 119:1-8 – 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 – Matthew 5:21-37
Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
If you were to look around the Episcopal Churches this morning, my guess is that there are a lot of assistant rectors, curates, and guest preachers in the pulpits this morning. If you were listening to the Gospel this morning I’m sure you know why. Wouldn’t you dodge having to preach on this if you could? It sure looks like Jesus is being pretty harsh. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” “...if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.” Does this sound like the God of love talking? What ever happened to “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth?” Well, it’s time to move out into deep water.
Before we tackle the Gospel we heard this morning, I want to take a moment to step back and look at the context of what we are hearing this morning. For the last two weeks, and for the next two as well, we are hearing from the Sermon on the Mount portion of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter five, six, and seven. Last weeks portion ended with “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This week, Jesus goes on to expound a bit on what that would actually look like. Just so you are prepared, Jesus will be doing pretty much the same thing next week as well.
Now the scribes and Pharisees were the most righteous people of their day. They were the folks who did it right. From some of the other stories in the bible, it is obvious that they were also prone to slipping into self righteousness every once in a while. I suppose they’re really no different than you or me in that respect. Even when we are trying to be on our best behavior, and maybe especially when we are trying to be on our best behavior, we find ourselves most at risk of getting full of ourselves. The scribes and Pharisees were scrupulous about being correct on the outside, where everyone else could see, and that isn’t all bad, because they were leaders of a sort. The problem was that they were far less scrupulous about being correct on the inside. And before we get started looking down our noses at the scribes and the Pharisees, I feel the need to point out the obvious. I think we, yes even us in the church, are in far worse shape than the scribes and Pharisees.
There is an old saying that goes like this, “Character was who you are when nobody was looking.” If that is the case, and I believe it is, then I’m not so sure character is all that it used to be. We now live in a society where the biggest sin of all is to get caught. Jesus is telling his followers, both then and now, that it is what’s inside that really counts. Thinking about it is the same thing as doing it. You can’t get away with anything. Even if no one is listening; even if no one sees; even if no one is hurt; sin is still sin. There is no such thing as a little sin or a big sin. All sin is sin. All sin separates us from God and from each other.
The tough part about preaching the Gospel this week is that this is where we take a break in the narrative. And next week isn’t any better as Jesus continues to take us inside, pushing home the themes he begins this week. And so here we are standing on the brink. As the true depth and breadth of the divide that has come to separate us from God is revealed to us, we might find ourselves despairing of ever finding a way across.
The sad and deep truth is that for us there is no way across, and that would be cause for despair if that were the end of the story. It is not. The truth is that we do not need to find a way across, for God comes to us. God always comes to us. Jesus is the bridge that spans the difference between who we are and who God wants us to be. In the terrible example of his death on the cross we see the lengths to which the wild love of God has gone, and will continue to go for us. As Jesus loves us to the end, all our ends, we catch a glimpse of who we truly are, and who we were meant to be. In the passion of his love, Jesus invites us to come close and listen carefully for the heartbeat of God. As we were made, and continue to be made in the image of God, the heartbeat of God has an echo in all of us. We must come close to hear it. Close to each other.
This truth, I think, is reflected in Jesus’ own summary of the law, love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. This love, this wild terrible love is not something we can do without, any more than we can do without air. To cast it aside or do without it, is to put our very souls in danger. To embrace it is to choose life. To access the heartbeat of God in our midst is to open our eyes to the possibility of seeing each other as God sees us; to open our hearts to the transforming power of this wild terrible love in our lives; to open our hands to the world in a generosity of spirit that knows no bounds; to open ourselves, all of ourselves, to the new life of grace.
Did you know that the rhythm of God is beating quietly in the depth of your very soul, just waiting to answer the heartbeat of God? Can you imagine the thrill when two beats come together across the void, like drums talking across the dark night in ancient times, or more recently, like the ancient words of Genesis coming to us out of the ether from the orbit of the moon. It is the thrill of new love. It is the thrill of the love of all time, the love before time.
Jesus shows us that as this love binds us to each other, so it binds us to God, and that means that salvation is not something we should pursue as individuals, but something we must do together. On the night before Jesus died for us, he told his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; Abide in my love.”
Now close your eyes, take a breath and let it out, and as you sit briefly quiet, picture your head resting on the chest of Jesus, and listen for the heartbeat of God while you abide in that love.
And when you exchange the peace a little later, know that that same heart beats in the one you are shaking hands with. Amen.