Preacher's Post

Preached Words:

excerpt from a Pentecost 7 sermon on Matthew

"...Not comfortable words; chances are, Matthew’s church was not accustomed to much comfort. They lived in a climate of internal conflict and external threat; they no longer had the security of the old ways of worship in the temple and they were not exactly on good standing with the occupation forces of Rome. So no words of sweetness and light, no summertime livin’ is easy. But also, not some sort of tight-lipped, grim “life is hard” message either. This is, after, all, gospel, or, good news. So where’s the good news?

First: We get a choice. Jesus says we can choose a new way. Give up your old ways, give up the old life, old self, lose all of that, and then begin to see something new. This wrench from the old to the new is as sharp as a sword.

Jesus told them that to follow him would re-arrange their lives and their loves. Their strong bonds of kinship, their ancient, inherited sense of the order of things must change. Their patterns of belonging and their rituals of identity, the things that gave their lives order and meaning, would give way to new bonds, new allegiances, new ways of belonging, new ways of being. And it would not be easy.

Their new life would not be defined by their family relationship, they would no longer be known as the ‘son of’ or the ‘daughter of’, they would not have the temple rituals to define the days and the seasons as their ancestors had, they would not have the same rituals to name the sacred, to distinguish the sacred from the profane, the holy from the ordinary. All, in the new life of Jesus, was subject to change. Change as sharp as a sword. Change that would not happen without some wounding.

But there is balm for this wound, and this is the really good news: their old lives would be lost, but then they would be found again in a completely new way. Their new lives would be lives defined not by Torah code or temple rules or tribal taboo, but by love, a new kind of love, a way to know the love of God, a way spelled out, lived out, by Jesus.

This new love for God would not be placed alongside their love for family or friends or work or anything else that gave them identity. This new love would not destroy their love for all that was familiar. It would not be about allegiance or requirement or duty. It would not be something to do. This new love for God would change them at he core of their being. It would change the way they saw themselves and saw the world.

With these words of Jesus, these instructions from Matthew, the choice becomes not WHAT to love: our work, our weekend projects; not WHO: our children, our friends, our spouse, our parents. The question is not what or who—that is not the hard choice. The question become HOW we love.

These words of Jesus are a profound statement about HOW we are to love. These words tell us that when we choose to follow Jesus, choose to walk the way of the cross, we begin to see ourselves and the world through different eyes. Our choice gives us a clarity of vision, a discerning way to know what matters, what is really important.

St. Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century called this clarity of vision “learned indifference.” (Spiritual Exercises) “Learned indifference” is not apathy; quite the opposite, it is actually a kind of attentiveness. A way to focus. It is a kind of exquisite release. It means that there is nothing, no created reality which gains our ultimate allegiance. This means practicing a posture of openness to “the greater reality”, the ultimate reality of our lives, which is God..."

Executive Director - The Rev. Anne S. Howard's blog

Main Page

Authors

Diaries

Channels

The Word: Pentecost 7

Headline Words:

Quotable Words:

Preached Words:

Post new comment