Epiphany 6A "A Life Immersed in Grace"

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Emeril Lagasse.  Upon hearing his name some of you immediately thought of one of his famous sayings.  Either you saw the image of him tossing spices into a pot and saying, “BAM!” or you thought of “I’m gonna kick it up a little” or “I’m gonna kick it up a notch.”  There is the way the recipe is written, and then there is the way Emeril makes it.

When I read or hear the passages from the Sermon on the Mount, which we will hear more from next week, I have to force myself to remember two things that Jesus said in the passage you heard last week.  These teachings of Jesus are framed by the statements, “I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets” and “”Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees.” Meaning he’s come to kick it up a notch.  There is the way the Law is written, and then there is the way that Jesus calls us to live it.

The Greek word behind “fulfill” means to fill to the full, to complete, to bring to realization, or to accomplish. 

So Jesus is saying, “I have come to make the letter of the Law complete…to show you how it works in day to day.”

Because here’s the truth.  We are creatures of rationalization.  We love the loophole. What do I mean by the loophole?

There’s a light hearted jab that goes back and forth between Greek and Russian Orthodox Christians when it comes to fasting. It was something I learned during the couple of years I spent in the Orthodox Church.  During seasons of fasting, like Great Lent, Orthodox Christians refrain from All Meat, All Dairy, Eggs, Wine and Oil.  The joke is that the Greeks say “No wine means no alcohol at all; no oil means no olive oil but canola, corn, peanut, etc. are okay.”  But the Russians say, “No oil means no oil at all; but no wine means no wine, vodka, on the other hand…vodka is okay.”  

Rationalization sounds like this statement: “I quit smoking in June 1996 and I haven’t smoked a cigarette ever since.  That being said, I have been known to enjoy a cigar from time to time…but since I don’t inhale, I’m not really smoking, right?”

We are creatures of rationalization.  We are lovers of the loophole.  In these teachings Jesus says, “No more loopholes; stop rationalizing your behavior.”  

John Wesley challenged his societies and class meeting to live by Three Rules.  The first two fit this fairly well.  Wesley said, “First of all, do no harm. Secondly, do all the good you can to all the people you can, in all the ways that you can, as long as ever you can.”  

Do no harm is pretty easy for most of us.  Don’t hurt people.  Don’t rob, don’t murder, don’t rape.  For a great portion of the population those are easy.  Do no harm.  But when you add the second rule of do good, it takes it up a notch.  Don’t just refrain from harming others, do good deeds for people.  Do good deeds to all of them.  Do as much good as you can, and do it as frequently as you can.  See the difference between do no harm and do good?

So what Jesus says is, “don’t just be satisfied with not killing your neighbor who upsets you…don’t even be angry.  In fact, if you think you may have caused someone else to be upset with you, seek that person out and be reconciled.” 

Think about that one for just a minute. How many people do you think you may have made upset with you in a given day?  Depending on the person, it may not take much to make them upset.  Not actually stopping to see how they respond to the greeting, “How are you doing?”  That upsets some people.  Cutting people off in traffic, that upsets some people.  Having a cartload of groceries in the express line, that upsets some people.  Having a different opinion from someone is cause for making people mad anymore.  But when we think of anger, usually what we’re most concerned with are those we’re upset with, not those we may have harmed—intentionally or otherwise.

I had a parishioner come up to me once, because in a statement I had made in a small group study where I thought I was complimenting her faith walk, she was under the impression that I had mocked her.  I had no idea that I had hurt her feelings until she came to me, but I also wasn’t in place where I was thinking about whether what I said could cause pain to others.  How many of people out there have been harmed by our words, even if we didn’t mean it?

Ultimately what Jesus is teaching us, is that our outward actions are guided by what goes on in our hearts.  And just living in the realm of “I didn’t actually do the deed” doesn’t really cut it.  He addresses the contentious issues of his time, but I would say that there are other issues that could be included beyond just the “hot topics” of his day.  

One scholar points out, “By collapsing the distinction between thought and action, this extension of the law against adultery to include lust suggests that no one should be regarded as a sex object. The burden here is placed on the man: women are not responsible for enticing men into sexual misadventures.”*  The following references (of cutting off arms and gouging out eyes) “are hyperbole used by Jesus to emphasize the need for integrity of self in terms of the relationship between intent and action, between attitude and practice.”**

Other people, women or men, are not meant to be objects of sexuality, or objects of wrath, or objects to be conquered on our pathway to success. The more we objectify the easier it becomes to dehumanize, the easier it becomes to dismiss sacred worth.

Some colleagues of mine back in the U.S. were recently discussing on Facebook whether or not we could/should rank sins.  There were a variety of responses, as I’m sure there are a number of different thoughts happening right now about ranking sin.  I won’t ask you to raise your hands or identify one way or the other, so don’t worry. But what our discussion had me thinking about again was the idea of justification and rationalization.  I haven’t killed anyone…even though your anger may have reached a point of killing your relationship with that person or you are completely disinterested in seeking reconciliation with someone.  

One of my favorite passages from the gospels is the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Pharisee is living a life of comparative piety.  I am not like “those people”…whereas the Tax Collector is only aware of how much he is in need of mercy and grace.

In the end, perhaps this is exactly where Jesus is calling us to land, spiritually speaking: aware of how much we still need mercy and grace. One pastor says that Jesus “is not just giving moral commands. He is veiling a new way of being human.”***

 So there is some danger in taking what Jesus says here and making it into a new form legalism; after all, legalism just means more loopholes.  Jesus doesn’t want legalism, and he is even less interested in loopholes; he wants us to explore what living with love, and a life immersed in grace, looks like.

* Amy Jill Levine “Matthew,” in The Women’s Bible Commentary quoted by Marcia Y. Riggs in the Theological Perspective of Sixith Sunday after the Epiphany in Feasting on the Word.

** Marcia Y Riggs. “Theological Perspective: Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany” Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1, Advent through Transfiguration.

*** Edwin Chr. Van Driel “Exegetical Perspective: Sixth Sunday after Epiphany.” Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1, Advent through Transfiguration.