SERMON | Matthew 5:21-37 | GLIMPSES OF THE KIN-DOM: 6. "But I Say..." by Rev. Joseph Sanford at Sellersburg United Methodist Church in Sellersburg, Indiana.
Jesus is inviting his disciples into a new way of living…
A new Kin-dom…
with a new rule…
Not a list, tablet, or scroll, but WAY of Life.
The early church called our faith “The Way” because it was JUST THAT!
A NEW WAY.
Jesus holds up the rule they know and follow, but then takes it deeper.
Don’t just NOT MURDER, but don’t be angry with your sister or brother.
You’ll be liable to judgment.
This isn’t a cosmic judgment by God.
It is, but not like we think.
If I hold my hand over this flame, what happens?
I get burned, right?
Not because the fire is judging me, but because that’s how things work.
Flames burn.
Too much heat harms.
So…if I want to avoid being burned, I avoid letting things get too hot…I don’t hold my hand over flames.
I must know how things work…and then I must live by the way things are.
God’s commandments and rules are like heat or gravity…they are how things work.
If I let myself boil w/ anger toward someone…but then I stop short of killing them, I may be following the LAW and breaking no commandments or rules, but something terrible is happening anyway, right?
The Commandments and rules of Scripture are meant to guide us toward how to live as true human beings…
as we were created to live and act and be and experience life and relationships.
If I kill people, that doesn’t lead to a fruitful life, but to a life of the Valley of Hinnom.
Well…so does living angry at people.
Does it produce fruit to get mad at people in your life?
Does it produce fullness of life to hold contempt against other human beings?
Or does that kind of life lead to a smoldering fire in our souls that actually destroys our hearts a bit at a time.
Like holding our hand over a flame, holding anger leads to damage to our hearts and minds and relationships and life.
So, Jesus says…don’t be angry.
He holds up reconciliation and making friends above worship!!
Because worship cannot bring you peace when you harbor anger and resentment.
You cannot be right with God if you are not right with other human beings.
Jesus talks about all of our relationships through the lens of life vs. death…
thriving vs. destruction.
These new expressions of the Kin-dom do more than show us a better path.
—they reveal Jesus as the blueprint of humanity.
Jesus lived by the New Way.
The Sermon on the Mount isn’t just good advice, but GOOD NEWS.
Jesus lived this way for us to see.
Jesus lived into the way of being fully human.
He opens up our eyes to see it in and through him.
If we follow him, we can discover it too!
We can catch glimpses of the Kin-dom.
When Jesus was mocked by religious leaders and his contemporaries and family, he didn’t respond in kind.
When Jesus was challenged by the “rule follower” he told parables and stories: some of them were funny and meant to disarm the tension, but they all forced his antagonizers to think differently.
When Jesus was struck, he took the pain and made no attempt to retaliate.
When they put a cross on his back, he carried it out of the city to the place of his execution.
When they nailed him to the cross, he prayed for them and asked God to forgive them all.
The Sermon on the Mount isn’t just about us…
It’s about Jesus Christ…
It’s about the Kin-dom which Jesus ushered in.
What would our world look like if the people of the Church started living into this new deeper way where relationships were valued over everything else…even WORSHIP!!
We’d see the Salt & Light at work in and through us.
The world around us would look at us…
and catch glimpses of the Kin-dom.