Sermon on the Mount

March 29, 2023

Matthew 7: 1-5

7‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your neighbor, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

When was the last time you judged someone? What form did it take? One might have been akin to road rage. Someone changed lanes unexpectedly causing you to hit your brakes (feel free to exchange this example with your most resent traffic irritant). You blast your horn, use a common hand gesture, and maybe something worse. You have evaluated this other driver and judged them a menace. (By the way, you have also increased your blood pressure to dangerous levels.) Here is the problem with your judgment. Ask yourself if you have ever done what that driver just did. Be honest! Of course you have. So, if that driver is a menace … so are you. 

Here is another example. You sign on to your favorite social media platform and begin to scroll. You come across a entry that you find … well … ill thought out. You reply with strong words. You feel a moment of euphoria because of your snappy response. Then … the replies to your post start coming in. You suddenly discover that your post was … well … ill thought out. Turns out that speck in that first guy’s eye is tiny compared to your log.

We can’t criticize others for things we do ourselves. Or for things we have done in the past. Or things we might do in the future. We should try to avoid hypocrisy. What Jesus is saying is that we need to be gentle with each other. It might keep you from elevating your blood pressure. It is good for you.

Sermon on the Mount

March 28, 2023

Matthew 6: 34

34 ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Worry, worry, worry. That’s what human beings do. Worrying comes in different forms. It can be worrying about what you have done in the past. That can come in the form of regret or shame and in its worst form can cause depression. Why depression? Because there is nothing that can be done to change the past. Worrying about the future can cause anxiety and apprehension and in its worst form can cause panic because you will never have complete control of all the potential variables. Focusing on the things that you cannot change and the things you cannot control is futile and Jesus says to stop it! Focus on today. Focus on this moment. That is what Jesus is saying. But that is hard. I learned that when I started practicing meditation. The goal of meditation is to have you stop worrying and just sit in the present moment. But here is what I learned. When you try to meditate, your brain defaults to either your regrets of the past or your list of things you need to do in the future. Don’t believe me? Try it. Yet Jesus says that we need to stop that. How? Trust! Trust that God will provide what you need today, or even in that short moment. That trust can bring peace for today or just in that moment. When human beings first showed up, we were better at that. We were what were called “hunter gatherers”. In small groups, we hunted for food and water every day. Then we ate and drank and slept. That was our day. We worried about hunting and gathering today. Not tomorrow … today. That was enough. We lived that day. And it was enough. I think that is good advice.

Sermon on the Mount

March 25, 2023

Matthew 6: 24

24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Many people believe that the Bible says, “Money is the source of all evil”. The Bible does not say that. Money is a neutral thing. Saying money does something is like saying a rock does damage when it hits a window. The rock does not damage the window. It is neutral. Only when someone throws the rock is damage done. It is only when we worship money that money becomes the source of evil. We greedily hoard it and  seek it because we worship it. It is our god to the exclusion of any benefit it might have to those around us in need. So, money becomes our master. Though we might say that we also serve or worship God, one must take precedence over the other. We cannot worship both. If we choose money, we “hate” or “despise” God. If we choose God, we are more likely to share our wealth, the wealth God gave us. Which is it going to be? Who, or what, do you love? Who, or what, gets the top spot?

Sermon on the Mount

March 24, 2023

Matthew 6: 22-23

22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

When I was a kid, I loved to go to Kennywood. One of the big attractions was Noah’s Ark. It was basically a fun house through which you walked while being confronted by weird, funny or scary scenes. Part of the Ark was lit only by a “black light”. Basically, an ultraviolet light that only lit up things that were fluorescent or white. If you wore a white shirt, you were lit up big time. Your smile was eerily very white. But the rest of you was dark. Your skin did not shine, your non-white clothing would look dark and colorless. It was cool. But as soon as you left that room, all the normal colors returned. What you saw depended on the light that was shined on it. That is what Jesus is talking about in this text.

Frist you need to read it carefully. What Jesus is saying is that the light that allows you to see the world comes from your eyes. This is what most cultures in Jesus’ day believed. The eyes are the lamp that lights up the world. So, the way you perceive the world depends on the kind of light that comes out of your eyes. And the source of that light is within you. Jesus is saying that the world will appear to according to your light. If you have “healthy” eyes – good eyes – the world will appear beautiful and appealing. If you have “unhealthy” eyes – evil eyes – the world will appear distorted. How the world appears to you depends on what is inside you. What is inside you? Is it focused on worldly desires or thoughts? Then that “black light” will distort reality. If your focus is on God, the bright light will let you see the reality of God’s good creation. How do you make sure your inward light is good and not evil? Look to God.

Sermon on the Mount

March 23, 2023

Matthew 6: 19-21

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

In 2011 and 2012, I lost both of my parents. One of the unenviable, but common, tasks that my brother and I faced was cleaning out the house where they had lived for ten years. We went through closets, drawers, the garage, and finally the attic. It was a nostalgic trip through my parents’ lives. But it was also a perfect example of today’s text. One of the things we found were photo albums from years past, covered with dust and deteriorated. We looked through them and discovered that many people in the pictures we did not know. We decided that if we did not know who was in the picture, we threw it away. We also opened several garbage bags that contained clothing. The bags also contained mothballs. A quick look at these items and off to the dumpster. Then there were garbage cans that contained old sweaters my mother knitted decades ago. More mothballs. Unwearable. This went on for months as we examined these treasures of our parents. The last thing we pulled out was a very old box, again covered with dust. Inside, we found my mother’s wedding dress. Sigh … She wore it once and then put it away. All these were treasures on earth that gave way to moth and rust. Please do not take this as criticism. I have a full attic, full drawers, full closets, a full garage, too. We all do, don’t we. These are the things we acquire in our lives that gave us joy. But, unlike Marie Kondo and the joy she gets when “tidying up”, we are unwilling to “thank” our earthly treasures and send them off. We want to keep them forever. 

Jesus points out that forever does not happen on earth. Things rust. Moths eat, Thieves steal. If we focus on those things, we lose sight of what is truly important. The only things that are eternal are the things we store in heaven. Love of God. Love of neighbor. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Give water to the thirsty, Welcome the stranger. Visit the oppressed. That is the theme Jesus returns to over and over. Care for and about each other. That is treasure in heaven.

Sermon on the Mount

March 22, 2023

Matthew 6: 16-18

16 ‘And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

So, does this passage tell us that we expected to fast? Actually, no, which is good because we really don’t. The Lenten tradition of “giving something up” in commemoration of Jesus’ 40 days without food in the wilderness is not a “fast”. 

What is interesting tis that this lesson from Jesus talks about fasting as it would be understood by a Jew in the first century. To a Jew, a voluntary fast would be undertaken to mark a disruption in the life of the one fasting or in the community of the one fasting. The most common disruption would be the death of a loved one or some communal tragedy. One would mourn by not eating. And fasts were limited. They were to be from sunup until the first stars of the evening are seen. (I suspect there was dispensation for overcast evenings.) The fasting also signified hope. Hope that God would fulfil God’s promise that God was still God, had something to do with what happened, and would ultimately intervene to save the people of Israel. Fasting was thus an act of humility and faith.

So, if you were going to fast, Jesus tells you how you do it. In secret. Those who make a show of it are hypocrites. They are making themselves the center of the fast, not God. It is not really a show of humility, but a showing off one’s purported “piety”. So, if you are fasting, keep it to yourself.

Sermon on the Mount

March 21, 2023

Matthew 6: 14-15

14For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

First you need to know that these words are not part of the prayer the Lord taught according to Mathew. They are an explanation of what Jesus means when Jesus says:

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

What that means is that If you are an injured party who is asked for forgiveness  … well … if you want to be forgiven by God for all your offences, you have to be willing to forgive all the offences others have committed against you. How do we do that? It is certainly not our nature. Forgiving is hard. But not forgiving can be harmful.

Adam Hamilton wrote a book called Forgiveness. In it, Hamilton uses stones and a backpack to illustrate the way we deal with people who hurt us. Small stones are small slights. Medium stones are more hurtful. Large stones cause serious pain. We collect such stones every day. And we have to decide what we are going to do with them. We can put them in our backpacks and carry them around with us until we are so weighed down by our resentment and grudges that carrying the backpack hurts us. Or we can forgive and throw the stones away. Each sized stone requires a different amount of forgiveness. Small stones should be just ignored. Say to yourself, “Have I ever done that and just sort of walked away without asking for pardon?” If you have, you have no right to begrudge the person who has just done something you have done.

Let it go.

Medium and large stones require more work. Forgiveness starts by giving up the right to retribution. An eye for an eye simply does not work. It only escalates into a death match. But giving grace does not mean we condone what happened. The consequences of the act remain. A liar is not trusted. A criminal stays in jail. That kid was still grounded. We are called to forgive, but not to forget.

But you can lay that stone aside as well. 

Now there are those who do not want forgiveness, do not ask for forgiveness and do not believe they need forgiveness. What do we do with them? We forgive them, too. 

Why do we forgive. Well, to be forgiven by God. But also because it delivers us from the power exercised over us by the memory of the offence. Forgiving is not mainly for them, it is mainly good for us.