St. Matthew

Sermon on the Mount - Part 2

Chapters 6 & 7

Jesus continues his discipleship instructions. At first glance, these verses look like they are directed toward behaviors. However, they penetrate much beyond behaviors to the human drives and motivations that govern our behavior. He turns attention to the three primary pillars of faith – alms giving, prayer, and fasting. These are three foundations of the faith for Jews in the temple tradition.

Alms are those gifts given to support the poor, sick, widows, or blind whose subsistence depends upon the money that they are able to raise begging in the streets.
Prayer – this is as it appears, the regular practice of talking to God
Fasting – the act of depriving yourself of food, or drink for a designated period of time as a disciple. The Jewish day of Atonement, Yom Kippur is a day of fasting. Many Christians of all denominations practice some form of fast during Lent to recall our frail human condition

There is more to these instruction, however, than just to talk about the pillars of faith. Jesus talks about the inner working of the human condition. He raises the question about who is being served by the observance of these pillars. Is God being served or the individual? Jesus’ mode of operation is always from the self outward. The process of caring for the poor and providing for the needs of those who need help is a movement away from self. It is an act of sacrifice to care for others. His criticism of the “hypocrites” is that they use the giving of alms as a means drawing attention. Prayer is the act of reaching beyond self toward God. The very act of talking to God is reach outward toward some one greater than ourselves. Jesus once again raises the questions about motives. Is prayer the acknowledgement of God, or a vehicle to draw attention to self? Fasting is treated in the same way. While fasting is about getting beyond the self, sacrificing for God as a remembrance of our weakness and about remembering our place in the scheme of things, the hypocrites turn it into a vehicle for recognizing self.

Let’s take a moment to talk about prayer and the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples. Prayer is about at least three things: asking God for something is part; however, praise is an important element also. Praise is the single minded acknowledgement of God’s greatness. It is uncomplicated worship of the God who is above all. A third aspect of prayer is thanksgiving. This is the acknowledgement that life itself as well as all things comes from and belongs to God. Giving thanks is the acknowledgement that we have received from the bounty of God that which we do not deserve. The moment we give thanks, we recognize that we are but recipients and God is the giver of all things.

As we look at the Lord’s Prayer – the prayer begins with the acknowledgment of God as the Father and prayers for God’s will and the coming of God kingdom, the reign of God. The prayer then continues with several “asking” petitions. We ask for “daily bread”. It is reminiscent of the wilderness experience of manna where God provided on a daily basis what was necessary for the day only. There was to be no hording or storing up on this journey of experience God providing love daily. The prayer asks for forgiveness. The old King James translation of the prayer asks, “Forgive us our trespasses . . .” The NRSV uses the word “debts.” Forgive us our debts. This is a much closer translation of the Greek word used by the writer. I am reminded of Martin Luther’s explanation of the First Article of the Apostle’s Creed from the Small Catechism. He addresses God the creator as the provider of all things – life, goods, family, eyes, ears, senses and all things – out of “Fatherly and divine goodness and mercy” with no deserving of our own. He goes on to say that, “therefore we aught to thank and praise, serve and obey him.” Aught is a word derived from the same stem as “owe”. Luther builds a case for the debt that we owe God for all of his bounty. It is of course, a debt that we could not come close to repaying. Luther’s Second Article resolution is that Christ Jesus has satisfied the debt entirely. The other following petitions are about protection from temptation and deliverance from (NRSV) “the evil one.” Once again, the Greek provides ample justification for the personification of the evil one. These are petitions also recognizing the vulnerability of the human condition and the need to reach beyond ourselves to the God who is greater; who can take of us better than we ourselves. The prayer, even while asking God for help, is an expression of movement away from self toward God. It highlights the emphasis that we are in a relationship with God, one of subservient standing. God is first and foremost, we are second.

The sermon moves to the question of “treasure and the heart.” “Where you treasure is there will your heart be also.” The question raised, therefore, is where is your heart? The importance of this question is the reality that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve both God and wealth. One will take second place. Which one? Worry takes an important place in the study of this question. Jesus talks about worry about food and clothing, two essentials for human life. The human inclination is to worry about these things because we “hard wired” to worry about self-preservation. That is perhaps one of the most basic of human drives – to take care of the self. Jesus draws a different picture. Jesus talks about God being concerned for human life, of being the one to provide for all of human need. In the scope of Jesus model, God’s job is to take care of us, while we are urged to turn out attention away from our selves to “seek the kingdom of God” and “His righteousness.” This is the model after which Jesus patterned his entire life. Jesus’ first, last, and only concern was doing what God had sent him to do. God’s will was primary in everything that he did and taught. Even at the cross, Jesus’ only thought was fulfilling what God had set in motion. He turned down the disciple’s defense and willed instead to follow the course that had been set in motion that ended at the cross. The entire thrust of Jesus’ teaching is to turn away from self toward God, seeking God’s will and God’s righteousness.

Chapter 7 follows in the same vein. The injunctions about judging are the reflection that we are far more interested in being critical of others than of ourselves. We place ourselves at a higher level and standing than others. Jesus teaches about asking God for what we need and trusting that we will receive good things. The summation is the golden rule, “Do to others the way you would have do to you.”

The path of God’s way is not the easy road. As we look at Jesus’ life God’s way is the way of the cross. It is the way of self sacrifice for the good of other, good of the kingdom, and in service to God’s will. This is utterly contrary to way of human flesh and blood. Humanity is wired to take care of self, while Jesus’ life and ministry is about overcoming that hard wiring to serve God and others as the first cause. This course takes hard work. It takes constant vigilance because we are constantly swimming up stream to our own hard wiring.

While judging is not the way to go, as judgment is more about self, Jesus’ advocates a need, however, to discern what the right way is, what is the way of God. And the way to discern is to see the fruits of the life. This will be the ultimate key to seeing the direction of the life and actions lived. Is the net result movement toward God, praise, thanksgiving, seeking from God; or is the net result the self. These are the fruits that need to be discerned. Is the prophet leading toward self or toward God? Is the prophet reflecting God’s will and God’s kingdom, or is the prophet reflecting something other. Ultimately the question is critical because, as Jesus taught his disciples, we can’t serve two masters. We cannot serve both God and self. Wisdom is to serve God, the end of which building a life that will stand against any storm. Building to serve God will to be to build a structure that will crumble in the face of adversity.

The Rev. Dr. Kipp W. Zimmermann

Thursday, January 19, 2006