Reflection: "God's Love Never Fails"If I asked you to sing 2 octaves higher than your usual vocal range, do you think you’d be able to do it?
But be careful, your vocal chords might break and you’ll end up sounding like a scratchy record. Obviously, most of us just can’t do it- we can’t sing, or shout, or make a noise, two octaves higher than our normal range. So, let’s change the analogy. Mt Everest is 29,000 feet high and our own Mt Kosciusko is only some 7,310 feet. Can you climb Mt Kosciusko from its base to its summit? Probably 99% of us can’t. Can you climb Mt Everest, that’s over three times as high as Mt Kosciusko? I’ll bet that 99.99% of us can’t. Likewise, we can’t climb the moral heights that Jesus lays out for us in the Sermon on the Mount. It’s too high for us. Ok, you can break the analogy and say that there are sherpas and a few other super-fit people can climb Mt Everest. But the point is, that nobody has ever climbed to the top of the Sermon on the Mount. No human being can do that - the mountain top is above us to inspire us, to point up to, to motivate us, but none of us can actually climb this high moral mountain. Even though none of us can sing 2 octaves above our vocal range, those high notes can be found on a piano or finely tuned violin. The high notes on these musical instruments inspire us and point us up to God and his highest moral law that none of us can fully obey - the high notes may be outside the range of our voices, but not outside the voice of Jesus. When you listen to the Sermon on the Mountain, or the Sermon on the Plain in either Matthew or Luke, I’m sure that you’ll have difficulty naming even one person who can actually live such a noble, inspiring life. In today’s reading from Luke, we read things like: Love your enemies. Don’t resist evil people. Be good to such people and pray for them. If someone hits you on the cheek, offer them your other cheek. If someone sues you for your shirt, give them your coat as well. Give to those who beg. Instead of hating your enemies, love them, pray for them, do good to them. Be compassionate to your enemies even as your heavenly father is compassionate to you. But what do these words actually mean: to love your enemies, to do good to those you hate you, not to resist evil, if somebody slaps you on one cheek, offer them the other as well? I’m sure that we’ve all heard or seen stories, often horrific ones, where innocent people have been badly hurt by evil people. Does this mean we shouldn’t resist people who are evil? Is that what Jesus means for us to do?” In the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, Mohandas Gandhi developed a whole philosophy of non-violence. He is also known as Mahatma, meaning “great soul” – what we would probably call a saint. This young man from India, bright, articulate, and educated as a lawyer, was trained to be an English gentleman and to dress and act like one. But in a night of dramatic conversion, he saw what he felt was a greater truth. He renounced his wealth and chose a life of radical simplicity, giving away all his wealth to the poor. He then began to practice non-violence and passive resistance to all evil he encountered in the discrimination against fellow Indians in South Africa. In the 1930s, during a riot at the salt mines in South Africa, thousands of Indians were beaten, arrested and killed, but no one, under the leadership of Gandhi, fought back. Gandhi became a symbol of the power of non-violence. When he was killed by a violent assassin’s bullet, he became an even stronger symbol of non-violent resistance. Gandhi is still a powerful symbol of non-violence today. … Is that what we think Jesus was on about when he preached the Sermon on the Mount? In the first century, Jesus practiced non-violence and passive resistance - are Christians called to do the same today? This passage in the Sermon on the Mount is crucial for us to understand. But it’s also crucial for us to understand that there is more Aramaic hyperbole, or slang, here, than in any other part of the Bible. You’re not supposed to take these moral sayings as literal, instead you must think like a Hebrew; a first century Jewish person. In other words, you have to understand their slang. Like when I say, in Australian slang, “go jump in the lake,” that doesn’t mean for you to actually go and jump into lake water. If I say to you, “go fly a kite,” that doesn’t mean for you to go and actually fly a kite in heavy winds. If I say to you, “get lost,” that doesn’t mean you should go out into the forest and actually become lost. These words are Australian slang and you need to understand that point to know what I’m trying to say. When Jesus spoke in this passage, there’s a lot of Jewish, or Aramaic, slang, none of which is to be taken literally. You have to understand this slang in order to understand what was being said. The key verse is this: “Be merciful, just as your (heavenly) Father is merciful.” Meaning, be compassionate to evil and sinful people, just as your heavenly father is compassionate to you. Jesus teaches us to think of God as the most loving, compassionate, intimate father that’s possible. Then Jesus gives us several examples from every day Jewish life of what it means to be compassionate. If somebody strikes you on the cheek, offer that person the other cheek as well. Again, this is Jewish slang. It’s not to be taken literally. You need to understand the meaning behind the phrase. “Slapping you on the right cheek” was Hebrew slang for exchanging insults, then you’d hear “If somebody insults you, don’t insult them back. Don’t exchange insults.” Be compassionate - that’s what this phrase really means. A second example is: If somebody sues you for your shirt, give them your outer coat as well. Jewish people had many shirts, but usually only one coat or heavy garment. These words are not to be taken literally. Rather, when someone is taking advantage of you financially, don’t steal from them – that will only escalate the issue. Deal compassionately with that person in a spirit of love. Do something good for them. T hese words are Aramaic slang for daily financial transactions and bartering, that were a normal part of Jewish life. A third example from everyday Jewish life involves begging. There were all kinds of beggars who were part of everyday Jewish life. Jesus said to give something to everyone who begs from you. If someone borrows from you and doesn’t return it, treat them with compassion. Be compassionate and generous to the beggars you see in everyday life. Be compassionate and generous to the people who borrow and don’t pay back. So, we’ve seen examples of being encouraged to be compassionate to people who would take advantage of us. We have these examples of Jewish hyperbole that need to be interpreted and not taken literally, just as we know that we are not to take Australian slang literally. Jesus is inviting his disciples to be generously compassionate and forgiving - just as his heavenly father is generously compassionate and forgiving. In these examples, Christians were told not to retaliate, but instead, do something good for their attacker. These are the high moral standards that Jesus presented to his disciples. To be honest, these standards are so high, that I have trouble singing them; they’re outside of my range. These ethical standards are like a high moral mountain that’s far too high for us to climb. Even so, the words of Jesus live on, inspiring us, motivating us, lifting us up to be much more compassionate to those who hurt us, just as God is compassionate to people like us. To those people who do us harm, we return an act of kindness rather than an act of revenge. God has love – not only for us, but for all of humanity. His love is so vast that it never runs out and we can always rely on its abundance. It never fails us. So, when you’re feeling frustration with another person, for whatever reason, stop and think about how much God loves you, loves me, loves us all – and then pass on some of the love you’ve received, to your neighbours. Blessings…………..Pastor Rick
2 Comments
Lena Beryl Blok
19/2/2022 03:25:03 pm
Rick. Another good teaching sermon. Thanks.
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Karen
20/2/2022 02:26:57 pm
When I've used 1 Corinthians 13 as a basis for a message, I've encouraged people to see the 'love is...' descriptions as aspirational, similar to here. Thank you for explaining why this is fine. Perfectionism has its problems too!
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