O By The Way

As I was reading through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) I was impressed at the urgency and importance Jesus places on relationships and their health in the community of believers and with those on the outside. A good example of this is in the text we focused on in today’s message (Matthew 5:21-26).  Remember, the Beatitudes (5:1-12) and the opening verses of this text, Jesus is calling our attention to the kind of person it is that God will use to change the world, to populate his new kingdom.

In verse 21, he underscores the priority he places on healthy relationships and how dangerously toxic unchecked anger can be.  If we are involved at all in a relationship that is out of sync, one in which we are at odds with another person, it is incumbent on us to take action to brings things right again.  It is such a priority that it not fester, he even says if we are preparing to offer a sacrifice in worship, we should leave the sacrifice at the altar, then go and make things right before we worship.  For the first century believer, that would have been a huge inconvenience, having to go many miles on foot, for some a journey of several days, before returning to engage worship.

Do we place the same priority on our relationships?  Jesus speaks about not speaking in a disparaging way about another person and that the consequence of such behavior is consignment to the fires of hell!  When was the last time you called a person a “fool” or a “jerk” (modern translation of “raca”).  For most of us, that is something we hear frequently every day.  Have we taken into consideration the impact of such speech?

Jesus calls on his people to follow him and be people who are different, people who are shaped by following him.  Where do Jesus’ footsteps lead us?  What would it mean to take more seriously the important relationships you have in your life at this time?  What steps do you need to take to make those relations more in alignment with what God intends?  A good beginning is to reflect on the health of our most cherished relationships as we begin our week and make moves to fine tune them even before we engage in worship.

Reading through the Sermon on the Mount (again) has been something new, as is the case with most of the Scriptures.  As a pastor, I am in and out of the Bible and especially with such a prominent text as these three chapters (Matthew 5-7), you can never say you have it all down. 

The Beatitudes (5:1-12) kick things off and it totally turns reality on its head.  Contrary to what many people think, these oft-quoted sayings are not listings of behavior that God requires of us to qualify for his love and the blessings here described.  This is more like a character profile of the person that God is using to change the world in His unfolding kingdom.  And it   is quite a profile!

Jesus then begins to tell his disciples who they are (5:13-16).  This is a set up, a gateway for what is to come in the next couple chapters.  “You are the salt of the earth.” Then, “You are the light of the world.” Notice he doesn’t say this is what you should be. or this is what you might be if you work hard.  This is what you are, salt and light.  You are a flavoring tastefully savoring life around you in the way of Christ.  You are a preservative (which was one of the primary uses of salt in those times), safeguarding the world around you under the direction of Jesus.  You are the illumination that will bring God the honor and praise he should have from us.

God in his grace, has blessed us in the words of Jesus and he has made us to be the kind of witness and influence we need to have to make a difference for him, to give him the glory he deserves.  Our role is not to lose it or to hide it, but to use it, to put it up high for people to see.

What kind of witness can be seen from my life?  Not just as a pastor, but as a person who has given my life to Jesus, how does that show itself day in and day out in how I treat my wife and my family.  How do I handle relationships with my neighbors?  If I were not known on my block as a pastor, would they even know I am a Christ-follower?

I remember when I led a mission trip to Kenya a number of years ago, I was impressed with the Christians there who would tell you upon meeting you for the first time, would off their name and say, “I am a follower of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.”  Not that we should dominate the discussion and force our faith on others, but I was impressed that these people were not afraid to say who they were committed to.

As we start the week, I challenge us all, including myself, to have that kind of resolve.  To be sensitive to what I am showing others around me about my true identity.  After all, he said, “You are the salt of the earth,” and “You are the light of the world.”  As someone said to me at the door today, “Pass the salt and turn on the light.”

When I was a kid, we used to play those kinds of games kids used to play, like cowboys and Indians, or warfare of some kind and it was never a good idea to capitulate or to surrender (the dreaded “s word”).  If you did, you were “captured” and held in a prison fortress (tree house) and in many ways your own self-respect took a hit.  As we grow older, our need to win, or come out on top in some way seems to intensify and though we may be more sophisticated as we age, we seem ruled by the need to be in control and some cases even conquer what is around us.

Then comes Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom, which seems to turn much of what we’ve learned on its head. Losing is finding, to be great is to serve, to win is to surrender.  But surrendering depends on what or whom we surrender to.  The cast of characters in Scripture who surrender is vast and defines their faith journey and what we can learn. 

I am drawn to Moses, who figured he had seen and done enough when he hightailed it out of Egypt and away from the pharaoh’s minions who would have strung him up for killing an Egyptian soldier in defense of his kinsmen.  There he was on the Sinai Peninsula, tending sheep for his father-in-law when his attention is drawn to a bush that is burning but not consumed by the flames.  As he approaches he hears the voice of God calling him to return to Egypt to lead God’s people to freedom, out of the hand of the oppressive pharaoh (painting by A. Friberg).  The dialogue is curiously intriguing as it goes back and forth, but it results in Moses surrendering to the grand purpose of God, even at great risk to his personal safety.

As the story of Moses shows us, surrendering is an ACTIVE response to the God we surrender to.  For Moses it was really a shift into high gear as he became the premiere prophet-leader and the point-man in delivering the Israelites to their liberation in the Promised Land……and it took him forty long years!

When we consider our faith, surrender is something we need to grasp as a way of living each day.  As I enter each day, my intent is to let God have the first word and as I pray and read the Scriptures, God often speaks and my task is to listen and respond in obedience.  I am to turn over every conversation, every decision, every thought captive to the Word of God.  My surrender is to Christ and all that he has revealed to us of a loving and just God.  Remember this word.  It is crucial to all those who claim to be Christ-followers each and every day of our lives.

Seems as if for many of us a crisis needs to boil for us to consider significant change in our lives.  For most of us, positive major changes like a decision to have a child or to marry someone we love, or to step into a new position like  a job we desire, it is not such a crisis, per se. However, any decision that is at all threatening to us, especially if it is unexpected, really requires that our hand be forced.

I was ruminating on the encounter between Jesus and the rich young man told in the gospels.  The man comes to Jesus and asks for his teaching about how to participate in life eternal, or the life under God’s reign.  After he is told to follow the commandments Jesus lists and responds that in his own estimation he has kept them all, but as Jesus then points out, he still lacks one thing.  Then there opens a slight window of vulnerability in what has been to this point a seemingly very confident, even prideful young man as he admits he still lacks one thing.  And Jesus seizes the opportunity (see the Heinrich Hoffman painting from 1889) and stirs a potential crisis in this man’s life.  He has come to a fork in the road and to enter into life in the kingdom It would mean a crisis of faith.  Go read the account in Matthew 19:16ff and see what happens.  The crisis that would open the door to life in the kingdom is before him, but the young rich man turns away (sadly!) “because of his great wealth.” 

In the case of many others, especially the disciples, they have made the choice to jump into this faith crisis, one that would teach them what life with Jesus is all about. I recall C.S. Lewis in his autobiography, Surprised By Joy writing about “coming into Christianity “kicking and screaming.”  I believe by this he is referring not only to the intellectual reconsiderations one must make but also to the moral and personal confrontations we are faced with when we decide to follow Jesus.  Just look at where Jesus’ life took him.  No easy walk to freedom!  But this is what life with Jesus is about.

Life following Him means transformation, change that comes hard. We would rather take the easy way most of the time, but anything significant is the difficult path, full of risk and uncertainty save for the One who leads us there.

Thinking about change, why is it so threatening to so many of us.  Lots of reasons, but one of the hardest things to do is to step into a change and then close the door to the way things were.  As I spoke in worship yesterday, I told the story of the college president who spoke to the graduating class and told them this day was like walking through an open gate to a new future.  That new future would be filled with all kinds of fresh and exciting experiences and at times life would be hard the other side of the open gate.  Then he said, “Remember to close the gate.” 

I imagine what he meant was that this graduation ceremony was about finishing a period in life that would stand in distinction to what they were about to face.  He was telling them that their diploma meant they had passed all the requirements toward a college degree and that this would help them to qualify for work outside the gate, beyond the college experience.  A new life would require a new orientation and they must now remember to close the gate. 

Jesus once told one who came asking if he could follow but wanted to say good bye to his family first, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62).  When we are preoccupied with looking into our past, wondering “what if?” and wishing things were the way they used to be, we are kept from fully entering into the new world of life through the gate. I remember recording artist Bob Dylan singing, “Don’t look back!” in one of his songs.  A good reminder.

Change is all around us, accelerating at a rate never before seen in history. Nations are in revolution, whole cultures are shifting, even our own.  Our communities and churches are in transition to ways we haven’t even imagined, and so our lives are being faced with the great need to adjust.

It was that way for the disciples.  In their case, it was Jesus who was calling them to new life and it meant leaving their life’s work and routine, even their families.  And they aren’t the first in the Scriptures. From Abraham to Moses, through David and the prophets, to be following God meant closing the gate and moving on.

What about for you?  Stepping into what God has for you next means closing the gate behind you as you move on.  Pray hard, seek God’s leading and move….and don’t forget to close the gate.