What You Preach
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
June 1, 2014
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Matthew 5: 21-48
Let
us pray, for a welcome mind and a loving heart
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For
your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
I selected this morning a large
selection from the sermon on the mount. I wanted to get at preaching. . . the idea
of "practicing what you preach" whether you can, whether you must,
what it means, what you choose to preach, and all that, to give you a little
bit of a window into the kinds of things I think about and why, and to get a
start into all of this, I thought that going to the original might just be a
good way to start, at least it puts some of this, some of what we do together
every week into perspective. This is Jesus the preacher. . . in the most famous
sermon of all time:
21 “You have
heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and
‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you
that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to
judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the
council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of
fire. 23 So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you
remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave
your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or
sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly
with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser
may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be
thrown into prison. 26 Truly I tell you, you will never get out
until you have paid the last penny.
27 “You have
heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I
say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to
sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your
members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if
your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better
for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
31 “It was
also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of
divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife,
except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever
marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33 “Again,
you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear
falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34 But I
say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it
is the city of the great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for
you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let your word be ‘Yes,
Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
38 “You have
heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But
I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn the other also; 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and
take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41 and if anyone forces you
to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42 Give to everyone who
begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
43 “You have
heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he
makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous
and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what
reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And
if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than
others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. [1]
So yeah,
that's it, be perfect. . . God is perfect, Jesus is perfect. . . go and do
likewise, and I will, too. . . Sermon over. . .
why go on? Isn't this what we should preach? Go and be perfect. . . and
if that is the message we are going for, I wonder why people have problems with
practicing what we preach. . . right? . . . perfection is a tall order. And
look at the perfection that Jesus is talking about, not just perfection of
actions. . . but perfection of intentions. . . of thoughts, because the moment
that you start feeling good because you didn't hit someone, Jesus brings up the
idea that you shouldn't have even thought about hitting them, the impulse to
hit, the desire to hit, even the anger that caused such desire is too much.
Even something small like that breaks the perfection. He says it's not just
about not committing adultery, but not even lusting after another. . . and
don't swear, let your word stand on its own. . . Imagine how honest that would
be. . . to not even have your word questioned by anyone, or even if it was
questioned to have enough faith, confidence, chutzpah, whatever the word is, to
not feel the need to swear, but just to let it lie. . . it's more impressive
than you think, and then last but certainly not least to love your enemies,
that simple eye for an eye justice is not what perfection is all about, but no
rather the soul crunching, pit of your gut, revenge denying, pride sucking,
forgiveness that is involved in actually having to love, not tolerate, not deal
with, not ignore, but to actually love your enemies. That's not just
perfection, it's radical perfection. . . so yeah, Jesus preached it, I should
preach it, then I should practice it in my own life. . . ha ha.
That is
what we want, isn't it from people who are speaking? Celebrities, news media
types, pundits, politicians, and preachers. We want perfection. If we are going
to listen, if we are going to give the time of our ears, we expect people to
practice and preach the same thing, but how do you do it in this case when it's
about perfection? You basically have two choices: You can either preach less
than perfection, or you can own your hypocrisy. . . which would you prefer? I'm
not sure either. I've been wrestling with this all week, and really for the
last five years or so. . . because I am far from perfect. . . maybe that is
partly why I have ran so far from the Sermon on the Mount. But things are lost
when perfection, when ideals, when truth is not spoken in fear of not living up
to it. How else would things change?
I can
think of some of the great speakers of the past, and the leaders of the past. .
. people that have made some of the memorable statements about life in the
world, statements that are definitely true. . . statements that the world
needed to hear. . . statements that were necessary and perfect, but it turned
out that their speakers were not so perfect. Does that make the statement any
less true? Is Martin Luther King's dream about America any less real,
necessary, and true because there are allegations of marital infidelity that
surround him. . . what about JFK, he's another one, with possible adulterous
weaknesses, but did that make his promise to put a man on the moon any less
real, when he asked, not what our country can do for us, but what we could do
for our country, was it any less moving? Is it still a self evident truth that all
men are created equal, even though Thomas Jefferson, himself, was a slave
holder? Yeah. . . sometimes the message must be said even if the messenger is
less than perfect. . . but that is a slippery slope because hypocrisy is a
horrible thing.
People
will certainly try to use the weaknesses of the messenger to attack the
message. They did it to all three of the ones I've mentioned. . . It also
happens so much with Christianity, too. How often do you hear people in today's
world saying they don't want to go to church because churches are filled with
hypocrites. . . I don't want to be judged, and I certainly don't want to be
judged by people who have planks in their own eyes, or live in glass houses.
Yes Jesus had trouble with hypocrites, too. So many times throughout the Bible
he calls out the leaders, especially the religious leaders of his time for
being hypocrites. It happens again and again and again. And there is real
danger for hypocrisy when you are called to say things like Jesus says, and
then expect to live up to them. It's hard.
But the
dangers of hypocrisy aren't just being called out on it and losing credibility
for yourself. There are times throughout
history, especially church history, when the preaching of the message got to be
about the wrong things. . . it became about the messengers and not the message,
and things fell apart, and it all revolved around hypocrisy, and corrupting the
message for our own ends, either fearing the challenge, and saying what was
easy and popular, doable, and neat, or about fearing becoming a hypocrite, not
able to practice what is so vehemently preached. It happens. In the middle of the 1300's in Florence there
was a great plague. The bubonic plague ravaged different parts of Europe at
different times, but Florence was the pinnacle of Christendom. It had artists
and painters and writers, and it was one of those great cosmopolitan and Noble
cities. And the clergy rose to great heights of power and prestige. Their
message was well loved, well received. It was one of tangible salvation,
earthly prosperity, and all of that good stuff. The prosperity of the city was
obviously tied to God's favor. The people's richness and abundance was due
completely to God's love and their piety. . . but then comes the plague. You
can read about it in Boccaccio's introduction to The Decameron, and if you do you will read about a devastating
disease, detailed descriptions of what the disease was about, how it started,
how it spread, the symptoms, the progression of those symptoms, all quite
disgusting and scary, but what is most
disgusting is the behavior and reaction of the people. These great people,
these noble exemplars of Christian goodness, this great Medieval "City on
a Hill" falls apart when the times get hard. People turn inward, they
revert to the old Roman pagan philosophies of life, some becoming stoic,
thinking that living moderately will help them forward, others living it up as
the world around them crumbles, some wearing blinders and walking around with
flowers to their noses to ignore the sights and cover up the smells of death
all around them. . . others fleeing, running away to the countryside to save
their selves, and he talks of husbands leaving wives, wives leaving husbands,
friends abandoning friends, and even children being left to die by their
parents, leaving the kids behind to run for safety in the countryside. . .
there were many neighbors living in the city of Florence, but no Christian
Love, no love thy neighbor, and to be quite frank, if Christian love does not
hold up in those hard times, how real is it for one, and what good is it,
really? If we can't love through the hard times what good is it? Christian love
is real, and needs to be real, we need it, but how easy do we settle for
imposters, of both varieties, preaching less than perfection, easy piety, because they are afraid of hypocrisy, or on
the other hand leading people astray and corrupting the message by preaching
one thing and doing the other.
What
happened in Florence is very similar to what has happened here, and the
predicament we find ourselves in our churches, and that is that the message
survived, but the church did not. I have a historical theory, and one that I am
absolutely convinced of, that one of the precursors to the Reformation is the
plague. The preaching that was going on, the practices that were going on, the
cheap piety that was being sold as righteousness, the claiming to be good that
was going on, all of that could have just lasted and lasted, but it didn't
because people's eyes were opened to it because at the time when the world
needed the church it wasn't there, and everyone noticed. But God was there. . .
the message was there. . . Christ was still there. . . there just became a
separation of church and God. . . and so the ground was ripe for Reform, for
new churches, for major change.
Are we
there now is a big question? If you look at today's world there is a great need
for the Christian message. There is a great need for loving our neighbors as
ourselves, there is a tremendous need for people to say it. . . but there is a
separation. I'm not sure the complete cause, well yeah I am, it's human nature
and sin, but I'm not sure where the point of new divergence took place, but
somehow we are on a path that is very wrong, with active shooters, and
polarized politics, and no faith in institutions, and lying, hypocrisy rampid,
and church, the church institution is caught up in it all too. Have we become
like the Florentine clergy, preaching a world and a gospel that is comfortable
to us, one that we can fit into, lest we become hypocrites, or has our
hypocrisy taken front stage, where we just accept it as the way it is. . . It
is funny that those two things, lessening of standards and rises in hypocrisy
seem to go together. I posed them as the two choices earlier, but there is more
to it.
The
problem is in the dichotomy. . . and I've found this very often to be the case.
. . it is what is missing in the question I've posed, and the two situations
I've offered as solutions. And it is a simple thing. . . a thing that is shown
in the Florence example, and one that rings true in our own day and age. . . It
is not about the person preaching. . . . It is about the message, and if you
are worrying about being a hypocrite, then you are worrying about yourself. . .
and the message gets lost, corrupted, etc. . . I say it's not about the person
preaching, it is, but not as the voice of it, but as a listener. There is no
separation from the two, you are preaching, not about yourself, but to
yourself, not because you have attained perfection and you want to share that
perfection with the world, but because you are striving towards it. Thomas
Jefferson was speaking about the dream of liberty, Martin Luther King was
speaking about the dream of the dividing lines between the races coming down,
and JFK was talking about the moon, not because he lived there, but because he
wanted to get there. . . They may not live up to the perfection, but they wish
to, they wish to strive towards it because they recognize it as good.
I think it
is what I do, when I preach about love. . . rather than the individual details.
Love is the big picture, the umbrella to which all the rest falls under.
Focusing on less than love can lead us into the weeds of hyprocrisy, because
less than love is almost doable. Easy piety and cheap righteousness can be
pitfalls of such ideas. Rules are doable, you can check off at the end of the
day. . . you can look at yourself having
not hit anyone and say you are a good
person, you can not get divorced, you can not commit adultery, you can do a
number of things and then start to throw those stones of judgment at others,
but Jesus says no, be perfect. . . love is perfection. . . and it cannot be
perfected. . . because by definition it is never done. . . it is always
something to strive towards, outside of yourself, reaching, stretching, doing
more and more, being more and more. . . and to preach this message, is one that
transcends things like hypocrisy because it lives beyond it, worrying not about
labels, but about people, about your neighbor, about loving them, and about
loving God.
I
mentioned at one other point how I love Kevin Costner movies, and I'm not
embarrassed to say so. One of the best is his golf movie Tin Cup, a less than perfect driving range golf pro makes an epic
quest towards qualifying for and competing in the U.S. Open. At one point he is
talking about the golf swing. He says it in a poem
The
critical opening phrase of this poem will always be the grip. Which the hands
unite to form a single unit by the simple overlap of the little finger. Lowly
and slowly the clubhead is led back. Pulled into position not by the hands, but
by the body which turns away from the target shifting weight to the right side
without shifting balance. Tempo is everything; perfection unobtainable as the
body coils down at the top of the swing. There's a slight hesitation. A little
nod to the gods.
Dr. Molly Griswold: A, a nod to
the gods?
Roy 'Tin Cup' McAvoy: Yeah, to the
gods. That he is fallible. That perfection is unobtainable.
Perfection
unattainable, that he is fallible. . . that is the key. . . it is humility. . .
look back over the Sermon on the Mount, and see how much of it is about
humility. . . humility is the beginning of love, it says that this is not about
me. It is the beginning of love. . . something we can all learn a little bit
better. . . It's funny the Greek word for Perfection is Teleios--it's a word
connected to purpose, connected to the father, connected to coming of age,
connected to it all coming together, perfectly. . .the kingdom of heaven, built
on love, perfection unattainable except in God. . .the father is perfect, we
are not, but yet we have been forgiven so that we can strive. . . we are loved,
so that we can love. Amen.
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Mt 5:21-48). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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