Day 440 - All Things Belong to Us and We Belong to Christ

A Sermon given at First Presbyterian Church, Soddy Daisy, TN, Feb. 23, 2014

OT Lesson: Leviticus 19:1-18

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 5:38-48

Epistle Lesson: 1 Cor. 3: 10-23

The committee that selects the lectionary texts do not always make it easy for the pastor who uses it as a basis of sermons, but they do an interesting job of combining readings. Today they give us a challenging text of the Law in Leviticus, Jesus’ preaching on that text in the Sermon on the Mount and Paul continuing to chide the Corinthians. I have said Paul’s letters can be a very difficult to preach because he is always writing about the behavior of fellow Christians and seldom takes prisoners.  Putting these three texts together yields the ultimate “take-no-prisoners” message - yet why do I call the sermon “All things belong to us and we belong to Christ?”

I am also pretty sure many pastors have an unstated wondering, “What in the world do we do with these scriptures?” The key to them is wrapped up in verse 2 of Leviticus, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy”, in verse 45 and 48 of Matthew, “so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, and verse 21-23 of the Corinthians text, “For all things are yours, — all belong to you, and you all belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”

The Lord says “you shall be holy because I AM holy and then gives a series of commandments mostly about interpersonal behavior. Through the ages we have focused mostly on the commandments even though they don’t make us holy. The message is found at the outset, Lev. 19:2.

Frankly these commandments strike a little close to home: don’t harvest all your crop leave some for the alien and the poor, don’t be a slanderer, don’t put a stumbling block in front of the blind, don’t hate anyone or bear a grudge. And then Jesus pick up this Leviticus text with its demand for perfection: Love the folks who hate you. Walk the extra mile…no more an eye for an eye, something not really in the commandments anyway. This ancient dictum “an eye for an eye” was actually an enlightened way of the times to response to a wrong. It avoids the alternative of revenge in a blood feud between families of the parties. Jesus recalling this saying in the context of the Law because he would not satisfied with the law until he had shown its purpose is to make us holy.

It would be an interesting world if we were all perfect, if we lived as if everything was ours to give away, and we had no worry about what to keep. What if we all had such thick skin that insults just rolled off? We could read or listen to Matthew 5:38-48 and nod, how true, how true.

What we usually do; however, is read these verses and think something like this: “These are really a nice and lofty goals,” or, “It is great to have impossible ideals” and just go about business as usual. Jesus says if someone gives the worst insult by striking you on the cheek with the back of the hand, turn offer the other cheek. If someone takes you to court to sue you, give the guy suing you more than he asks for?  And what would happen if I loved my enemy and the folks who persecute me? Don’t the Corinthians think the opposite is more logical, “If I let people run over me what good is that going to be for me?” Is Jesus serious?

You can place great trust in people, even your own family, and you can pretty much count on it that sooner or later even the best meaning person is liable to hurt you. So we build walls and hold grudges and say an eye for an eye.

I don’t know how many or if any of your were cheated by the CPA who allegedly had the ponzi scheme, but I would not be surprised if you held a grudge if you were. It is hard not to.  When someone does something that hurts me, whether it be emotionally or physically, it takes a lot of effort to think positively about them. Don’t you agree?

 After all, it is a dog-eat-dog world out there. You’ll find people as conservative as Ayn Rand and liberal as Karl Marx say the same thing, that kind of Christian thinking is crazy and foolish. But didn’t Paul say foolish the whole point of Christ?

Interpersonal behavior has a big impact on behavior of larger social groups, such as nations and congregations. That is why we have these commandments. How many wars between nations are started over propaganda, national or religious insult, or perceived wrong? Perhaps we ought to step back and reconsider how Jesus and then Paul preached this idea.

First, it is impossible to deny that Jesus commends a standard of behavior of forbearance in all things. Given the opportunity to argue, make a derogatory comment, or get physical, he expects us to stop and think about what we are about to say. Jesus does not expect us to apply these commandments as legalisms as the Pharisees did. Jesus knows how well we apply the law rather than achieving its purpose. It is the difference of commanding one to do something opposed to recommending a behavior to live by.

Paul always intrigues me. He lived before the Gospels were written and the only evidence we have that Paul knew Jesus is his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. In spite of that, he uses some of the very things Jesus said in interesting ways.

Paul chastised the Corinthians over their unwillingness to exercise forbearance of their fellow Christians. He accused them of not asking, “What is my obligation as a Christian” before putting their mouth or body in motion. The Corinthians were so focused on their conviction that they were“ spiritually right” that they overlooked the demands for humility, of serving their fellow Christians, and to avoid lording their faith over others at all costs. What Paul really said is “You are so smart, you have forgotten how to act like Christians.”

Let me repeat a question. What was Paul’s greatest worry for a congregation? Do you remember? It was disunity and dissent. Paul spelled this out in almost all his letters that the congregation is the body of Christian believers. We walk in the world like a lighted billboard, “Look at me! I am a Christian! Don’t you want to come worship with me?”

Of course, what Christian in their right mind would not desire that goal? In spite of ourselves, somehow the wires in our brain always seem to get crossed when we listen to the words Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Forgive our enemies, go the extra mile, don’t just overlook those who criticize our beliefs, offer them our help, don’t go hire an attorney to defend you in a suit, settle it and pay the fellow more than he asks. Forget that.

If you do not believe we get our wires crossed, answer this question. When we hear someone voice a distasteful religious or political belief, is our first instinct to be nice to them? Do we use posts on Facebook or news stories on TV to bash people for believing, or not believing it? More often than not, we take what we read and leap feet first into the fray swinging it like a sword at whomever the thing is about? “That person must be crazy, a moron or a mongrel to vote for that person or believe that politician.”

Some of the worst are letters on the internet editorial page of the Times Free Press where anonymity really lets people embarrass us all, and the stuff the film and musical performers spout looking for attention and money. You can read Christians condemning another Christian as an evil non- Christian because of some particular sin. Paul is turning over in his grave that some of those letters are from good Christian people. The fact is, if Paul had founded any congregation where I have been, I am absolutely certain I’d be reading a letter from him about something we said, or I’d be sitting in the pew listening to the letter read to me.

Paul and Jesus preach from the same book. Verses 45-48 of Matthew 5 say, “Do these things: love your enemies, go the extra mile, do not return evil for evil (45) so you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun shine on the evil and the righteous, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Here are the big guns (46,47)…“For if you love those who love you, what reward to do have? Do not even tax collectors do the same? And if you only greet your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing that others do? (Everybody does that.)  48 no, my beloved children (who Paul would say are still eating baby food), “Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.” Or as Moses quoted the Lord in Leviticus 19:2: “You shall be holy because I AM holy.” Do you see what Jesus meant when he told the Pharisees he had not come to replace the law but to fulfill it?

How can we use these teachings to help us here? We say, “We need a larger congregation to be more financially stable. We want more children and young people. We want draw people into our worship.” You are not alone.  I have heard that lament in virtually every church I’ve visited, been a member of, or preached at. Some grow and some do not but not for the usual excuses.

The problem is not the usual excuses, “Oh, people have lost the faith, the world has drawn them away. There just aren’t that many Christians anymore. Islam, Buddhism, or atheism and the world are luring people away.”

Paul gives us the bottom line. If we want to continue to grow in Christ we will build our temple with care. We must acknowledge what Paul said in 1 Cor. 3, our congregation is built on “the foundation is Jesus Christ” and what Jesus said in Matthew5:38-48. We must acknowledge what Paul states, “We, each of us, is God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in us." God’s Spirit calls true believers to worship through the work our faith. That is why we have these commandments, but they really are recommendations or recipes for being holy.

Right now in our wednesday night teen youth group we have kids asking questions like, “What is a Presbyterian, What is a Christian?”  Let’s always be sure we ask question, “When the teens look at us, Do they hear and see, ‘Oh Presbyterians and Christians are people like you.’”  If they see the essence of Christianity in our behavior towards people in our real everyday life and even at our dinner tables where we reflect not just forbearance but love for the people we disagree, those children’s parents are not far behind.

If you just picked up Leviticus 19 or 1 Corinthians and started reading in the middle, you’d miss that message. You might not appreciate that Paul knew the Corinthians were loyal Christians, but if you go to the first few verses you read in the salutation, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, I give thanks to my God always for the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind - so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

After we read that salutation and the whole letter, we realize the message is “sometimes Christians misbehave.” That ought to humble all of us.

Paul knew the Corinthians needed a little wakeup call. Jesus knew the religious Jews needed the same thing, he knows we need the same thing and he recommends the standard of Christian behavior to us. It is an interesting idea, maybe we ought to post Matthew 5:38-48 on out courthouse rather than the Ten Commandments, or at least read it regularly in our homes.

Paul, though, is ever focused on the congregation of believers. He says our congregation is a temple built of people who stand on the foundation of Christ. As we grow in faith striving to meet those lofty, unrealistic goals Jesus gave us, our congregation grows more powerful with the Spirit of God. As that happens, we become a brighter, more hospitable city on the hill.

It is going to make us a little uncomfortable at times, but isn’t that exactly what Jesus sermon does to you? Don’t you think Jesus knows and intends to shake us up to see how our old ways can become legalisms, a ball and chain to faith? Isn’t that exactly what Paul was trying to do with the Corinthians, make them uncomfortable with their childish behavior and foolish faith?

These passages mean change is required to grow in Christian Faith. We have to working in the world to reveal that Spirit our actions so folks can see it. These passages tell is how to chose life not death. Paul said, “For all things are yours, and you all belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.”  Everything is yours to share.