6th Epiphany Year A
Matthew 5:21-37
Let’s start out by saying how hard it can be to hear these words from Jesus today. We aren’t accustomed to hearing Our Lord and savior who loves us and tells us to love one another - threaten the hell of fire if we call someone a fool! Words like this can make us do a little internal cringe.
In fact, all of our readings today touch on instruction and obedience and what happens when we may not actually obey. We heard the words of Moses in Deuteronomy, which was his last message to the Jewish people who had traveled through the wilderness to the promised land. He summed up his teachings by saying follow God and live, but if you don’t, you will perish. In Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth we hear directions about how church communities should behave. Even in the Psalm today, we say “Happy are they whose way is blameless” and those “Who never do any wrong, but always walk in his ways.”
I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like stark black and white statements about following rules makes me question if I can ever live up to them. In fact, the concept of being judged is one that I think is hard for most of us. Because when there are rules to obey, let’s face it - we often mess up – some intentionally and some not. And I know that that is hard for us, hard for me, to acknowledge and admit when that happens. As human beings, we don’t like to be reminded where we don’t measure up.
Where I work, and I’m what’s called a “bivocational priest” which means I have a full-time job and serve faith communities in my other time - where I work, it’s performance review season. Anyone else? Raise hands? Okay, now keep those up if you really enjoy either giving or receiving a performance review…right. Same. I’m not a fan of hearing what I’ve messed up in the last year, heck I’m not even a fan of hearing the stuff I did well! I know I’m not alone in that…many people tell me they hate hearing feedback – especially critical or “constructive” feedback.
For those of you in school, I imagine getting your report card with grades assessing your work for the year feels about the same. Many folks describe getting a pit in their stomach, sweaty palms and increased heart rate – all signs of that all-natural fight or flight reaction when we are under stress.
As a manager of others, I also don’t like telling them where they aren’t doing a good job. I feel this way even though I know deeply that feedback is a gift and no one gets better without hearing about places where they may have missed the mark.
I use that language on purpose. Missed the mark. That’s the way that the word “sin” is better translated. Not “you did a terrible thing,”. Not “you’re a terrible person” We missed the mark.
We all miss the mark in a wide variety of ways. In fact, I’m willing to guess that when we listened to Jesus’ words today about not being in right relationship with others, some of us maybe had someone pop into our heads. Whether it’s holding a grudge against someone else, looking lustfully at another, using unjust means so support the dissolution of a marriage, or using God to back up our promises, Jesus’ words acknowledge the reality of our human condition. Jesus says earlier in the book of Matthew, he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. His words today actually deepen the laws given by Moses by addressing where the acts come from. It isn’t only that we strike out at another…it’s the feelings in our heart that cause us to do it. Jesus gets to the root of where our actions come from – our hearts.
And our hearts are complex. They harbor thoughts and feelings of love and generosity as well as fear, anger and revenge. Jesus knew this and sought to help us reconcile our strong feelings before they grew into something worse.
But here’s the kicker. We have to recognize them in order to resolve them. Just like the feedback in a performance review – if a person isn’t told when they’re doing something wrong, they’ll never be able to fix it. If we go through life never acknowledging when we screw up, that we miss the mark, we will never be able to find resolution and forgiveness.
Years ago I went to a spirituality class and we were taught an ancient meditative prayer. It’s called the Jesus Prayer – it goes, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” We were to say it over and over again as a sort of mantra to enter a place of contemplative prayer. One of my classmates raised her hand and said “I’m having a hard time with this, I just can’t call myself a sinner.” The instructor paused and said “if you don’t recognize your sin, how will you ever be forgiven?”
Now, I know that the word “sin” causes a strong and visceral reaction in many people. The truth of my teacher’s statement though, is the same – if we don’t acknowledge where we miss the mark, we lose the opportunity to resolve, reconcile and heal.
It’s not easy to look inside and be honest about what we see. What we cringe about when we hear Jesus’ words. Where we know we’ve missed the mark. But it is the first step to the promise of forgiveness, right relationship and redemption. We are not alone in our journey…as we remember every time we say our Baptismal Covenant – our covenant with God – we can do it, with God’s help.
None of us are perfect and thankfully God has an amazing history of doing incredible things with deeply flawed people. So let us look inside and begin the path to right relationship by recognizing the places where we miss the mark and take the next steps to resolve it. After all, in the words of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, also known as Mother Teresa – “Saints are only sinners who keep trying.”