There s another way we use the word mood. We have moods in grammar. There s the indicative, the imperative and the subjunctive moods.

Transcription

1 George A. Mason Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Wilshire Baptist Church 29 January 2017 Fourth in a series, Light Work Dallas, Texas A Light Mood Micah 6:1-8; Matthew 5:1-12 The title of this sermon is A Light Mood. The mood in our country right now is anything but light. By saying that Christians need a light mood right now in the face of political actions that are producing anger and outrage, I am not making light of a grave situation. I am saying that we need the church of Jesus Christ to be doing its work of being the light of the world. And that includes a demeanor that, even in protest and advocacy, features meekness over meanness. More on that in a moment. There s another way we use the word mood. We have moods in grammar. There s the indicative, the imperative and the subjunctive moods. The subjunctive expresses wishes or doubts. You might say, for instance, If George were to preach for only ten minutes today, I would be happy even if I disagree with what he says. Good luck with that; we ll be having no subjunctive moods today. The indicative mood makes a statement about the way things are. Wilshire is a Baptist church. Okay, I know that some of you think that s subjunctive, too, but work with me here. The imperative mood makes a request or command. Be sure to hang on every word of this sermon. Good luck with that, George. Now there s more to this, don t you know?!, than my being a grammar geek. There s something about our texts today that this mood exercise might help us see. The prophet Micah uses the indicative and imperative moods when he reminds the people of God about what is and what is required. He has told you, O mortal, what is good that is, the way things are. And what does the Lord require of you that is, the way we are commanded to live. Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. The imperatives of the spiritual life are always and only based on

2 the indicatives. If you want to know what God wants, it isn t a mystery; it s always already present all around you. We can know what to do based on the goodness that is possible at every moment because it is built into a world made by a good God who looked upon it and called it good. This doesn t mean that everything that happens is good, but it does mean that when we can act in ways that line up with God s created intentions, we will satisfy God s demands, and we will be satisfied ourselves. This takes us to the Beatitudes at the beginning of Jesus Sermon on the Mount. Too often we view the Sermon on the Mount as being about ethical ideals that are always out of reach. Jesus demands on us are so difficult that we can t hope to live up to them. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hurt you. Pray for those who persecute you. All imperatives. But let s remember that he begins the sermon with eight blessings in the indicative mood. That is, you are already blessed when you act this way. The beautiful Church of the Beatitudes is built on a hill overlooking the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. In the late 1930s the fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini commissioned the architect Antonio Barluzzi to design this church to commemorate Jesus eight sayings that begin his Sermon on the Mount. It s a lovely octagonal-shaped building. You can walk around inside it and meditate on each of the eight blessings. But I think it s a bitter irony that a ruthless man, who rejected Christianity and believed Jesus was mad to advocate humility, kindness and compassion, should have ordered the building of this church. He didn t believe what Jesus said and didn t even attempt to practice it, but he wanted a church to commemorate those teachings. But then this is the problem even the best of us have, isn t it? How do we reconcile the difference between what Jesus said and what we will do? One way to deal with this problem is to limit the scope of Jesus teachings. For instance, some Christians say the Sermon on the Mount applies only to how Christians treat one another, not to what we should expect of everyone. 2

3 In our most recent presidential election, this interpretation seems to have swayed many. One local Baptist preacher made this claim when asked if he shouldn t want a president who would advocate Jesus teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. I would run from that candidate as far as possible, because the Sermon on the Mount was not given as a governing principle for this nation. Nowhere is government told to forgive those who wrong it, nowhere is government told to turn the other cheek. Government is to be a strongman to protect its citizens against evildoers. When I m looking for somebody who s going to deal with ISIS and exterminate ISIS, I don t care about that candidate s tone or vocabulary; I want the meanest, toughest son of a youknow-what I can find and I believe that s biblical. 1 We are already seeing how that attitude works out. Meanness is having its moment. But let s take this idea apart. Do you see how it divides the world into two differing spheres that operate on two differing ethical standards? There s the church that is bound by Micah s imperatives about doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God, along with Jesus descriptions of the blessed life that includes, in essence, the same approach. And then there s the world outside of the church, which we want to function according to the ethics of a three-year-old child who s always crying out some combination of me or mine. Nationalism is not the same as patriotism. Nationalism is about us versus the world. Patriotism is about us on behalf of the world. Our government is made up of people some Christian people and some not but always people. How do we ever know when we are supposed to do what is good toward other people and when to strike back against them, deny them human dignity or even kill them? (Spoiler alert: NEVER!) This dualistic thinking makes us into divided selves, always trying to figure out when it s 1 3

4 right for us to be loving and compassionate and when it s right for us to support torture or build walls or turn away people we re afraid of. It also puts us in the position of vetting everyone before we can figure out how we are to act toward them. Instead of looking at every human being as bearing the image of God every bit as much as we do, we become suspicious. We look at others first as a potential threat to our safety and wellbeing. Then we evaluate whether they are trustworthy enough for us to be kind to and welcome into our midst whether into our country or our church or our hearts. But when you start there, it s unlikely that you will ever feel much duty to love many people whom you don t already know. And then you will spend all your time trying to justify why you don t love them. With that strategy present in our current climate, we are unlikely to apply our Christian duties to do justice and love kindness toward Mexicans or Muslims. We may start to think that all Mexicans violate our borders and rob us of our culture and jobs. We may start to think that all Muslims are potential terrorists who want to do violence against us in the name of their religion. Let s be clear: you don t believe in religious liberty if you believe in it only for your religion. If you limit religious liberty for any other religion except your own, you believe in religious preference, not religious liberty. And the same is true of human rights. You either believe in human rights for everyone, or you don t believe in human rights for anyone. We just have to stop and ask where this strategy leads. It only perpetuates an ongoing sense of fear and worry everywhere. It divides us against our neighbor, and it divides us against ourselves. And tell me how this is the mission of the church. How is the church to be light to a world of darkness if we keep conceding to the darkness as the starting point of our thinking and acting? We have to get it into our heads that only living out the virtues Micah speaks of and those Jesus describes can produce in us a life 4

5 of blessedness and can change the world in the process. There is only one way to live all the time. The imperative is always rooted in the indicative. God never requires something of us that God hasn t already provided to us. What Micah says God wants from us is summarized in the doublesided imperative: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says as much in the Beatitudes. Every one of them in one way or another describes the indicative state of blessedness as being connected to a life of doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with our God. So back to the top: we can use the word mood grammatically but also emotionally. It s not just a way to talk about statements of being; it s a way of talking about states of being. Do you want to feel blessed? Do you want to sense God s favor? Do you want to know a joy in your life that is beyond superficial happiness? There is only one way of living that produces these outcomes. That way of living produces a light mood that has a healing effect on the world. Think of it this way: if you start out thinking that the world is at its core an angry and violent place, you are likely to treat others with fear and anger in return. And where does that leave you? All you are doing is adding to the anger and violence. Nothing ever changes, except that you become more like that yourself. But if we start out with a conviction about what is good, we can live justly and kindly, and God will use these ways of living to produce a world that better reflects God s goodness. John Killinger told the story about a little burro that was employed in the heyday of the great western cattle ranches to help tame strong and rambunctious steers. The approach worked like this. The steer, bucking and convulsing like a raging sailor, was haltered to the little burro, and the two were turned loose together on the desert range. Like a scene from an old Laurel and Hardy comedy, the giant steer and the little burro would be seen disappearing over the horizon, the great steer tossing the poor burro about like a streamer in the wind. They would sometimes be gone for days. But eventually they would return, the little burro 5

6 in the lead, trotting along, bound for home, with the submissive steer in tow. Somewhere, out on the rim of the world, the steer would become exhausted from his strenuous attempts to rid himself of the burro, and at that point the burro would take mastery of the steer and become the leader. 2 The church may seem like a little burro attached to a raging world. But we can tame meanness with meekness if we only stay engaged and patient, if we remember who we are and remain true to our spiritual nature. We may lead with justice and kindness only if we intend to claim the name of Christ. A light mood is the right mood because by it we are trusting God to subdue the world and bring it blessed peace