10 February, 2019 Hearers and Doers 1

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1 Hearers and Doers Matthew 7:1-14, Psalm 37:16-18 Westminster Presbyterian Church Pastor Doug Browne Matthew 7:1-14, Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, Let me take the speck out of your eye, while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor s eye. Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you. Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell and great was its fall! Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. Psalm 37:16-18 Better is a little that the righteous person has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will abide for ever; 10 February, 2019 Hearers and Doers 1

2 This week we continue the Sermon on the Mount, this week the conclusion. This Sermon really is the core of what it is to be a Christian. Every paragraph in this sermon could be a whole sermon, or a sermon series. Most of you have attended church worship services before; I m sure that you ve heard many sermons on these passages. How you judge others, and the whole metaphor about removing a log from one s own eye before taking the speck out of the neighbor s eye. More than a millennium before science figured this out, Jesus was teaching that all of us view the world and other people in subjective ways. Not one of us is perfect, and all of us fall short of being the people whom God has called us to be. That means that we should all work on our own sins before we start looking at other people s. We have to extend each other forgiveness and grace, like the forgiveness and grace that God has extended to us. Ask, and it will be given to you. Search and you will find. Good things rarely come to people who keep their heads down, focusing on the mess that they re in. All too often those people miss the good things that God wants to give them, simply because they don t notice the possibility. In everything do to others as you would have them do to you. The Golden Rule. A form of this rule is found in every major world religion, because truth is truth. If only it were applied across the board, with no limitations, the way that Jesus said it. All too often it s limited to treating other people of the same clan, tribe, race, or class they way that we would want to be treated, and treating everyone else in exactly the opposite 10 February, 2019 Hearers and Doers 2

3 way. All too often it is applied as Do unto others before they do unto you, meaning cheat, hurt, or kill other people before they get a chance to do it to you. The assumption that other people are out to do bad things to us, before we know anything about them, speaks volumes about us, not them. Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. Taking the easy way through life and getting your morals and ethics from the world in general will not lead you anywhere good. If you just follow popular culture for how to live, you ll learn that he who has the gold, makes the rules, that boys will be boys, and that there s no point in trying to hold rich, privileged people or their children accountable for what they do to other people. Thankfully, we re seeing some backlash against this idea recently, but it remains entrenched in how many people see the world. If you just follow popular culture for how to live, you ll learn that the proper thing to do if someone wrongs you is to take revenge by whatever means you can. To hurt the other person as badly as you can, not for hurting people, but for having the sheer effrontery to hurt YOU or YOUR loved ones. I can t count the number of hit movies where that s basically the whole plot. 1 If you just follow popular culture for how to live, well, the fact that pop culture talks about a Stairway to Heaven 2 and a Highway to Hell 3 speaks to their anticipated traffic 1 Examples in no particular order: the entire Death Wish series (1974-), Equalizer (2014), Payback (1999), The Punisher (2004, and getting a new Netflix television series), The Revenant (2015), Four Brothers (2005), John Wick (2014), The Crow (1994). The Brave One (2007), Django Unchained (2012), etc., etc. 2 Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin IV, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, and Ben Scott, Highway to Hell, Highway to Hell, February, 2019 Hearers and Doers 3

4 volumes. 4 Living a life full of revenge for petty slights, except for powerful people who are unaccountable to anyone, sounds like Hell on earth, right here, right now. Jesus presents a different way to live. There is no secret wisdom here, no hidden gnostic teachings in code. He teaches anyone who will listen, in plain language. Do not take revenge on those who wrong you, but turn the other cheek. 5 Do not even get angry with your brother or sister, but be reconciled with them as soon as possible. 6 And all those people out there are your brothers and sisters, even the people who make us privately wish that weren t true. And yeah, if you re human, there s somebody who makes you feel that way. Even if that s me, because I m pointing it out. Love your friends, sure, that s easy. Everybody does that. But also love your enemies. God makes the Sun rise not only on good people, but on people who are pretty much undeniably evil. God sends life-giving rain on righteous people whom we would think deserve it, but also on unrighteous people, who don t deserve any kindness from God. God sees good and evil, and God knows the difference, but God does not discriminate. 7 God loves all people. So, to be children of God, we need to act like God does. 8 Don t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. 9 Instead of depending on your own strength and your own wisdom and your own resources, depend on God, who has more of all those things than you do. 4 Yes, I am making that joke from the pulpit. 5 Matthew 5: Matthew 5: Pope Francis, World Day of Peace Message, January 1, Matthew 5:43-48, 5:9. 9 Matthew 6: February, 2019 Hearers and Doers 4

5 Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today s trouble is enough for today. 10 Don t spend all your time with your mind on tomorrow you will miss what s happening today. Likewise, don t spend all your time with your mind on yesterday you will miss what s happening today. Don t miss what God is doing now. Jesus is not merely presenting some moral guidelines. He is not just giving a lecture on the Law, and saying, as long as you obey the Law, you re good enough. That s why the crowds said that he taught with authority, and not like the scribes they were used to. Jesus didn t just know the Law he understood the purpose. Living the way Jesus talks about is not just agreeing with some logical premises, or even saying all the right things at the right times in the right company. This is not an intellectual thing. This is all four H s of the old 4-H slogan this is head, heart, and hands, and that leads to health. Jesus is presenting a way of life, and he tells his listeners that they need to not only hear these words, but act on them. He tells the story about the wise man who built his house on the rock, and the foolish one who built his house on the sand. It is the wise man who built his house on the rock who does well when the storms come. Jesus is presenting a simple way of life, but not one that s easy. Depending on God? Loving your neighbors, even your enemies? Letting God do the judging, since God is better equipped than we are? 10 Matthew 6: February, 2019 Hearers and Doers 5

6 Treating everybody the way you would want to be treated? Even the people who don t treat us that way? Seriously? Seriously. Living this way works. Sure, it s no formula for getting rich quick, but it s not claiming to be. It s a formula for living a life worth living. There are reasons that not everybody lives this way in the world, two thousand years later. Those reasons have to do with difficulty, not that it doesn t work. G. K. Chesterton was right when he said that, The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried. 11 In particular, it s more difficult to live this way when you are surrounded by people who are not. The Christian life was always meant to be lived in community. None of us can do this alone. We all slip back into the materialistic, violent ways of the world. This is why we gather here to worship every Sunday, and why we confess our sins every week. We need to remind each other and ourselves what is truly important, and by what values we should truly be living our lives. So, this next week, take a good look at your life and your relationships. How are you living in the way that Jesus taught us to live? 11 G. K. Chesterton, What s Wrong with the World, February, 2019 Hearers and Doers 6

7 How could you do better in putting it into practice? Let s all work on that, together. With the grace of God, I m convinced that we can be the people whom God calls us to be, the blameless, whose heritage will abide forever. AMEN. 10 February, 2019 Hearers and Doers 7