Deuteronomy 30:15-20!!!!! First Presbyterian, Pasadena Matthew 5:21-37!!!!!!!! February 12, RADICALIZED GOSPEL James S.

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1 Deuteronomy 30:15-20!!!!! First Presbyterian, Pasadena Matthew 5:21-37!!!!!!!! February 12, 2017 RADICALIZED GOSPEL James S. Currie! Several years ago I bought a copy of the Koran. I bought it because at the time I thought I should become familiar with the thought and writings of a religion other than my own that was growing in influence. It has been on my shelf ever since, left unread. I still have not read it from cover to cover.! However, recently I came across an interview with a former radical Islamic terrorist that I found fascinating. The interview was with Mubin Shaikh. Born in Toronto, he was raised in the Muslim faith. In the 1990s he became a radicalized Muslim after a trip to Pakistan. Upon returning to Toronto he recruited other young Muslims to join the jihadist movement. Then came 9/11 and he began to question the path he was on. He traveled to Syria and began studying the Koran, and his perspective changed again, this time he was determined to fight the radical militaristic movement within Islam. Today he tries to fight Islamophobia while also opposing the radicalization of those within the Islamic faith.! In reading this interview I was struck by Shaikh s critique of the way some Muslims were reading the Koran. For example, in chapter 9, verse 5 one reads that all non-believers should be killed. Shaikh says that he, too, used to use that verse and others to justify his views. However, one of his mentors reminded him that people can cherry-pick verses to justify their views and actions, and then suggested that he read the rest of the passage which doesn t say at all what that one verse suggest. It seems 1

2 that, at least in some cases, radicalization of some Muslims includes either a misreading of or a literal, word-for-word reading of the Koran.! By no means am I an expert on the Koran or the Islamic faith. However, in this interview it occurred to me that the same charge can be made regarding the way some people read the Bible. Today we read part of the Sermon on the Mount as Matthew records it. In these verses Jesus says some pretty drastic things that many of us find unsettling. In discussing adultery he says, If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away... 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 (Matthew 5:29, 30).! Now, to someone who was enthusiastically new to the Christian faith those verses could be problematic. Indeed, to many of us who are seasoned in the Christian faith this whole text is problematic. Jesus indication that anger is just as bad as murder, his warning for men that looking at another woman is the same thing as committing adultery, his view that divorce except for unchastity is the same as adultery, his understanding that swearing at all is out of order, all of those statements are very troubling...unless...unless and until we look at the whole picture -- not only of this sermon, but of all of Scripture.! If we understand the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus description of life in the kingdom of God, then that may shed a different light on these verses. It s not to say that we can ignore them because they are impossible now and in this world. It is to say, however, that there s a larger picture into which these commands fit. We can look at the Ten Commandments and see how impossible they are to keep. And yet, when we 2

3 remember the opening verse to those commandments, we look at them differently. You recall that opening verse: I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. (Therefore)... you shall have no other gods before me... (Therefore) you shall keep the sabbath day... (Therefore) you shall honor your father and your mother... (Therefore) you shall not kill... (Therefore) you shall not covet...! It s not simply the commandments themselves. It s the God who gives those commandments and that God s relationship to us and ours to that God. That God has made a covenant with the people, a covenant of love and faithfulness. That makes a difference in how we view those commandments, doesn t it?! In the same way, this same God who has humbled God s self to become one of us in Jesus Christ calls us to live in Christ s kingdom, to reflect that kingdom in the world, as impossible as it may seem to do. If we keep reading in this sermon, we find Jesus referring to another verse from Exodus: If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (Ex. 21:23-25). If that were all we had in Scripture, it would be a cruel and legalistic faith. But Jesus takes that Old Testament law and transforms it, getting to the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law: You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile (Mt. 5:38-41).! And he goes on to say something even more radical, calling on his listeners not only to love their neighbor, but to love their enemies and pray for those who hurt them. 3

4 ! When we take seriously the spirit of not only specific verses in Scripture, but all of Scripture as a whole, we begin to see how radical the gospel truly is and how, as followers of this Jesus, we are called to exhibit in our lives the radical nature of this gospel. We do not belong to an angry or legalistic god, but rather to a God of compassion, love, and mercy -- and not just towards us, but towards all people.! Think of the words of love and compassion we hear in the Old Testament: Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain you (Psalm 55:22). The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love (Psalm 103:8). The Lord s my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1). The nature of this God and of the the gospel are radical in that they go against everything one might expect -- no longer an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but love of one s enemy. God s justice is not harsh, but couched in mercy. It is the kind of justice that a parent has for a child -- discipline but given in love and with the best interests of the child at heart.! If followers of Jesus Christ have been radicalized, it s not because of a superficial, literalistic reading of the gospel. Just the opposite, in fact. It s because one has caught the spirit of the gospel and has begun to grasp the radical, counter-cultural command to love everyone and to reach out to everyone and to welcome everyone in the same way that Jesus did. It is to realize that no one is beyond his reach. It is to realize that we ourselves are in as much need of his love and mercy over and over again, every day, as anyone else. It is to understand that his justice calls us to realize that the poor and the hungry and those considered outsiders by others are just as much God s children as we are. It is to be willing to pray for those we do not like -- our enemies -- as well as for those we do like. 4

5 ! This past week I came across a description of Robert McAfee Brown, the late Presbyterian theologian. A good friend of Brown wrote that Brown was a remarkably humble man. He recognized that being a Christian was not so much an achieved position as a desired one (Wm. Sloane Coffin in the Foreword to RMB s memoir). We all desire to be Christians, but this statement reminds us that this life is a pilgrimage, a journey towards becoming what God wants us to be.! That s kind of like the Ten Commandments and Jesus Sermon on the Mount. Virtually impossible for us, but not for God. But as Christ s representatives, we have his kingdom as a way of life toward which we strive. Are we Christians? I don t know, but I do know that we are called to strive toward that. We strive to embrace the radical gospel that turns this world upside down and enables us to turn the other cheek, give up our cloak as well as our coat, to go the second mile, and to love and pray for those we don t like and who may not like us. Are we there yet? Not yet, but, hopefully, we are on the way.! Thanks be to God! 5

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