Rev. Joan Pell Byron United Methodist Church Sermon: 2/16/14 Series: Flipped Scripture: Matthew 7:1-12 The Golden Rule part on judging. Today we are continuing with our series on Sermon on Mount, from Matthew 5-7 as Jesus flips some of our normal thinking upside-down, and we consider what it means to live counter culturally. Today we come to the start of chapter 7. It s got 3 sections. The first on judgment, the second on prayer, and finishing with what we now call the golden rule. Let s start with the <Matthew 7:1-6 NRSV> Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 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? 5 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. 6 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. Those of you who were here last few weeks know that the sermon on the mount started with beatitudes (blessed are ), metaphors of salt & light (salt of the earth light of the world), then the 6 antitheses (you have heard it said, but I say to you ), prayer (which we skipped over and will come back to), treasure (money) and not to worry. Now we get a shift again in tone and style. Section on not judging sounds like it could have come from Proverbs. Jesus gives us a nugget of wisdom, like a pearl from the sea. Pearls are eye-catching. And here Jesus uses a creative way to get our attention. He uses humor. Will we appreciate this humor as a pearl and discern its value, or will this be a pearl that is trampled underfoot? -1-
Jesus said to take log out of own eye before the speck in another. The word for log meant a roof beam. He used hyperbole to get his point home. Can you imagine having a speck in your eye and someone leaning over you with a log sticking out? Would you want their help? It s funny! It s good to be able to hear and poke fun at ourselves. Perhaps the pearl that Jesus is giving here is the gift of learning how to respond to conflict in creative ways breaking the cycle of humiliation with humor. If you are the person on the receiving end of judgment using humor or even ridicule might help your antagonist to see the situation in a new light. And if you are the one dishing out judgment then being brought up short with a slightly too close to the truth joke can give us pause for thought. This metaphor strikes a chord with me because I know how painful it is to have a speck of sand in your eye. When I was a child and my parents took us on vacation to the beach each year they told us not to throw sand. Well, we didn t always obey them! And one day I threw some sand at my brother and a grain became stuck in his eye. We had to go to the hospital to have the speck removed. Sometimes we do have to have specks removed, but we want the right person to help us. Do not judge, says Jesus. To be judgmental is to point out something in someone else s life, making the person feel putdown, excluded or marginalized. Sometimes we judge others, are critical of others, because makes us feel better about ourselves. Perhaps we think we wouldn t have handled a particular situation in that way. Or done that or said that. So we express our opinion and explain how we would have handled it. Or we take one look at them and make invalid assumptions, and assume the worst. You know what they say about not judging a book by its cover! We often judge when don t have the full story. We do not understand what it is like to walk in another s shoes. There is much we do not know about others and their situations. Things are not simplistic. It s like with an iceberg what we see is just a small part what we do not see is much greater. If we point the finger at someone else then we don t have to look at our own stuff. Oftentimes we criticize others when we are just as bad. Research/surveys show non- Christians perceive Christians as judgmental. To them our lives are not perfect and yet we criticize their lives. We need to be cautious when we give criticism and only do so when we are invited. A spirit of generosity is needed. How about if we always assume that the person we are dealing with has the best of motives. They might see things differently, or execute things differently or even badly, but not out of maliciousness towards you. To use another cliché, give them the benefit of the doubt. -2-
A couple of situations stand out in my life. Both situations, a popular member of staff left after a number of years. A replacement was hired. The new person was well a qualified man, but his style/approach to the work was different. He emphasized some things and deemphasized others. Behind his back the criticism started. People were judging him based on his predecessor and their idea of the job. In the first instance the situation became intolerable, the person gave up and moved on after a couple of years. In the second instance one other person made a huge difference. They took a deliberate decision and threw their whole weight of support behind him right from day 1; they did not allow judgments or falsehoods to be spread and did not join in the gossip; this person shut down the conversations and always spoke positively. No, the workplace does not look the same as before, but the department is thriving and the new hire is now loved by all those he works with. Our words and accompanying actions can make a real difference. Let us not be hasty in our judgments to Christians or non-christians. Now come to the next section in Sermon-on-Mount. Let s listen to how Jesus continues. 7 Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? 10 Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? 11 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! Ask. Seek. Knock. Ask use voice. Search use of whole body. Knock makes a noise use arm & hand. These actions demand a commitment from us and grasp for a positive response from God. Asking, Seeking, Knocking become ways to be in relationship with God. The inquirer does not possess the answer, the seeker does not possess the treasure, the knocker does not open the door. Yet we are told to ask, seek, knock, and that God answers, God satisfies the seeker, God opens the door for those knocking. As he explains this Jesus asks a rhetorical question that again provokes laughter. -3-
Imagine giving your child a stone on plate instead of bread, or a hissing snake instead of fish. Of course it wouldn t happen. And in the same way also God will answer giving us good things. But Jesus gives us no idea of the time scale. 7 Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. The Greek verb tenses here are indicative future, meaning that the actions have not happened yet. The paradoxical phrase already and not yet is apt to describe God s work in the world. But the already is happening when prayers are answered, when people find what they are looking for and when doors are opened. The signs of Jesus promised future are being made known and are all around us. Valentine s day is all about love. But sometimes women are treated badly in relationships. So it has also become a day to raise awareness of women s issues, with protests being staged. All over the world women stood up for their rights. The group one billion rising for justice held dances to end the violence and shake the earth into awareness. Bodies that are a war zone and a political objects became a place of redemption and salvation and joy. God s kingdom is here already and not yet. And then Jesus follows up with these words. 12 In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. We know this as the golden rule. It was wisdom that was widely known in the ancient world and is embedded in a similar form in all of the world s major religions. Some would say that it is a self-evident natural law. There is nothing distinctively Christian about the Golden Rule in and of itself, nor is it a complete guide to Christian ethics. So how do we deal with it without making it an expression of another law or rule that is hard to obey? If you were here a few weeks ago, you will remember that before Jesus started with his antitheses, he says that he has come to fulfill the law and the prophets. Now he adds to the golden rule 12 In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets bracket the whole of what he has been saying. The golden rule is not in isolation, it sums up all that we have heard in the last few weeks. In the Greek, there is a word therefore that gets missed in most of the translations to English: Therefore, in everything do to others -4-
As in the rest of Jesus sermon, we are invited to imagine and live into what God s reign looks like. The already and not-yet reign of God. By imagining and acting love is made explicit and concrete. Some other religions express this rule in a more passive way as do not treat others the way that you would not like to be treated. This has become known as the silver rule. The golden rule flips it round to the active, treat others in the way you would like them to treat you. Note that silver rule takes precedence when the golden one causes irreparable harm. It is an affirmative statement that requires action, not just avoidance. It is an aid to helping love become concrete. It is a deeper demonstration of what following the Torah/ the law means and the prophets talked about. Its distinctive Christian meaning is given by its identification with the Law & Prophets and by its placement in the overall flow of the Sermon-on-the-Mount. Jesus does not commend it as self-evident, but commands it as the way to behave. Not only is the Golden Rule at the farthest pole from a retaliatory modus operandi. It is not do unto others as they do unto you. It is not even reciprocal, but initiatory. The focus is on doing for others, not on what one gets in return; it is a guide for discerning what is right, calling the disciple to creative judgment. Just like the story that I told earlier about the new hire for a job, I heard a story the other day from someone who said that as a boy growing up he had an aunt that the extended family enjoyed ridiculing. However he noticed that she was never ridiculed in his home. His mother told him that his father would not allow it. In their home, every guest would be treated with respect; because that was the way his dad was brought up. Jesus reference to the law and the prophets is a reminder of who and whose we are. Our task is to live out this ethic in a new day, exercising creative judgment, so that the world can see the vision that we hold onto for the basis of relationships everywhere. Thanks be to God. Amen. Instead of a prayer, I d like to close by sharing a poem with you. The Golden Rule is really all about, so on this Valentine s Weekend, listen to this poem by Rev. Mark Sandlin, a minister in the Presbyterian Church. http://www.thegodarticle.com/7/post/2014/02/thought-on-love-on-valentines-day.html Resources Hamilton, Adam. Sermon: When Your Lips Cause You to Sin. Kansas: Church of Resurrection, 2004. http://www.cor.org/worship/sermonarchives/show/series/the-sermon-on-the-mount/. -5-
Jarvis, Cynthia A. and E. Elizabeth Johnson, Editors. Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew, Volume 1, Chapters 1-13. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013. The New Interpreters Bible. Vol 8. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994. -6-