Matthew 5:17-48
Fully Alive Imaginations
James Sledge March
1, 2015
As
a general rule, I’ve learned not to engage Facebook “friends” who post
provocative items, but every now and then I can’t help myself. It happened the
other day when someone shared a colorful, poster-like picture that read, “You
know you have gone blind when you can
‘see nothing wrong’ with something that God has called sin.”
I
took the bait and commented, “Such as?” My “friend” responded, “Look at this world , sin is everywhere and people think
it’s normal!”
I’d started this so I thought I
would see it through. I responded, “Again, such as? Are you referring to
lending money at interest or failing to care for the poor or welcome the
immigrant? Or do you speak of things such as eating shrimp?”
This
time my “friend” got more specific. “Homosexuality is one, killing is another,
no fear of God, drugs, child abuse, animal abuse and I could go on. but don’t
get me wrong I care for the people just not the sin. I don’t look down on
anyone.”
At
this point my better judgment started to kick in, and I decided to disengage,
but not before leaving what seemed an appropriate quote from Father Richard
Rohr. “Either you allow Holy Scriptures to change you, or you will normally try
to use it to change--and clobber--other people. It is the height of idolatry to
use the supposed Word of God so that my small self can be in control and be
right. But I am afraid this has been more the norm than the exception in the
use of the Bible."[1]
I
suspect that most everyone who takes the Bible seriously occasionally falls
into the idolatry that Father Rohr
mentions. All of us can read the Bible selectively, using it to support what we
already think. That’s true of both conservative and liberal Christians, though
I fear that progressive Christians are sometimes more prone simply to dismiss
the Bible whenever we don’t like what it says.
It’s
not a perfect fit, but I wonder if the differences between conservative and
liberal Christians don’t have something in common with those between the “traditionalists”
and “nontraditionalists,” the “compliant” and “defiant” that Brian McLaren
suggests make up the audience when Jesus gives his Sermon on the Mount. But, “According
to Jesus,” writes McLaren, “neither group was on the road to true aliveness.”[2]
At
first, Jesus seems to side with traditionalists. "Do not think that I have
come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to
fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter,
will pass from the law until all is
accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments,
and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of
heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the
kingdom of heaven.”
“Yesss!”
go the Pharisees, and “Yesss!” goes my Facebook friend. “See, Jesus says that
it all still counts. There’s no throwing any of it away.”
That’s
true. Jesus does not come to start a new religion. He insists that he is a part
of a tradition, and that tradition is essential to understand what it means to
live as a child of God.
But
before the Pharisees and traditionalists can break into their happy dance, Jesus
makes clear that the tradition does not exist in order to keep things as they
are. Traditions of every sort tend to be invested in some sort of status quo.
But using the formula, “You have heard it said… But I say to you…” Jesus
points out how traditionalists fail to appreciate the full meaning and intent
of their own tradition, and he radically reimagines that tradition.
Traditions,
all traditions, tend to get coopted into an easy morality and status quo that
benefits those who run things. “Follow the rules, law and order, the way we’ve
always done it, you get what you deserve.” But such use of the tradition does
not build the world God hopes for, the new community Jesus proclaims. Thou
shalt not murder? Of course not. But do not be angry? Do not insult another?
Jesus says these are of one piece.
An
eye for an eye? The status quo turns this into a justification for punishment,
but Jesus remembers the command’s original intent, to limit retaliation. And he
fulfills and expands this intent with his call to meet evil with unexpected
kindness. Some of the examples Jesus gives are unfamiliar to us. Roman soldiers
can’t compel us to carry their packs for them, but people in authority still
abuse their power. To comply is to be oppressed. To fight back sometimes makes matters
worse. But Jesus suggests an alternative where we seize the initiative by acting
with unexpected kindness to those who wrong us.
Brian
McLaren writes, “Neither the compliant nor the defiant typically imagine such
creative responses. Jesus is helping their moral and social imagination come
alive.”[3] Our
moral and social imaginations coming alive. I like the sound of that. I often
operate without much imagination, sometimes blindly following or defending the rules,
sometimes fighting against what provokes me or seems unfair. I could use a bit
more in my repertoire.
Jesus says it’s all about learning to
love, especially those who you don’t want to love. Becoming true children of
God is about becoming like God, who sends rain on the righteous and on the
unrighteous, who looks after and cares for those who “deserve” it and
those who don’t. That is what perfection, completeness, maturity, or full
aliveness looks like, says Jesus, and it requires our imaginations being
reanimated. It requires a newness about us, a newness that Jesus invites us to
discover by following him.
_____________________________________________________________________________
I
suspect that by day’s end most of us will have been “wronged” by someone.
Perhaps a few will make it till tomorrow. Someone will make our lives
unnecessarily difficult, accuse us of something we didn’t do, lie to us, take
advantage of us, or just be plain mean to us. And most of us will react in
predictable fashion. Maybe we’ll stew inside; maybe we’ll lash out; maybe
something else. But what if our moral and social imaginations came alive?
I
want us to engage in a bit of imagination. Imagine someone has wronged you,
leaving you justifiably upset. Now consider how you are inclined to act. Then
imagine how you might act if your actions emerged from a love like God’s, from
Christ like love. Take a moment and imagine. (I might add that for someone
being physically abused, a creative response might involve calling and
following through with authorities.)
The
apostle Paul once wrote, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new
creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” O
God, send your Spirit to us. Awaken our imaginations, and help us step into
that new life, that fully alive life Jesus invites us to live as your children.
We Make the
Road by Walking. The practice
begun in Advent continues through summer of 2015. Scripture and sermons will
connect to chapters in Brian McLaren’s book. This week’s chapter is 28, “A New
Path to Aliveness.”
[1]
From Fr. Rohr’s February 11, 2015 daily meditation, “Finding the Golden
Thread”. Available at the Center for Action and Contemplation website: https://cac.org/
[2] McLaren,
Brian D. (2014-06-10). We Make the Road
by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and
Activation (p. 131). FaithWords. Kindle Edition.
[3]
Ibid. (p. 134).
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