March 24th, 2019
Devotional
“Honesty” - Matthew 5: 43-48 and Matthew 7: 1-6
Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com
Monday: “Judge” - Matthew 7:1-6
Jesus, through a very interesting image today, is telling us not to judge others. But some of our struggle is that we use the word “judge” in English in so many different ways. We use it to mean that we deciding about something, weighing our options, just as much as we use it to mean that we are condemning a person.
In this particular passage, Jesus is using it in the later sense, talking about condemning others when really we, too, struggle with sin. But this does not mean that we should not discern.
When we are discerning, we can use concepts like Wesley’s three simple rules - do good. Do no harm. Stay in love with God. Or the Wesleyan Quadulaterial - looking to scripture, tradition, reason, and experience to guide our actions.
Let us be a people of discernment not a people of condemnation.
How do discernment and not judging others go hand in hand?
Prayer: God, we thank you that you are God and we are not. We thank you that you alone are judge. Instead of placing ourselves in positions to be judges over others, instead let us have a humble posture of discernment so we can perceive how best to reach out to others in love. Amen.
Tuesday: “Love and Pray” - Matthew 4:43-44
At the end of the day, Jesus’ commands boil down to the idea of loving your enemies, those whom you would not normally associate with. This is a derivative of loving your neighbor as yourself from Leviticus 19. Jesus is reminding us that not only the people we consider to be our neighbors like us, but our enemies as well. Love is not about separating ourselves from people, but looking another human being in the eye and seeing the piece of Divine love that lead to their creation. And when we see that Divine spark it should be harder to bring that person shame. It is easy to love those we like, but it is moving towards perfection when we begin to love those we do not like, those whom we have built a wall between in order to keep ourselves from becoming contaminated in our minds.
Who do you need to be praying for today that you may consider your enemy?
How is prayer an act of love?
Prayer: God, somedays it is hard to pray for your enemies, we confess. We can only do this by your power alone. So send your Holy Spirit to us this day and bring to our hearts and minds those that we need to be praying for, in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Wednesday: “Love Your Enemies” - Matthew 5: 40 -45
Who would be sued for a coat? Probably not a rich person with many coats, but someone on the edge of being destitute, who has lost everything else in life and thus only has one thing worth being brought to court for. The article of clothing that acted as a lifeline, acting as a blanket, shelter, and storage area. And now someone else wants to take it away to repay an impossible debt. Imagine the shame! Yet, Jesus commands that the person being asked for their coat to give their cloak – or undergarment – as well. In other words, you would be naked. This would not be to your shame, as the debtor, but to the one who was suing you, as you handed over your coat and cloak while everything else hung out. Once again it is nothing short of an active way of speaking out against injustice. Perfection has a sense of humor to it, and most certainly is not prudish or stingy, as we are admonished to “give to everyone who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
Love looks like different things in different situations. But we are called to love, which is contrary to everything that we may do by instinct. We can only love like this by grace alone.
Tell of a time that God empowered you to love by grace. What was that experience like for you?
Prayer: Almighty God, we thank you that your love has changed us and that your love can change others as well. Use us as agents of this love as your transform this world for the sake of your Kingdom. Amen.
Thursday: “Reward” - Matthew 5: 39, 46-47
Roman rule, like Jewish law, was based on an honor-shame society. You were judged by your actions, as well as your families. “But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn also the other.” This verse has been construed as Jesus saying that we should subject ourselves to shame and abuse at the hands of another. But how many of us are quelling this misperception by teaching a bit of history to our congregations – that to turn the left cheek to be slapped would require the victim to reclaim their honor as if stating that one slap alone could not shame them. Further, the hand positioning is key. The striker cannot backhand slap the person with his or her right hand. The only other option would be to punch the person with a fist, and punching and slapping are not the same thing. To slap shows power, while to punch affirms someone as an equal. Turning and offering the left cheek resulted in a quandary for the person who originally slapped the individual that would ultimately cause her or his shame, not the person’s being slapped.
Perhaps it would make us rethinking our reaction to evil – it is not passive, but active. Perfection is not passive or unimaginative. It calls for us to think outside of the constrains of our culture in order to put forth a radical message of resistance. It also calls us to treat others, even our enemies in a counter-cultural way.
How do you love your enemies?
Prayer: God, thank you for your Word that both strengthens us and challenges us. Help us to re-imagine what it looks like, not to just to love those who love us back, but to love our enemies in the name of Jesus as well. Amen.
Friday: “Be Perfect” - Matthew 5: 48
Jesus seems to be laying out an impossible task in this verse– to be perfect as God is perfect. And oh how we’ve abused this verse and the proverbial statements that precede it. We’ve created an image of perfection in our heads that few would even want to obtain –nonsensical, prudish, unimaginative, and perhaps even gruff. Someone who doesn’t smile or laugh or have fun. As a United Methodist, one of the tenants of our tradition is that we are moving on towards perfection, but if these characteristics mark perfection it is most certainly not who I want to be, nor is it who I wish to lead people to discover as their pastor.
Yet isn’t that all too often how we envision God? Aloof, lacking a sense of humor, asking us to strive for something never to be reached. Further, these commands that Jesus give are unattainable at best and damning at worst. They seem to point out everything that we fail to be in our walk with God: forgiving, charitable, and unconditionally loving. As we note our own failures in these areas, our tendency is either to dismiss God as being irrational, which can perhaps explain the exodus of young people from our congregations, or to over-correct our behavior. We abuse God’s commands in order to make ourselves feel humble, even if our zeal for perfection is misguided.
What does the word “perfect” mean to you and your faith walk?
Prayer: God, we thank you that while you call us to face the impossible, to walk towards perfection, that we know that we do not walk alone. Strengthen us for the call and use us along the way, we pray. Amen.
Saturday: Preparing for the Word
You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic to prepare for worship: “The Women of Christmas: And Our Eyes Shall See Him” - Matthew 2: 1-11, Luke 2: 21-35.
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