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Keep Calm and Live a Holy Life

SCRIPTURE

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 

Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. 

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God. 

You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord. 

You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling-block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. 

You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord. 

You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Matthew 5:38-48
[Jesus said:] “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. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. 

”You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Both the Leviticus and Matthew readings for this week give us directions for how we might live a holy life, Keep calm and live a holy life…

Leviticus spells out the minutiae of the holiness God expects from us,
They are rather detailed rules or commandments that can certainly be overwhelming and don’t always translate well to our current society.
But then again some of those details are surprisingly relevant:

don’t completely clean the fields but instead leave some for the poor and the alien,
don’t profit from the blood of a neighbor, don’t hate any kin.

Each law ends with “I am the LORD,” reminding us not only who God is, but also who we are and who we are not,
and why it is we should even consider following these commandments in the first place.

In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expands the whole notion of holiness put forth in Leviticus:
turn the other cheek, give more than is asked for, love your enemy.
Pretty radical words.
They take me by surprise every time I read them… forgive me God for my failure to live them
Often Christians take Jesus’ language of “but I say to you . . .” as an expression of his distancing himself from Jewish law—like saying… forget that…I have something better
But a more careful and critical reading from Leviticus makes it clear that Jesus is really extending the tradition of seeing in the Law of Moses (the Torah) opportunities not only to limit evil but also to do good.
The practice of leaving some crops unharvested for the poor is a perfect example (Lev. 19:9-10).

All these instructions can easily remain only laws or rules or commandments,
with the potential to drain life instead of give it,
if they are not rooted in Jesus’ life and the holiness of the relationship he calls us to with God and each other.

I feel the guidance regarding relationships in these passages of scripture are the most in conflict with the teachings of our society today…
We live in a them vs us world… winners and losers, sports teams- Love the Red Sox- hate the Yankees UConn over Syracuse
republicans vs democrats— we have never been so deeply divided in my life time… those who suffered under Obama and those who suffer under Trump
So how does this fit with loving our enemies?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship published 1st in 1937 (Macmillan, 1959; Touchstone, 1995) that the nature of this extraordinary life Jesus calls us to is “unreserved love for our enemies, for the unloving and the unloved, love for our religious, political and personal adversaries. In every case it is the love which was fulfilled in the cross of Christ. . . . [I]t is the love of Jesus Christ himself, who went patiently and obediently to the cross—it is in fact the cross itself” (chapter 13).

Stories of radical love of the enemy and refusal to do violence can be found throughout Christian history, but perhaps most notably in recent times is the story of
the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., where nine people were massacred by a young white man in June of 2015
his intention was to kill blacks in order to begin a race war
Many members of Emanuel AME church lived out loving their enemy— one who had taken the lives of their loved ones
One by one, those who chose to speak at the bond hearing of this young man did not turn to anger.
Instead, while he remained impassive, they offered him forgiveness and said they were praying for his soul.

“I forgive you,” Nadine Collier, the daughter of 70-year-old Ethel Lance, said at the hearing, her voice breaking with emotion.
“You took something very precious from me.
I will never talk to her again. I will never, ever hold her again. But I forgive you. And have mercy on your soul.”
Felicia Sanders spoke about her son, Tywanza Sanders, who was killed.
“We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study with welcome arms,” said Felicia Sanders, her voice trembling. “Tywanza Sanders was my son. But Tywanza Sanders was my hero. Tywanza was my hero….May God have mercy on you.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/19/i-forgive-you-relatives-of-charleston-church-victims-address-dylann-roof/?utm_term=.88b8969accb8

Another stunning example happened back in October of 2006… when a gunman in PA shot 10 Amish school girls, killing 5 before he committed suicide.
Within hours the Amish community was comforting the parents and widow of the gunman
On the day of the shooting, a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls was heard warning some young relatives not to hate the killer, saying, “We must not think evil of this man.”[15]
Another Amish father noted, “He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he’s standing before a just God.”[16]

We can love our enemies… especially if we remind ourselves that love is a verb and not only a noun or a feeling.
Love is an action—- something you do
But let’s not miss the fact that these people in Charleston SC and Lancaster County PA could also do what they did because they had the love and support of a community of faith
they part of a group that held each other up

My colleague— Maren Tirabassi posted some thoughts on Matthew’s gospel this past week on Facebook that caught my attention and
they also helped me realize that loving and praying for our enemies could be something more than bringing enemies together or making them our friends, as I told the children.
that it would be something positive for me or you as the one praying for our enemies— even if it is a hard thing
The praying for our enemies is ultimately for us… it is about you and I before God… our enemy does not know of the prayers
nor usually, even of our anger…
Praying for our enemies can bless us… and it does not mean agreeing with or giving into our enemy

I need to say that in our diversity …I am also reminded that one persons enemy may well be another one’s hero…

Here is a portion of Maren’s post….
Taking it seriously – Matthew 5: 38-47

Love your enemies and pray for them,
and I want to start by saying –
I love Muslims and immigrants and
black lives and folks who are gender queer.
Of course, I do –
and I am trying to get credit
loving someone else’s named enemies,
when I am pretty sure Jesus
is asking me to do a hard thing.

Love Betsy Vos,
and pray that she sits down
among public school teachers and children
and truly listens to them.
Love Rick Perry,
and pray that his dancing with the stars
will teach him to walk faithfully
on the warming earth.
….
Love Steven Mnuchin, (Menachin)
and pray that all the foreclosures
of his past teach him to
be secretary of a life-giving treasure.
Love Ben Carson,
and pray that he listen to
experts on housing
and memories of childhood.
Love Scott Pruitt,
and pray for his environment
inside and out.

Jesus says,
pray for them a cloak’ worth,
pray for them a second mile’s worth.
Pray for all of us
(for I don’t have a clue how to be perfect) —
a new heart.

It is not really surprising that Jesus, a good Jew, ends this portion of his sermon with almost the same formula as Leviticus,
Calling attention to God’s perfection—-
and calling those who listen— you and I to this same perfection. Wow!
Not only do these words call us to high standards—
from our finances to our familial relationships to our dealings with strangers—
they also serve the purpose of making it clear how much we fail to do so

How much we can’t do it on our own and how much we need God and each other to be that face of God for us.
Our continual focus on God’s holiness and perfection is important, in marked contrast to our own lack of holiness.
But it’s even more important that it is Jesus who delivers this message, since he not only embodies that holiness but offers it to us as well, and enables us to live out God’s laws. Be calm and live a holy life… or try to. Amen

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