“FROM MISERLY TO MAGNANIMOUS”
By Rev. Victor Kim
Matthew 5:21-37
(02-12-17)
“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, it is
better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body
to be thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away...”
In the words of Eugene Peterson’s The Message translation,
“Better a bloody stump, than your entire being discarded for good in
the dump.”
These are some of the hardest words in all of scripture. Maybe they’re
words that we wish Jesus didn’t say, but these are the words of Jesus
from the Sermon on the Mount. Now surely, we understand that Jesus
doesn’t mean for us to take him literally, otherwise there wouldn't be a
single person here this morning who wouldn't be blind or deaf or
without a tongue, a leg, and arm or a hand!
And from what we understand, those who followed Jesus most closely
weren’t a band of one eyed, one handed, one legged disciples.
And wasn’t it was Ghandi who once said, in the world of an eye for an
eye, all become blind.
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Scripture is full of all sorts of literary devices, sometimes poetry,
sometimes allegory, sometimes even hyperbole. Our task as a
reformed and reforming people is to interpret scripture in context
so that we can get to what God would have us know.
I don’t get the sense that what God would have us to know from this
portion from Jesus’ sermon is that there aren’t enough rules, or that
the rules aren’t stiff enough.
I mean, did Jesus really have to die so that we could have the Ten
Commandments on steroids?
The answer is, of course, no.
But we don’t want to, we can’t, gloss over the words of Jesus in our
text, concluding that he may have said them but that he didn’t really
mean them. I get the sense that Jesus didn’t say a whole lot that he
didn’t mean to say.
But I am convinced that Jesus never intends for us to live under the
oppressiveness of fear, shame or guilt, especially when it comes to our
relationship with him and with one another.
So what are we to do with these words?
I believe that these words of Jesus from this portion of the Sermon on
the Mount are meant to take us deeper, deeper into a way of living
with one another and with God.
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Deeper into a way of living that is truly liberating, truly freeing, truly
satisfying.
There are three primary sections to our text this morning, the first
section dealing with murder and anger, the second with adultery and
lust, and the last which deals with keeping one’s word. Although Jesus
seems to be adding on to what the old law demanded, in reality Jesus is
moving well beyond the law itself and into a whole new way of thinking
and living.
Living by the law has a built in inherent temptation. What’s the least
that I can do to keep the demands of the law?
How can I do just enough so that I am still keeping the law?
This tendency seems to be what Jesus is addressing in his sermon.
“You have heard it said, whoever murders shall be liable to judgment,
but I say to you that if you’re angry with a brother or sister, you will be
liable to judgment as well.” Don’t even come to offer your gift to God
if you’ve got an outstanding issue with your brother or sister.
Instead, take care of that first, then come and offer your gift.
Jesus is saying, don’t live with an attitude of, “What’s the least I can do
and still be called a Christian?”
Just because you come to church and offer your gift, just because you
do what’s expected, doesn’t mean that you can ignore what needs
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healing and reconciling in your life. Just because you didn’t murder a
person doesn’t mean that the same hatred, anger and contempt
doesn’t live in your heart. Adultery isn’t only about doing something,
It’s also about what we think about, what we look at, what we ogle,
what we Google.
Just because you invoke heaven or earth, if your yes’s don’t mean yes,
and if your no’s don’t mean no, then no amount of invoking will make
any difference to your lack of integrity.
Jesus points this out, not because he wants to impose even more rules
and legalistic demands on us, but because he wants to invite us to
move beyond such a miserly view of life and into a magnanimous
approach to living.
John Paul Getty III, the grandson of J. Paul Getty, who founded Getty Oil
and was one of the wealthiest people in the world, was famously
kidnapped in Italy as a young man.
The kidnappers demanded $17 million as a ransom for his return.
Four months later, when no ransom had yet been paid, the kidnappers
mailed a lock of Getty’s hair and his severed ear to a local newspaper to
prove their intent.
They, however, lowered their ransom demand to $3.2 million.
Getty’s father, J. Paul II, asked his father for the money.
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Getty the grandfather, agreed to only pay $2.2 million, as that was the
maximum amount that was tax deductible. The rest of the money he
loaned to his son to pay the ransom for his grandson, with the
understanding that the money would be repaid at 4% interest.
Getty III was eventually freed after a ransom of $2.9 million was paid.
When he tried to call his grandfather to thank him for his help, his
grandfather refused his call.
A miserly life is a miserable life.
It is not the life Jesus intends for us.
We need to move from miserly to magnanimous.
Imagine if God’s attitude toward us was the same as Getty’s toward his
grandson.
What’s the least I can do for my people and still be their God?
If that was God’s attitude, we wouldn't be here this morning.
Jesus is not God’s minimum, Jesus is God’s everything, the entirety of
God’s love, expressed to us, for us, when we might have deserved so
much less.
Knowing this truth, knowing how absolutely much God loves us,
even to send us his only Son for our sakes, how then do we continue to
live with such miserliness in response?
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John Ortberg at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church gives this example:
Imagine if you were standing on your wedding day and during your
vows, your spouse, instead of reciting those words which speak of an
undying and extravagant love, asks the question, what’s the minimum I
have to do and still be married to you?
What’s the lowest level of commitment, what are the fewest
affirmations, what are the smallest promises, what’s the least amount
of fidelity, what’s the highest level of ignorance, what are the minimal
entrance requirements to be your spouse?
Can you imagine such a thing, and if you can, I’ll bet you’re not married!
Love, by its very nature, isn’t something that is entered into with an eye
on minimum requirements, with a miserly heart.
The examples Jesus speaks of this morning are all rooted in
relationships.
If we truly want to live as disciples of Jesus, if we truly want to
experience the fullness and richness of a liberating, freeing and
satisfying life, then we need to reframe how we understand and value
our relationships.
It’s not merely the letter of the law that matters, what matters more is
the spirit of the law. It’s not just the killing, it’s the hatred and anger
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behind it. It’s not just the physical act of adultery, it’s the objectifying
of people as objects of lust behind it.
It’s not just swearing falsely, it’s the lack of integrity and honesty
behind it.
To live with liberty and satisfaction is to move beyond this narrowness
and into the wideness of God’s possibilities for us.
Any relationship rooted in what’s the least I can do to keep the letter of
the law, is one which is always rooted in fear, fear that you’ll do more
than what’s necessary, more than the minimum which is absolutely
essential.
It’s rooted in the fear that somehow I will be taken advantage of, and
so I might as well take advantage of others first. Any relationship that’s
grounded in miserliness cannot possibly know joy, true joy, not borne
of achievement or aggrandizement, but of surprise, of grace, joy as a
gift.
What kind of life do you want?
What kind of life do you imagine God desires for you?
One rooted in legalism and liability, or one grounded in love and
liberty?
Do we want to live by the law of love, or by the love of the law?
Jesus lays it out for us. Move your attitude from miserly to
magnanimous. Walk as a disciple who follows my example.
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I don’t have to tell you that we are living in uncharted times.
It is an unfamiliar world in which we live. And here in the lower
mainland of B.C. we live in a place where change is happening at a
more rapid pace then almost anywhere else in our nation.
Cultures press against each other, new ways butt up against established
traditions, new people mix, sometimes uneasily, with those who have
been here for generations.
Here in this part of Canada the definition of what it means to be
Canadian is being redefined, and not to everyone’s liking.
Last week would have been my first anniversary with you here at RPC.
As I reflect upon the past year and as we prepare for our Annual
General Meeting of the congregation after worship this morning,
I know that part of what drew me here, to be in ministry with you,
was the opportunity for us, for RPC, to model what it means to be the
church, the people of God, in this place, in this time, under these
challenges and opportunities.
But we won’t be able to do what God desires of us unless we are ready
to move beyond doing only the minimum allowable.
There will need to be a growing magnanimity in us, within our
community, we need to move beyond what we think we can
comfortably manage to a place where we will no longer be worried
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about the scarcity we think we operate under to knowing that God’s
abundance is our reality. And that has to be reflected in how we
engage and interact with one another and with our community.
In a world where being great again seems to be the executive order of
the day, we follow a God who says that if you want to be first, you must
be last and the servant of all.
In a culture where those who are different from us are looked upon
with increasing suspicion, we follow a risen Saviour who broke down
the walls of division and announced good news for all people.
In a time that threatens to be coloured by miserliness, we worship a
God whose magnanimity overflows without ceasing.
The words of Jesus push us beyond our comfort zones and I am
convinced of this:
that for us to be the church God believes we can be, it’s not enough to
just follow the law, to do the minimum required, but we have to risk,
we have to be community of generous welcome and inclusion, of
abundant grace and capacity, not just for some people, but for all God’s
creation, we have to be a people who will push out of our comfort
zones and follow Jesus where he goes.
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Ultimately it’s only when we get it right with people that we can hope
to get it right with God.
Jesus is pretty clear on that point.
Don’t come and offer your gifts at the altar if you’ve got outstanding
issues with a brother or sister. Coming before me to keep the letter of
the law won’t get you anywhere, it won’t heal the hurt in your heart
and it won’t free you from the weight that is holding you down.
Get it right with one another first, says Jesus, then you can get it right
with God.
Maybe it seems backwards, but it’s God’s way and it’s the only way.
If we would be magnanimous with God, it has to begin with ourselves
and with our relationships with others.
So may we live by the law of love, not by the love of the law,
and may we be magnanimous in our living and our loving, and come to
know the life that is truly liberating, truly free, truly satisfying.
And to God be the glory, now and forevermore, Amen.
Written by Rev. Victor Kim
Preached on February 12, 2017
at Richmond Presbyterian Church.