Being Daring

 

This week we are continuing to swim in the sea of the best sermon ever, Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7.  Today and tomorrow, I want to dive and dwell in longer passages.  I invite you to first take a deep breath and check in with yourself.  Where are you physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally?  If you are hurting, you will bring that to the text.  If you are frustrated, you can find plenty in scripture that feels like salt being rubbed in a wound.  So, if it is not, “Well with your soul”, you don’t have to read the passage below.  As a matter of love, don’t!  Breathe, take a nap, enjoy a walk outside, listen to music, do what nurtures your soul.  There are no badges for your heavenly sash for being a martyr and pushing through a morning mediation. 

 

If you are in a place of curiosity and want to keep holding Jesus’ words and wisdom, slowly savor this:

“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. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 5:17-20

 

Please remember that the word “righteousness” is not being a Sneetch on the Beaches with stars upon thars who stuck their noses in the air.  Righteousness in Matthew means Joesph, who risked the hostile stare and dared to enter the mystery of God becoming flesh.  Righteousness is a Micah 6 shaped life ~ where we seek justice, live loving kindness, and walk humbly with God.  Not that I don’t do this perfectly or naturally all the time.  But I commitment and covenant to this way of life with God’s grace. 

 

What questions do you have about the above words?

What insights do you have?

Where do you want Jesus to explain more because you are confused or curious?

Where are you bored by the words above (it’s okay to admit and accept that you suppressed a yawn while reading)?

Where do the words above feel like truth and where do you resist what Jesus is saying?

 

Hold all of this.  I encourage you to email or call me if you want to talk more.  Studying scripture is not a game of solitaire, but a group sport.  Studying scripture as an isolated individual can leave us stuck in our own ways of thinking, we need others’ questions and insights.  Find some folks or join the bible study as we seek to find God’s wisdom in these words for our lives today.  Amen.