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Foundations For Our Future #70 - #79

Foundations for Our Future (70) 

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Oaths

We begin a new section today, and again we see the Lord correcting behavior that is common among people, but which is not to be common among his disciples. We are not to swear oaths. (Matthew 5:33-37)

Why do people swear oaths? Is it not because we want to emphasize that we are telling the truth?

What Jesus seems to be saying is this: You are to be known as truth tellers. If you are asked a question that requires a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’ give that simple answer. And then live by it. You do not need to add any further words to your answer.

We have all seen the court room scenes: “do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” Jesus is telling us the answer is “yes” or “no.” The law of our land expects an “I do.” and most Christians are willing to answer as bidden. But some do not. Why?

They believe that they are breaking the Lord’s clear teaching, but are they? I think they have confused a forbidden action, which if initiated on their own part would be wrong, with a request made by the governing authority to which we are to be submitted. (Romans 13:1) Fortunately, for tender consciences, the law allows, in court, an “affirmation” rather than an “oath.”

The bottom line is this. Followers of the Lord Jesus are to walk in the light. That means telling the truth.

 

Foundations for Our Future (71)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Retaliation

Once again today we see why it is so easy to read the Sermon on the Mount and develop an eagerness to get past it. The teaching of Jesus is not easy to embrace. It requires a changed heart, and even then it is sometimes very difficult. Today we hear that we are not to retaliate against those who do us wrong. (Matthew 5:38,39) Turn the other cheek.

Why is this so hard? I think there is one reason and one reason only. Men are sinners. Men will hurt us. Men will take advantage of us. Men will misuse us. And because God made us to flourish in this life, and to rejoice in it, we fight back. We try to establish a place of freedom to be who we were meant to be. But in the process we hurt the other person. What we did not want done to us, we do to the other. If you take my eye away from me, I will take your eye away from you.

Here we are standing before the very heart of darkness that is in fallen creatures, and we hear the Lord calling us to a different world. He is calling us to the kingdom of heaven, but he is asking us to enter it on this earth. This is the place that he wants his disciples to inhabit. They are to be kingdom pioneers, called to be part of a new community on the earth. That community is called the church.

 

 

Foundations for Our Future (72)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

This Is Impossible For Me

A good friend of mine recently made the statement, as we were looking at the Sermon on the Mount together, that “this is impossible for me.” He was speaking from his inmost soul, as he was confronting the serious challenge of the call of Jesus to be holy. He could see, clearly, that nothing within himself was sufficient to come up to the high standard Jesus sets. “I am not good enough,” he said.

We went on to discuss the great gap that opens up when a man who has presumed he can exercise his will power to live up to the standards of God, comes face to face with that impossibility. It is always the precursor to a moment of grace, that is if it leads a man to cry out to Jesus. This is where the reality of Savior becomes concrete. Jesus must save me or I am lost.

It is of course true, that when we hear the Lord speaking to us about non retaliation (Matthew 5:38,39), being taken advantage of (Matthew 5:40), or about going above and beyond the forceful demand of another (Matthew 5:41), we must surely stop and ponder. “Is this really the way I am to live my life Lord? How can this be?”

There is no way around it. This sermon humbles every person who ever takes it seriously. It reveals the depth of our selfish pride. It exposes our desire to win. It lays bare our sinful heart. But still Jesus calls us.

 

 

Foundations for Our Future (73)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Beggars

Begging is one of the most humiliating of actions. It destroys pride, for it puts a man at the absolute mercy of another. It is an excruciating experience to beg. And it is so rarely successful. To turn the eye away from a beggar, to tell a man “no” when he asks for help, is so easy and so natural that we all do it with ease. Even when it is not really begging, but an organization or person asking us for a contribution to a good cause, we turn off the radio, or throw the envelope in the trash.Today, Jesus seems to be telling us that we may not do this to another human being (Matthew 5:42). It may be alright to decline a cause, but it is not alright to turn away my brother.

Perhaps one of the most memorable of Jesus’ teachings is that recorded in the 25th chapter of Matthew. “I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was thirsty and you gave me water to drink.” Our Lord seems to tell us that he is the beggar. He is the desperate borrower.

To see other people as God sees them is difficult. It is so easy to decide that their difficulties are their own fault, or that it is the result of laziness, or stupidity. But the Lord does not give us this wiggle room. “Give to the one who begs from you.” it is a command.

 

 

Foundations for Our Future (74)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

You Have Heard That It Was Said

For the sixth and final time, the Lord Jesus prefaces his teaching today (Matthew 5:43) with reference to what his hearers have previously heard. In every case he is taking a common understanding or attitude and then turning it upside down. Today is no different. It is very important to understand what he is doing and what he is not. He is making a distinction, always, between the Word of God his Father, and the teaching of men.

To “love your neighbor” was given by Moses as a command for Israel. It was guidance for the family. The nation was descended from one man and woman. All were kin, and they were to care for one another. It is the most natural of instincts, in fact, but it was codified for the people of God. Jesus will repeat it as right for all who would come after him (Matthew 22:39).

Over time, Israel had many enemies. Some treated them so shamefully that God himself declared that their descendants were never to enter his household. Those experiences led, in time, to simple sayings that captured much, but not all, of the truth God had revealed to his people. Men coined the phrase “Hate your enemies,” not God.

The Lord Jesus is here revealing that the love with which God revealed himself to Israel is a love that is to be extended to all mankind. Israel was chosen, not to limit but to reveal the love of God.

 

 

Foundations for Our Future (75) 

by: The Rev. Jon Shuler

Pray For Those Who Persecute You

A great teacher of the Faith once taught me this. “When God wants to do something, he moves one of his people to pray for it to happen, and then he does it.” This is a wonderful insight, it seems to me, and it highlights the mystery of the power of prayer. Prayer changes things, but not because we pray, but because we pray in alignment with God’s will.

Today we hear that we are to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). Previously the Lord warned his followers that they would be persecuted. He even said they were to rejoice when it happened (Matthew 5:12). Now he tells them that they are to pray for the ones who hurt them. He loves them too.

Are you wishing we were not going so slowly through the Sermon on the Mount today (again)? I am.

What is happening to us if we are listening to Jesus? What is going on in us if we are repenting when we see our sin? What is God doing to our natural selves if we are beginning to want to walk with him in obedience?

The answer, it seems to me, is that we are being changed. What we were is becoming something we are no longer to be. What was once natural for us is being revealed to be part of an old nature that is to die. We really must be “born again.”

 

 

Foundations for Our Future (76)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

The Evil and the Good

There are evil people in the world, as the scriptures make clear, but today we are confronted with the clear word of the Lord that God grants blessings to them while they are alive. (Matthew 5:45) The blessing of being alive, the joy of sunshine, the life giving refreshment of the rain. These things are gifts of the “Father…in heaven,” and he gives them to the just and the unjust.

Theologians of old coined the phrase “common grace” to describe the truth that all human beings are recipients of good things from God. Every person is conceived by the power of God alone, and they are born into this world for purposes of his choosing. He gifts us with life. And he gifts all the others as well.

Learning to care for those who are not our type, or from our town, or from our race does not come naturally. Division and conflict comes naturally. Superior and inferior comes naturally. Welcome and not welcome comes naturally. But Jesus says we are not to think like that. We are to see every human being as a possible child of God. Called, as we are, to repent and come home.

No one ever gave their life to Christ Jesus unless somehow they heard of the love of God for them. For most all who have heard that joyous news, it has come from another human being who loves them in spite of themselves. This is how disciples are to love.

 

 

Foundations for Our Future (77)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Are We Any Different?

Today we see the Lord Jesus addressing something that is so basic that we probably almost never think about it. I call it reciprocity. Human beings are social beings. We care about belonging, even unconsciously, and much of life involves an expectation of return from those we belong to. We care for others with a hope that we will be cared for. We give to others with the same expectation. If I am in need, surely they will come to my aid.

Do you only love those who love you? Sinners do the same. Do you only greet those who are your people (“your brothers”)? Then you are no different than those who do not know God (“the Gentiles”). Where is the Lord leading us by these questions? In two short verses Jesus essentially asks us a question: “Are you no different than the unbelievers?” (Matthew 5:46,47) They do the same.

We have seen consistently that he tells us that the virtues and values of the kingdom of heaven are not those of this world. We have been learning that the call on our lives is to begin now, in this life, to embrace and internalize the values of heaven. Here we are again coming face to face with the fact that God’s love is unconditional. He does not love with a quid pro quo love. He loves though we do not love in return. He gives with no expectation of us giving in return. Is that the way we are? Or are we like everyone else?

 

 

Foundations for Our Future (78)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Perfect

Yesterday we were reminded we are to be different than those who do not believe. Today we are told we “must be perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) The chapter ends with a simple summation of what the Beatitudes in the beginning implied. And the standard is our “heavenly Father.”

When I was a young boy I deified my earthly father. I thought he was the all powerful, all righteous, always honorable man that every man should be. I knew his love and wanted, with all my heart, to grow up to be just like him. By the time I was a teenager I had moderated my thinking somewhat, but not a lot. But in my early adulthood I came to realize that my father was a fallen man, just like me. He needed the grace of God just like me. And neither of us could begin to live the life God had for us without becoming different. We needed a supernatural change to come over us. We needed to be born again of the Spirit of God.

When a person becomes a true Christian, there is an inner change that causes them to see a different standard for all their life. They begin to want what God wants, and that is shown to them by the Lord Jesus Christ. He perfectly walked in the Father’s love and will. In him, we are called to the same destiny. In him, we will be bought to perfection.

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 

 

Foundations for Our Future (79)

by: The Rev. Dr. Jon Shuler

Rewards

Chapter 6 of Matthew’s Gospel opens with teaching that is very familiar to those who annually attend Ash Wednesday services. (This year on February 17th) There will be three sections that we take in turn, one about our giving (Matthew 6:2-4), one about our praying (Matthew 6:5-15), and one about our fasting (Matthew 5:16-18). And all three sections are about how we practice our faith, or as Jesus says, how we practice “our righteousness before other people.” (Matthew 6:1)

But before we go forward we must go backward to a word we passed over last week, but which looms large this week: “reward.” (Matthew 5:46)

How do you imagine the meaning of “reward” when you hear the word? For many it will conjure up the current mania for the Lottery. For an older generation it may remind us of cash promised for the information that leads to the solving of a crime. Perhaps most of all now, at least pre- Covid, it brings to mind Frequent Flier Miles.

Jesus clearly considers that seeking a reward is the most natural thing that any healthy person might choose to do. Most are neighborly because we want the reward of being treated in a neighborly way. People join clubs and societies so they will be on the inside of behavior that will be rewarded. There is an almost universal expectation that if I am “good” I will be rewarded.

Our Lord boldly declares that the lives of those who follow him will be rewarded.