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“You Have Heard it Said”
Matthew 5:21-48
A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley
How do you know something is true? Is it true because someone has said it? Is it true because it is written down? Is it true because it has been repeated enough times that it becomes “common knowledge”?
For
centuries, it was a known fact that the world was flat.
It was also
a known fact that the earth is only 6000 years old. It’s written down in a book, you know. There’s a story in UBC lore that this
building was built to house the Minnesota Baptist Convention. But when it came time for them to move in,
they demanded that we sign a statement denouncing evolution. We’re UBC and we have a long tradition of
thinking for ourselves. UBC refused to
sign and the Minnesota Baptist Convention never moved into this seemingly
heretical place.
It was a
known fact that the sun revolved around the earth. I was also taught that the moon was made of
green cheese and that thunder is angels bowling.
How do you
know what’s true and what isn’t.
Are people
terrorists or freedom fighters?
Are all
people who are not pro-life therefore pro-death?
Are all
people who don’t believe like we do heretics?
There’s a
great exchange in the musical “Wicked” between the Wizard and the Elphaba, the so-called wicked witch of the West. As Elphaba unveils
him as a shyster, the Wizard defends himself by saying:
“I only lied to them verbally. Besides, they were lies they wanted to hear. The truth is not a thing of fact or
reason. The truth is just what everyone
agrees on. Where I’m from we believe all
sorts of things that aren’t true. We
call it “history”. A man’s called a
“traitor”—or “liberator”.
A rich
man’s a “thief”—or “philanthropist”.
Is one a
“crusader”—or a “ruthless invader?”
It’s all in
which label is able to persist. There
are precious few at ease with moral ambiguities. So we act as if they don’t exist. They call me “wonderful.” So I am wonderful. In fact, it’s so much who
I am that it’s part of my name. And with
my help, you can be the same.” We all
know that her name becomes “wicked,” whether based on fact or fiction.
Deciding
what is true and what is not is an important exercise. But it is a relatively recent idea that we look
at the Bible as inerrant and infallible.
When we do that, we can almost come to bibliolatry—making an idol of the
Bible. During the first of my three
ordination councils 18 years ago, one person who was horrified by my candidacy asked
me to give my statement of faith. I
said, “I’m a child of God and I feel called to spread the good news of justice,
mercy peace and liberation to all of the people.” He said, “That’s not a statement of
faith. A statement of faith is saying
that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant Word of God and you have to base
your life upon that.” He voted against
me.
In Biblical
times, it was common to have dialogue about truth. It’s an ancient rabbinical tradition. The Babylonian Talmud dates back almost 2000
years and it is a wonderful collection of people who argue about
scripture. You have the scripture in
the center, with a commentary by Rabbi Shammai on one
side, Rabbi Hillel on another. They contradict each other and they tell
stories that enhance certain scriptural passages. They call this commentary midrash.
There’s a famous midrash
on the song of triumph that Aaron and Miriam sing as the Egyptians are drowning
in the
The writer
of Matthew has the story of Jesus continue in that vein. More than any other gospel writer, Matthew
cites Hebrew Scripture. He goes to great
lengths to explain that this happened to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah
said. Or this happened to fulfill the
proverb…Matthew’s Gospel is a midrash on the Messianic
work of God. Jesus is clearly the
messianic priest who argues and unlocks the keys to the Hebrew Scriptures.
In the
Sermon on the Mount (Chapters 5-7), we find Jesus’ central teaching. He positions himself as the priest who holds
court in a synagogue. Only his synagogue
is not within the walls, but out on a hillside overlooking the
As he speaks
to the gathered masses, he does a midrash on scripture. He quotes favorite scriptures and gives his
own take on them. You have heard it
said….But I say to you.
He speaks
as one with authority. No one tries to
run him out of town or kill him for saying these words. He’s simply doing what rabbis did in the
synagogue. He was arguing
scripture. Of course his arguments hit
close to home.
He wasn’t talking about whether to
wear the right clothes or how to eat you food.
He was talking about loving enemies,
committing adultery, killing and having anger, basically, making yourself more
worthy of the name Jewish—Christianity hadn’t been invented yet at the time of
the sermon.
Actually it had by the time of the
writing of Matthew, and Matthew wanted to draw a line directly from the Hebrew Scriptures
to Jesus.
I’ve been on that hillside, back in
1992. I remember sitting on that
hillside down from the monastery and overlooking the sheep fields below.
Our group of clergy tourists read
Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount.
It was a heady experience, sitting on that same hillside almost 2000
years after Jesus did. Sitting and
reading the words that so many other pilgrims had read before. Mahatma Gandhi said that his heart melted
when he read the Sermon on the Mount.
When he was asked what the difference between him and most Christians
was, Gandhi said, “I think Jesus meant it.”
While we
were reading, though, reality settled in.
Off in the distance we saw two specks in the southern sky. They looked like birds but as they got
closer, we could see that they were military helicopters. They were headed toward
As we
ponder, “Whose Gospel is it Anyway?”, maybe we need to
look at our forgone assumptions and put a Jesus perspective on it.
Let’s look
at some of our sacred truths:
You have heard it said, all Muslims
are terrorists, but I say to you, you shall not slander an entire religion
based upon the actions of a few. You
could rightly say the crusaders were terrorists. Or the Contras, or
the people trained at the School of the
You have heard it said, “Immigrants
are trying to take our jobs”, but I say to you, we have given jobs to
immigrants because they are willing to work for minimal wages. They are also flooding to the
You have
heard it said, homosexuality is a sin, but I say to you not only is
homosexuality as we know it today not addressed in the Bible, judgementalism is a sin and those who cast this stone,
ought to examine more closely the fact that the church by and large does not
know how to deal with any kind of sexuality.
Until we have a healthy ethic of sexuality in the church—no abuse, no harassment,
no untoward comments or leers, no hierarchy that makes males superior to
females, no misogyny, no minimizing of situations of abuse or sweeping them
under the rug. Until we have that kind
of ethic, we have no business projecting our inadequacies onto one vulnerable
group.
You have heard it said, we can’t
afford to pay taxes, but I say to you, neither can our grandkids. Schools, health care, roads, clean energy are
worthy expenses.
You have heard it said, “might makes right,” but I say to you, right makes
right. We cannot continue to live the
fallacy of redemptive violence. Violence
is never redemptive and always destructive.
There is a PBS documentary that is coming on about the Conscientious
Objectors in World War II. This is the
untold story in Ken Burns’ special on the War.
Michael Lubke and I met with one of the
My friends, we have heard it said
that the world is a big place and we each need to have our own little corner of
it. But on this World Communion Sunday,
we remember that we are all united by this table, this meal. We follow one who challenged the easy answers
and called us to look deeper. To argue. To disagree, but to never do so in a violent way.
This table is a symbol of unity, of
faithfulness, of hope for a world where everyone respects each other’s
ways. May it be so with all of us.