Sixth Sunday After Epiphany (A) 2020

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: Matthew 5:21-37
Theme: Mistake-Prone Love, Perfected Love


Dear followers of the Saviour,

We are permitted to love others with mistake-prone love, because we are loved with perfected love. People are full of complexities and contradictions. Maintaining meaningful relationships involves recognizing and managing them. Sometimes our internal ‘contradictions’ are blatantly sinful, other times only subtly so. The same is true at the level of community. Our society, for example, prides itself on equality. Scarcely can there be even a questioning of what that means without being shouted down. And yet, we’re very near to making it permissible to end the life of the unborn right up to the moment of birth. The contradiction screams of hypocrisy. Thankfully, Jesus brings clarity to our complexities, reconciliation to our contradictions, and forgiveness to our hypocrisies.

Today Jesus continues His interpretation of God’s law, so that we might better understand His grace. “You have heard that it was said… ‘Do not murder,’…but I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”1 And again, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”2 Here Christ robs us of the possibility sinless obedience. Visible action (or lack thereof) is not sufficient evidence for compliance with His commands. Wayward thoughts and yearnings are also transgressions of His will. Anger is part and parcel with murder, sexual desire of one piece with adultery.

Actions offer measurability. We can observe people’s deeds. We can also note their inaction. Murder is an overtly tangible offence. But we don’t know how many are slain in the angry thoughts of others. God, however, sees infallibly and identifies both as murder. God does not suffer the concealment of sins. All of our attempts at pretense are vain. So here Jesus demands the spirit of the law without sacrificing the letter of the law. The law remains valid even though its requirements aren’t met. The Scripture says, “If a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.”3 All attempts at minimizing the parameters of the law are misguided. So, that which is demanded must be given. In the existence and activity of faith perfect obedience is rendered and the law is fulfilled- vicariously in Jesus.

God’s law tells us what to do, but it doesn’t empower us to do it. The gospel, however, tells us what God has done, and in so doing, transforms the attitude of our hearts. The law demands obedience but cannot enable one to achieve what it demands. The gospel motivates by declaring the demands have already been met. The struggle of obedience is then no longer a burden. Yes, it may be taxing, and testing, but it is not driven by fear. And it is not driven by false hope. Believer’s are freed to fail- not intentionally, of course, but through weakness and ignorance- because Christ has already succeeded. We can love others with mistake-prone love, because we are loved with perfected love.

When querying what God’s will is have you ever had someone say to you, “Just follow your heart.”? “Just listen to that inner voice and go with it?” “Do what feels right to you.” “Please yourself.” “Follow your heart” is the worst advice you could ever heed unless it is qualified by one important reality; that on the topic in question your heart is already completely aligned to God’s will. Never assume that’s the case! To be clear, we’re not talking here about people pursuing dreams and ambitions that are allowed within the parameters of gospel-freedom. God doesn’t restrict pursuing our passions insofar as they’re not expressions of idolatry or clearly harmful to ourselves or others. If it’s always been your dream to get your pilot’s license, learn a foreign language, travel abroad, or retire next to the sea, then you have God’s blessing to do so.

But if you’re looking for validation, confirmation, or authorization, for some belief, or some pursuit that directly relates to the content or the living of your faith, introspection is not the answer. It never is. It’s like asking the fox to guard the hen house. “If it feels good, do it” is one of the mantras of our age. But it is hardly a mark of Christian maturity. Nowhere in the Bible will you find the advice to follow your heart. Everywhere in every way we are told to follow Christ. Today St. Paul again chastises the Corinthians for their misguided following of Apollos, Peter or Paul instead of Jesus. Earlier he had used rhetorical vigor in asking, “Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?”4 No, dear friends, Christ alone is your crucified and risen Saviour.

Taking God at His word is the first step in following. People don’t follow those they don’t trust except out of fear or self-interest. But the Holy Spirit frees our movement. We follow because our faith it not static, it is never immobile. Faith steps out in the direction the Spirit leads. Our compass doesn’t go off-line when GPS satellites are down or when the winds of culture swirl around with confused and conflicted philosophies. Our True North is not aligned to the magnetism of the planet, but to the decree of the Creator. We follow the Good Shepherd because we hear His voice. We follow wherever He leads, not out of naivety, but out of conviction. Our True North is calibrated to the cross. Not without reason does the apostle say, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”5

Everyone follows someone or something even if they don’t acknowledge it. Christ has His opponents. They move in the opposite direction to where Jesus leads. They always seek to hinder the progress of His kingdom. The Lord also has His curiosity-seekers. They sit on the fence and observe from a distance. Like Pilate, they try to remain neutral. And He has admirers. Like Peter, before his denial, admirers creep into the outer courtyard being careful to not be identified too closely with the Lord. None of these are disciples. None have entered into the holy of holies.

Jesus Himself was a follower of the divine will. His incarnation, His passion, His resurrection and ascension are all in congruence with the Father’s plan of redemption. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a vindication of His perfect obedience, not just a display of His omnipotence. That is, the bodily resurrection of Jesus is proof that the Father in heaven accepted His sacrifice as being sufficient to atone for the sins of humanity.

The substitutionary work of Jesus is the foundation upon which salvation is built. Without the Father’s acceptance the promise that we are justified by grace through faith would be hollow. The crucified Jesus absorbs the guilt of all of our adulteries, our angry-thoughts-counted-as-murder, our deceits, our rebellions, our disobediences, our observable and hidden pride, our apathies, hard-heartednesses, and our concealed and paraded idolatries. All of it, everything, expunged through the power of the cross. It’s a power we have clearly defined access to.

Is this baptismal font just sitting here in hope that one day a baptism will take place here again? No, it is a visible reminder that we gather for worship as the baptised people of God in the name of the Holy Trinity. It is a reminder that the Holy Spirit continues to work repentance and faith in us through the promise first given in baptism. In baptism we emerge from the other side of the crucifixion every time our sins are forgiven. On the ‘Easter side’ of repentance we already participate in a spiritual resurrection. His word of pardon, of grace, of mercy, of peace bestows exactly what it promises. God created the world through the spoken word. Satan corrupted the world through the falsified word. God redeemed the world through the incarnate Word. And God continues to sustain us through the life-giving word until such time, in heaven, when faith gives way to sight and anticipation gives way to fulfillment.

In ten days, the season of Lent will begin with Ash Wednesday. The journey will be meaningful only insofar as you believe you are freed to stumble along the way. We are freed to love others with mistake-prone love, because that spectacle on Golgotha- twisted, mocked, and repugnant in human perspective- is the divine definition of perfected love. Come, now, to this altar and taste that perfected love. Amen.

+ In nomine Jesu +

Sixth Sunday After Epiphany
16 February 2020
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt

1 Matthew 5:221-22 2 Matthew 5:27-28
3 Galatians 3:21 4 1 Corinthians 1:13
5 Galatians 6:14