All Saints Day

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matt: 5:1-12

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I think you may have heard this story, but it is one that I use to illustrate one particular kind of saintliness.

A major oil well caught fire. The experts were called in to put out the blaze.  The heat was so intense, however, that the company’s fire fighters could not get within a  thousand feet of the rig. The management, in desperation, called the local volunteer fire department to help in any way they could.

Half an hour later a decrepit-looking fire truck rolled down the road and came to a screeching halt just fifty feet from the massive wall of flames.  The men  jumped out of the truck, sprayed one another with water and then went on to put the fire out.

The oil company management were so grateful that they held a ceremony some days later to commend the courage of the local firemen – courage which had gone way beyond the call of duty.   –  and then an enormous cheque was presented to the chief of the department. 

When he was asked by reporters what he planned to do with the cheque, the chief replied: “Well, the first thing I’m going to do is get the brakes fixed on that darn fire engine.” 

Those firemen were what you might call unlikely heroes. 

Today is the day when we remember the saints. Many of whom also were unlikely heroes.

When we think of saints, we think of people like Paul, or John or James, and the other apostles; or St. Francis, St. Teresa, St. Catherine, St. Bernadette, or St. Ignatius of Loyola.  Ignatius is a good example of the kind of saint people most often think about when they think of saints.

Most of them became saints almost by accident. Ignatius took a different route.

He was born about the time Columbus came to America. As a teenager he lost both of his parents.  He went to work as a page in the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and, when he was 20, he became a soldier. He and his friends did some terrible things, in pranks. He was a wild man. 

His regiment  was called to war, in the course of which, both  his legs were severely injured by cannon fire. Lying there, as he underwent a long and painful recovery, he looked back on his past, on the things he had done, and was deeply ashamed. 

But he had a vision in which he felt that God forgave him, and he subsequently underwent a profound religious conversion.

After his recovery Ignatius set out an a pilgrimage.  He came across a beggar one night, and immediately stripped off his nobleman’s clothes and  exchanged them for the beggar’s filthy rags. 

Eventually Ignatius took up residence in a hillside cave, spending long hours in prayer and penance.  It was out of this experience that he was inspired to found a religious order – an order of men dedicated to Jesus in much the same way the 12 apostles dedicated hemselves to Jesus.  Ignatius called his order THE COMPANY OF JESUS – or the Jesuits. 

Today the order numbers over 20,000 men world-wide.  It operates over 50 high schools and nearly 30 universities in the United States alone.  For centuries the Jesuits have provided the world with  one of the best education systems it has ever seen and increased  the goodness in the world by their service to God and to the  world.

The spirit of St. Ignatius is summed up in his prayer for generosity:

“Lord, teach me to be generous.  Teach me to serve as you deserve; to give and not count the cost; to fight and not heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for reward – except to know that I am doing your will.”

In this prayer we also catch the spirit of St. Francis who taught his followers to pray like this:

Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love with all my soul.”

It is saints like Francis and Ignatius that the church honours today but you know, remembering the exploits of saints like Ignatius and Francis can get in the way of what a saint really is and blind us to the fact that today’s believers,  people  like you and me,  are today’s saints.

Believe it.

You see, a saint is simply someone who has opened himself or herself to God’s grace; who has recognized their need for God and decided to rely on and trust in God no matter what.

The word SAINT comes from the Latin world SANCTUS which means  HOLY – so literally the word saint means HOLY ONE.  God commanded the Israelites  “Keep yourselves holy, for  I am holy.”

In the early church, St. Paul  and others called one another the “holy  ones” or saints.   It applies  to the church as a whole, to those who believe in Jesus Christ 

Over the years, however, it has come to be used almost exclusively, for those Christians who were martyred, or who lived lives of remarkable holiness.  

That’s alright, I suppose, but it tends to divert our attention from the everyday saints who are still among us and still living lives that epitomise Christ. 

Saints are people who differ from other people in the world not because they work harder, or accomplish more – but because their lives show more love.

People in the world love their friends,

Saints do their best to love their enemies.

People in the world do good to those who do good to them,

Saints do their best to do good to everyone.

People in the world lend to those who have good credit ratings

Saints lend to bad risks

Saints are different because they work differently to the way the world works.  They believe differently to the way the world believes. They see things differently to the way the world sees.

They believe in the work of Jesus:

– the Jesus who says blessed are the hungry  and the poor – for they shall be filled.

They believe in the way of Jesus 

– the Jesus who says blessed are those who weep now, for they shall laugh.

They see in the perspective of Jesus  

– the Jesus who says blessed are those who are rejected and reviled on account of me – for their reward shall be great in heaven.

A saint is someone who allows God to use them as an instrument of His love.  

A saint is someone who doesn’t live for worldly honours, but quietly goes about the work that God has given them to do, however humble  that task may be.

I’ll tell you what I mean:

A family of five was enjoying a day at the beach.  The children were paddling in the water, and making castles in the sand,  when a little old lady appeared.  Her gray hair was blowing in the wind and her clothes were dirty and ragged.  She was muttering something to herself as she picked up things from the beach and put them into a bag.

The parents called the children over and told them to stay away from that strange old lady.  As she passed by where they were sitting, she stooped down  every now and then to pick up something, and she smiled at them.

They didn’t smile back. 

Some weeks later, when the father complained to a local official about the “weirdos” to be seen on the beaches, he was told that the little old lady they had found so strange had made it her lifelong crusade to pick up bits of glass from the beach so children wouldn’t cut their feet.

Saints pick up the glass that others toss down; they believe in people no one else believes in;  they help those that no one cares for.   

They share in the Spirit of the One who died for all sinners, and who rose from the dead to give life and forgiveness to all who believe in His Name.

At times like this I remember the story of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, who were thought to have drowned. They were hiding in the church and listening to their own funeral service. They were so moved at all the  wonderful things said about themselves that they cried – at their own funeral.

Today, we think of all those who have died and whose lives and deaths connected them to this church and this community. I remember eulogies that told of the love in their lives.

How I wish they could have heard what was said about them.

So we remember  those who have gone on. We  remember with thanks the way they were.  And we also acknowledge the saints among us, today, now.  

For those who try to follow Christ, in how they love and live in their lives, are the saints of today.

You may have someone in mind.

Keep their names in your heart, and during our prayers today, whisper them, or say them out loud, for all to hear.  For that’s what this Sunday is all about.   It’s about those who helped the helpless, clothed the naked, fed the hungry, comforted the bereaving, healed the sick with their prayers, visited the lonely,  and were present to the dying.

It’s about you and me.

And we give thanks to God for graciously calling us to serve Him, enabling us to glorify His name, and equipping us in His service.

We give thanks to God for His goodness – goodness that can only be shown through those who follow Jesus.

We give thanks to God for all the saints who have served Him in the past and who continue to serve today. 

And we give thanks to God for the gift of His Son Jesus the Christ, in whose name we serve. 

Amen.

A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.  ( Mt 22: 34-46)

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In our Old Testament reading today, it’s the end.   Moses has brought his people to their new home, and now he is to die.

Moses is  revered by Jews everywhere. No wonder. He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He gave them The Law. He led them through the wilderness, and finally into their new home – the land promised to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob…. Even though he himself would not set foot there.

And to top it all, as everyone knows, he had the looks of a movie star ……………… he looked just like Charlton Heston . 

Moses hadn’t always been a righteous man. He was a murderer. If you remember, he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite unmercifully, and in his anger at the Egyptian, he struck him and killed him.

But God forgave him and decided to bring out in Moses, the leadership skills that were needed to rescue His people from slavery.

And Moses needed all his skills to deal with such a stubborn and stiff-necked people.    They complained  mightily, and often, to the degree that Moses was ready to give up on them on more than one occasion.

But he loved his God, and he loved his people. And he persevered. For forty long, hard years.

There’s a story which has been going around for awhile. It seems that George Bush died and went to heaven. He was having a great time. Everybody welcomed him and spoke to him, except for one white-haired, bearded old man. Bush couldn’t understand it. Every time he walked into a room, this guy would get up and leave. He couldn’t figure out what he had done wrong.

But Bush was determined to find out. And finally he found the opportunity. He snuck up behind him the old man one day, tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “ How come, every time I walk into a room, you leave? Why are you avoiding me?”

And Moses said, ” Hey, look at all the trouble I got into the last time I talked to a bush.”

Moses must often have wondered how he got into the business of leading people. 

Just as Paul must have wondered how he got into the evangelism business.

As we can see in his letter to the Thessalonians, a portion of which we heard read today, he had to defend himself from people who had begun to attack him in his absence. 

Some people had been saying that Paul preached in a way to curry favour with certain people. He says, “ We didn’t speak to please people, but to please God who knows our motives. “

We heard last week how the Pharisees put Jesus under attack. Now they are at it again, with a question about the law.  As usual, he disarms them with his wisdom.

We all find ourselves under attack, at times, don’t we?  And we don’t have the wisdom of Jesus to help us handle it.

It can come about just because you happen to be in the way of  someone needing to vent their spleen. Those unfortunate people killed or injured in the last few weeks, just happened to be in the sights of a sniper’s rifle. 

And when we feel under attack, and can’t do much about it, it’s frustrating, and we get angry, don’t we?

Some years ago, some enterprising person, recognizing a real need among drivers who  felt abused by other drivers, came out with a button, labeled ‘Missile launcher. ’ You  stuck this to your dash, and when some driver offended you, you just  pressed that button.

I suppose it made some people feel better, even if it only was to smile at the foolishness of it all.

But it’s not  funny when someone is doing it for real –  shooting, that is.  

It’s not  funny when we think of hostages taken, of suicide bombings,  all done in the name of addressing some real or imagined grievance. 

Jean Chretien said something after the September 11^th attack. I can’t quote him exactly, but it was to the effect that past policies, and the Western world’s having so much more than the rest of the world, had  something to do with the rise of terrorism.  

He was attacked for saying that, and it was pointed out that some of the 9/11 attackers were from affluent homes in Saudi Arabia. The fact is though, that Western economic policies over the last half century have alienated a large number of the people living in the Third World.  Which is a real tragedy.

And that tragedy is compounded for us, when we realise there is nothing we can do to change the way things are. The problems are just too big and too complicated. 

But we can change our world – the world around us, the world in which we live.

And I hate to tell you this, but the only way to change your world, is to love your neighbour as yourself.

Love the driver who cuts across you and then gives you the finger.

Love the Customer Service person on the other end of the phone who angers you with his or her unwillingness to listen to reason.

Love the surgeon who made a deadly mistake.  

Love the sniper who shot and killed an innocent young woman as she loaded her shopping into her car.

Impossible!

Again, I hate to tell you, but they are your neighbors.

How do we turn hatred of neighbour into love of neighbour?  Is it possible?

Jesus  basically answered this question, when he said that the first and great commandment was to love God and the second,  to love your neighbour as yourself.

He placed them in that order, because you will never be able to love your neighbour unless and until, you love God  – with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

There are some of us here today who have wondered how God can love us with our history, our weaknesses, our wickedness.  

And we  wonder how God can love those we think are so much worse than us. We sure can’t!

But He can, because he sees a poor soul, wounded by life’s hardships, twisted by life’s lies, fooled by life’s false promises.

He sees a child, born into this world with all the hope that brings, and somehow, a beautiful baby grows up to be a liar, or a thief, or a cruel manipulator, or an addict, or just someone who can’t make it in life.  

And he cries for what might have been  –  happiness, achievement, self-esteem, a thankfulness for God’s  gifts.

And he cries for what is: – sadness, failure, self-hatred, and so on. Nothing to give thanks for at all.  

And he cries for that lost soul.

And he suffers for that lost soul.

And he offers his love to that lost soul, and wants to forgive and heal, and nurture  that soul  back to health.

And He dies on the cross for that lost soul

You can’t help but love  a God like that, can you?

You can’t help but love Jesus, the human face of a God like that. 

But love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and you will find that you can also love your neighbour.

It’s the only way. 

John F. Kennedy is credited with saying, “Don’t get mad, get even.”

Jesus tells us, “Don’t get mad – forgive!”

Oh, you might say, “I am not big enough”.

But you can be.

You might say, “I don’t have that depth of compassion in me.”

But you could have.

You see, the problem is, that we begin with the second great commandment; we are distracted by the command to love our neighbour – our enemy – rather than beginning at the beginning and focusing on  loving God.

Because we can’t really love anyone until we first love God.   If we can manage that, then the rest will surely follow.

During the Korean War, a South Korean civilian was arrested by the Communists and ordered shot. But when the young Communist leader learned that the prisoner was in charge of an orphanage, caring for small children, he decided to spare him and kill his son instead.

So the nineteen year-old son was taken and shot, right there in front of his Christian father.

Later as the fortunes of war changed, that same Communist leader was captured by UN Forces, tried, and condemned to death.

Before the sentence could be carried out, however,  the father  whose son had been shot came and pleaded for the life of the killer. He said that this Communist was too young and hadn’t  really known what he was doing. This Christian said, ‘Give him to me and I will train him.”

His wish was granted, and the father took the murderer of his son into his own home and cared for him.

That father began not by loving his enemy, but by loving God, and doing so, he found the power of forgiving love. 

Today, that young man, formerly a Communist is a Christian pastor, serving Christ.

It comes first from loving God, as we see Him in His Son Jesus.

It’s the beginning.

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.( Mt 22:15-22

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I think maybe it’s time to talk about the church.

Because Paul’s enthusiasm for the church he founded in the city of Thessaloniki, as recorded in 1 Thess 1:1-10 is so encouraging.

Like him, I too am enthusiastic about the church .

Paul tells the people there, “You became an example for all the Lord’s followers in Macedonia and Achaia, and because of you, the Lord’s message has spread everywhere in these regions.”

As Dr. Barclay has it: This is Paul at his most winsome. He is complimenting the church on its real qualities, but he will also, later in this letter, issue a gentle rebuke. 

But that’s OK, we all need to be set back on the right track sometime.

Barclay says that with Paul,  even when he rebuked, he never wanted to discourage,  but always to uplift.

In every person there is something fine, and often the best way to get rid of the lower things is to praise the higher things. The best way to eradicate faults is to praise virtues  – so they will flower all the more.

Everyone reacts better to encouragement than to rebuke

And so,  because they come from a loving heart, Paul’s joyful comments to the people in the church in Thessaloniki, bring us joy too. 

I would like to think that someone who had left this church for parts afar, would remember us, and write to us in such a heartwarming way.

I imagine so.

Don’t you?

I hope so, because that is the only sort of church that can do God’s work here in earth.

By God’s work, I mean all the things we do here, and out there, that bring us to the notice of other people. The things we do and say that will have people asking, “What church do you belong to?” 

How do you do it? 

And then we can tell them.

Paul says that that church – and he means the people, not the building – they may not even have a building as yet – they serve God while waiting on the coming of Christ.

They live in the world doing God’s work, but are conscious that at any time, God may decide to call us all home.

This sort of church,   is one that can only be what it is,  by being, as Barclay has it, ‘In God.’

He says that just as the air is in us,  and we are in the air, and cannot live without air, so the true church is in God and God is in the true church, and the church can’t live without God.    

And, since that same God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we need not shiver in fear of a God who is a tyrant, but instead, bask, in the sunshine of a God who is love.

They couldn’t be the sort of church they are, unless they are ‘in God.’

They couldn’t be the church they are unless God guides them, and governs them, and is ‘in them.’

That’s the only way it can work, but, you know,  sometimes it is just all too much for some people. Serving God is just too much for them. 

Emerson Colaw tells about doing some work with his church’s membership list. He was writing to those who hadn’t been in church for a long time.

He wrote to one family that had been very active in the church, and he got a letter back that said:  “Mr. Colaw, we now live near a university campus and we go every Sunday to the chapel service there. They have unusually fine music ….they have nationally known preachers every Sunday morning,” and here she added a note that he didn’t think  was really necessary,    she said, “We had never heard such preaching as that before. The children are being taught in Sunday School by seminary students,”

And then she ended, “ But the best of all is there is no membership, no pledging, and no women’s committee asking me to work. So if you don’t mind, we’ll just discontinue our membership at your church and continue to enjoy what we have here.”

No involvement, no bother, no crosses.

This family went to a church where they didn’t have to serve God, and that’s how they wanted it.

What sort of church was that? Would Paul say about that church, “You became an example for all the Lord’s followers?”

Not!

The church exists to serve God, to glorify God, and so do we – the bricks of our church.

Without God there will be nothing accomplished, nothing gained, and come that great day when we are called to account for how we used the gifts that God gave us – we will have nothing to report! 

Even the children of Israel, as wayward as they often were, had to  acknowledge that they needed God to be with them every single day.  

In Exodus we read, Moses saying that  they will not move unless God goes with them.

“If you aren’t going with us,” he says, “ Then please don’t  make us leave this place.”

That’s like you or I saying, “ God, I am not going to take another step in my life without you to guide me.”

And I mean that. I can tell you, that I got lost when I set out without Him.

In our Gospel reading today, we see a Jesus who is ‘in God,’ and God  ‘in him.’  Over the last few weeks, we have heard him challenge  the religious leaders over the way they were living their lives  – they thought they were doing very well, until Jesus put them straight.   

If you remember he has compared them, in the story of the two sons, to the son who wouldn’t do his father’s will.  In the story of the wicked tenants, they are the wicked tenants. In the parable of the king’s feast, they are the condemned guests.   He has been giving them ‘ what for.’

And now, this week, we see them going onto the attack.

The Pharisees have joined with some from the party of the Herodians, two parties who hated each other, but came together to attack Jesus.

They have dreamed up a way to damage the credibility of Jesus in front of a crowd of people.

Now  I understand that  everyone hates paying taxes – there may be some people here this morning who actually like paying taxes – but I think I am safe in saying that most people hate them.

It was no different in those days. There was a tax on what the farmer harvested. There was income tax and there was a head tax, or poll tax. This was the one that was being used to challenge Jesus.  The amount of the poll tax was one denarius per adult. One denarius was slightly more than a man could earn in a day.

The questioners knew how people hated paying taxes. They hated them for purely economic reasons –  obviously – and they  hated them from a religious point of view. The emperor’s head was on that coin, the emperor who called himself as a god.

There is only one God, of course. So for a Jew, even using  money on which there is such an image could be a blasphemous act.

So, the religious and political leaders came up with their big question, their plan to catch out, Jesus. “Should we pay taxes to the Emperor or not?”

You can just see them watching  Jesus, as the one chosen to ask the question spoke up, and  smiling a little as he asked it.  This time, they think they have him.  

“What’s your answer to that? Huh?”

But as we read, Jesus turned the tables on them. He asked them whose face was represented on the coin, and when they answered, “Caesar’s,” he simply said, “Well, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”

Pretty smart eh?

He was on the ball, wasn’t he? Well, Jesus had an advantage over them, he knew whom he served.  He served –  God his Father.  Those who know what they are doing will always win out over those who don’t. 

I am reminded of a story about two clergymen who were arguing over some fine doctrinal point.

They had argued for some time, when eventually, one minister said to the other, “Look, what are we fighting over? We are both striving to do the Lord’s work. You do it your way and  ……….I’ll do it His way.”

Doing things His way is what we should be about, isn’t it?

We all need to be reminded now and again for whom we work. .

But more than that, we should remember that we can’t do anything meaningful if He  is not in and of our  church. 

And we will never do anything meaningful, if he is not in and of, our life – if  He isn’t with us!

Moses said to God, “If you go  with us, everyone will know that you are pleased with your people. That way, we will be different from the rest of the people on earth.”

Isn’t that what the church – that’s us – should also be saying? Be with us Lord, and make us different?

Amen

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“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 ofGod.” (Matthew 5:13-20)

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I was in a town in Belgium called Diest, on a number of occasions  as I stopped, with my friends, on the way to Dunkirk to board the ferry across the Channel, to come home, and one thing that I remember is that the streets in that town were very dark, with street lamps very rare.

The brightest lights came from signs in the windows of the bars.

I remember a comedian once describing Belgium as a country illuminated with one forty watt bulb.

I knew what he meant!

The thing was that you were drawn to the lighted windows of the bars, out of the dark, and into the light inside.

I have known Christians – people who professed to be Christians who had no light in them.

Had no enjoyment in them.

Dark, like those Belgian streets.

And I don’t mean people who were undergoing trials, sickness, or other hardship, I mean people whose lives seemed to me to be normal, but they had no warmth, no light, no joy, in them.

And that doesn’t only apply to everyday people: Oliver Wendell Holmes, once said, ” I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”

And I must say that the preachers I heard as a child didn’t seem to have much humour in them. They had the right words, the projection of their voices, the correct intonation,  but not a smile, or a sense of the joy of being close to Jesus.

And their sermons were designed to make you feel guilty, and uncomfortable.

We should be like a beacon, like a lighted window on a dark street, welcoming and professing the joy we find in knowing Jesus.

Like someone once said, if you are not enjoying, it you aren’t doing it right.

If you are not a happy Christian, you may not be practicing your faith right.

But the point is that we don’t shine because of some native luminosity within us,  but that we reflect the light of Christ in us.  

And what we do, and what we are, should point people toward our Father who is in Heaven.

I have met, and so have you, people who have real hardship in their lives, or have suffered great loss, and yet you wouldn’t know it from their demeanor.

They have a love and a light about them that uplifts you just to be near them.

It isn’t that they have a magic formula.

 It isn’t that they are on medication.

It isn’t that they have mastered some trick that helps them see beyond.

It is because they have Christ in their lives, and that light shines through the hard stuff. 

What may help them, is realizing that  Christ  walks with  us. That we are not alone on our journey.

.

And we just can’t help sharing the light. .

We all know people like that.

And you are drawn to them. Because love shines out of them.

You know what I mean?

And it isn’t about obeying the law. Or about being so good. Or being a stickler for what’s the right thing to do.

And that brings me to something Jesus says today, that seems contradictory.  Seems to go against what Jesus, and Paul have both,  taught.

In Romans 10: 4, Paul tells us that “Christ is the end of the law.”

It has been a great part of Paul’s ministry that once we belong to Christ we don’t need the law.

We have the law written on our hearts, if you like, and we just act right. 

Can’t help it.

Jesus said the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.

The law was made for people, not people for the law.

But Jesus is saying here today in Matthew’s Gospel,  that whoever breaks the least of these commandments or teaches others to do so, will be called the least in the kingdom of God, whereas those who obey them, ( the commandments that is ) and  teaches others to obey them, will be called great in the kingdom of God.

And yet Jesus, himself,  broke the law, didn’t he?  He healed the sick on the Sabbath, for example, annoying the Pharisees.

So what do we make of this?

This seeming contradiction?

Some people have been so puzzled by this that they think  Matthew has Jesus extolling the law to make his Gospel more appealing to the Jews, since Matthew’s gospel is the most Jewish of the Gospels.

William Barclay sees things differently.

He tells us that the Jews thought of the law in four different ways.

First, ‘the law’ means the Ten commandments.

Secondly, the term ‘the law’ also means the first five books of the Bible.

Thirdly, they used the phrase ‘The Law and the Prophets’ for the whole of Scripture

Finally, the Oral or Scribal Law.

This last was the most common meaning of the Law, during Jesus’ time and this is the form of the law which Jesus and Paul condemned.

In the Old Testament, there aren’t that many rules and regulations, mostly there are broad principles which we can think about and use in life.

The Ten Commandments for example, have these great principles, which are there to guide us..

But to later Jews these principles did not seem enough. And since the commandments came from God, you could use them to come up with a rule and regulation for every issue that you might face in life.

For example, the Sabbath must be kept holy. Quite simply you should not work on the Sabbath.

But what was work?

How was work defined?

The carrying of a burden is work, according to the Scribal law . 

But what constitutes a burden?

Food that weighs as much as a dried fig, milk enough for one swallow, honey enough to put on a wound, ink enough to write two letters of the alphabet, and so on.

Burdens!.

You get the picture.

The Pharisees were among those who had worked out these rules, and lived their lives trying to adhere to them.

Scribal law had been oral law for  centuries, but eventually  a summary of the law  was made, and written down, and is known as the Mishnah,  which contains sixty three tractates on the various subjects of the law,  and which in English comes to eight hundred pages.

Later, commentaries were written to explain the Mishnah, which became known as the Talmud.

The Jerusalem Talmud comprises twelve printed volumes, the Babylonian Talmud comprises sixty printed volumes.

So there were thousands of legalistic rules and regulations to be heeded.

This was the kind of law Jesus and Paul both condemned.

Reverence for God and a respect for others, is to come out of love of God, and not from love of the law.

You can see that trying to live a life that is entirely blameless, would be impossible. In fact it was said that if one person could live through a day without breaking the law at all, then the world would end.

You can live your life by trying to satisfy “The law of God ”  and as we have seen, that law can be expanded exponentially, or, we can show our gratitude for the love of God.

That is the message Jesus brought.

And to those who asked him which law was the greatest, he answered, ” Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

“And Love your neighbour as yourself.”

That’s it.

Two laws.

Period.

An everyday real life example of what Jesus was preaching,  that love is more important than the law – and that Christ should shine out of us in such a way that people know we are Christians, happened like this:

A lady at a church I attended liked to organize events. In fact it was a skill she had, and had taken upon herself. And she was good at it.

At one event she had asked for volunteers to help and a young woman new to the church, was one of the volunteers.

The event was an outside barbecue, and when it was over the chairs and tables had to be brought back into the church.

The new young lady volunteer brought a chair in and not knowing where they went, stood it against the wall and turned round to bring more.

The organizer saw where the young woman had placed the chair, and said,” Not there stupid!”

It was so important to the organizer that the chairs  be in the right place – you might say according to the “law” – her law – that love and understanding went out the window,

That young woman attended for a little while longer, then left the church.

Now you might say that she shouldn’t have been so easily offended.

Or you might say that if that was the kind of Christian that church was producing, she didn’t want to belong to it.

In everything we do, and say, without knowing it, we show the world what kind of Christian we are.

The light of Christ within us, should shine on the person who is ahead of us in the check-out line, with a lot of stuff, buying lottery tickets, cashing in coupons and who then takes up more time by searching in her purse for every little bit of change she can find. 

The light of Christ within us should shine on the person who takes the last parking spot, the one we thought was ours.

The light of Christ within us should shine – even down the phone line –  to the person who is calling for the umpteenth time to ask if we want our heating ducts cleaned.  I must admit I have a hard time with that one myself.

Our light needs to shine on the person whose dog poops on our lawn.

Our Light……you get the picture……

………….and it’s not always easy.

But it is possible..

I was talking to a young woman once who was being given a rough time by her ex-husband, recently divorced. 

She told me she was still terribly angry at him, and that anger burned inside of her and  kept her awake at nights.

What should she do?

I said, “Pray for him.”

No way was she going to do that!

I pointed out that anger is physically and mentally damaging, and the only way I knew to rid oneself of such anger is to pray for the perpetrator.

Pray that God will move in his heart, will make him aware of his cruel actions.

Pray that God will guide him into a better way of acting, pray for his soul.

That, would be showing love for an enemy – wishing God’s love and guidance for them.

It may hard to understand, but when you have a light reflecting  God’s love for you, it can’t selective. 

Because when you think about it, a light that is placed on a hill can be seen by everyone.

Good or bad.

Amen