About a decade ago, American Beauty hit the theaters and took home 5 Oscars including best picture and best actor. It was a movie that I honestly avoided when it first came out. Was this just going to a gratuitous and depressing exploration of sex, violence and all that is base? To talk to some, usually who had never seen it, it was simply seen as gross. While there are moments that make you laugh – it is indeed difficult to watch at times yet brilliant at looking behind the curtain of the American dream. The tag line – look closer. The problem is that we don’t want to and yet what we find when we do tragically resonates as being all to real all too often.
Look closer. A closer look at the church and Christian faith is what many Christian writers have embarked on with news that isn’t always encouraging. Book after book, study after study present news of the closer look society and emerging populations in particular have of church and faith. Many are simply saying, “no thank you.” What is consistently reported though is that people aren’t closed to Jesus or faith. They are closed to what appears ineffective and dismissive of the human experience.
One passage of scripture in particular engages the closer look directly – the teaching of Jesus himself known as the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. What’s strange though is how this gift to us has often been put back on the shelves by the Church over the years. Dale Bruner’s brilliant commentary outlines some of the options.
>It’s only for a select few – mostly nuns, priests, monks etc.
>It’s really meant to just convict us of sin and our need for grace– it’s closer look and admonitions are so brutal that no one could actually do them.
>Do it, but just in your heart – we’re not meant to really, actually do it, just let it guide your heart.
>It’s only for the future – various versions of this from different camps point that it’s the ethic of the future when everything has been fixed by God. So don’t try.
I confess that for many years I avoided these chapters for they felt too hard, too brutal, too close to home. What’s intriguing is that when Jesus was done, the everyday crowd that was gathered, declared that Jesus taught with authority. What he said resonated with the reality of life that they knew and experienced. Perhaps we should look closer.
Two Guides. I believe that there are two guides that can help us hang in there long enough to hear the good news that the Sermon on the Mount can be to us and our world. I say hang in there because the closer look that Jesus takes can be uncomfortable. Much easier to simply to simply approach church as a place of goods to consume and call it good.
First guide – know the heart. Two passages point to the heart of the whole sermon and need to guide our reading.
20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
At first the statement that our righteousness should surpass that of those who are pros can feel like a burden – until you look at the heart behind what is to come. There’s more than not murdering – how about not being consumed by anger? There’s more than not committing adultery – how about not being addicted to fantasies and lonely? There more than looking good in all your religious activity – how about actually seeing the face of your Heavenly Father?
A look closer can reveal that far too often we have settled for the lowest common denominator and called it the righteousness that God desires all the while being consumed from the inside out.
Jesus goes one step further
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Frustrating idealism or crushing legalism as a professor of mine once asked? Neither – the intention of our Heavenly Father for each and every one of us. Not a cold technical perfection – but a mature and complete character – the kind we are meant for, the kind in which the very best of us is brought to bare.
Second Guide – know the way. Three images at the end of the sermon point to the way. One of the mysteries of our growth spiritually revolves around the interaction of what we do and what the divine does. We all want to know what we do, what’s our part to bring ourselves into a place of interacting with God in such a way that our lives are changed.
Jesus points the way in chapter 7 with three images – the narrow gate – a tree and it’s fruit – two builders. Each drives deeper. Each uncomfortable. Each drives to the heart of the matter. Each image seems to me to connect to Paul’s letter to the Romans as he pleads with the church – live in light of the mercy of God (12.1). You cannot pick and choose what ever you want to from culture – there is one way. Jesus. You cannot hide behind your religion, your book , your spectacular works in my name.
The way is unspectacular trust in me.
The choice is ours – build our lives in trusting relationship with our creator and redeemer. Build a life that can withstand the storms of life. A life in which our character is being made complete and whole. A life in which we enter into the very life and power of God.
Or don’t – just consume more. Take the quick way. Build your life on the sand. Just don’t be surprised if it doesn’t stand the test of time, if it doesn’t lead to growth, if it doesn’t stand up to a closer look.
Our choice – trusting relationship. Perhaps the most difficult choice there is.
Looking forward to God’s mercy and grace at work among us.
Peace :: Jon
