Epiphany 7A

EPIPHANY  7A    (February 19, 2017)

SCRIPTURES

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18  God speaks to Moses on how not to hate, steal, defraud, etc.  

Psalm 119:33-40  A plea for God to teach us his ways.

1Cor. 3:10-11, 16-23: God's Spirit dwells in you. (We are God’s temple)

Matt. 5:38-48  Turn the other cheek.  Love your enemies. -Matthew 5:38-48 anchors the nonviolent ethic which God has sent in Jesus and the Spirit to save us from our violence.  Is part of a larger section (vv. 21-47) providing six situations illustrating what Jesus means by fulfilling the law. Jesus shows us how to move beyond rote observance of those laws to the spirit behind them.

More about Matt. 5:38-48:

• You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'" (v. 38). This is known as lex talionis -- the law of retaliation or the law of revenge. While it might seem barbaric, it represented an early attempt to insure justice and to limit revenge.
• But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also" (v. 39b).  To be struck on the right cheek is more serious than to be struck on the left cheek.  To be struck on the right cheek means either that the striker is using his left hand (his toilet cleaning hand) or that he is using a right backhand, a particularly grievous insult 
• But I say to you, Love(agapate) your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  There are three words for love in the Greek -- eros, philos, and agape (Barclay also mentions a fourth word -- storge).  This creates confusion for English-speaking people trying to understand the Bible, because our word "love" is much broader, encompassing the meanings of all the Greek words. Agape is the love with which God loves us.  Agape is the love with which a mother loves her child. 
•  "Be ye perfect",  For while telos, the Greek word Jesus employs, can indeed be translated “perfect,” it typically denotes something not so much morally perfect as it does something that has grown up, matured, and now reached its perfect end. That is, telos is the goal or desired outcome of a thing. A fruit tree’s telos, we might say, is to grow mature and tall so that it can bear fruit. David Lose, Pres. of Lutheran Theological Seminary
  -Maybe not so much commanding and commending.  ibid
  
  

SERMON IN ONE SENTENCE     "O Perfect love"            

     

QUOTES 

• Luther said: These laws are far beyond any standard that we can ever hope to meet.  But these verses aren't about obeying rules.  They are about living according to the standards of the kingdom of God
• I may not be perfect, but I’m enough.  Carl Rogers
• The Bible tells us to love our neighbors,  and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people. G.K. Chesterton
•  Those who deserve love the least, need it the most 
• Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
• repaying evil with good, blame with pardon, death with life. Call it divine reverse psychology. It worked once, and it can work again, whenever God can find someone else willing to give it a try.  B.B. Taylor
• “Love is powerful and powerless.”
• To forgive means to out-live, out-pray, out-love, out-suffer, and out-die everyone in the world as did Jesus.  William Sloane Coffin
• The first and final enemy is always the one within.  Ibid
• Imagine the vanity of thinking that your enemy can do you more damage then your enmity,  Augustine.
• Loved for what I am. No...loved because Iam.
• Love has its origin not in us but in God.

ILLUsTRATIONS

1. What would it be like to invite our people to write down just one thing they believe is holding them back from living their God-given identity. Ask them to write down one thing -- one fear, one memory, one hurt, one resentment -- that keeps them from embracing and becoming the person God wishes them to be. People could put these into the offering plates and bring these challenges along with their gifts up to God's altar. In a sense, we'd be giving God not only some of our treasure but also some of our tragedy, trusting God to receive and redeem both.  (“Be ye perfect.”)  This idea from David Lose

2. Talk about, Gandhi, a Hindu man who took the Sermon on the Mount much more seriously than the average Christian, had seen something in the Christian gospel.  Martin Luther King who picked it up from Gandhi and Jesus came to believe that “It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence.  It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”  

3.  Talk about Nelson Mandela

HUMOR

• How to preach:   Be sincere; be brief; be seated. (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
• "The cause of divorce is marriage”
• "When it comes to loving, some people stop at nothing.
• He'll give you the sleeve out of his vest
• Love is a word made up of two consonants; two vowels and two fools.

CHILDREN:

1. If children are older, teach the difference between, eros, philia, and agape.
2. Tell story of The Velveteen Rabbit: 

3. Tell story of The Giving Tree (Don't know how to get rid of grey back ground) 
   

PRAYER PHRASES:    

Oh God, we see You in those that love us: 

• We see you in the compassionate ways of those who accept us no matter how inadequate or different we may be.
• We see you in the loving ways of those who love un unconditionally.
• We see you in the sacrificing ways of those who give of themselves their time, their energy sometimes even their lives. 
• We see you in the forgiving ways of those who forgive us for what seems to us like unforgivable acts. 
• We see you in the responsible ways of those on which we can depend.
• We see you in the serving ways of those who wait on us and respond to our every need.

We give thanks for your spirit that enables us to love others like you have loved us.                            

For more information, go to Lindy's Quote Collection:  Eyeopeners.life  Especially quotes on:   Love, God, Relate, Forgive, growth and Principles.  

Mail comments to:  lindyblack@me.com