Short summary of Sunday's sermon.... (without the lecture on semiotics!)
RED LETTER CHRISTIANITY
 Matthew 5:17-32
The Law and the Prophets
17 'Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. 18For 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. 19Therefore, whoever annuls (not breaks (Gk.)) 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. 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
What was the law for Jesus?
Jesus' position on the law is complex, and again and again he undermines the basis of salvation based on the law. Central to such a system was Temple sacrifice...
"When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the Temple, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said: 'Get out of here.' (John 2:13-16)
We have all been brought up to believe that this story is all about the wicked moneychangers; as if the system was fine, but it had just become 'too commercial'. This is akin to claiming that the institution of slavery had to be dismantled because it had become too commercial. Although both Temple sacrifices and human slavery had a firm economic foundation, it was the inherent immorality of those systems that brought together the historical forces which finally led to their collapse. Notice that Jesus also drove out those offering ritually pure animals for sacrifice - the temple system was impossible without these.
Several hundred years after prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Hosea had denounced the sacrificial slaughter of animals, Jesus carried out what is euphemistically called the Cleansing of the Temple. It was just before Passover and he disrupted the buying and selling of animals that were being purchased for slaughter. Jesus clearly intended for the system of spiritual slavery to end.
Ritual purity, and the concept of clean and unclean foods was just as central to the legalistic basis of the old law..
Mark 7:18-19
18He said to them, 'Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?' (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
The Old law condemned the outward; the new law sought out and confronted the inward - the heart that only God sees.
For Jesus the Law was all about the heart - in this respect Jesus reflected the divine; The old law was inherently human and pragmatic 'How do we best stop folk being beastly to each other'. For Jesus the law instead said 'encourage people to walk closer to God, as that is their only true source of happiness and fulfilment, and the only way to real righteousness'.
Why did Jesus say this, and indeed other comments that he knew would damn his audience?
Jesus fought self righteousness, the Pharisee mentality that said 'I am good by virtue of my adherence to social and ritualistic rules'. For Jesus this was appalling hypocrisy that kept the majority of the population in spiritual slavery to a controlling and mean spirited elite. Jesus taught that God saw the motivation of their hearts and it was bankrupt.
Jesus also warned again and again of linking a spiritual walk with God with money and power.
By holding his audience to the law in its totality and saying also that they had to be even more observant than the Pharisees I believe Jesus was using a rhetorical tool to induce a feeling of the futility of the law system. Jesus was saying 'these are not reformable, so don't start messing with them - either they stand as they are and you all have to be slaves to them or you seek what I am offering - the letter of the law fulfilled in a new covenant'.
Jesus is saying, tie people to this system, even a reformed version of it, and you create spiritual children; slaves to outside opinion and an endlessly repetitive cycle of guilt and sacrifices.
Where does the Good News come into this?
Jesus' message transformed the status quo, no longer were power, money, respectability or 'outward righteousness' vital to salvation, instead a 'change of heart' the heart of stone transformed to the heart of flesh which only God could truly see became central to our spiritual journey.
Suddenly, in this new vision, the pauper whose heart was filled with kindness was greater in virtue than the Archbishop who had hardness of heart. This was and is dangerous and unpalatable stuff to a system that relied upon outward adherence to social rules. More than this.. Jesus was hailed as divine - the son of God; so the worldview that Jesus pointed to had vastly more authority than the claims of the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Prefect or even the Emperor.
I have just been reading Crossnan, a very great scholar who is much exercised by the historical Jesus. I rather think he misses the point entirely.
Jesus, if true, must be reinterpreted, and envisioned for each new generation. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all give differing visions of Jesus - the wellspring of revelation as to the mind of God - and this is right and essential. If Jesus really is an expression of the all knowing God then he cannot be entombed in a historical moment. Jesus is transformative and dynamic, and more than this - alive; therefore my Jesus is the same Jesus that was alive to Matthew the gospel writer some fifty years or so after his death - and the same Jesus that was alive to Mary his mother. If Jesus was only a good preacher he would be locked in his times and useless to me for anything other than example and historical interest. Jesus is however alive and free from time and place.
In him still is the fulfilment of the old law - available to all of us as fresh and bright and exciting as 2000 years ago. |
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Dates for your diary...
6.30 - 8.30pm Tues Feb 3rd in Office Membership Classes continue (for all interested in exploring membership of The Big Easy MCC)
Wednesday Feb 4th Pray for Pastor Clinton as he turns 39 years old (!)
Sunday Feb 8th at 5.00pm Bring a Friend to church Sunday
Saturday February 21st at 4.00pm at St Ann and Orleans in Mid City Krewe of Endymion parade
Wednesday February 25th in French Quarter Ash Wednesday outreach
Beginning Tuesday March 3rd at 6.30pm Financial Peace University* (a major pastoral tool being offered through the church to help get a grip on those finances and break free of cycles of debt and overspend)
*We are offering this solely as a service and practical help to our members and those in the wider community, we make no money out of it!
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CHOIR REHEARSALS!!!! Choir rehearsals is on Thursday, and Ken is back from Ohio!! On our ministry fair several people signed up to join the choir in the new year, so now is your chance! If for any reason you are unable to make rehearsal, always ring Ken on 504 638 6178 |
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Bible Study
Bible Study is cancelled this Wednesday due to Pastor Clinton's birthday - watch this space for a new and varied range of Christian education being offered through BEMCC. | |
