After Trinity
After Trinity
After Trinity
AFTER TRINITY
Readings: Leviticus 19: 1 -2, 9-18; 1 Corinthians 1:10, 11, 16-end; Matthew 5:18-end
God is 'other' than us, he is 'other' than the whole of his creation. And that which sets him apart is his holiness. In the context of our OT reading from Leviticus the holiness of God is represented by his moral purity ? the opening verses make clear the need for holiness in those who want to approach God. That is, the standards of the world cannot be our standards. In the words of S. Paul, we must be in the world, but not of the world. The moral precepts are about the way we treat our neighbour, and interestingly, the alien. The alien would often be a refugee in the midst of the community We show charity to the less well off, we deal honestly, we do not lie or steal. We deal justly with our neighbour. In short, you shall love your neighbour as yourself.
And the reason for all this: I am the Lord your God. One of the big questions for Israel though was, Who is my neighbour? Generally in OT Law our neighbour is the fellow-Israelite, extended at its best to the stranger within the gate. I think we must admit that it is a question which, in a sense, we ask ourselves when we consider the limits of our giving to needs of the world. The plight of so many people looks far away and unrelated to us and our life situations. When we come to the teaching of Jesus though we find the question answered in an even wider way than Israel answered it. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus' answer to the question.
His answer goes beyond even the original question in order to ask one of his ultimate questions: To whom can I become a neighbour? Israel sought to define and to set reasonable yet generous limits. The Christian, however, seeks not to limit obligation, in imitation of the limitless love of God. ....you shall reprove your neighbour, or you will incur guilt yourself, ... That is, to allow wrong actions to continue within the community is in a sense to become part of it. Jesus has a similar saying, If your brother sins, go and reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. Others should only be involved only if the warning goes unheeded. The emphasis in both Old and New Testaments is on avoiding a rift in the Body. There are a number of other constraining rules in the passage relating to the taking of revenge, anger leading to violence, etc.. The OT law codes made provision for dealing with such matters in the community. In general they were fair and limiting, thus avoiding the risk of ongoing, never ending family feuds and the like.
Here we see a further advance. The answer is to be seen in terms of love: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Love and the taking of revenge are mutually exclusive. Jesus went still further and added the Law of Love to the words by which Jews proclaimed their love for God daily: Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deut. 6: 4,5). Thus for us as Christians, love of God and love of neighbour are at the foundations of our spiritual and moral lives. And this love is not limited to our fellow Christians as the Jews limited love to their fellow Israelites. After all , we are reflecting the love of God which is boundless. The idea of holiness comes forward also in the Epistle passage. S. Paul is still dealing with the question of factions which had been so disruptive of the Corinthian community. Divisiveness of this type leads to loss of the most important attribute of all Christians ? the awareness of the possession of the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? he asks. He is emphasizing an important aspect of being a Christian ? a Christian is the dwelling place of God. Nothing must be allowed to destroy this temple. That is, nothing must be allowed to disturb the indwelling of the Spirit. The Corinthian factions were having this destructive effect, and S. Paul believes that this will eventuate in God's avenging himself on them. Not in the sense of revenge, but rather that those who deny the Spirit, or leave no room for the operation of the Spirit, cut themselves off from God.
The temple of God is holy. Christians are sanctified by the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit. We are thus set apart for God, and desecration of this temple brings its own reward. As he says elsewhere ? the wages of sin is death. Some words of S. Ignatius of Antioch are appropriate here: Nothing escapes the Lord's notice, but even hidden things are near to Him. So let us do everything on the basis that He dwells in us, that we may be His temples and that our God Himself may be in us, which He is, and He will appear in our sight because we rightly love him. In the Gospel passage we again have to consider vengeance. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth had been one of the precepts intended to limit revenge and eliminate vendettas.
The principle was one of strict justice which limited revenge to no more than had been suffered. Unsurprisingly, the teaching of Jesus goes far beyond this, excluding the whole principle of revenge. We are to turn the other cheek. We are meant to understand from this not necessarily a literal offering of the other cheek, but certainly a figure which would exclude retribution entirely. Non-retaliation is the principle which we must aspire to. It is for instance, he says, better to be wronged than to engage in litigation. Normal dress at the time consisted of a cloak worn over a sort of longish undershirt. Jesus emphasized the principle by saying that if anyone wishes to take your cloak in pledge, give him your undershirt too. This would leave you naked. He probably said that with a smile. It is the principle of non-retaliation that is important, not the literal details. Again a 'for instance': soldiers often forced ordinary people to carry their heavy gear. This is what lies behind the saying about the second mile.
The principle is to accept unfair impositions and burdens, and not try to retaliate in some way. As for begging and borrowing, we should not refuse but should operate on the principle of generosity. And then Jesus leads us back to the question of love of our neighbour. He is not into simply loving those who love us, or even into expanding this principle to include fellow church-members. In his view, God has showered his love and blessings on all and we are required to do likewise. Christian disciples should not allow themselves to have their reactions or attitudes be determined by what others may do to them: non-retaliation and love should dictate our attitudes always. At the conclusion of the passage Jesus enunciates the overall principal of his discourse: Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. We are to seek to imitate God. We will frequently fail, but God's perfection is the standard we must yearn to reach. Failure may be dispiriting, but there is always the possibility of new beginning in God's forgiving love.
St Margaret's, Budapest
Rev'd Canon Denis Moss
edited by Simon Harding
www.biblon.com
www.chronosconsulting/com
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