CEC News and Father Riley's homily from February 16, 2020

CEC News and Service Schedule:

…Please keep those who have asked for our prayers in your prayers: Margo Wade, Margaret Rachel, Mary McIntosh, Dot Barbre, Wayne Auttonberry, Carlene Riley, Eugene Marshall, Beth Mitchell, Jackie Brown, Ted Grace, Eddie Sanders, Catherine Gray, Jennifer Jones, Val Sloan, Tom and Jessica, Corbin, Austin Hodnett, Matt, Aaron Sutton, Nancy Clark, Bobbye Ann Lee, and Mattie England.

…Father Jefferson will lead us in Holy Eucharist February 23, 2020.

…Father Riley will be leading our Ash Wednesday service at noon February 26.  He will also lead us in Holy Eucharist March 1 and 15.  Other Sundays are planned to be Morning Prayer at this time.


Father Riley's homily:6 EPIPHANY - A- 20                                                     MATTHEW 5. 21-37

Today’s gospel is a continuation of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. You will recall in last week’s teaching Jesus proclaimed that he had not come to abolish the law and the prophets but rather to fulfill them.

In that same teaching Christ warned that, our righteousness, that is, our acceptance of God’s laws and our being accepted by God, must exceed that of the Pharisees and scribes if we are to hope to enter the kingdom.

Theirs was merely an outward appearance of their acceptance of the law. The righteousness Jesus is calling for is much deeper. It has to do with attitude and motivation.

“You have heard it said,” Jesus tells the crowd, concerning the laws of Moses, “But I say…” he is offering the people a new interpretation of the Commandments. What they have been taught here to fore is not a true understanding of the intent of the law because it was based on obligation.

But who was he to do this? What gave him the authority to say such things? The repeated statement “but I say to you” is a statement of total, divine authority. He is contrasting the teaching of the Pharisees with his own, No wonder he quickly got into trouble with the religious leaders. He was usurping their authority.

What did this new teaching mean? It meant that the law was no longer the final word on the relationship between God and his people. It was not a new law, however, but a whole new frame of reference. That reference was Jesus. Jesus’ fulfillment of the law, however, does not lighten the expectations.

Rather, it asks for a deeper connection between the inner attitude and the outward actions. Following the will of God as revealed by Jesus is not easily reduced to a written code. St. Paul would later write that it was the spirit of the law that gives life not the letter.

Remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life? Jesus asked him what does the law say, how does it read? He quickly responded with the correct answer. But when Jesus invited him to put into action what he said he believed, by selling all that he had, and come and follow him, he could not do it and went away sorrowful.

Neither could most of God’s people live the letter of the law as taught by the religious leaders of the day. Consequently, many simply gave up trying. Jesus’ teaching, however, opened their eyes and their hearts to a new way of thinking about God and their relationship to him based on the law.

In the beginning of his sermon, which covers the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th chapters of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus gives us the beatitudes. These “blessings” of discipleship are in themselves a transforming new attitude, a new idea that Jesus is teaching. He is urging his hearers to look at the choices they make and the motivation for their actions in a new way.

The laws and the subject matter contained in today’s passage are tough issues on the surface. Many preachers and individuals shy away from addressing them for fear of offending. But what is the emphasis here? What is the intended meaning? What is Jesus teaching?

Christ is going beyond the surface of things to discover what is essential. For example, anger in itself is not sinful, but Jesus forbids sinful anger identifying it with murder. Reconciliation is the essence of Jesus’ teaching here.

Again, mutual attraction of men and women is not the issue Jesus is speaking too but the selfish promptings of lust. Sin does not come out of nature but the distortion of nature for self-indulgence.

Likewise, swearing is akin to the taking of God’s name in vain. It has to do with false witness. These were shocking revelations to his hearers. What were they to make of it? How were they to put this new teaching into action?

Jesus is calling us to a radically new way of being truly human, so as to motivate us not to do things merely because they are expected or correct or because they look good. Rather we need to hold them up to a new standard of honesty and love, which Jesus gives to us as his followers.

We need to respond to the demands of our relationship to Jesus in a way that is pleasing to God. As the author of Sirach said, “For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything…he knows every human action.” He sees through the outward appearance of our actions and into the depths of one’s heart where our motivations come from.

Of course, this response comes from an individual self-understanding and actions. However, it does not stay there. Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom was not addressed to individuals, but to a community. As the Body of Christ, we gather together as a community to hear and respond to those words, to that preaching and teaching.

We come to church seeking inner transformation but we also come to a place where that deep spiritual experience is spoken about and shared. We are brought in touch with the reality of Christ each time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist.

The reality of Christ’ presence is available, not just for personal renewal, but for strengthening the community for living the radical new claim of love that our acceptance of Jesus makes on our lives.

In Jesus, we are called to go beyond mere observance of mere conventions and commandments, to go deeper into a relationship, which calls us to respond not out of fear, or obligation, but out of love.

Then our response will be action to show ourselves far different from the Pharisees. In that way we will begin to understand and to participate in the fulfillment of the new life Jesus offers. We will lovingly keep the commandments in order to please God in both will and deed.

In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the commands of the law and shows how they provide a blueprint for a new way of living, of being truly human. This new way, which Jesus had come to pioneer and make possible, goes down deep into the roots of personality and produces a different pattern of behavior altogether.

Jesus is just not giving moral commands. He is unveiling a whole new way of being human. On the surface, it looks impossible. But Jesus himself pioneered it and invites us to follow and by God’s grace, we can. AMEN+

(Sirach 15:15-20; Psalm 119:1-8; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; Matthew 5:21-37)