With Easter being so late this year, there is a much longer ‘gap’
than is usually the case between the end of the Epiphany Season and the
beginning of Lent – and this ‘gap’ occurs during the month of February.
These extra Sundays give us the opportunity to hear parts of the Bible
read out that we would normally miss out on.
The Gospel Readings for these weeks are devoted to the teaching of
Jesus and this year (Year A, the Year of Matthew) we will be hearing
three sections of the famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’.
It is sometimes said that St Matthew presents Jesus to us in terms of
a new and greater Moses. As Moses was the person through whom God
gave his Law to the People of Israel, so Jesus, as the fulfilment of
Moses and the Law, brings us a new kind of ‘Law’ based not just on the
keeping of rules but on the living of a new kind of life – the life of
the Spirit.
In the first extract (Matt. 5:13-20 - 6th Feb), Our Lord proclaims that
his followers are ‘the salt of the earth’ and’ the light of the world’
and warns us that the salt mustn’t lose its taste and the light mustn’t
be hidden. He tells us that He hasn’t come to abolish the law and the
prophets but to fulfil them and that his disciples must live better
lives than those of the Pharisees.
The following week (13th Feb) in Matt. 5:21-37, Christ tells us that it
is no longer just a matter of keeping God’s commandments; we have to go
beyond external observance to consider the motivation behind our
actions. For example it is not enough simply to refrain from murdering
someone - we also have to deal with our anger against them.
Finally on Sunday 20th the Lord explains (Matt. 5:38-48) that we
actually have to go way beyond what the Law demands of us if we are to
be worthy of Him – ‘if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the
other also’ and that we must actually love our enemies and those who
persecute us. In short we are to ‘Be perfect therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect.’
All this is pretty challenging stuff. It can be very disheartening to
read this teaching of Jesus when we are very aware that the way we
actually live and behave is far removed from what Our Lord seems to be
demanding of us. Often the things he demands seem to go against the
realities of normal life.
But surely His aim is not to fill us anxiety as we contemplate how
‘impossible’ it actually is to live in this way in the real world
around us. Rather I think what He is really doing in the Sermon on the
Mount is to give us a vision of what the Christ-like life is all about;
he’s trying to show us what the coming of God’s Kingdom might really
mean in terms of human attitudes and behaviour. He’s inviting us to
open ourselves up to His love and to be drawn in to His generosity of
spirit, and then to show that love and generosity in the way we live,
even if we can never actually become truly perfect this side of the
coming of the Kingdom.
To reflect on the Sermon on the Mount is an excellent preparation for
Lent when we are called to ‘go back to basics’ in our spiritual lives.
May I challenge you to read through these passages before we hear them
in church so that we can engage with them more effectively on the
various Sundays concerned?
One part of the Sermon on the Mount will be missing from our Gospel
Readings this month – the Beatitudes which, of course, form
the opening of the Sermon and which set the tone for what
is to follow. I am planning to make these the subject for a Deanery
Quiet Day to be held on Saturday 19th March. Please make a note of that
date in your diary.
