Text of the Day for 2-9-17

Today’s text is from Matthew 5:12-16:

Be full of joy and be glad, because you have a great reward in heaven. In the same way, people harassed the prophets who came before [y’all]. [Y’all] are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet. [Y’all] are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven. (CEB [with my edits])

I’ve heard plenty of salt-and-light sermons calling Christians to do good things. But often it is preached as though this section is divorced from the preceding sentence:

In the same way, people harassed the prophets who came before [y’all].

These are not separate ideas, though they are often separated in your printed Bible by verse numbers and section headings.

Jesus is speaking to a community of prophets.

See, it depends how you read this phrase. Most people read with a comma, like this: “…the prophets, who were the ones who came before y’all.” I read it without the comma, i.e. “…the prophets who came before y’all prophets.”

Jesus just spent his prologue telling us that the people who we think are losers are really winners (“happy are the poor in spirit”). It takes a prophet’s vision to see this reality. Jesus is speaking to a community he expects to carry on this prophetic tradition. That is why this community will be a “light on a lamp stand,” letting people see what has been hidden by darkness.

Too often, preachers have focused on simply the last phrase in this section: letting others see your good deeds and giving glory to God in heaven. We have separated good works from the prophetic vision, charity from social justice, and works of mercy from evangelism. The call to be salt and light has a particular context: a prophetic community who is willing to be persecuted for Jesus’ and righteousness’ sake.

We are a prophetic community. That is why we are salt and light.

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Twice a week (usually Tuesday and Thursday) I do a short reflection on a Bible verse from a devotional and social justice perspective. You can sign up to get a prompt via SMS here: 
Text Of The Day

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The Return

When messiah returned

she was a sassy bitch.

Worked retail and cleaned homes, like her mother before her.

She knew the value of a dollar,

and whose face was on each denomination

and the non-denominations.

She had heard the unbeliever’s Bible verses:

A penny saved is a penny earned.

The Lord helps those who help themselves.

Submit to authority.

Know your place.

But she had memorized the older texts.

And no one could match her wits,

When messiah returned.

…

When messiah returned,

they called her a glutton and a drunkard,

a whore and a slut,

because that’s how bullies and hypocrites talk.

And when they began to fear her they called her

a bully and a hypocrite.

Herod was nicer.

Said she had spunk.

“Actually,” he mansplained, “I agree with much of what she says,

but her tone is counterproductive.”

“You tell that weasel Herod,” she replied,

“To shove it.”

That’s just how she talked,

When messiah returned.

…

When messiah returned,

the megachurch preachers

and the political men

tried to sell her out for thirty pieces of silver.

But she did not let them get close enough

to betray her with a kiss.

And when they came for her

with clubs and torches, guns and chains,

She said one little word,

And they all fell to the ground,

Because those who had prayed for her return

Were simply not ready

for all of her,

When messiah returned.

Text of the Day for 2-7-17

The Sermon on the Mount (1896), Károly Ferenczy. Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Today’s text comes from Matthew 5:3-12:

• Happy are people who are hopeless, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
• Happy are people who grieve, because they will be made glad.
• Happy are people who are humble, because they will inherit the earth.
• Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full.
• Happy are people who show mercy, because they will receive mercy.
• Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God.
• Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children.
• Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
• Happy are you when people insult you and harass you and speak all kinds of bad and false things about you, all because of me.Be full of joy and be glad, because you have a great reward in heaven. In the same way, people harassed the prophets who came before you.

I formatted it as a dot list so you can see (in a contemporary way) the kind of impact it is supposed to have.

I said this past Sunday that the words of The Sermon on the Mount are fire. From the beginning, Jesus speaks revolution: the world is upside-down, and God is going to turn it right-side-up. It is not the winners who are blessed: the confident, the happy, the alpha dogs, the satisfied, the privileged. No, the blessed are those who are poor (or poor in spirit), those who mourn, those who are starving for justice. The blessed are those who are persecuted for seeking peace and justice and righteousness.

Which is what you will be, if you follow the words of this sermon: both persecuted and blessed. You will be persecuted and blessed because you will be a prophet in a community of prophets, and prophets are always persecuted. (That’s what “people harassed the prophets who came before you” means—you, too, are in the company of prophets.)

By your light, Jesus says, others will see reality, the way the world really is. Your light is not something to stare at—it’s meant to give light “to all in the house,” so that they can see.

All of this is just the prologue. Jesus spends 15 verses telling us who to aspire to be as individuals and as a community before he ever says anything about himself.

I gave our church some homework: read the Sermon on the Mount over the next few weeks. Read it, or part of it, every day. See how it changes you.

Have fun.

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Twice a week (usually Tuesday and Thursday) I do a short reflection on a Bible verse from a devotional and social justice perspective. You can sign up to get a prompt via SMS here: 
Text Of The Day