St. Paul Hamel Homily for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity 07/07/2013

St Paul Lutheran Church

The 6th Sunday after Trinity

July 6/7, 2013+

St. Matthew 5:20-26

In Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

You heard the 10 commandments read just a few moments ago. Today Jesus will deal with you and the 5th commandment. You heard it, “you shall not murder.” The Pharisees and the scribes heard it too. This should be easy; you simply do not take the life of another human being. Don’t do that. Do not murder. The scribes and the Pharisees didn’t. They kept the law. But for Jesus, and especially Jesus disciples, that isn’t enough. Because “unless your righteousness exceeds that, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Scribes and Pharisees could keep the 5th commandment, but simply keeping, not willfully taking another life is not enough for Jesus. There is more to it than that. There is anger, the sin of the heart and the mind.

Anger usually begins with some kind of offense, that is, it is often a reaction to some hurt, failure or sin on someone else’s part. Having heard from Jesus two weeks ago about how we are to forgive our brother, he is teaching us now to put that into practice in life. And if you don’t there is the threat of never entering the kingdom of heaven, which is as Jesus says, judgment and the hell of fire. So now is the full measure of the law coming to bear, the fullness of it in the preaching of Jesus, keeping His commands is not simply a pure inaction, that is not doing something that is going to hurt someone else, keeping his commands is pure inaction of the heart, not being angry, and then pure action – reconciliation. Anger on the part of Christians is very often justified in our minds anyway. You can see the sins of others, particularly as they are committed against you. You can see the sins of others committed against those you love, and in your heart you know that what is wrong must be made right. You can begin to have such thoughts with a mind that is formed by the Word of God. But herein is the problem. You are not God, and so while he has a righteous anger, your anger turns so quickly from righteous to sinful anger. Seeking not the repentance of the sinner, but their punishment and judgment, which is not your place to bring about. Your place is to be reconciled to them, to love them and to be at peace with them, to be restored. Anger breeds resentment, conflict, hatred and finally death. Maybe not for its object, but always for you. The anger of sinful Christians like all of us leads to broken hearts, broken marriages, friendships, broken lives.

Now to get out of this Christ Jesus gives you His righteousness which surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. This he does through your baptism into his death and resurrection. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” You have been baptized in to his death. There He reconciled you to His Father. In his death, you died, your sinful anger was put to death, and you were buried with Him, raised from the dead with Him by the glory of the Father, to walk in newness of life. You are no longer a slave to your anger; you are free from the power of sin. This is a present reality. This is actually true. Christ Jesus sets you free from it by his death, his burial, his resurrection and the gift of his righteousness that clothes you and covers you and is given you to in the forgiveness of your sins. This is what your baptism really does. What Jesus has done for you, it is given to you. And what he has done is taken all the anger, the righteous anger of God against you and your sins and your sinful anger against those you are to love, and died for it. He was buried for it, and He lives to give you a new life from it all; covering you with his surpassing righteousness and a true, new life.

In this new life you come to the altar, reconciled with God, and reconciled with your brothers and sisters, and parents, and friends, the ones that are gathered here with you. The gift you bring to this altar are you sins, sins again for God to take and receive. Jesus has done that already once when he took them all and was buried with them. But he desires to take them away from you in this time, in this place. But you can’t hold onto them and receive the surpassing righteousness too. Jesus says, “First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” First, seek out the one who has caused offense, who has hurt you, and perhaps even more importantly, go seek out the one you have hurt, the one you have sinned against, and rejoice in new life together. With your sins buried with Jesus, having been baptized into his death, his resurrection, with a new life, come to the altar then, with anger all gone, with forgiveness all around.

Amen.