Angels Watching over me

Angels Watching over Me
February 20, 2011
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48
7th Sunday after Epiphany
Year A
Version 2


I think that if we had to think of enemy #1 for America, we would still say Osama bin Laden. I saw a television show advertised last night on how to kill Osama Bin Laden. Not a very Christian show, but would get some attention.
What do we do with are enemies? Do we really have a relationship with this who hate us, who intentionally disrespect us? What does it really mean to love you enemies?

We have finally reached the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5 of Matthew. This is the toughest saying of them all.

I have been a Christian all of my life, but didn’t become a committed Christian until college. I have Read Matthew as a child and as a teenager, and college student. I Got scared. There is no way that I can become a Christian, there is no way that I can change my behavior and do all of these strange things that it calls me to do.
I understand that it is wrong to murder, but don’t think bad thoughts. When you are angry, be intentional about reconciling with that person. Love those who hate you?

There has been debate about these last texts for years. And no resolution to how seriously are we to take these texts. Turn the other cheek when someone is trying to slap you, go an extra mile with someone who is trying to cheat you, give to someone who is trying to steal from me what does that mean?

More to the story that we don’t get. It is not saying to offer your check to someone who is slapping you – when you turn your cheek when someone slaps you – you rob them of their slap.

A roman soldier traveling in your land was allowed to demand that any citizen carry his bags for a mile, if you carried his stuff 2 miles, then he would be wrong for allowing you to do that.

In Jesus times, people have two items of clothing, an inner cloak and an outer cloak. If you gave someone both – then you would be naked.

You have to understand also that Mediterranean society was a lot like American society today. There was a lot of inequality and oppression.

The military had power, the rich had power, those in charge had power, and the people had nothing.

If someone took it upon themselves to slap you in the face in public, there were saying that they had power and control over you. If you turned the other cheek, you were saying that you have no right to make that claim. I am equal to you.

If a soldier ordered you into service, and you went an extra mile, you were saying that you did not make me do this; I did it on my own free will.

Resisting that attempt was a way of reclaiming power.

In Mediterranean society honor and shame was everything. Honor was a very public issue. The Ten Commandments say to honor your mother and father. Honored those higher in society than you, honored those older than you. Actions either bought honor or shame.
Today girls who may choose not to follow family tradition are killed- because they have shamed their entire family.
That’s our whole problem with the scenario of how literally do we take the verse of turning the other cheek – we are shamed when we let another hurt us – and we do not retaliate. Does Jesus really want us to be shamed?
Jesus was actually trying to redefine honor and shame. When we honor ourselves in the face of disrespect, we not only honor ourselves, but we also honor god.

An eye for an eye – is the law of retaliation, that whole point of the law was to preserve honor and to prevent shame. There is nothing wrong with the law- but it doesn’t stop the cycle. It doesn’t take away hurt feelings. It doesn’t change the status quo of inequality. It doesn’t change the relationship – as a matter of fact it means that there is no relationship at all.

But when you actively resist the activities of those who hurt you, it exposes that action as inappropriate.

The nonviolent resistance of the 60’s did much the same thing. Trained to accept being hit, spat upon in reviled. In order to claim a higher justice- justice of God. In prayer that your loving actions would change that person, and help them to realize that you were a person just as they were, and that they had no right to disrespect you.

Did it work? Some say yes and some say no. Today – the southern Christian leadership commission that Martin Luther King started and trained for nonviolent resistance is pressured to disband. It no longer serves it purpose. We live in a different world now – and yet can we really say that there is equality and justice for all people? Even for black people?

Jesus work with the world is not done yet. We still need to learn to love those who hate us. Bin laden is still out there somewhere.

But in life there are enemies out there, but there are also enemies in here. Sometimes we hate ourselves more than anyone; we sabotage ourselves more than anyone.

Story of master builder…
Trace was known for his strong, durable buildings. They weren't anything spectacular to look at, no works of art, but they were solid. He built barns, machine sheds, and quonsets. Big, burly buildings to hold big, burly machinery and equipment were his specialty, and he stood behind his buildings. He had learned from his grandfather and father and had shown an exceptional eye for detail and was an expert craftsman. Trace was respected for his work, and he never lacked for projects.

Just 27 years old, Trace had had a good life - until his wife of six months ran off with a neighbor. They had no children and Trace felt himself becoming lonelier and lonelier. He would come in from a long day of working, sometimes out in the cold and wind, and he had no one to turn to for companionship, love, or conversation. He eventually turned to alcohol for comfort.

Trace went on drinking binges, often falling asleep on the couch in front of a blaring television set. He ate poorly and his judgment started to fall short. He felt like he was falling into a pit of darkness. He was working on a big machine shed for a wealthy farmer and Trace found that he wasn't measuring as accurately, his orders didn't match what he needed, and the work was not going as effortlessly as it normally had in the past. He knew he had to do something.

His wife had certainly left him, but Trace had many friends in his hometown. They begged him to take care of himself, to get a hold of himself, to turn around from the brink of despair. All their pleading worked and slowly Trace started to come out of his depression. He spent more time with his friends and family. He took better care of his orders, his work was more accurate, and his judgment was once again keen.

About a month later, the farmer called him to say his sliding barn door didn't work quite right. The door was on the working end of the huge machine shed Trace put up right when he was in the middle of his sadness, right when his perception was blurred, right when things were not going quite right for Trace. Trace drove out to the farm to speak with the owner, who complained of a door that was sticking on the way up.

Trace looked at the shed. It was crooked. His trained eye could see that although it was only a fraction of an inch off, it was definitely crooked. The wall was not straight and the door, which was pulled up by heavy chains, was getting caught by the crooked wall. To an untrained person, the shed looked fine: it was big and square, and the walls were very high. But Trace was an expert, and when he examined the shed closely, he knew he had done a poor job. The farmer didn't guess that, but Trace could see it as plain as day.

There was no way Trace could afford new materials. Yet he knew he had not done the best he could do. He was in a quandary. The farmer thought the door needed oil; Trace knew it was much, much more.

Trace told the farmer, an old family friend, not to use the door and that he would be back in a few days to fix it. It wasn't spring yet and the farmer wouldn't need to move machinery for several weeks. Trace would be back.

What Trace really needed to do was think about the situation. He had paid over $130,000 for materials for the shed and had gained twice that much in labor. But that money was already spent on the double quonset he was building at the west end of town for the city works department. He knew it would be easy to bend the wall a bit and ease the door framing so the door could pass easier, but it would never hold over the years. And the mechanism had to be just right to work well or the door could get stuck or even worse, fall. The farmer needed to move machinery in and out of the shed often during the spring planting season and the fall harvest time. He could be in danger if the door didn't work right. Trace knew he needed to rebuild, but he didn't know how to tell the farmer, or how he would pay for some additional materials he would need.

Trace wasn't big on going to church, but he loved the small town's only pastor. Pastor Eldred was an older man who had been there 32 years and had seen Trace grow up. He had been the one to marry Trace and Janet last summer. Pastor Eldred had been there when the family experienced the trauma of death and illness, and he had been there to see the joys of births, baptisms, and weddings. Trace had always regarded Pastor Eldred to be the family's pastor, not his personal pastor. But right now Trace needed the older man's wisdom. Maybe if he could debate aloud, he could get a handle on what to do. Trace called and would see Pastor Eldred that evening after supper.

Trace and Pastor Eldred exchanged pleasantries for a while, and the pastor asked about each family member by name. Then Pastor Eldred smiled and looked Trace squarely in the eyes. "What's on your mind, Trace? How can I help you be the person you would like to be?"

Wow! Trace wasn't expecting that kind of question. He sincerely didn't know what to say, and so he looked down at his feet, noticing his shoelace was untied. He bent down to tie it. He looked around the room and noticed the picture frame askew about a sixteenth of an inch. He'd have to fix that after Pastor Eldred left.

Pastor Eldred smiled again. "Trace, what's troubling you? I'm so sorry about Janet. I imagine you are quite lonely at times, but what is really troubling your heart right now?"

Trace stood up. He was quite nervous. He had wanted to debate with Pastor Eldred on what to do about the shed, but he knew he couldn't pull the wool over his eyes. He sat down again and blurted out the situation, telling Pastor Eldred about the building he had put up. It was a poor job, not like he would normally do, and he didn't know what to do about it.

"Yes, you do, Trace. I know your reputation for exactness. You have always stood behind your work, just like your grandpa and daddy taught you. You know what to do. You just have to have the courage to explain the truth to the farmer. You don't need me to tell you that. I just need to remind you that you need to be true to yourself. Be the person you really are, the best you can be. And I need to remind you that God loves you - with or without Janet - happy or sad, through thick and thin. You can make this right or you can take the easy way out. Just consider your future with either option. Fix it and you will be out lots of money, but you will also be a hero for being honest. Ignore it and you could put someone in danger, and who will come to you for work? You know what to do and I will leave you to get on with it and do your best. Say hi to your parents for me."

Trace felt like a five--year--old as he watched his dear friend leave. He knew what to do, and although he'd be out thousands of dollars, he knew the right thing would be to tear down the shed and start over, being more exact this time. He knew what God wanted him to do.

He picked up the phone to call the farmer.




This is a perfect story to explain Corinthians. Paul says that he is the master builder, with a responsibility to build the right foundation. Church is the temple of god. We are also temples. See our faults better than anyone. But least likely to address them.

We tend to redefine our holiness and forget that Jesus called us to be active in our discipleship.

This quote says it best…
"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." -- D.A. Carson

We have to be in guard to the enemies out there, but also to the enemies in here.

You are God’s temple God's spirit dwells in you
The church is God’s temple – do we put God first in all that we do
The universe is God’s dwelling place – do we see all people not as we see them but as God sees them?

We are a temple, not a house – building a place for God to dwell.

Jesus says we do that by being perfect as our father in heaven is perfect. Perfect is not is doing to right thing never making a mistake, or even occasionally forgetting that I am sanctified, and thus relate to people in a different way.

Full, complete, trust in god’s word, even when it does not make sense. Not my understanding but gods. See people though Gods eyes not mine.

How would the world be a different place if treated people as if they were a child of god?

Enemies without, enemies within; love them not hate them, see them as a gift from God. Come to teach me the lessons of Jesus Christ.

Forgiveness, not retaliation, honor not shame, love not hate.

Jesus just might be on to something. Never know until you live it. Let us pray….