If I Were Preaching this Week.

I would go after this lectionary passage from the gospel of Matthew 5:38-48 again.  Matthew has a way of holding up a mirror, and when we think we need to zag, we find a zig.  The passage for this week is no different. 

One pastor has described verse 38, “An eye for an eye,” as business as usual.  Then Matthew reports Christ offering a zig to that zag.  In my words, Christ says something like this, “knock off the negative backbiting and infighting, and start to love on each other, especially the folks who you hate.”  So maybe I would title my sermon, “Business as Unusual.”

In my work as a Conference Superintendent over the last four years, I can tell you the one thing we need more of in the church today is love for each other.  Perhaps my path takes me into places where there is more conflict and division in the church than is normal, but I doubt it.  Pastors are being controlled and abused while congregations are being micromanaged and marginalized.  I have begun calling the church a violent place to hang out these days, however, we must find a way to become non-violent.  The church of the future will not sustain this level of attack and pain.  Unfortunately, this all feels like business as usual for a large part of the church.  The world should know us by our love, but that is just not the case these days regardless of how many times we sing the song.  Our actions define us, always have.

If I were preaching in the local church here are a couple things I would need to be sure I visited in preparing the sermon this week.  The first is our Bishops Trimble being arrested at the White House on Monday for his non-violent stand against immigration deportation of almost 2 million souls.  I would throw this out as a way of doing business unusually.  No matter how you come down on the immigration issue, we can all agree we must stop pulling families apart.  The Second is the Olympics.  Everyone has been watching them, so they provide a ready and steady sermon illustration stream for which just about everyone has knowledge. Point out the amazing stuff that is not business as usual, and then point out what makes you cringe and for which we wish we had a redo button.  Where do you see the golden rule and where do you just see rules?  How can we push through business as usual and get to the unusual business of grace and love for one another? 

And finally from the book, Native American Wisdom, these words to consider on leadership from the Constitution of the Five Nations.  “With endless patience you shall carry out your duty, and your firmness shall be tempered with tenderness for your people.  Neither anger nor fury shall lodge in your mind, and all your words and actions shall be marked with calm deliberation.”