Life Service

June 1, 2008     Proper 4 A

Genesis 6:11-22; 7:24; 8:14-19            Psalm 46

Romans 1:16-17; 3:22b-28     St. Matthew 7:21-29

We will be hearing from the Gospel of Matthew during the next several Sundays of Proper Time. Today we hear the conclusion and summary of the famous Sermon on the Mount.

These three chapters (chapters 5-7) have been Jesus' teachings about what it would mean to be a student or disciple of his. It might be enjoyable to read through these chapters and cross out those teachings we find difficult. For some of us the sermon would be a lot shorter.

There is a final teaching followed by a striking image for his hearers to remember. The teaching has a tone of a legal-court proceeding. The plaintiffs present their evidence of worthiness that sounds quite convincing. They say that they did this and that in his Name, didn't they? The works seem quite in keeping with the ways of Jesus.

The judge, Jesus, pronounces that they are "evildoers" and that he never knew them. These seem harsh words and a severe judgment.

He knew their self-justifying actions, but never knew their interior. He did not know them because their actions were done, ultimately, in their own names and they were only what their actions said they were. They were "doers," but did their actions relying only on themselves.

Perhaps a bit of culture-history would help us to get a handle on Jesus' frame of reference in all this name using and knowing.

In Middle Eastern culture, to call someone "Lord" is to recognize this individual as a personal patron. A patron chooses to treat clients (who are freely chosen) "as if" they were family members, that is, with favoritism.

Everyone wants to be a client and even has specific patrons in mind, but the initiative comes always from the patron and never from the client. This is put into words for us in Jesus' pronouncement, "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."

Fortunate clients who are selected by a powerful patron freely accept the obligation of doing what the patron expects and singing the patron's praises far and wide for all the benefits they have received. It is quid pro quo.

Matthew's Jesus warns those who have listened to his sermon that it is not enough to acknowledge him as patron, or broker with God, the ultimate patron. It is not enough to call the person "Lord" and then appropriate the authority of that person to so something.

As the culture dictates, a client must fulfill the patron's wishes and behave in a way that pleases and honors the patron. PROVIDED that patron - client relationship exists. For some, Jesus denies the existence of such a relationship, "I never knew you."

For others, Jesus has specified what God the patron expects of clients. Now he urges that they behave appropriately and warns of fatal consequences if they do not.

Doing the will of God, not just knowing or accepting it, is required of us. Neither prophecies nor miracles serve as guarantees of salvation. It is not just the hearing or preaching of the Word that is required of us; it is the practicing of it that builds our house on solid ground.

There is no question that such a passage has led people to believe that it is their own actions which bring about salvation. The Pelagian heresy seems almost part of the human genome.

But its mirror image, a magical belief in words and dogmas that leads to a strange quietism, also haunts the double helix as well.

The exclusive concentration on orthodoxy can take at least two forms. First, we must say the right words to be saved. These words may be "I'm sorry," "I'm saved," or "Lord, Lord." Or second, we must hold the right beliefs to be saved. These are the core truths, the central dogma, the received teaching.

Neither of these orthodoxies is enough. Without the living, the embodiment of faith in action, words and dogmas are actually empty. For faith is not merely a matter of knowing some truth or saying it. It is, rather, believing in a person whom we allow to transform our lives.

Our actions, our prayers, our good works do not bring about our redemption. But they are, indeed, the fruit of a faith taken seriously, "bound to our wrists" and "written on our faces" in such a way that we have not only heard the Good News, we live it.

The living out of our faith is the actual building of it on the rock of faith who is the Christ of God. It is only when we let the revelation take hold in our real lives that we will find our faith standing firm before the winds and torrents of life. It is when we move from lip service, and saying the right words, to life service, giving our lives in service to God, that our faith is shown and known.