EPIPHANY VII 2019

Jesus -- James Tissot

• Genesis 45:3-11, 15  • 
• Psalm 37:1-11, 39-40  • 
• 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50  • 
• Luke 6:27-38

This week's Gospel continues Luke's record of Jesus' 'Sermon on the Plain'. In this extract, Jesus endorses the 'Golden Rule'  -- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", a moral principle that Christianity holds in  common with most ethical systems. The distinctively Christian element, however, goes far beyond this: "Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who treat you spitefully". The underlying rationale for these instructions is twofold. First, real moral aspiration demands more than simply loving other people; even sinners love those who love them. Secondly, it is when we act over and above the normal that we truly become "children of the Most High". That is because God himself "is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked". The clear implication is: "Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate".

St Paul -- Jan van Lieven

All this is very edifying, yet it does not take much familiarity with the history and practice of the Church to see how far short of this ideal Christians have always fallen, sometimes spectacularly so. The ethics of Jesus, it is tempting to conclude, is a council of perfection, too idealistic ever to be lived out by imperfect people.

This is true, but not as deflationary as we might think. Christians believe that human beings have, so to speak, a triple nature. While we are deeply flawed, we are also redeemed, and consequently have the capacity to set out on a trajectory of moral growth and development. The Christian path is one that takes us from an earthly to a heavenly orientation. This is the central theme of the Epistle for this Sunday. "It is not the spiritual that is first", Paul tells the Christians at Corinth, "but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven". 

It follows that Christian lives have to be lived out in a spirit of transition, acknowledging both our 'feet of clay' and our fittedness for life in heavenly places. The Psalm for this Sunday beautifully captures the appropriate attitude of faithful acceptance that should accompany this acknowledgement. "Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret--it leads only to evil".