Sermon Library
“Going the Extra Mile”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
October 02, 2011
Service Theme: Pentecost Sixteen – 2011
Source: Pentecost Sixteen – 2011
Pentecost Sixteen – 2011 October 2, 2011
Going the Extra Mile
It’s the Parts I Do Understand that Gives Me Fits
Mark Twain said, “I have no problem with those parts of the Bible I don’t understand. It’s those parts of the Bible I do understand that gives me fits.” I believe this statement could apply to the text this morning from the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus has given a fairly specific, yet out of the ordinary, comment about the laws of the past and how people are to fulfill them in a way which is much deeper than just following the letter of the law. Jesus is re-defining or we might say up-grading the laws of the prophet. Jesus begins each part with, “You have heard that it was said,” etc, “But I say to you . . .” Jesus is transforming the legalism of the Pharisees into a brighter light. In many ways, this became one of the primary purposes of Jesus.
The revolutionary themes in this selective portion of the Sermon are; do not resist one who is evil, turn the other cheek when struck, when one takes your coat, give them your cloak as well, go the extra mile, give to one who begs and concludes with loving your enemies. These newer norms added to the already established rules appear to be quite simple and certainly to the point, but they change everything. As Mark Twain said, these are statements which we can clearly understand, but then they become the statements which become the most challenging.
Three Interpretations
There are a few ways in which to understand this portion. It may seem straight forward, but let me mention three different and legitimate interpretations. One is an old fashioned way. Second is a more enlightened way. And third is an historical and contextual way.
Old Fashioned Way
The first and old fashioned way is that Jesus has added an additional layer of rules upon the old rules. Following the letter of the law of the Ten Commandments can be a challenge in and of itself. To extend such laws and even make them even more challenging is one way in which to understand this part of the Sermon of the Mount, but I do believe this is really the main intention of what Jesus was saying. Jesus was not trying to make life more difficult and litigious, but just the opposite – less litigious and more loving.
A More Enlightened Way
So, the second and more enlightened interpretation is that these statements by Jesus are not just attempting to add more specific laws to the general laws, but are really attempting to clarify an inner intentionality and more heart felt rationality and motivation to what makes us do what we do. It is a reverse way in which to suppress confrontation and hatred. In other words, what I have been trying to emphasize with this series is that it is not a matter of following any letter of the law, but is more and essentially following the feelings of the heart and the soul. The Ten Commandments are no longer the Ten Commandments, but are guiding principles which motivate us to become transformed individuals. I think Jesus is calling us to a new place of being in which to live and have our being. I think Jesus is doing this with every day examples to make an exceptional every day difference.
The word Gospel means “good news.” In many ways the gospel presents better news than just being keepers of the law. Rev. James McCormick tells the story of a Christian asking a person if they would like to become a Christian and the response was, “No thanks, I have enough trouble as it is.” This might have been Mark Twain. Rev. McCormick also relayed another phrase which is “A little learning is a dangerous thing and a little religion is even more dangerous.”
[Optional Insert]
[The problem—our temptation to make Christianity a religion of order and safety and niceness—begins with our failure to grasp who Jesus Christ is and how, in the Holy Spirit, he continues to speak and work among us. Dorothy Sayers put it this way:
We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him “meek and mild,” and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies. To those who knew him, however, he in no way suggests a milk-and-water person; they objected to him as a dangerous firebrand.]
[What are we to make of this New Testament picture of God in our own lives?
For one, we can stop pretending God is nice, as if it’s his job to make our lives well-adjusted or religious or even spiritual. Jesus did not say he came to give us happiness, only blessedness. He did not promise an easy life, only an abundant one. He doesn’t call us to be religious or spiritual, but to love God and love others. We can save ourselves a lot of grief if we recognize that up front.]
In many ways, Jesus has provided a completely different world view; certainly a revolutionary way of looking at the world and how we live. Dr. Leonard Sweet writes, “Jesus’ ‘better way’ invites us to take God’s own love, God’s vision of a peaceful world, as our template. Not any human standard of status, but Jesus’ template of holiness, which turned the holiness code upside down. Jesus’ descriptions of the ‘kingdom of God’ delighted in turning the old ‘honored’ rules of honor on their heads. Such as:
The last shall be first.
The persecuted are blessed.
The poor are rich in heaven.
The humble will be exalted.
Those who give up all they have will gain everything.
Those who are slapped on both cheeks,
who lose their shirt and their coat,
who walk two miles when only one is required,
who love the enemy, not just the “neighbor,”
those are the true sons and daughters of God.
This is a new standard for ‘honorable’ status. Jesus’ code of “honor” is the reality of divine love — and the grace, and mercy, and forgiveness that defines it. Jesus’ honor code is nothing less than being perfect, ‘as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ And that is why the Christian honor code demands we forgive ‘seventy times seven,’ that we ‘turn the other cheek,’ that we ‘go the second mile,’ that we ‘love our enemy, and pray for our persecutors.’ Leonard Sweet concludes, “Has God ever done any less for the world?”
The Sermon on the Mount illustrates a new way of being. I guess it is fair to say that it may be more challenging, but it is still doable. More importantly is that when we can do this, we are not just doing it for the other person, but we also doing it for ourselves. It is always mutually beneficial. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is essentially moving from rules to relationships. This is its beauty.
An Historical Contextual Way
Then there is still a third historical way to look at this which is perhaps more academic or scholarly, but probably more accurate historically and applicable today as well. This is a perspective I mentioned six weeks ago. I thought it was worth explaining further, especially as an example of good historical and contextual research and how it can make a difference in how we understand the text.
Two contemporary scholars provide us with such context for these sayings. Marcus Borg and Walter Wink report on historical research which indicates that these verses are creative non-violent strategies of protesting oppression. Wink argues that Jesus rejected two common ways of responding to injustice: violent resistance and passive acceptance. Instead, Jesus advocated a third way, an assertive but non-violent from of protest.
The key to understanding Wink’s argument is rigorous attention to the social customs of the Jewish homeland in the first century and what these sayings would have meant in that context. Without going into all the specific details, it turns out to be struck in the right cheek meant a back handed slap in which a superior would reprimand a slave. To turn the other cheek would have meant a bout on equal terms. The superior oppressors would have been confused between hitting the other cheek and treating the slave as an equal or not hitting him at all on the other cheek.
Another contextual example is that Roman law permitted soldiers to force civilians to carry their gear for one mile, but because of abuses stringently prohibited more than one mile. If they asked you to do that, Jesus says, go ahead; but then carry their gear a second mile. Put them in a disconcerting situation: either they risk getting in trouble, or they will have to wrestle their gear back from you. It was a way of non-violently protesting the presence of the military and force.
And again, under civil law at the time, a coat could be confiscated for non-payment of debt. For the poor, the coat often also served as a blanket at night. In that world, the only other garment typically worn by a peasant was an inner garment, the cloak. So if they take your coat, Jesus said, give them your cloak as well which would have exposed the peasant as naked. Walter Wink said this would have been a non-violent way of expressing what the Roman system was doing to them because at this time and place, nakedness shamed the person who observed it. I think this has some similarity as to what the organization PETA is doing about the use of animal fur.
Walter Wink and Marcus Borg conclude that these seemingly mild sayings, are actually potent ways of confounding and exposing injustice. They also remind us that this section of the Sermon on the Mount were significant passages influencing Mohatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. They may have not known the most recent discoveries about these saying, but they were no doubt clear that Jesus was counseling a radical new way of empowering the underclass. Those little verses from this Sermon on the Mount profoundly motivated a foundation upon which Gandhi and King built their world moving campaigns for social justice and made a major difference in India and this United States. Understanding and living the Sermon on the Mount means everything.
Origin of Chapel – The Story of the Shared Cloak
There is only one way to conclude this message this morning. I have told the story many times, but it has to be most appropriate for the text today. In 316 AD in a town called Pannonia a boy named Martin was born into a poor pagan family whose father was a Roman Soldier serving under Constantine. Constantine had just allowed and encouraged people to become Christian. As Martin matured he had heard about this new way called Christian. Everything he heard about this Christ kept making more sense to him.
Because his father was a Roman Soldier, Martin was required to become a soldier as well, but this soon became a problem for him. He could not reconcile being a Roman Soldier and a Christian. He managed to be on leave from the Roman legion and joined what may have been one of the first known monasteries. Very soon he became one of the first Christian leaders who could be called a priest and later a bishop. He was in a unique position of being both a new Christian monk and on the reserves of the Roman military.
It was during this time on his garrison duty at Amiens that he came upon an injured enemy outside the gates of the city who was wounded, weak and cold. Martin overcome with compassion, took off his cloak and slashed it in two with his sword and shared it with this needy soldier who was not seen as an enemy by Martin but only as a person.
This story became a legend or fable of the young soldier/monk and later when he became the bishop of Tours, France, this torn cloak was venerated in a small room off of the cathedral. That room became known as the cloak room or in French the capella room; obviously meaning cloak. The etymology of chapel is cloak. The word capella evolved into the English word chapel. The etymology of Chaplain or Capellani is the priest of the capella or in other words the “cloak room attendant.”
In this regard, I identify with the title “chaplain” as long as I can clarify that this really means “coat room attendant.” To be a chaplain is to be a servant and I like that. More importantly the word “Chapel” comes from the act of going the extra mile, giving of one’s cloak, and loving one’s enemy. This is the picture by El Greco on our bulletin cover this morning, although it is entitled “St. Martin and the Beggar” versus enemy.
The stained glass windows of this chapel depict part of the Sermon on the Mount called the Beatitudes. It is nice to know now that the very definition of the word Chapel is also from the message and purpose of the Sermon on the Mount. The word Chapel comes from sharing one’s cloak and caring for the enemy. This is what the very word chapel means. May we too, be persons of the beatitudes and bearers of being a chapel.
Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
0077 Meadowood Drive
Aspen, CO 81611
http://www.aspenchapel.org