Is the Sermon on the Mount practicable or is it an impossibility that turns us to the grace of God?
Gospel Reading: Matthew 5:38-48
For Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011: Year A - Epiphany 7
In the context of the Roman Empire, the Sermon on the Mount is a radical proposal for resistance. Written just years after Titus (who succeeds his father as Emperor during this period) destroys Jerusalem along with the temple, it is a call not to arms but an invitation to a nonviolent reorientation of civilization. There is only one problem; it might depend on our ability to be perfect.
It is Practicable
The Sermon on the Mount has a long and complex history of interpretation, which basically breaks two ways (forgive the obvious and simplistic). One major thread says the Sermon on the Mount is the Gospel. Its content is the message that Jesus came to proclaim. It is three chapters of how we should live our lives. It is Practicable.
One can actually live according to the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, even go beyond the Law of Moses. I will not only refrain from murdering someone, I can come to point where I don’t even feel hatred, think hateful thoughts. I can turn the other check and love my attacker.
It is Not Practicable
The other thread says it is not possible to live out these − that, in fact, is the point. It becomes The Law, revealing God’s grace to us. It is a set of impossible teachings, which convicts us of inability to do any damn good, so we must depend solely and completely on the Grace of God, given through Jesus the Christ.
Pelagius, a British monk and certified, excommunicated heretic, responded strongly to the Not Practicable position, saying, God has indeed given commandments that can be fulfilled, other wise God is the originator of Sin. So even though putting the tree of the knowledge in the Garden and telling Adam and Eve, what ever you do, don’t eat its fruit, was kind of a jerky thing for God to do − Adam and Eve, could have resisted. They could have stayed free and sinless in the Garden.
Practice Makes Crazy?
That certainly is a popular view of sin and the law, although it isn’t a very astute understanding of humanity. Whether or not the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount can be practiced, there are not a lot of examples of success. People have tried of course. Most famously Leo Tolstoy − and it drove him crazy.
Tolstoy was tortured by his inability, or what he thought of as his unwillingness, to practice what was preached. At the end of his life he finally, found the strength, as he thought of it, to leave his wife and family and dedicate him self to living out the Sermon on the Mount, packed his stuff went to the train station, collapsed and died shortly after.
The Hardest Question
I like a gospel that says the meek, the weak, the nonviolent will inherit the earth, I just don’t, see it a lot. That doesn’t mean I am giving myself over to the system of Empire. I am throwing my lot in with Jesus and his gospel, of peace, love and weakness. Maybe if we all just tried harder…
Is the Sermon on the Mount practicable or is it an impossibility that turns us to the grace of God?
Russell Rathbun is a preacher at House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press, 2010) and the curator of The Hardest Question.
