The Daily Disciplines
Everything we do is practice for the next time. When we cease to practice, we lose our fluency, and memory becomes imperfect. Some things are practiced by default- when did you last consciously practice eating? Other things require conscious effort. My handwriting is slow, laborious and has lost its fluency. I type without thinking.
When we took our young children back out to the desert where we had lived, they were profoundly uncomfortable with the open spaces. We noticed our son was happier and less fractious whenever we went walking in the enclosed space of mountain gorges. We become used to, and are affected by our environment. Years before, leaving the desert, my wife and I were depressed, dislocated and disoriented by urban life. A day out walking in the hills begins to resurrect memories and instincts which have been lost to our consciousness.
As urban westerners we live in a profoundly artificial environment. It is possible, even easy, to avoid the outside world for days at a time! Enter the garage by an inside door from the house, drive out using the automatic door opener, drive to the underground car park, and take the internal lift up to work. Leave before it is properly light, and return home after dark. We live in a world which we Australians especially, think we control. In truth, we are irradiated with uncontrolled advertising and other stimulation, rarely alone enough to be in silence, and uncomfortable if we are. We live in a noisy, crowded and driven world, which is the anathema of all that our spiritual ancestors learned is necessary for health. We have stepped out of reality into an artificial place.
The spiritual disciplines are designed to bring us back into the real world from our artificial place. They create time, silence and space for us to re-engage with the depths of life. They patrol the corridors of the mind, as someone has said, re-minding us of what is really important. Religion without practice becomes merely an idea, caught in the currents of the ideas round about, without the anchor of reality.
But I say to you...
Week of Sunday Feb 6; Ephiphany 6
Matthew 5:21-37
17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaksone of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
21 ‘You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgement.”22But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you,24leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. 26Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
27 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.”28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
31 ‘It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” 32But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33 ‘Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.” 34But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
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48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
In the IT firm for which I worked there was one inviolable rule: Never, never, ever order hardware or software until you have a signed acceptance of your written quotation to the client. Never, ever. Given that the machines we worked with were sometimes $10,000 apiece, this was a good rule!
But there was one exception. The boss said that if this one client said to go ahead, then we went ahead, and did the paper work as we had time. His word was better than paper.
This exceptional man was not only honest and trustworthy. He was humorous. He was “down to earth.” He was a deeply committed Christian, but not stuffily pious. His office staff used to make jokes about he and I “spending the night together”- we did some all night shifts over his servers- but many of them would have been surprised at the theological content of our conversations. Some of those same staff seemed to confide in him as something of a father figure.
He was, if I describe him with a single word, virtuous. As I wandered around the Mall thinking about this week’s reading, it struck me how similar he is to my father and my mother's father. And also to a favourite school teacher who remains a friend and mentor. All of these folk are different. They all have faults and limitations and irritations in their makeup. But there is a deeply attractive air about them. This is virtue. They are good by second-nature.
I have begun this week’s First Impressions with this story because there are two ways to read Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount, and especially the verses chosen for this week. One is to read them as rules, in which case Jesus is getting into some really heavy hitting. The other way is to read Matthew, and the “Sermon,” as a description of Virtue.
This is not an original idea of mine. A Mailing List clergy colleague has outlined it very succinctly below. However, it does not seem a very common or well publicised understanding of Matthew. We tend to get ethics out of Matthew, but as my colleague Martin said, not “virtue ethics.”
I don’t know if you have heard of an ethical theory called Virtue Ethics. I hadn’t, until I went to Theological College. The idea of Virtue Ethics is that ethical behaviour is not a matter of adherence to rules. It consists rather of being virtuous. It is a state of being, rather than a code of behaviour. Virtuous people will do the right thing simply because they are good and they have no need of a list of rules. So rather than learning the rules, we need to cultivate virtue.
The Christian life is not a list of do’s and don’ts – it is about a transformation in your heart.
When I read The Gospel of Matthew as a description of Virtue Ethics (it is more than just this, of course,) it is transformed. It is no longer rules. It is a wonderful invitation to a new quality of life. It changes from a serious and weighty rendering of the Gospel, which can be profoundly depressing when my failures loom large in my memory, to invitation and promise and delight.
As I am meeting Matthew again this year I discern three streams of content, which we see best this week if we consider the whole of chapter five.
The First Stream:
Matthew tells the story in a way which further emphasise Jesus is Messiah. This clever strategy outflanks the people who say Jesus is supplanting the Law. Do not think, says Jesus that I have come to abolish the law (17). On the contrary, I have come to fulfil it. Not one little bit of it will pass away. (18) He makes music in the ears, for this one moment, of all the law’n’order brigade. Then comes the tri-tone: You have heard it said, but I say to you... multiple times, crashing into the carefully constructed harmony of all our legalism.
Understand what is happening here. If we take you have heard ... but I say to you as simple ethical imperatives, we are missing the point.
There is no doubt that Jesus is adding to the law by making us look at its implications or its “spirit.” He is, effectively, saying “You have heard it said, but I say to you... it goes much further than you realise! Don’t think you’re being virtuous because you have not made a play for so and so! Just lusting after her in your heart is the same thing. You’re still turning her from a human being into an object for your own purposes.” (Petty) But Matthew and Jesus are going much further than this sort of imperative.
Linthicum says of Jesus use of “Ego” to refer to himself:
It is emphatic, decisive, even defiant and offensive! “But I say to you!” F. Dale Bruner, who has written perhaps the most penetrating commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, states of this use of the “I”: “Jesus’ ‘I say to you’ adds no supporting authorities, no argument, no reasons, no justification, not even any Scripture, but remains all alone, as if by itself sufficient. Jesus is in effect relocating all religious and ethical authority – and here is the real contrast in all the antitheses – from the Torah to himself. From now on Jesus is Lord even over Scripture. Jesus does not displace Scripture. But now Jesus does assume messianic place over Scripture as Scripture’s authorized interpreter”
Jesus scandalises those of his listeners who are bound to the status quo, no matter how much other people may have delighted that he taught with authority and not like the scribes. (Matt 7:24ff) It strikes me that the only person I ever heard say bad things about my virtuous friend was a hard and sharp business man whose ethics were inherently judged by my friend’s virtue.
Virtue has its own reward, we are told. Part of the reward is outlined in Matthew 5:10-11: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.... If we seek to be a Jesus person, we too, become a judgement for some folk, who won’t thank us.
Virtue is cacophony to legalism and rule keeping. It has no rules. It is simply... good. It is untidy and messy. It struggles to see a way through dilemmas. It is wasteful and extravagant in its love. Without meaning to, it mocks the neatness of rules as it goes so much further. And it is a blessing.
The Second Stream:
Chapter Five is a whole. What we commonly call the Beatitudes are a description of Virtue or Holiness. The verses which follow are commentary and example, not a separate section. As such they are not rules.
Virtue goes further than Jesus’ commentary on hatred or lust. There are aspects of anger and hatred which Jesus does not cover. There are understandings of marriage and adultery which did not exist in Jesus’s day. We do not, for example, insist that adultery ends a marriage. (Loader) Rules always limit us as much as they protect us. Rules remind us of our foundation, but they are not the foundation. Our foundation is that Jesus-like and Jesus-inspired virtue which causes us to be blessed.
Virtue is what causes us to become whole. At the end of Chapter 5 Jesus says “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The word “perfect”, in its context, is more about completeness and wholeness than our modern sense of having no blemish or fault. The context of the verse is, again, You have heard that it was said... But I say to you.... It is not only the last example in the series, it is the completing example.
46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Virtue is so much more than rules. Everyone keeps rules. There is even honour among thieves... perhaps. We are called to much more than rules. And if we accept that invitation, we are blessed. In fact, this is virtue’s own reward! It is not pay-back-from-God type blessedness, where we have been good, so God blesses us. Instead, being God-like, “perfect as our heavenly father is perfect,” we share in the experience of God.
The Third Stream:
The third stream of content within Matthew 5 is, of course, the pieces of the Law which Matthew uses for his examples.
Anger, adultery, divorce, straight talking, retaliation and love are central to the human experience. (Robert Linthicum has written over 5,000 words in his weekly commentary on just the on four included in this week’s lectionary, and that is only a beginning.) In his examples Jesus chooses to deal with central aspects of our relationships with each other, not the tithing of dill and cumin. This is because virtue is central to successful relationships. Virtue, at its most basic, is about relationship, not abstract law.
Perhaps the key thing to remember in addition to the fact that these things are examples of something larger, is best summed up in the word “you.” You have heard... but I say to you...
Wherever you is used it is plural. All the way through this chapter Jesus is not speaking to me. It is “you-all” all the way through, from the blessings, to remembering the law as it was said, and on to hearing the new and greater law. Virtue, for the church, is not a solitary pursuit.
We are a new community of virtue. We are not rule keepers. Among us should be found generosity of spirit amongst merciful peacemakers who hunger and thirst after justice. People may be scandalised by us, but should never be bored or offended by stuffiness and legalism.
Andrew Prior Feb 2011
Direct Biblical quotations in this page are taken from The New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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