Words of Welcome

Matthew 5:38-48 This morning we return to our journey through Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. One of the basic premises of this sermon is that if we want to be disciples of Jesus, then our righteousness, our sense of justice, and our character must exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 5:17). In our last installment we heard Jesus push on our understanding of the Law, by calling on the people of God to internalize God’s teachings so that not only will we live right, but our hearts will be transformed. This morning we continue what we began in the last sermon of this series by listening to Jesus’ call for us to embrace the “law of love.” As we saw in the last leg of the journey, Jesus says to the people: “You’ve heard it said . . . But I say to you . . .” In this morning’s text Jesus does this two more times. First he speaks to retaliation and then he speaks to loving our enemies. If you look closely, you see that these are two sides of the same coin. 1. Beyond the L...

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 I don’t like to meddle in people’s lives, that is, unless, of course, they’re family members. That’s a whole different story! The reason I don’t like meddling from the pulpit is that when you start pointing fingers at the moral and ethical lapses of your church members, they’ve been known to point fingers back at you. So, when it comes to things like sex and food and drink – I try to leave things well enough alone. Of course, Paul doesn’t have any of my qualms. He’s quite happy to point fingers, and he isn’t afraid of having them pointed back at him. Alas, he’s braver than me! 1. The Personal: Sex, food, and Other Addictions The Corinthian letters, one of which we’re dealing with today, deal with a lot of moral and ethical issues. It seems that this church had more than its share of problems, with and sex and food right at the top of their list of concerns. It shouldn’t be surprising to us that this congregation struggled with what we would call addictive behavior...