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Become What You Are

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time : 9 February 2014  : Matthew 5: 13-16

Ask somebody off the street, who doesn’t go to Church, about which Christians they admire and they are highly likely to mention people like Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer. Poll the general public about which religious organisations have their respect and trust and they are likely to put down the Salvation Army, or if they live in Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland, the local City Mission. These are perceived to be humanitarian organisations that put care of the poor first and God bothering second. Similarly, Mother Teresa and Albert Schweitzer were praised for giving up comfortable religious life styles to serve the most miserable people on earth.

Secular people like us when we are full of good works. They find it easier to fit us into the category of the useful and the beneficial when we are helpers and lookers after. That is particularly the case in a pragmatic, practical, down to earth culture like New Zealand’s.

Looking back on my years in Addington there was an irony at the centre of my ministry there. As co-coordinator of the Addington Neighbourhood Association I seemed to enjoy right of entry into just about any house in the suburb. As editor of the Neighbourhood Association’s monthly newsletter my views and news were widely read with interest and appreciation. As spiritual leader of the local Anglican community of faith my privileges and access points were somewhat more limited.

The popular image of humanitarian Christians often lacks the full picture of who these people were, and what made them tick. Albert Schweitzer, for instance, wasn’t just a leprosy doctor. He was also a New Testament theologian of avante garde views. And Mother Teresa wasn’t just a kind nun who looked after dying people in India. She was also a hard line, conservative, Albanian Catholic who was known to get down on her knees in front of North Atlantic lecture audiences and beg them to have nothing to do with abortion. Similarly, Salvation Army officers in my experience tend to be conservative, evangelical pietists who are at least as interested in converting people as in giving them a bowl of soup.

Still, image is all in the eyes of the public. And they are on to something important. Isaiah and Matthew made it very clear to us this morning that we are to let our light shine so that seeing our good works unbelievers will give glory to God. People who are puzzled about faith and God are often attracted to these wonderful realities if they can see that they give birth to acts of kindness, and compassion, and practical generosity in our lives.

I doubt if there is one person in Church this morning who would disagree with the notion that a religious faith that amounts to anything ought to result in acts of loving service to other people. But what about the objection that Martin Luther would want to raise at this point? What about the theological issue that he raised that sparked off the Protestant Reformation? Just exactly what are these good deeds worth in the eyes of God?

Luther was on to something important when he pointed out that none of us can earn our way into God’s good books by good deeds. None of us can put God in our debt by acts of financial generosity to the poor and the Church. None of us can gain relational or emotional leverage on God because of all the brownie points we racked up by being kind to people.

We can recognise a deep down emotional and relational truth here. Often when we love someone deeply but are unsure of their love for us we try and earn their love by countless acts of thoughtfulness. How angry we become when they don’t notice and don’t reciprocate. "After all I have done for you," is the cry that comes from the heart as the row begins that ends in tears.

But of course love is a spontaneous gift that can never be earned. It is often gratuitously given to people who did nothing to deserve it. Fairness has got nothing to do with it.

But Martin Luther wasn’t an agony Aunt or a relationship expert. He had an important theological issue in mind. What makes us right with God? What brings us peace with God? What brings us into effective relationship with God? The answer said Luther is that naked act of trust in which we place ourselves in the hands of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Faith is about trust. It is about putting our confidence in God. It is about that "yes" we whisper in the most secret and true part of us.

Justification by faith is the technical name for this insight. Underneath the big words there is a simple truth about love. Love is about trusting someone else. Maybe that is a good question for us to take away from this Service. How much do I trust the people I love who are close to me? How much do I trust God? Or am I in the business of trying to earn love because I am unsure whether I am truly loved?

What about Matthew’s gospel then? Isn’t it in sharp disagreement with Martin Luther? Throughout this year we are going to be hearing Matthew hold out an apparent clear judgment criterion for a believers life, just as he did this morning- good deeds. Remember that famous scene called the Great Assize where the risen Jesus applies the same judgment criterion to believers and unbelievers alike with those surprising questions-did you visit me in prison, did you come to see me when I was sick, did you take me in when I was homeless?

But Matthew isn’t a justification by works man. His message to us this morning is, "become what you are." When we became believers, when we were baptised-at that very moment we became the light of the world. We became the ones whom God loves, whose love now reflects off us to light up the dark and dismal places of the world. As trust in God becomes the central motivator of our life then we grow into people who naturally and normally think of going about doing good to people. Standing in the light isn’t something we are struggling our way towards. We are there already. One of the names the early Church had for baptism was "photismos," standing in the light.

So, "become what you truly are," is the watchword for us. And it is the programme for the rest of our lives.