Jesus To Us - You Need To Pay Attention

For March 7,2011
All Scripture from The Message

In today’s scripture Jesus completes the Sermon on the Mount. In it he stresses the importance of incorporating the words he spoke into the way in which we live our lives. One summary of his words might be found in this quote:

Max De Pree, the well-known businessman and leadership author, is fond of saying that beliefs shape practices. If you want to know what you truly believe, you only need to examine your behaviors. Commentary on Gospel by Richard Beaton - WorkingPreacher.org

Jesus said it this way:

Matthew 7:21-23"Knowing the correct password—saying 'Master, Master,' for instance— isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'

These are hard words, soul shaking words, words about our basic motivations for the things we do and say:
• Have you ever felt the need to know the correct format and words to use in a religious service or in group or personal prayer? What were some of the reasons that you felt that way? Are there benefits to having form and structure in community worship?
• Have there been times in your secular life when knowing the proper way to behave or words to say was important (think of a wedding for instance)? What motivated you to conform to the accepted practice?
• Has acting or speaking in the expected way ever given you feelings of insincerity or just going through the motions? How might we connect these feelings to Jesus’ words, “Knowing the correct password – is not going to get you anywhere with me”?
• The people come to Jesus at the Final Judgment saying essentially, “See, I have carried out the Great Commission – make disciples of all nations.” What is Jesus’ response to them? Why do you think that he said that they had, “missed the boat”?
• It seems that he might be referring to motivation, what drives our involvement in what would seem to be the appropriate behaviors and practices for a believer. What is Jesus’ take on what motivated them? How were they making themselves important?
• Do you think that there are examples from our times of endeavors undertaken in the name of religion that might receive this kind of evaluation from Jesus? But Jesus tells us earlier in the Sermon on the Mount to not hide our light under a bushel basket; can you reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements?
• The second sentence might give us some ideas; how does he define “serious obedience”? Have you ever felt moved to do something by the gentle (or not so gentle) nudging of the spirit? Have you ever responded to a request to take on a responsibility or become involved in a project for the same reason? On the other hand have you ever done something because it was the ‘right thing to do”? Was there any difference in how you went about or felt about the one against the other?

This is not an easy teaching – how do we really act in a way Jesus laid out in the Sermon on the Mount? What can we learn about the motivations for his actions? Matthew tells us that in preparation for a collision with the temptations of the world that Jesus spent 40 fasting in the wilderness. We find him in prayer time and time again. Is it hard for us to begin to have this kind of intensity in our faith lives? He said “pick up your cross and follow me” – tough stuff.

But there are important benefits in living out his teaching:

Matthew 7:24-25"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
26-27"But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards."

• What are we told about the words he spoke in the Sermon on the Mount? What are we to do with them?
• Have you ever had a traumatic event in your life that mitigated in some way by your faith? Did you have a sense that you were “fixed to a rock”? If it hasn’t happened to you do you know someone for whom it has?
• What are some things that make what we learn in our faith life difficult to incorporate in the life we live? Will our attempts to live our faith always be successful or be motivated entirely by the Spirit? Should we be discouraged or handle it in another way? How?

What can we learn from Jesus?

Matthew 7:28-29 When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard.

• What brought Jesus’ words credibility? Wouldn’t it be great is we could even begin to approach that kind of credibility for ourselves?

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Closing Prayer

Holy God, when we seek you, meet us. When we try to flee from your presence, come into our midst. Open us to the many ways you reveal yourself, and prepare us to journey by the leading of Jesus the Christ. Amen. Seasons of the Spirit

Next Week’s Lectionary Scriptures: Psalm 32, Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7, Romans 5:12-19, Matthew 4:1-11