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Epiphany A, February 19, 2017
Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18 Psalm 119:33-40
1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23 Matthew 5:38-48
People who are serious in their practice one of the various forms of martial arts know that martial arts in their origin are not just for exercise or self defense. They certainly are not for aggressive behaviors. Martial arts at their best are holistic ways of life requiring a discipline to discover a life force, a "chi," and to channel this life force in practice into everything that one does in life. The life of martial arts is a life of discipline and like many spiritual traditions, they were developed in times when people needed a special art of living within some very difficult situations of life.
Using the martial arts ideals as a model, I believe that the Sermon on the Mount teaching of Jesus Christ could be characterized as its own form of martial arts.
I think Jesus Christ came to restore a holistic martial arts-like tradition into the religion of his time. Religion that has lost its holistic practice becomes just a bunch of prescribed religious behaviors by the clergy, the religious authorities, in order to corral people into religious social clubs. And these kind of religious social clubs are fine; they serve a purpose for people to maintain themselves in certain society but what Jesus found in his time is that the religious society of his time and place were mainly constituted for negotiating on behalf of Jews living under Roman control in Palestine. The religious parties tended to favor the Jews who had more power and prestige and those parties did not want to upset the Roman authorities. Religion in Palestine involved maintaining a separate identity under Roman rule and so the outer signs of Jewishness were very important to the maintenance of that identity. The great Law of Judaism had become the legalistic practice for the Jews to maintain their separate identity within the Roman Empire. By stressing the legalistic practices of separation from the Gentiles, what was lost was the Law as a way of life to convert all people to God's goodness. What was lost was the desire to convert the Roman overlords to the goodness of the Torah.
The early Christians were those who believed that they had to go beyond the outer signs of Judaism to find a better way to live with the Roman situation. Rome and the Caesar were not going to go away. How does one live best within the actual conditions of the Roman Empire?
The early Christians found in the life of Jesus Christ the beginning of a holistic, Holy Spirit martial arts way of living. I would submit to you that the Sermon on the Mount teaching attributed to the Risen Christ within the churches that wrote the Gospel of Matthew, this Sermon on the Mount, gives the best account of the Christian, Holy Spirit, holistic program of martial art living.
What are some on the insights of the Sermon on the Mount martial arts program?
First, with wisdom use every life situation as the occasion for the experience of blessing. Jesus listed lots of seemingly hopeless and defeating life situations. Jesus said to live with an inner wisdom which allows one to transform the negative experiences into a state of blessedness. The sermon on the mount is the ultimate program of taking the lemons of life and making lemonade. To be able to do this required a special awareness and attention and the early church had a program of spiritual transformation to teach this martial arts alchemy of transmuting the dull lead of life experience into the golden state of blessedness.
Second, the Sermon on the Mount involved the art of self control. This was an art learned through prayer and discovering the power of God's Holy Spirit within oneself. With prayer one leashed the power of the death of Christ to die to ones own selfish ego state and discover the arising within oneself of the Risen Christ. If one could find within oneself love, joy, peace, faith, hope, gentleness, goodness, patience, courage and self control, then one could discover the life assets to be able to take on the challenges of living as a religious minority within the Roman Empire.
Third, the Sermon on the Mount was meant to be a martial arts program of evangelism. The followers of Jesus were not to live as ghetto communities within the Roman Empire; they were constituted to convert the many people of the Roman Empire to Gospel of Jesus Christ. The old categories of slave/free, Jew/Gentile, male/female, rich/poor, were to be broken down. The designation of another person as an enemy was to be overcome? How? By the practice of non-retaliation. If someone hits you and you don't seek revenge but seek peace. If you do this, you have a greater occasion to convert them to goodness. If someone slaps you and you with a martial artistic turning of the cheek to lessen the blow and not responding in kind, your witness of peaceful passive resistance makes them take account of the force of your life which enable such control.
Roman soldiers had the right to require citizenry to carry about 100 pounds of equipment for one mile. If you want to thank that soldier for his service and want to convert him to your way of life, it would make sense to walk an extra mile. In that extra mile you might be able to tell him about the good news in your life. You are doing more than simply thanking him by doing something akin to giving up your seat on an airplane for a soldier; you are inviting him into your life. And what about the legal phenomenon of enemies created by lawsuits? What if you give up the practice of suing and countersuing other people? What if you look behind a lawsuit against you and see someone in need and help them out by giving them your coat? What have you done? You have lived evangelistically. You have overcome their evil with the good news of the Gospel. Can we appreciate how the Sermon on the Mount was a Christian martial arts program which was used to convert the people living in the Roman Empire?
Last of all in the Christian martial arts, the law is fulfilled because you have made the goal of your life to discover the perfection of God. Who is God? God is perfect. God is love. And when Christian martial arts is able to channel and express the love of God in Jesus Christ, one actually participates in the perfection of God. St. Paul said to love is to fulfill the law. To love well, and always, is to discover the secret of Christian martial arts.
Let us embrace the Christian martial arts program as prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount today. It is still relevant. How do we do it? We embrace through submissive prayer the power of the death of Jesus to die to selfishness and allow the experience of the rising power of God Spirit in our lives. With this super "chi" force of the Holy Spirit, we seek to transform every situation of our lives to the state of blessing. We learn the kind of self control which allows us to adjust into contentment to every situation in life that comes to us. We learn to overcome the "apparent" enemies of our lives with winsome evangelism. We learn not to retaliate and react; we refuse to mimic someone's bad behavior towards us with an equally bad behavior of our own. We overcome ill will against us by sharing good news to win and convert others who are cursed to live in such states of aggression. And finally, we embrace God's perfection as our goal and our law. God's perfection is love and when we channel love in our lives we are participating in God's perfection.
Let's all stand now and do a respectful martial bow toward the altar of our Lord and Master. Let us receive the communion of his presence again within us today and recommit ourselves to this holistic Christian martial arts program that has been given to us by Jesus Christ. Amen.
Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18 Psalm 119:33-40
1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23 Matthew 5:38-48
People who are serious in their practice one of the various forms of martial arts know that martial arts in their origin are not just for exercise or self defense. They certainly are not for aggressive behaviors. Martial arts at their best are holistic ways of life requiring a discipline to discover a life force, a "chi," and to channel this life force in practice into everything that one does in life. The life of martial arts is a life of discipline and like many spiritual traditions, they were developed in times when people needed a special art of living within some very difficult situations of life.
Using the martial arts ideals as a model, I believe that the Sermon on the Mount teaching of Jesus Christ could be characterized as its own form of martial arts.
I think Jesus Christ came to restore a holistic martial arts-like tradition into the religion of his time. Religion that has lost its holistic practice becomes just a bunch of prescribed religious behaviors by the clergy, the religious authorities, in order to corral people into religious social clubs. And these kind of religious social clubs are fine; they serve a purpose for people to maintain themselves in certain society but what Jesus found in his time is that the religious society of his time and place were mainly constituted for negotiating on behalf of Jews living under Roman control in Palestine. The religious parties tended to favor the Jews who had more power and prestige and those parties did not want to upset the Roman authorities. Religion in Palestine involved maintaining a separate identity under Roman rule and so the outer signs of Jewishness were very important to the maintenance of that identity. The great Law of Judaism had become the legalistic practice for the Jews to maintain their separate identity within the Roman Empire. By stressing the legalistic practices of separation from the Gentiles, what was lost was the Law as a way of life to convert all people to God's goodness. What was lost was the desire to convert the Roman overlords to the goodness of the Torah.
The early Christians were those who believed that they had to go beyond the outer signs of Judaism to find a better way to live with the Roman situation. Rome and the Caesar were not going to go away. How does one live best within the actual conditions of the Roman Empire?
The early Christians found in the life of Jesus Christ the beginning of a holistic, Holy Spirit martial arts way of living. I would submit to you that the Sermon on the Mount teaching attributed to the Risen Christ within the churches that wrote the Gospel of Matthew, this Sermon on the Mount, gives the best account of the Christian, Holy Spirit, holistic program of martial art living.
What are some on the insights of the Sermon on the Mount martial arts program?
First, with wisdom use every life situation as the occasion for the experience of blessing. Jesus listed lots of seemingly hopeless and defeating life situations. Jesus said to live with an inner wisdom which allows one to transform the negative experiences into a state of blessedness. The sermon on the mount is the ultimate program of taking the lemons of life and making lemonade. To be able to do this required a special awareness and attention and the early church had a program of spiritual transformation to teach this martial arts alchemy of transmuting the dull lead of life experience into the golden state of blessedness.
Second, the Sermon on the Mount involved the art of self control. This was an art learned through prayer and discovering the power of God's Holy Spirit within oneself. With prayer one leashed the power of the death of Christ to die to ones own selfish ego state and discover the arising within oneself of the Risen Christ. If one could find within oneself love, joy, peace, faith, hope, gentleness, goodness, patience, courage and self control, then one could discover the life assets to be able to take on the challenges of living as a religious minority within the Roman Empire.
Third, the Sermon on the Mount was meant to be a martial arts program of evangelism. The followers of Jesus were not to live as ghetto communities within the Roman Empire; they were constituted to convert the many people of the Roman Empire to Gospel of Jesus Christ. The old categories of slave/free, Jew/Gentile, male/female, rich/poor, were to be broken down. The designation of another person as an enemy was to be overcome? How? By the practice of non-retaliation. If someone hits you and you don't seek revenge but seek peace. If you do this, you have a greater occasion to convert them to goodness. If someone slaps you and you with a martial artistic turning of the cheek to lessen the blow and not responding in kind, your witness of peaceful passive resistance makes them take account of the force of your life which enable such control.
Roman soldiers had the right to require citizenry to carry about 100 pounds of equipment for one mile. If you want to thank that soldier for his service and want to convert him to your way of life, it would make sense to walk an extra mile. In that extra mile you might be able to tell him about the good news in your life. You are doing more than simply thanking him by doing something akin to giving up your seat on an airplane for a soldier; you are inviting him into your life. And what about the legal phenomenon of enemies created by lawsuits? What if you give up the practice of suing and countersuing other people? What if you look behind a lawsuit against you and see someone in need and help them out by giving them your coat? What have you done? You have lived evangelistically. You have overcome their evil with the good news of the Gospel. Can we appreciate how the Sermon on the Mount was a Christian martial arts program which was used to convert the people living in the Roman Empire?
Last of all in the Christian martial arts, the law is fulfilled because you have made the goal of your life to discover the perfection of God. Who is God? God is perfect. God is love. And when Christian martial arts is able to channel and express the love of God in Jesus Christ, one actually participates in the perfection of God. St. Paul said to love is to fulfill the law. To love well, and always, is to discover the secret of Christian martial arts.
Let us embrace the Christian martial arts program as prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount today. It is still relevant. How do we do it? We embrace through submissive prayer the power of the death of Jesus to die to selfishness and allow the experience of the rising power of God Spirit in our lives. With this super "chi" force of the Holy Spirit, we seek to transform every situation of our lives to the state of blessing. We learn the kind of self control which allows us to adjust into contentment to every situation in life that comes to us. We learn to overcome the "apparent" enemies of our lives with winsome evangelism. We learn not to retaliate and react; we refuse to mimic someone's bad behavior towards us with an equally bad behavior of our own. We overcome ill will against us by sharing good news to win and convert others who are cursed to live in such states of aggression. And finally, we embrace God's perfection as our goal and our law. God's perfection is love and when we channel love in our lives we are participating in God's perfection.
Let's all stand now and do a respectful martial bow toward the altar of our Lord and Master. Let us receive the communion of his presence again within us today and recommit ourselves to this holistic Christian martial arts program that has been given to us by Jesus Christ. Amen.
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