“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Let your yes be yes, and your no, no.

Love your enemies.

Be ye perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect (as the King James would have it, on the last one).

Here are some of Jesus's most famous teachings. But they are not the easiest. Anything that has "Be ye perfect" at the end of it, isn't going to be the simplest instruction. Even if we understand that "perfect" means "whole," that hardly erases the difficulty. We're fractured and torn people, within ourselves and outside ourselves. Being whole doesn't come naturally to us. But Jesus isn't showing us what comes naturally. He is showing us the supernatural way of the Kingdom of God.

These last three case studies in the Law continue from where Jesus left us last week. If last week concerned how we treat others, this week concerns how we pursue the peace of God. One point that can often be missed is that Jesus is not advocating accepting the evil in the world as the way things have to be.

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“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.”

Someone once joked that if their family had a motto, it would be this: Well, that escalated quickly. How relatable!

One day your toddler tries strawberries for the first time. The next day they refuse to eat anything that’s not a berry. Well, that escalated quickly.

One daughter annoyingly pokes her sister. A few pokes later, and the sister punches the daughter in the face. Well, that escalated quickly.

Your spouse casually mentions the idea of a vacation, and within the month you’re signed up for a retreat in the Dominican Republic with new passports on the way. Well, that escalated quickly.

Jesus internalizes the Laws so that his internal desires and motivations reflect God’s wisdom and reign in the kingdom of heaven.

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“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” - from Matthew 5:17-20

The movie Lilo & Stitch begins with the trial of mad scientist Dr. Jumba and his failed Experiment 626–also known as “Stitch.” Dr. Jumba created 626 to have incredible learning capabilities, which it did. Unfortunately, the experiment also turned out to be aggressive, near-indestructible, and have a downright evil side.

This opening is a common Hollywood motif–some genius creates life, only for their creation to go wrong and be left to their own devices. Planet of the Apes, Spy Kids 2, and Jurassic Park all portray the results of a massively failed experiment.

Sometimes I wonder if the Sermon on the Mount feels a bit like one of Hollywood’s failed experiments. After all, God created this world and everything in it, down to every atom. According to Jesus, the kingdom of heaven has come. This sounds nice and all, but what are we to think when things don’t reflect God’s will on earth as it is in heaven?

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This, then, is how you should pray:

Epiphany, the season after Advent, is a time when the Church traditionally celebrates the realization of Jesus Christ's coming, especially his inclusion of Jews and Gentiles.

Instead of a traditional Epiphany series on the Wise Men, we're going to study Jesus' most famous manifesto: the Sermon on the Mount. We can be tempted to divide this grand sermon into small proverbs. But Jesus is doing more than mere moral teaching here.

Jesus is transforming our very desires so that the will of God may be revealed and done, here in Muncie as it is in heaven.

One rarely thinks of Paul's message to the Corinthians as a Christmas passage. But whenever I read 1 Corinthians 1, I think of this famous Christmas story in Luke.

In that letter, Paul writes of God's people:

"God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him."- 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (NIV)

We do not need to look further than these first chapters of Luke to see that Paul is correct about Paul's habit. God chooses Bethlehem, the beleaguered small backwater of Bethlehem under Roman rule; he silences the priest Zachariah's doubt; God welcomes the questions of poor Mary.

The peace of God comes and turns our expectations and, even more, the whole world upside down.

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"I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth," the prophet proclaims (Zephaniah 3:19) - From Zephaniah 3:14-20 (Old Testament, Candle Lighting Reading)

Meanwhile, John the Baptist, proclaims, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Luke 3:7) - From Luke 3:7-18 (New Testament Reading)

"It's Friday, but Sunday's Coming!" S. M. Lockridge was a famous preacher who popularized that phase.

We might also say, "It's Advent, but Christmas is coming."

One of the most simple and captivating images which helps us understand a key Advent theme: that the world we live in awaits the invasion of God's grace while existing "in territory held largely by the devil" (Flannery O'Connor) comes from a children's novel.

C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. The White Witch is in control of Narnia, in the first book The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. And while she reigns it is, "Always Winter, and Never Christmas." It's a terrible state, for sure.

When we read the prophets, as we often do around Advent, it can be tempting to read the promises and to not allow ourselves to marvel at the situation in which the prophets spoke. We do this, especially because, we do not read the whole prophetic letters. We read portions that fit on an image we could share to social media, or put on a Christmas card. But what is striking is that these prophetic promises come to people who do not know "Sunday is coming," or that Christmas will arrive, or that anything, ever, could look better.

But imagine how these words of the prophets would sound if you did not stand on the side of history in which we now stand. What if you did not know Christmas was on the other side of these Advent words of judgment? What if you did not know resurrection Sunday was coming after the crucifixion of Good Friday?

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"...the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." - From Luke 3:1-6

"But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire" Malachi says of the Lord's Judgment, even as he promises a messenger, an Elijah to come ahead of the day of the Lord. (Malachi 3:2).

This Elijah coming before the Day of the Lord, Christians (and Jesus himself!) associate with John the Baptist, a figure about as cuddly as a cactus. Yet, gruff as he may be, John the Baptist has a message for us that is truly good news. A weary world is unprepared to see God or God's salvation, so the landscape must, and will, change by God's action. John testifies to the one who comes after him. He testifies to Jesus.

Preparing to see the salvation of the Lord, we change our hearts and lives. What is wrong that has been exalted and celebrated? Let it be brought down. Where has what God has called good been trampled? Let it be lifted. And what's more, let judgment start with me, with you, with us. As 1 Peter 4:17 says, "For it is time for judgment to begin with God's household."

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“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.

“‘In those days and at that time

- From Jeremiah 33:14-16

The following sermon preview, which reveals our Advent Focus this year, is a preview of what can be found in the upcoming December issue of The Visitor publication. The Visitor can always be found on our publications page on the church website and is a wonderful way to learn more about the life of the church.

It’s nearly impossible to think of a more Christmas-y Christmas hymn than “O Holy Night.” The song is about the night itself, the first Christmas. And yet, the stage from which the triumphant chorus bursts is undeniably “Advent.”

The first stanza speaks of the long pining of the world, pining that is, “until he appeared” bringing with him “the thrill of hope.” It is then, “The weary world rejoices.”

That is the title of our focus this Advent. Before we can get to the new and glorious morn, we should recognize the world that waits is tired, weary, and in need. When Christ arrives, and this will be true in his second advent (coming) just as it was his first, he does not come to a world full of light, warmly expecting his visit as friends. Christ’s light, life, and freedom come not to a world all accustomed to that reality (and just needing a bit of a refill of it), but a world filled with darkness, death, and bondage – aching in expectation for a long, long time.

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“The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure.” -excerpt from Psalm 93

I can’t hear the word “forever” without thinking about the movie The Sandlot. After Smalls hits his step-dad’s signed Babe Ruth baseball across the forbidden fence, he finds himself at a campout where his friends tell him the tale of the murderous Beast who lives behind the Sandlot. Small’s ball is gone, according to Squints, “FOR-EH-VER! FOR-EH-VER! FOR-EH-VER!” Even if Squints’ story of the Beast seems ridiculous, the timelessness of his warning has an eeriness about it. We struggle to imagine anything that lasts forever. And we worry that whatever we’re stuck with indefinitely will even be worth having.

But as Christians, forever should have a totally different connotation.

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“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.” -excerpt from 1 Corinthians 8 (NIV)

Have you ever wanted to do something because you saw a friend do it? Not something bad, just something different that you wouldn’t usually have thought to do on your own.

After school, I rode the bus to my friends’ house to play until my parents got home from school. One year after Black Friday, I learned that their mom hid all my friends’ Christmas presents in the hall closet upstairs. Being the nosey person that I am and wanting to be in on the secret of what my friends were getting for Christmas, I ran upstairs to snoop in the closet. After all, who cares if I knew what gifts my friends were getting?

My friends’ eyes grew wide with fear as they realized what I was up to. They sprinted up the stairs after me and yelled. They blocked me from the hall closet door and begged me not to open it. I remember looking at them very confused. Why did it matter if I looked?

My friends said if they knew I snooped through the presents, even if they weren’t around, they would just be too tempted to snoop too. They really didn’t want to ruin Christmas for themselves or their mom. But they also knew they didn’t have enough self-control to keep themselves from snooping with me.

I didn’t want to ruin their Christmas either. So I left the closet alone. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter to me what they were getting for Christmas, so if they felt so strongly, I figured I could give up my opportunity to snoop for my friends. In the end, by sacrificing a bit of my freedom, we ended up coming together all the more, as we mutually dreamed together what Christmas morning would be like.

It’s funny how giving up some of our personal freedoms can actually turn into a bridge that unites us with others. Perhaps we are united by one liberty given by God to serve others over ourselves.

Read more at fbcmuncie.org/blog.