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<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4>The middle-aged, unadventurous
hobbits Frodo Baggins and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Samwise Gamgee are mysteriously
elected to destroy the Ring of</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Mordor—which, because it grants its
bearer unassailable power, is</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4>the treasure sought by the Dark Lord
Sauron bent on dominating</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Middle-earth. What draws us into
their tale?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4>“The hobbits’ struggles are our own.
Like the other nobodies of</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT color=#000000 size=4>this world, we remain at one with the
hobbits in being summoned to</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4>resist—if not to defeat—the enormous forces of
evil,”</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4><A
href="http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/Inklingsstudyguide4.pdf">http://www.baylor.edu/christianethics/Inklingsstudyguide4.pdf</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT color=#000000
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Robert B. Kruschwitz, 2004</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT color=#000000 size=4>- - - -
-</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT
color=#000000 size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT
size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT color=#000000 size=4><FONT face=TimesNewRoman>
<DIV align=left>The measure of justice and righteousness is finally taken by the
standard of mercy. This</DIV>
<DIV align=left>may seem to be a strange way to order a society, and it is
probably not being advocated as public</DIV>
<DIV align=left>policy. The logic of such a system is completely dependent upon
an astonishing vision of mercy</DIV>
<DIV align=left>which transforms one’s entire perception of reality. Only those
who have been forgiven much</DIV>
<DIV align=left>could ever grasp it. Only those who have been loved beyond all
deserving could begin enacting</DIV>
<DIV>such a program with a straight face.</DIV></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT color=#000000
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT color=#000000 size=4><A
href="http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/4-1_1984/4-1_Tiede.pdf">http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/4-1_1984/4-1_Tiede.pdf</A></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT
color=#000000 size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4>David L. Tiede, 1984</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT
color=#000000 size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Stories like Carol’s and Larry’s may be most
powerful of all. In 1999, their twenty-six year old daughter Amy was killed in a
mugging. She was a social worker living in Brooklyn and on her way home from a
support group meeting for abused women. Amy was an ordinary girl from Kansas,
good looking and loving. She was killed with a knife on the streets of New York
carrying her groceries home from work. Her murder went unsolved for 17 months
before a tip led police to Margo’s son. He confessed. Instead of enmity and
revenge, Carol and Larry offered Margo friendship. They have bonded they say.
"Margo is our sister in Christ," Carol declares. It is a Matthew 5:44 story, one
of the rare ones.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4><></FONT></DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4>
<DIV align=justify>"Perfect", it turns out, is not only a sermon in itself but
the theme that makes sense of the entire passage. Whether you translate it
"complete" or "true", "integrated" or "whole", it underlines and unites all that
Jesus has said so far: you are to love as God loves, wholly, completely,
consistently. In such love is the fuel for the kind of radical forgiveness and
generosity Jesus lives and teaches.</DIV>
<DIV align=justify> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000><FONT color=#000000 size=4><A
href="http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28">http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28</A></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000><FONT color=#000000><FONT
color=#000000></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT color=#000000><FONT
color=#000000>
<DIV align=justify><FONT size=4>Jana Childers, 2011</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Loving, praying for, and forgiving one's enemy is an extension
of Jesus' broader teaching about the perfection of God (5:48). In typical
fashion, Jesus provides an intriguing image to capture the meaning of this
quality of God, one that God's followers should emulate. Later in
Matthew's story, Jesus confronts a rich man, who has faithfully followed the
commandments of his religious tradition (cf. 19:16-22). This man still
recognizes that something is missing (19:20). Jesus' response is shocking:
"sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor" (19:21). Like most
of us, this man can't carry out that challenge. Only in Matthew's account
is such an action classified as what it means to be "perfect" (<I>teleios</I>;
19:21). This is the type of maturity Jesus desires from his
followers. Jesus' teaching stems from a theological conviction that since
God is perfect, so should the followers of God be. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=2/20/2011">http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=2/20/2011</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Emerson Powery, 2011</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>...the translation, "Do not resist an evildoer"
fails to convey the full meaning of the underlying Greek. It would be better
translated as, "Do not <STRONG>violently</STRONG> resist an evildoer." Thus the
teaching is primarily about non-violence. It is not about acquiescing to
evil.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>..."to love" our enemies does
<STRONG>NOT</STRONG> mean to try and feel affection for them.
<P>It means to be attached to them; to be devoted to them; to be loyal to them;
to be bonded with them; to join one's fate with theirs; to seek for their
welfare, their fair and just treatment. And to behave outwardly in ways
that correspond with our inner attachment.</P>
<P>Yikes. Maybe it would be easier to try and merely like our
enemies.</P></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT><A
href="http://www.holytextures.com/2011/02/matthew-5-38-48-year-a-epiphany-7-february-18-february-24-sermon.html">http://www.holytextures.com/2011/02/matthew-5-38-48-year-a-epiphany-7-february-18-february-24-sermon.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>David Ewart, 2011</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>In her book <EM>The Twelve Steps to a
Compassionate Life</EM>, Karen Armstrong begins by writing about our "reptilian
brain," the one that is still present underneath the more developed brain. The
"reptilian brain" is responsible for the fight/flight response in animals and
the need for revenge and retribution. It is a necessary part of life when danger
is near and a quick response is necessary, but it is not attuned to living in
societies nor, one might say, for the life of faith. In that sense, Jesus is
inviting the crowds to consider embracing a life that is in many ways counter to
our very basest instincts for survival. He is outpacing our reptilian brain with
a call to the highest and best within us, to raise our sights and join him in
creating a more compassionate world, and to create among us a true community of
respect based on self-giving.<BR><></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>The final sentences of the passage have also
caused some confusion. The directive to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is
perfect" has caused some a good deal of anxiety as they drive toward perfection,
as they would imagine God to be perfect. In our hectic, ego-driven world, this
directive can become a spiritual legitimation for all sorts of Type A activity,
from physical beauty and intellectual acumen, to spiritual heroics of all kinds.
However, as Fred Craddock writes, "'Perfect' can also be translated 'complete'
or 'mature.' It is not here referring to moral flawlessness but to love that is
not partial or immature" (<EM>Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year
A</EM>). To be perfect is to love in the way God loves, to practice the way of
compassion and giving as God has demonstrated it to us in Jesus. Because this
perfection has to do with love, which is self-giving, it is geared toward the
other, and has little to do with our concepts of perfection. In fact, the
perfect life might just be seen as the life of love for God, for self, and for
others (which of course, are the two gospel commandments) that takes us out of
our nervous self-concern into relationships within community. In fact, "the root
meaning of the word 'perfect' is undivided, whole, complete," Ronald J. Allen
writes, and "it means perfection in the sense of treating people in the same way
that God treats people in the divine realm" </FONT></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></DIV>
<DIV><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#000000><FONT color=#000000><FONT
color=#000000 size=4><A
href="http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/february-20-2011-seventh-sunday-1.html">http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/february-20-2011-seventh-sunday-1.html</A></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Mark J. Suriano, 2011 </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
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