Sermon: The End Justifies the Means

Matthew 5:38-48

What a rich text. . . What a challenging text. . . Isn’t it a difficult one? There’s so much to think about here. . . Turn the other cheek. . .Give the cloak as well. . .Go the second mile. . . Love your enemies. These are some of Jesus’ most challenging teachings. But like the other parts of the Sermon on the Mount that we’ve studied this semester, this passage is life-giving too. And it’s life-transforming as well.

You know, this passage has had a big impact historically. This text has been foundational for a lot of Christian pacifist movements throughout the centuries. And certain Christian communities have been created out of these pacifist movements – movements that have taught that violence should never be used no matter the cost.

The Anabaptists were one group who operated this way. The Anabaptists lived during the time of the Reformation when cities, towns, and villages in Europe were being torn apart in conflict – not only verbal conflict or theological conflict, but in the physical conflict of religious war. These conflicts were happening as individuals and government leaders and larger communities were breaking away from some of the teachings and practices of the Roman Church. The Anabaptists were persecuted for their beliefs and practices and often killed for them. They believed that they should not resist the persecution that came their way – at least, not with physical violence in return. From the Anabaptists, we get the modern Hutterites, the Mennonites, and the Amish – all pacifist groups that live in various places in the world today.

We also have the Quakers, another Pacifist group. Maybe when you hear that name, the first thing that comes to your mind is the Quaker Oats guy. You know what? I found a picture of William Penn today, the Quaker who founded Pennsylvania after he was pushed out his home because of religious persecution. And you know what? William Penn really does look like the Quaker Oats guy! (At least in this picture).

But Quakers are known for much, much more than oatmeal! The official name of the Quakers today is the Society of Friends, and they’re strongly against using any force – personal violence or violence through war. And they’re a witness to all of us, reminding us that Christians are called to peace.

And then, we’re a bit more familiar with some of the non-violent movements that have happened in the last forty years. Not too long before we were born, the Civil Rights movement was pushing forward but not without resistance from others. It was meeting all kinds of violence and hatred. Many of the Civil Rights advocates were actually using that violence and hatred to advance the cause for freedom and equality. Black men and women – many of them very young – were doing sit-ins, protesting racial segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South by refusing to give up their seats in public restaurants that only served whites. They were beaten, spit upon, mocked, and dehumanized. But they didn’t return the violence. And in their non-violent resistance, they put the violence and hatred of others on public television sets. Many of these scenes – these real life brutalities – were responsible for a national conversation on race, and they led to legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964. More than 40 years later, we still have a long way to go when it comes to the issue of racism in America, but without these young people – many of them, the same age as you – we certainly wouldn’t be where we are today.

All of these groups have looked to Jesus’ teachings from our passage tonight, and their interpretations have reminded us that we are called to peace – to love our neighbor, and yes, to love our enemy even when it isn’t convenient, perhaps, when it’s incredibly inconvenient.

And so I wonder, what other interpretations of this text have impacted others? What have other people had to say? And what might we say tonight – not just in the words that I’m speaking right now, but in the ways we choose to live because we’ve heard Jesus speak to us this evening?

I wish I could say that Christian interpretation of this passage has always been goodness and light, but there have also been some dangerous interpretations of this text throughout history. I want you to imagine this scenario: You’re a pastor, and a woman walks into your office. She’s in her forties, and you’ve known her for about two months. She and her husband and their three kids are relatively new to the church that you serve, and you’ve really enjoyed getting to know them. In fact, you felt that you really hit it off with them. And so, maybe it’s no surprise that this woman feels she can trust you. She can come to you when things get difficult. But there is a surprise: When she comes in your office on a normal, run-of-the-mill afternoon, she’s bruised all over. You’re startled. And when you sit down, you learn something you would have never expected. Her husband beats her. Regularly. But as she tells you, this time was worse than it ever has been. She wants to know what you think. What should she do? Retaliate? Leave him? Well. . . she has the answer. She seems to want to impress you with her theological convictions. Or maybe. . she might be talking like this to convince herself that her convictions really are true – that they must be followed. Or maybe she’s testing you out to see what you have to say. After all, you’re a pastor and you’re supposed have authority on Jesus’ teachings, right?

She goes on to tell you what she plans to do. She tells you what other religious people have told her during her twenty years of marriage. “I made a commitment to my husband,” she says. “More importantly, I made a commitment to God. I know he shouldn’t hit me like this. But my job is to turn the other cheek. That’s what Jesus teaches me. My job is to continue loving him, and if loving him means that I have to take it, I will. But I do pray that he’ll stop this. Will you pray for that too?”

She goes on to tell you that her pastors and many of her Christian friends have sent her right back into this situation, quoting Jesus all along the way.

Difficult, isn’t it? But I think we all have a gut reaction that serves us well. This woman should not be abused, and we shouldn’t send her back in to take even more, additionally slapping some gospel label on it. So what is Jesus saying here? Just grin and bear it? Put on a smile and offer your other cheek for the hitting? Be a doormat?

I suppose if we just stayed on the surface level here, it might sound like Jesus is encouraging us to be doormats when we encounter all kinds of wrongs and persecution and abuse. “Just take it!” But if we dig deeper, we’ll be strengthened with deeper meaning as well.

Let’s think about these situations for a moment. . . turning the other cheek. . . giving the cloak as well. . . walking the second mile. They might sound ‘doormat’-like on the surface, but they don’t have to be that way at all! In fact, if you think a bit more deeply, they’re all pretty defiant! When an enemy strikes your cheek and you turn the other one calmly without hitting back, in a way, you are saying, “What can you do to me, really? You may think you’re powerful – that you can oppress me – but if I choose to respond to you rather than react to you in violence (there is a difference by the way) I can show you that you can’t destroy me. You’re no oppressor if I refuse to be oppressed!” Perhaps surprisingly, for the woman we’ve spoken about then, turning the other cheek would mean that she stops taking the abuse – that she refuses to be oppressed, removing herself and her children from that situation. And we need to do all we can to support her.

Or if someone sues you for your coat in an attempt to have something from you, and then a few days later, you wrap up your cloak and send it the mail as a gift, there’s something defiant about that. In a way, you’re saying, “What can you do to me really? You can’t oppress me! Here’s my cloak. It’s on me, pal! You haven’t taken a thing, have you?”

Or if someone forces you to walk one mile and then you respond by going two miles, again, you are saying, “Look! Watch me! You may try to oppress me, but you can’t. If I go two miles, you haven’t forced me to do a thing, have you?”

These teachings aren’t really ‘doormat’ at all. All of them call us to walk the higher road – to respond to our enemies in a way that highlights grace and love rather than revenge – love for the enemy and love for ourselves, love that respects our worth and theirs. Jesus isn’t teaching us to just sit around and take it. No, not at all! He is telling us to defy it! To resist it! But how do we do that? We overcome it with love!

And also, with little spunk. Let’s look at Jesus’ own context to see what he might be saying in this sermon. Think about this: If you were to strike someone on the right cheek, how would you do that exactly? Go ahead. Put out your hand like you’re going to slap someone. (Don’t really do it!) Unless you’re left handed – unless you’re San Williams, for instance – you would have to back-hand someone to hit the person on the right side of the face. Now in Jesus’ day, if a person backhanded you, he wasn’t only being violent. He was conveying that to you that you weren’t an equal. So when Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, he’s not only teaching us to be non-violent in love (though that is true). He’s also teaching us to say, “Hey, wait a minute! I won’t stand for that. I am not going to be oppressed by you. I am your equal. And as your equal, I will walk the high road in all of this. I will refuse to be backhanded.”

And then, there’s this: In Jesus’ day, people wore a coat and a cloak – basically an undergarment and an over-garment. If someone were to sue you for that undergarment, and then you were to give them your cloak – your over-garment as well – you’d basically be standing there naked! Weird, right? And in Jesus’ day and culture, nakedness wasn’t ultimately shameful to the one who unclothed – it was profoundly shameful for the one who had to see it. And so again, Jesus is telling us to resist evil with love and with a little spunk. Now I’m not telling any of you to take a stand by getting naked! But I am trying to show you that if someone shames you, Jesus teaches us to lovely resist that shame with love and who knows? Maybe even with a sense of humor.

And then, there’s this too: In Jesus’ context, the Jewish people were living under the occupation of Rome. There was a custom – an unfortunate one – that a Roman soldier could coerce any person to carry his pack for mile no matter how inconvenient or oppressive it may have been. Can you imagine walking to one of your classes and having some soldier stop you to carry his stuff for a mile? Jesus is telling his disciples to walk the high road of love. If a soldier forces you to go one mile, go two. That way you teach yourself and the soldier that you can’t be oppressed. Don’t retaliate in violence. And don’t just sit around and take it either. Show kindness to that solider, that enemy. Show kindness to yourself. Value your humanity so much that you won’t allow yourself to be oppressed. Value the humanity of your enemy so much that he or she may be liberated from being an oppressor. Because when you are oppressed or abused, your true humanity is being maligned. And you know what? So is the enemy’s humanity. He wasn’t created to oppress. She wasn’t created to abuse.

Aren’t these teachings incredibly profound? In studying them this week, I feel that I’ve learned so much. In fact, I discovered a little detail that really energized me. In the translation we read tonight, verse 39 says, “But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer.” Wow. On the surface, that sounds pretty doormat to me. But then I fell upon something really interesting in the Greek text.

Okay, quick grammar lesson: Have any of you studied Latin or German? Both of those languages have cases. That means that words have certain endings to tell you what grammatical role they are playing in the sentence. Greek has cases too. And when a word is a direct object, it is in the accusative case. The word has a certain ending on it to tell you that it’s the direct object. And so, our sentence here is: Do not resist an evildoer – or it could even be, Do not resist evil. Again, pretty doormat sounding, right? In that sentence, ‘evil’ is the direct object. Do not resist – what? Evil. So we should find the word ‘evil’ in the accusative case with a direct-object type ending. Well, guess what? We don’t. ‘Evil’ is the direct object, but it has a dative ending! And if that’s a foreign word to you – or if all of this sounds like grammar gobbily-gook, that’s okay. But it’s incredibly significant as we think about the passage. In Greek, there is a thing called ‘A Dative of Means.’ When a direct object is in the dative, it tells you the means by which something is done. So actually, what this text may be saying is this: Do not resist with evil – or – Do not resist by evil. Well, that really changes things, doesn’t it?

So Jesus isn’t telling us to be doormats when it comes to evil! Jesus is telling us that we should resist it! That we should oppose it! That we should withstand it! But here’s the thing: We do it with love. And if the end is love – if the goal is love – in the Christian faith, as it is, then the end ought to justify the means by which we act. If the goal is love, we are called to fight evil, persecution, and abuse with love – love of self, love of neighbor, and yes, love of enemy. The end justifies the means. Love is the end. Love is the means.

How will you practice that this week?

-Renée Roederer, Campus Minister

Hell House

So tonight we are traveling to Temple, Texas to go to a. . . Hell House.

What's a hell house?

At this time of year, many churches around the country host Hell Houses. A Hell House is like a Haunted House, but it simulates a particular theological perspective on hell. For the last three weeks, our Bible Study has been asking questions about the concept of hell and how it is articulated in our culture. The conversations have been fascinating and I think many would say, liberating! Many of these churches are motivated to use Hell Houses to scare people into making a profession of faith. And so. . . we want to go see one in action for ourselves. Would you like to come? We’ll meet at UPC at 6pm. We’ll drive up there and have an interesting experience for sure. The cost is $10. I’m sure we’ll learn a lot!

Scripture For Sunday

Matthew 5:38-48

‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

University Interfaith Council Progressive Dinner!

Here are some pictures for the University Interfaith Council Progressive Dinner! We had a wonderful evening of fellowship, conversation, and learning. Thank you to everyone who participated!

A Note From Tim Pierce:

Hi, my name is Tim Pierce and I have been forever changed and moved by the UPC and its Austin Agape group. Both my brother and I are from Ohio but he was working in Austin for a Co-Op (work study). I flew down to Austin to help my brother move back to Ohio right before school started. I arrived on Saturday with no idea or expectation do much of anything social aside from hanging out and helping my brother. I remembered my brother telling me that he had found a church but i didn't think much of it. On Sunday, my brother and I went to UPC and just walking in it seemed as if it had life and vibrant... even though some of the people were older that college students.

Later that day, my brother took me to the college dinner and service. There, I was where the movement began. For nearly the first time in my life, someone initiated a conversation with me; not because they were forced to but because they wanted to get to know me. The service was very up beat and the dinner before hand added to the feeling of being in a family even more.

After leaving I was filled with a renewed excitement for meeting new people and i could tell that coming down was a "God moment" where i felt that I was meant to be there. The following day (Monday) there was a social gathering where the family and fellowship grew even more. Some found out for the first time that we were leaving that Saturday, but they didn't stifle their love that they gave to us. My brother had been a part of the group for about 4-6 months, so they knew him better, but i still felt a lot of love by many members of the group. Later that evening was the Bible study. I was bracing myself for a Bible beating where it would be scripture after scripture; fact of the matter, we opened and closed with a scripture and prayer, but the rest was just filled with us: students that don't know who we fully are and we're trying to find our way. The bible was a guiding path but not the sole thing of the bible study. Sadly, it was mentioned to the group that my brother and I were leaving soon. It was then that if felt that i was leaving a place that I had been for a very long time, yet i had been there for only a few days.

In the coming days, several of the members of the Agape group contacted me and we arranged ways to see each other. The final day that I spent with many people of the group was Wednesday when I was invited to a function called Wednesday at Wendy's. Prior to that engagement, I had an intimate discussion with the Youth Pastor, Renee Roederer. We just talked; not God or how I can be saved... just talked one on one. I feel that she knew that God was present in that conversation even though He wasn't called by name. He was ever present in many of my encounters in Texas. There, some of the people from the group were there, but I also met more people arranging meetings with people around the UT campus.

Thursday was my last day in contact with this wonderful group when I was invited to a fun night at a person's house. We played game, ate, and just bonded with each other. Very rarely in my life have i been so welcomed into a group AND loved.

I know for fact that tears were shed with both myself, my brother, and members of the Agape group with our leaving. Tears filled with sadness, mourning, change, but most of all, love. I know in the great words, "God is love" (which funny enough was the theme of the message that Sunday). This group certainly showed me some bit of God's love. While there and still here, it baffles me that so many people could love someone who they barely knew. I was encouraged to find a church group here in Ohio, but from more than a month, I have yet to find anything even close to the UPC group. Many times I have thought back and meditated upon the time that I spent in Texas and I can certainly say that I am filled with sadness because of the love and caring that pours out from that group. I will NEVER forget what was seen, felt, experienced. I have been forever changed by this group. I don't know when I/we will return but I am counting down that days until I am able to return to a place where I felt welcomed and loved. Know that my brother and I dearly miss the group, the congregation, and the family that we had to leave.

God is Love,

Timothy Pierce

Sermon: Gehenna and the Kingdom

Matthew 5:21-37

A member of this congregation once told a story that’s endearing and powerful at the same time. She knew a teacher who lived in Colorado. The teacher taught 4th grade, and she had just finished a unit on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. How many of you have read that book? It’s a classic children’s book by C.S. Lewis - the most popular and well-known one in his Narnia series. Lewis wrote a series of seven books about a mythical land called Narnia, and the books that have become famous as allegories for the Christian life. The teacher had just finished the unit on the book, and the kids loved it. And to top it off, the movie of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was just coming out. So now it was time to give the kids a chance to enter the story for themselves. . .

The 4th grade teacher created a world for her young students. She found a refrigerator box and decorated it to look like a wardrobe. She was setting up the scene for Narnia. She placed the “wardrobe” in a classroom that was connected to the school library. When the children arrived, she told them that she had a surprise for them: “I’m going to take you to Narnia today,” she said. She took them from their classroom, down the hallway, through the library, and into the adjoining room which would become their world for a while. It was empty, except for that special box.

Little by little, a few kids at a time entered that cardboard wardrobe, and they were transformed. It didn’t take long for them to lose themselves in their wonderful world of play. Now they were Lucy and Peter and centaurs and elves. . .

It didn’t take long for the world of play to become fully alive, and along with fully alive, it became fully loud too! The librarian was next door and was gradually becoming more and more irritated at the noise. Eventually, she couldn’t take it any more. She marched into that room and disciplined the kids. “The noise level in this room is inappropriate! I want it quiet in here! Don’t you know where you are?!?”

She was looking for the obvious answer. She wanted to hear, “We’re in a library,” and obviously libraries are meant to be quiet places. But instead, a sweet 4th grade girl, poked her head around the refrigerator-box-turned-wardrobe and innocently replied, “We’re in Narnia.”

It was so matter of fact. We’re in Narnia! Of course, we’re going to act differently! Of course, we’re going to feel differently! Of course, we’re going to play differently! Narnia – this is a different world – a world of dreams, and myths, and joys, and transformation. And that world – Narnia - was breaking into their world – into a simple library. These kids were in a refrigerator box. But they were also in Narnia.

And as we study the Sermon on the Mount this semester, we have an opportunity to enter a world too. And we won’t be leaving this world to get there. In fact, we’ll be entering this world more deeply – more richly. We’ll sit at Jesus’ feet on that holy mountain, listening to him, and we’ll learn that God’s kingdom is continuously breaking into this world – right here! And we’ll live differently as a result. Some may begin to ask us, “Don’t you know where you are?!?” And from this church and those classrooms and those dorm halls and those streets surrounding this campus, we will peek around and joyfully proclaim with our very lives, “We’re in the Kingdom of God!”

And maybe that framework will help us enter this scripture passage tonight. As Jesus continues in this Sermon on the Mount, he shows us that he’s not talking about another world “out there somewhere,” but he’s talking about this reality. His feet are firmly planted on the ground; he’s living fully in this world – in this world where he teaches that a Kingdom reality is breaking forth, calling us to live differently.

He’s living fully in his context. And this may seem obvious, but it’s an important and wonderful thing to mention: Jesus was a particular human being. He lived in 1st century Palestine. He lived under the occupation of the Roman Empire. He was Jewish through and through. So when we hear him saying, “You have heard such and such, but I say to you. . .” Jesus isn’t being non-Jewish - as in “Well, the law says this but I am standing over-and-against the law telling you something else. . .” No, Jesus is being fully Jewish. He’s living and acting as a Rabbi. He is teaching what he believes to be the true spirit of the law, and he’s calling us to act in particular ways – again, calling us to enter this world more deeply by living according to God’s reign which is breaking into this world. That’s quite a call. That’s quite an opportunity.

And what sort of things does he have to say? Well they aren’t easy. But sometimes, the most difficult teachings are the most profound opportunities, aren’t they? Jesus teaches about anger. Jesus teaches about lust. Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce. And Jesus teaches about vows.

All of these are human experiences that were swirling about in Jesus’ day just as they’re swirling about in our day. As God made flesh – as a particular human being - Jesus had witnessed anger. I don’t think this passage is telling us that we should never be angry. Anger is very real human emotion, and at times, our scriptures tell us we should be angry; there is such a thing as righteous indignation when we witness or experience injustice. And Jesus felt anger too. It made him angry when he saw human suffering. He was angry when he overturned those tables in the temple, watching people abuse a house of worship for personal gain. Jesus felt anger just like we did. He was human like us.

But I imagine this passage shows us that Jesus had also observed others using anger differently. Maybe he had personally witnessed how anger can eat a person alive. It can also cut people down. When we’re angry to the point that we hold grudges – when we’re angry to the point that we wish horrible things for others, we often find ways to dehumanize them. We don’t recognize them for the children of God they are; and in our anger, we murder their spirits. That’s strong language, but it can happen in so many ways. We gossip. Oh wow, do we gossip! We say horrible things about people sometimes. And when we do that in our anger, in a certain sense, we’re kind of murdering in a way – we’re cutting people down in the eyes of others. And when those people hear about it, they feel often dehumanized. And maybe we’ve felt that way before too when we’ve been gossiped about. Perhaps we could say that reputations have been murdered.
And think about what ongoing, unhealthy anger does to us! When we wish bad things upon other people or when we hold grudges, we sometimes mull over it so much and get frustrated by it so much, that we destroy ourselves! We dehumanize ourselves with our own anger! Anger is a healthy and human emotion, but when it’s used for evil, it seems to destroy everyone involved. I’m sure that Jesus had witnessed this in his own context.

And there’s more. I imagine that Jesus had watched how people were objectified in his culture. And he had something to say about that: Adultery? You might let yourself off the hook if you haven’t gone that far. But where does adultery begin? And if even lust doesn’t lead to all-out adultery, how much do you harm another person by objectifying her for your own purposes? How do you harm a person by objectifying him for your own purposes? Our objectifying lusts can be so much like adultery. With our eyes, we begin to think we own people as property or our own possessions.

Jesus saw this happening to the women around him. It seems that he observed how lust can destroy the both the person being objectified and the person doing the objectifying. In both cases, people are not being treated as the children of God they are. One is being reduced to a sexual possession, and the other is hurting himself or hurting herself by living outside the call to love our neighbors for who they really are – people of infinite worth who cannot be reduced to sex objects. I’m sure that Jesus witnessed this in his own context.

And the same is true with marriage. Now want to approach the topic of divorce with care. Some of our parents are divorced. Mine are too. Sometimes divorce is a sad necessity, and I firmly believe that God’s grace continues with those who have experienced divorce and also with those who have remarried. It’s important to say that. And maybe it helps to continue to look at Jesus’ context. In 1st century Palestine, Jesus was watching how frivolously men were divorcing their wives. The Mosaic Law said that they could do this, but often men were doing it simply because they were displeased with their wives or simply tired of them. And in a patriarchal culture, women had little access to financial resources apart from their relationships to men - their husbands or their male family members. To send a wife away for any reason – simply because it was legal – was to send a woman out into the world with no financial protection. Her options were to remarry, to return to family (if they would have her), or to live as a prostitute. Just because something is legal doesn’t make it ethical. I’m sure Jesus witnessed this in his own context.

And finally, the same is true with vows. I’m sure Jesus witnessed the damage people can do when they make promises they can’t keep – or sometimes, promises they don’t intend to keep. And then, they invoke God’s name in the process. Jesus tells us to simply let our ‘yes be yes’ and our ‘no be no’ – to be someone who can be counted on. Don’t make promises that you can’t keep, and certainly don’t run God’s name through the muck in the process. You can’t even make your hairs white or black. Why do you make extravagant promises when you don’t know if you even have the power to keep them? Just because we make promises, doesn’t mean that you and I are consistent or trustworthy. I’m sure Jesus witnessed this in his own context.

So as we hear about Jesus’ context, it’s not hard to see how all of these teachings apply to us too. And as our own Teacher, how is Jesus calling us away from these realities into the deeper reality that is right here breaking into our world – a reality that doesn’t dehumanize people but showers them with love, a reality that sweeps them up into the very life of God? How is Jesus calling us away from objectification toward recognizing the infinite worth of others? How is Jesus teaching us to uphold the needs of others? How is Jesus calling us into this Kingdom?

Well as we’ve been saying tonight, the Kingdom is right here breaking into our world. And we can pray that God gives us eyes to see it. Jesus says something pretty difficult tonight in our passage: If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. Better to lose one part of yourself than to fully land in hell. Wow. When we hear that, we might start to picture flamey lakes of fire and brimstone. We might start to imagine devilish pitchforks. And maybe we feel afraid. Actually, what Jesus says is this: It is better to lose one of your members to be thrown into Gehenna. That’s the Greek word that’s used there.

Well what’s Gehenna? It’s an interesting word because Gehenna is the Valley of Hinnom – a real place, an earthly place. This valley was just on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It had a sordid history and a real foulness in Jesus’ time. During the time of the Israelite kings, Gehenna was a place where Israelites worshipped a foreign god named Molech by sacrificing their own children in the fires that were burned there. And because of this sordid history, Gehenna became the garbage heap of Jerusalem and everything unclean. It was a horrible place filled with all kinds of rot and decay – not only garbage but also the bodies of criminals and the carcasses of animals. Can you imagine that sight? Can you imagine the smell? This was a literal place - an earthly, visible reminder of everything that was unclean, rotting, and decaying. Gehenna was not a reality you wanted.

And so Jesus tells his disciples, when we don’t love – when we don’t value humanity – when we don’t treat others with respect as the claimed children of God, we are creating hell – not only for those we hurt but also for ourselves! So often, we create and participate in earthly forms of hell. We might as well be throwing ourselves right into the depths of Gehenna – that garbage heap on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

And so we have choices about the reality we choose to see. We have choices about the reality we live in. Like Narnia breaking into a school library, God’s Kingdom is breaking into this world – perhaps like scripture, we could call it the new, holy Jerusalem – and we can live into its fullness! Or. . . we can live our lives in Gehenna, a garbage heap.

And we often find ourselves living toward one reality or the other. I know that I do. My life is often sadly divided between Kingdom-living and Gehenna-living. I’m sure the same is true for you.

But here is some good news: When we find ourselves in that burning heap of trash-like living, we are not lost! We have been claimed. We are loved with a love that we can’t throw into the trash heap if we tried. There’s nothing we can do to un-do that love and that claim upon our lives! But the question is this: Will we open our eyes to it and let it affect us? Will we let it sweep up our reality in our daily lives? Let’s continue to practice saying yes – to practice living yes. We’ll keep doing that in response to this Sermon on the Mount. Amen.

Renee Roederer, Campus Minister

University Interfaith Council Progressive Dinner!

Hey everyone.

Just a reminder that we’re having a very special event tonight – and we are one of the hosts!!! The University Interfaith Council is an organization of particular faith groups on campus. Tonight the UIC is having a progressive dinner. That means we’re going to travel around to three different places to eat! The event is from 6:30pm-8. If you’re hoping to go to the torch rally tonight you can come to the first couple of locations and head to the rally afterwards.

We will meet at 6:15 at the church and walk over together. Or you can simply meet us at the first place:

We will begin at 6:30 at the Latter Day-Saints Institute. It’s down the street on San Antonio Street (same place where we're located!)

Then we will head over to UPC for the main course.

Finally, we’ll finish at Texas Hillel for dessert.

You don’t want to miss this! This will be a great opportunity to meet people from other faith traditions. And while we’re there, we’ll be talking about an incredible opportunity to form a student group – representatives from the various faith groups who would like to meet regularly to learn from one another and plan meaningful events for dialogue.

I invite you to take a look at the Facebook Group which was just created for that student group: University Interfaith Council at the University of Texas.

Have fun! Hope to see some of you here at 6:15!