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Permalink Reply by James C Schultz on 6th mo. 18, 2015 at 9:43am

It's a measuring rod.  Being nice to people who mean something to you is no indication of where your heart is.  It's how you treat strangers that says something about you.  And of course treating strangers well just for the sake of being able to think you are nicer than you actually are isn't what it's about either.  This is a tool for self-examination of how far you have to go before you are a decently nice person.

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 6th mo. 18, 2015 at 10:47am

Well, that's another reason I find this passage a little out of tune. This isn't some modern magazine test on 'Are You A Decently Nice Person', where after you've checked a few boxes you can say, "Oh good, I'm a nice person after all," or "Oh well, I never thought I was all that nice anyway," depending.

Who cares? God loves you, right? Even loves the Differently Good. Can't be saying, then, 'If you're chronically glum, you're out of luck.'

This may well be a later editorial comment (like what I'm doing) rather than actual quote -- which of course wouldn't necessarily invalidate it, given resurrection and the continuing presence of the Spirit.

Or he could have been simply trying to undermine the 1st Century equivalent of Quaker Smugness, ie "What have you guys got to be so snooty about?"

The underlying message of this whole Sermon seems to have been along these lines: "You people need to be better Jews if you want God to come through with His end of that Covenant..." People had been yearning for 'the Kingdom' because pretty clearly 'This doesn't look like the ads.'  A Roman fortress looming over the Temple,  poor farmers losing their lands to money-lending neighbors, with the connivance of Rabbinical courts, destitution and malnutrition and all the shame and disease associated with that simply weren't what was supposed to happen in The Promised Land. We've got Jesus saying "The Kingdom is arriving," so people want to know 'How do we get in on this?'

But the previous passage seems pretty clear that The Kingdom isn't 'a reward' for anything; it's something God is doing because God is like that.

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Permalink Reply by James C Schultz on 6th mo. 18, 2015 at 11:43pm

it's more that supposedly good people say they want a better world and they moan and moan about all the injustice in the world that God created and this is just pointing out that if they were all they could be it would be a better world.  It's saying that the reason the world is the way it is is because everyone doesn't go the extra mile to be good because no one else is or at the least they don't think it's necessary because they know at least one person they are better than.

There's an after life where we get to bask in God's love because of His mercy and there's a present life where we have the opportunity to dispense God's love and mercy.

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Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 6th mo. 19, 2015 at 12:26am

If we were already all we are going to be, yes, this would already be a better world. It's still unfinished and we're still learning.

Sometimes it's hard enough just to go the mile we've got, yes? But certainly as you say, having someone we're better than is a lousy substitute for being better!

Something I did learn when I had a more frequent venue for 'dispensing God's love and mercy' -- that being able to do this is a blessing and an opportunity to know God's ongoing love. One life, I'd say, now and also after... a life which can be a lot easier on people than we've collectively made it!

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Permalink Reply by James C Schultz on 6th mo. 19, 2015 at 1:03pm

Amen

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