What Should Energize and Not Energize the Church

The Sermon on the Mount plays a central role in Matthew's gospel.  Matthew conceptualizes Jesus as the new Moses who has brought into being a new covenant community, the Church, in place of the old covenant between God and Israel.  The Sermon on the Mount mirrors God's revelation to Moses of the law and Moses' communication of the law to Israel.  In the same way that the law delivered by Moses to Israel defined God's covenant relationship with Israel, the Sermon on the Mount defines the new law that governs the Church, dictating how the Church should handle its business internally and externally in its dealings with the world.

The content of the Sermon on Mount has been challenging for Christian communities.  The ethical commands seem extreme and seem to cut directly against society's notions of common sense.  This is particularly true of Jesus' commands with regard to our adversaries.  Jesus says that rather than doing what seems logical and natural to us (i.e. to love our neighbor and hate our enemy), we are called to love our enemies.

 As a way of understanding Jesus' command to love our enemy, Jesus tells us at the end of the section of the Sermon on the Mount where this command is found that the Church is called to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is perfect.  We are called to love our enemies because that is what God does.  When the world was in darkness and we were enemies to God, God died for us.  God, in Jesus, even forgave the Romans who put him up on the cross and in his dying moments, petitioned for their deliverance.

What energizes God is reconciliation, service, and love for everyone, including those who are enemies to God.  We are called to do the same.  Too often the Church mirrors society in the sense of being excited and energized by hating our enemies.  If we are to be God's people, we must never be energized by hatred.  Hatred should exhaust us and make us miserable.  We should be energized and excited by what makes God energized and excited.