EPIPHANY VI

Rembrandt St Paul at his writing desk

• Deuteronomy 30:15-20 or Sirach 15:15-20 •
• Psalm 119:1-8 •
• 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 •
• Matthew 5:21-37

In this week’s Epistle St Paul tells the new Christians at Corinth that, when he first preached to them, he had to treat them “as infants in Christ.”  “I fed you with milk” he says, “not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food.” It is easy to imagine some of them bridling at this remark, just as a modern congregation might take serious offence if a priest or preacher spoke to them in this way. ‘Who are you to assume such a superior tone?’ would be a natural reaction.

Yet, though such a response is understandable, there is a very important lesson to be learned here. We happily concede that when it comes to medicine or law, business management, physical fitness, or playing an instrument, there are beginners and there are experts. No one would commit their affairs to a lawyer, physician or financial adviser who wasn’t an expert, no matter how friendly, caring, or amusing they might be. Are we to suppose that these, undoubtedly welcome, personality traits are enough when it comes to spiritual guidance? Can religious experience not lead to spiritual wisdom too?

The Ten Commandments Lucas Cranach the Elder 1472-1553

In the passage from Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus shares Paul’s assumption that there is such a thing as spiritual and moral development. This kind of development is a matter of moving on from the level of behaving decently and performing the right actions, to a deeper state of mind and heart. Moses (in the Ten Commandments) was right. Outward actions are important – murdering, committing adultery, swearing falsely are all things to be avoided. Still, simply observing the rules, however valuable, cannot be enough for those whose minds are set on the things of the spirit. God is a spirit, and those who worship God must worship God in spirit.

The evangelical message for the Church today is plain. The ‘inclusiveness’ of which so much is made is essential, but it is just a start, and never the last word. Welcoming people of ‘all sorts and conditions’ to the church has to be followed by setting out the spiritual challenges of Christian discipleship. Without continual growth we, and they, will remain pretty much as before -- ‘people of the flesh’ and at best ‘infants in Christ.’