Lev. 19:1-2, 9-18; MT 5:38-48
The Second Mile
In Wednesday Morning Bible Study, we have read a number of books in the Bible ranging from Ruth to John, First and Second Samuel to the Book of Revelation. Each is a narrative about the relationship between God and God’s people. Common questions always arise in our classes such as: Who is God? Why is there evil? And how are we to live? The questions of an ancient people are questions for modern people today.
Through our Sunday morning worship readings, you and I are able to do a kind of Bible study catching sketches from Hebrew scripture and the New Testament that help define how our own personal stories relate to the narratives in the Bible. So, it is ironic that the one book that we keep saying we ought to study in Wednesday Morning Bible Study, the one book that is quoted as much as any biblical book in other books, and the one book that is least understood by Christians in the Bible is Leviticus.
In a way, it is by chance that Leviticus is even being read today. It is only included once in the three year lectionary cycle in Year A, which is this year, and only on the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany. Depending upon the moveable day of Easter, and therefore, Lent, there are some years we do not reach seven Sundays in Epiphany. So, it is with some cause for amusement to congregations that for many preachers it will be their first, and maybe only, time to preach on Leviticus. Your preacher this morning falls into that camp!
To give you a short introduction to Leviticus requires a bit of background. It is a compilation of God’s laws given by Moses to the Israelites while they roamed in the desert for forty years and provides more words of God than any other biblical text. It is a set of “Holiness Codes” that the Israelites are to abide by. The word “holy” is used more than 100 times to refer to God describing God’s complete “otherness,” totally above all things in heaven and on earth. God’s holiness pervades the divine being and gives shape to God’s attributes. God’s love is a holy love. God’s mercy is a holy mercy. Even God’s wrath is a holy wrath. God’s very being is completely absent of any trace of sin.
In Leviticus, God calls Israel to be a holy people instructing them to be distinct and separated from other nations by giving them specific regulations to govern their lives. For many modern readers it is like a book of “do’s and “don’ts.” There is no narrative structure to speak of; and the admonitions about not eating shellfish, etc. seem antiquated and out of date. To decry Leviticus in this way is to miss the primary purpose of this book, which is to call men and women to holiness.
According to Moses, God has chosen them and set them apart giving them standards so that the world would know that they are God’s chosen people. In the lesson for today, God speaks through Moses saying they are to be holy and that they are not only to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness but also to treat one another as God’s chosen ones.
I am reminded of the story about an Abbott who led a conflicted monastery. The brothers never got along. They bickered. They fought. They were always mean to one another. The Abbot thought to himself: “This is no way for a group of Christians to act.” So the Abbot went to the wisest Christian he knew. The man was a hermit who had lived by himself for years in the mountains high above the abbey. The Abbot asked for the hermits help; and so the hermits came down to the abbey and said to the Abbot, “let me live with the brothers for one week and I will tell you what the problem is.”
When the hermit’s visit was over a week later, he told the Abbot what he discovered. He said that the Risen Christ has returned and that the Lord is in this abbey living among them as one of the monks. That evening at their weekly Chapter meeting the Abbot told all the brothers that the Lord was one of the monks among them. From that day on the monks became more respectful of one another; and day by day, they became more joyous with one another until the reputation of the Abbey as a holy and peaceful place was known throughout all the land.
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” These important words from Leviticus form the basis for part of Jesus’ words commonly known as The Golden Rule: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind; and the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. According to Moses and Jesus, holiness is not some abstract idea; rather, it is to be a normative and regulative principle in everyday life. Personal holiness is attained not by detachment but by engagement. Holiness is found not just in cloisters but also on corners of every street. Holy means to be wholly given to God by totally serving and empowering others.
In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus concludes his Sermon on the Mount by increasing the voltage of what is said in Leviticus. He says it is not enough to care for just your neighbor and people like yourself. He says we are to love our enemies and even pray for them. It is easy to go the first mile. In the first mile, we can treat people like us, friends like us, with forbearance and forgiveness. In the first mile, we can make sacrifices that hurt but do not burn. In the first mile, we can change our ways but not be transformed.
To go the first mile is to do what is required. But, to go the second mile is to love without return, to be struck but not to strike, to give until it hurts, and to know that an eye for eye will only make both people blind. The second mile is where excellence happens, where transformation occurs, and where we move into the realm of holiness. We do not only have to look to those icons of goodness like Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Mahatma Gandhi, we only have to look for people who daily fulfill their obligations in the simple and common details of life whether they are an emergency nurse who takes a second shift for a sick friend, or a mother who takes care of a neighbor’s child, or a teacher who stays after school to teach an extra class of algebra to a student. Holiness is not hidden in high places but hides in plain sight.
The path to holiness begins this way: Ask yourself what you want others to do for you, then turn it around, take the initiative and go do it for them. This is second mile stuff – it is to live outward, not inward. I believe that Jesus’ exemplified going the extra mile for others. He did not just talk the talk on The Sermon on the Mount but walked the talk as he set his face towards Jerusalem and the Cross. He is the perfect example of spiritual leadership.
During the past two weeks, the vestry of Christ Church, is seeking to define qualities of spiritual leadership that all Christians are called to manifest through baptism. Given our changing world, the pastoral needs of the community, and the material requirements and financial demands of the church, your vestry realized that first mile ministry is not enough to sustain in the long run the vibrancy and vitality without leadership that will go the second mile.
I believe we are being called to a Second Mile Ministry to go the extra mile for our church, for our community and for the wider world. As a center for mission, Christ Church is blessed with many resources to be shared with others. It will require us to not look inward but outward. It will require us to ask discerning questions of one another and ourselves. It will require us to shift from being tourists on a trip to pilgrims on a journey. And I do not think it is something new but something very ancient that goes back to our forbearers who stood with Moses seeking to do God’s will.
The Book of Leviticus continues to serve as a guidepost to be holy people for a holy God. May we walk in the paths of righteousness doing justice, loving mercy, and walking the extra mile with our God. Amen
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