Relationships are difficult. Relationships can cause anger and frustration. Negative feelings as well as positive ones. These are feelings we find difficult to deal with.

The temptation can be to avoid other people as much as possible and keep ourselves to ourselves.

Jesus knows this but he still requires Christians to be in fellowship with each other. To be a church of interpersonal relationships; not a bunch of individuals practising a lone religion.

The main text for today (12 February 2023; The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany) is Matthew 5:21-37, in which Jesus talks about relationships between people. Rev. Geoff McKee explains how it is in the daily working out of our relationships that we find the demands of the Kingdom of God to be most directly upon us. That’s one of the reasons that Christians are called to be together. So that we are “challenged” – by anger and frustration at others, for example – every day that we live. 🙂

Main Scripture for today

Matthew 5:21-37 (from The Message Bible Translation)
Murder
21-22 “You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.

23-24 “This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God.

25-26 “Or say you’re out on the street and an old enemy accosts you. Don’t lose a minute. Make the first move; make things right with him. After all, if you leave the first move to him, knowing his track record, you’re likely to end up in court, maybe even jail. If that happens, you won’t get out without a stiff fine.

Adultery and Divorce
27-28 “You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those ogling looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.

29-30 “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here’s what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.

31-32 “Remember the Scripture that says, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him do it legally, giving her divorce papers and her legal rights’? Too many of you are using that as a cover for selfishness and whim, pretending to be righteous just because you are ‘legal.’ Please, no more pretending. If you divorce your wife, you’re responsible for making her an adulteress (unless she has already made herself that by sexual promiscuity). And if you marry such a divorced adulteress, you’re automatically an adulterer yourself. You can’t use legal cover to mask a moral failure.

Empty Promises
33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

Order of Service

Welcome and Intimations
Call to Worship
Praise: MP73 Christ is made the sure foundation
Prayers of Adoration and Confession
Children’s Address
Praise: JP My Lord loves me
MP881 Lord, I lift your name on high
Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Psalm 119:1-8
Praise: MP162 From heaven you came
Readings: 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 and Matthew 5:21-37
Sermon
Praise: MP469 My faith looks up to thee
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
Praise: MP1002 Love songs from heaven
Benediction & Threefold Amen

Video recording of today’s service

Here’s a link to a previous sermon this website which is based on the same passage from Scripture and has some similar sections: How do we deal with those situations we cannot change?