Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Lectionary A

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

You are God’s field, God’s building.

If I were to ask my 11-year-old son what comes to mind when I mention the word “field,” I imagine he would initially think of a sports field. He would probably mention a soccer field, a baseball field or a football field. His school has a yearly field day on the first Friday of May. This special day consists of being outside the building, participating in various sporting events and athletic challenges.

But it you were to ask me what comes to mind when I think of the word “field,” it would be different. Having a rural upbringing, I first see rows and rows of corn or peas, depending on what my grandparents had planted that season. I can remember the feel of the cool dampness of freshly tilled earth, and I can remember being exhausted after a long day working under a dog day sun.

In the first letter to the church at Corinth, St. Paul tells the young church that together they are God’s field. Clearly the agrarian sort of field is in the mind of the author, though there were plenty of athletic fields as well during this time. Both types of fields, however, have two things in common.

First, they are places of growth. Crops grow. Plants grow. Weeds grow too! And on the athletic field it is a place of personal growth – rising to meet a challenge, growing in skill and/or growing in physical condition. The church is the place we grow in the knowledge and love of God, which points us in the direction of serving others – whether serving individuals or serving institutions to make our society a more just place.

Second, sporting fields and crop fields both have boundaries. Call them lines or fences as you like, but without some sort of boundary marker, a field just becomes another place without purpose. Or it least without the purpose of growth. The hard sayings of Jesus that come to us in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel are a reminder that growth requires boundaries. Do they seem restrictive? Yes. Are they difficult? Without question. Do we fail? Often. Thanks be to God this is not the end of the story! For there is no shortcoming, sin or life event that God hasn’t already demonstrated triumph over through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

The message of the Resurrection is that wherever and whenever our faith or obedience fails, the faithfulness and obedience of Christ overcomes. So, when we fall short of the high standards set before us, let us not feel defeated; rather let us cherish the victory of God who will go to any length to give us growth and give us grace.

The Rev. Gary Jackson is the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Cocoa