It Becometh Us to Fulfil All Righteousness

 

In 1956 during the Christmas season Dag Hammarskjold wrote, “Faith is, faith creates, faith carries.”

Dag Hammarskjold was a Swedish economist and former Secretary-General of the United Nations. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His career included creating the basis for United Nations peacekeeping operations, and successful implementation of his ‘preventive diplomacy’ in crises from the Middle East to China. He was courageous in speaking of his religious faith and his faith in humanity. Hammarskjold reflected on faith, “God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

 

The Gospel text from Matthew of Jesus’ baptism, and the news reel of the past week where vignettes of a world coming undone were front and centre, reminded me of Dag Hammarskjold and his work that was most certainly directed by his faith.

 

The Gospel of Matthew is unique in the four Gospel tellings of Jesus’ baptism. Matthew recalls a snippet of conversation between John and Jesus, not present in the other Gospels. It is a doozy of a statement. Jesus answers John the Baptist in Matthew 3: 15, saying, Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.

This line has puzzled scholars and hearers through the years. It is a line for which there is no clear meaning.

I personally appreciate the lack of consensus because it invites the hearer, you and me, to determine what it might mean in our time and place. Perhaps the ‘proper’ fulfilling of righteousness materializes and is applied by the faithful response to each circumstance that the followers of Jesus face through the ages.

I believe that Matthew is setting the stage for the gospel that will unfold through Jesus’ ministry. Matthew is inviting hearers and readers into an open posture of conversation with Jesus, just as John talked with Jesus. It was not a conversation of superficial niceties, but, rather, deep theological discernment. Jesus’ statement alerts the reader that this Gospel offers righteousness as the overarching theological focal point to be discussed and discerned. At every point through the Gospel, one is encouraged to use the lens of righteousness to discover the deeper meaning of Jesus’ words and actions. Note that Jesus’ ministry will upset religious authorities. On the surface it will appear as if Jesus disagrees with the traditional practice and the prevailing understanding of scripture. Jesus’ actions and teachings will illumine a way of living based on a change of perception and a deeper connection to what it truly means to live righteousness.

 

As translated in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Jesus says to John, Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. While the word ‘proper’ in this sentence is an accurate translation, listen to the word in the King James Version, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.

It is proper for us. It becometh us.

This engages my imagination to consider more deeply the idea of righteousness or more importantly the heart of righteousness. The word ‘becometh’ suggests action and an action that requires a change of heart. One is becoming righteousness.

Matthew’s thorough discussion of righteousness, according to author William Arndt, takes a number of routes, delving into righteousness as having a quality of judicial responsibility with a focus on fairness; of judicial correctness with a focus on redemption; and of upright behaviour with a focus on morality.

 

Matthew writes and places his Gospel in 1^st Century Judea. His focus on the theological discussion of righteousness is not new. At hand are the Hebrew scriptures, the Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, all presenting dissertations on righteousness and being righteous. Matthew, and the people presented in his Gospel, are predominately people of the covenant, those who follow The Torah.  You will recall that the Law in simple form is the Ten Commandments and that the Commandments are in two parts, the Laws of relationship with God, and the Laws of relationship with fellow humans. In 1^st Century Judea the practice of the Law, is heavy-handed and overly judicious, as in the letter of Law. The Law also included additions that go beyond the original law. Righteousness is judged based on the keeping of the Law where uprightness is determined by specific legal ordinances. What is complicated is that the keeping the Law to the letter, is no longer about relationship with God or more specifically other human beings, but about the perception of ‘what is right.’ Doing ‘what is right’ has become so particular that it forgots that the intent of the rules was mercy and compassion - love of neighbour to benefit the whole.

 

Matthew’s gospel is hard work for readers, for us, because the Gospel is counter-cultural and challenges followers to live the heart of the law, which at times may be in conflict with the letter of the law. In this Gospel we learn that because of who Christ is, lived righteousness is an act of becoming. This means that righteousness is not a set of judicial must and must-nots, but, rather, a fuller incarnation of righteousness lived out in mercy and compassion in the moment. This is the Kindom of God come-near. God’s kindom ‘becometh’ present through the faithful becoming righteousness, and this righteousness is not for self-redemption, it is a righteousness and redemption that seeps into a world that is seemingly coming undone.

 

This brings me back to Dag Hammarskjold and the news reel of the past week. How is one faithful to the Gospel? How does one becometh righteousness? How does a community discern ‘right’ action? How does righteousness become living-righteousness that is a redemption that seeps into a world?

Hammarskjold reminds us that we come here – to church and community – to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. We come to continue conversation with Jesus, with each other, to discern how to be as we face unsettling circumstances.

It becometh us to strengthen our relationships through the love of God by reciprocal actions towards ‘other,’ where mercy and compassion trump rules and regulations. Drawing on the source which is beyond all reason, we strengthen our relationships and bring redemption to seep into the world in the way open to us in the moment – prayer.

This week we were contacted by the Confessional Lutheran Church in Namibia who is organized in a few refugee camps. They wrote a note describing their difficulties and the circumstances facing their people, all people, in refugee camps. I sent a note back with a blessing and an assurance that they were and would be in our prayers. The response was a warm thank you – thank you that they are remembered, offered to God, and not forgotten. This was a moment of living righteousness that grew a relationship that I, and I am sure we, had never thought about – at least not with this group specifically.  We becometh ...

And so too we name, remember, and stand with and pray for our American colleagues and congregations in Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, for whom righteousness means in some places opposing presidential orders and ignoring laws. Likewise, we remember, stand with, and pray for those sitting here today whose hearts are with their families and their people in Iran, Columbia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ukraine, and Russia. Our prayers and hearts, remember, and stand with the Folkekirken (the people’s church) which is the Lutheran Church in Denmark – Greenland.

 

At this time, thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness, by means of prayer and a continued discernment of how living righteousness is to be lived out in the circumstances we face. This is a time when, Faith is, faith creates, faith carries. Matthew’s Gospel is timely in the focus on righteousness and how to be in a world that seems lacking in mercy and compassion. Matthew’s Gospel does not leave the reader without hope – today step one on the way to the cross is baptism, a baptism that signifies belonging and God’s spirit at work through Jesus and down through the ages among us. We are not left alone. The Word is incarnate and redemption seeps into the world. As to what is required of us, Hammarskjold wrote: Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible; not to run away. Let us not run away. Let us not be afraid. This too is how the Gospel of Matthew ends.  Jesus says, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt. 28:20).