Karen Hollis | Jan 25, 2026 Epiphany 3
Ode 20: I am a minister of the Lord, and I am consecrated to him.
And to him I bring the offering of his thought.
Truly she is not like the generation, nor is his thought like
flesh, nor like those who are serving the flesh.
The offering of the Lord is justice and purity of heart and lips.
Offer your deepest parts without defect,
And do not let your affections confine compassion.
Do not let yourself oppress any other self.
Do not possess other [person] because every person is like
yourself. Nor strive to cheat your neighbor
Nor deprive her of that which covers her nakedness.
Rather, put on the kindness of the Lord without suspicion,
Come to his paradise,
And make for yourself a crown from his tree.
Place it upon your head, rejoice,
And recline upon his serenity.
And the Lord’s splendor will go before you.
You will receive of his lushness and kindness. And you will be
anointed with truth in the glory of his holiness.
Praise and honor to his name.
Halleluiah.
Matthew 5:38-42 Jesus said, “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
Intro
I had the news on yesterday as the situation unfolded in Minneapolis, after a man was shot during the protests. At this moment in North America, we see horrific events, a rise in tension, and looming uncertainty about what comes next. As we watch, we are concerned for our loved ones, our neighbours, ourselves, and the world. The wisdom of the day says to everyone: we’ve got to find a way to be peaceful even under these circumstances and lower the temperature.
Lizard brains
This is something we don’t do naturally. Humans have this biological part of us that tells us to react and protect ourselves from surprises and threats from our environment, regardless of how much power we have or which side of the argument we’re on. Given this instinct to react quickly, over thousands of years, leaders and teachers have offered wisdom about how to give less and less authority to our reactivity and make more and more room for setting boundaries, for self-mastery, for supporting one another in our humanity, especially in challenging times.
Succession of teachings
In our Judeo-Christian tradition, through a succession of Laws and teachings, there seems to be an arc toward what Martin Luther King called the Beloved Community. While this morning’s texts were written at different times and for different purposes, each one invites us more and more toward love, compassion, and human dignity; they invite us to respond to hurts and boundary crossing with truth, with healing, and reconciliation.
Beginning with Moses
This arc begins with Moses in the desert. The Israelites have escaped slavery in Egypt, but they are struggling because they still identify as slaves and are lacking a guiding structure for their community. They spend 40 years, 2 generations, in the desert, disassembling that old identity and building a new one as children of God. Pretty quickly, Moses offers the Torah or the Law to provide some boundaries for their behaviour and ways of relating. He says, if someone hurts you and you lose your eye, you can’t take their life in response. We’re going to make the consequence fit the harm that was done. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, and so on. In the desert, that’s what they needed to move toward one another and bend that arc toward the Beloved Community. They lived within these laws for many, many years.
Jesus, the new Moses
Then a new leader came along who offered an update to these laws. Do you remember a few weeks ago on Epiphany Sunday, where I talked about Jesus being the new Moses? The author we know as Matthew, included all these parallels between Jesus and Moses. Today we heard some of the Sermon on the Mount . . . right there, if we remember where Moses was when he shared the Law with the Israelites, we can see our first parallel . . . Mount Sinai. Moses offers the Law from Mount Sinai, and Jesus comes after him and offers the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ sermon is structured in a similar way to Moses and covers similar material. Whenever he moves to a new topic, he starts out: “You have heard the law that says . . . or “You have heard it said . . . but I say to you.” You have heard Moses say “eye for an eye, but I say to you . . .” it’s not good enough anymore to spare a life and take an eye. There is an even more loving way that affirms our boundaries, our dignity, our connectedness. Remember, he is talking with peasants, who are barely able to scrape together enough of a life to survive, and are often robbed of their dignity.
Nonviolent response – turn cheek
So, this is where it gets interesting. The beloved community is not just about the way we treat one another; it’s also about having a response to the corruption, oppression and exploitation that is imposed by the system around them. How do we respond to the oppression of the Romans? Jesus offers them a few of examples of non-violent responses, based on very real situations. He says: if someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. According to theologian Walter Wink, if one is slapping someone in public at that time, they’re using the right hand, because the left hand is dirty. Right hand clean, left hand dirty. So if you’re going to slap someone across the right cheek, you’re going to do it with the back of your right hand, which indicates the person being slapped is of a lower social standing – often a master and servant/slave situation. So, they’re slapping with the back of the right hand. But if you then offer your left cheek, the other person would logically use a fist (because of the way the angles line up) . . . but only equals fight with fists.1 This allows the person being slapped to respond with: strike me as an equal. And the one slapping is probably surprised and has to think about their response.
Nonviolent - coat
The next scenario says: if you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. In those days they wore 2 items of clothing: the outer and the inner. Imagine a former landowner goes to a corrupt court in the Roman system that strips people of their land, their goods, and finally even their outer garments. The court could grant someone’s coat as collateral, but they would have to give it back to the person at night so they would have something to sleep in. Why then does Jesus counsel them to give up their undergarments as well? This would mean stripping off all their clothing and marching out of court stark naked. But nakedness was taboo in Judaism and shame fell less on the naked party rather than on the person viewing or causing the nakedness. 2 So, if one offered their inner garment as well, everyone in the court would be shamed. It’s a response that reveals the cruel, imbalanced and corrupt system that it is.
Nonviolent - backpack
Last example from Jesus: If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for one mile, carry it two miles. Soldiers indeed carried heavy packs – maybe 60-85 pounds, so when they walked into a village, they could and often did force someone to carry it for them. But military code had an oddly enlightened rule that they had to resume carrying their pack after 1 mile . . . any more than that would earn the soldier some kind of consequence. According to Wink, it could be anything from a fine to rationing food to being forced “to stand all day before the general’s tent holding a cloud of dirt in his hands.”3 There was no telling what the reprimand would be. So, you can imagine an individual carrying the pack past the mile marker. The soldier says, “I’ll have my bag back now.” Instead of stopping there, humiliated and dehumanized, the individual replies “No, that’s ok, I’ve got it.” What does he do, beg for it back? The individual deprives him of the predictable response, and the soldier is thrown off guard. Jesus teaches people that they are not powerless even in a corrupt system.
Transition to Ode
Jesus offers the sermon on the Mount at the beginning his ministry, introducing himself and his ideas to people, and inviting people to come together with a renewed hope and strength to resist. The Odes of Solomon are written from within the community Jesus started, after pockets of followers were well established around the region. Jesus’ Jewish followers were still Jewish, so it makes sense that Ode 20 would draw on ideas and language from both Hebrew and Christian texts found in the Bible, including, Exodus, Isaiah, Proverbs, and letters of Paul.
Unusual ode - teaching
This Ode has unusual content, in that it offers a set of teachings that follow from what Moses and Jesus taught. The way this teaching is presented is the kind of thing a catechumen would receive while preparing for baptism.
Unpack the Ode
We see a shift with this text, because the author begins not with behaviour, but with the inner self. They self-identify right away as a minister of the Lord and one who offers Christ’s ideas beyond a worship setting, presumably into the stuff of daily life. Then they instruct the catechumen on relationship with Christ, writing: “the offering of the Lord is justice and purity of heart and lips. [In response,] offer your deepest parts without defect.” It seems like a kind of meditation of mutual offering that the catechumen might practice regularly, as they learn how to orient their heart toward Christ. Over time this (hopefully) becomes a place of grounding for them, from which they can engage with the world. So, the Odist first addresses the inner self, then goes on to how we relate to others, writing: “Do not let yourself oppress any other self. Do not possess other [person] because every person is like yourself. Nor strive to cheat your neighbor . . . Rather, put on the kindness of the Lord without suspicion.” Catechumens learn to offer compassion and uphold the freedoms of others. The Odist has moved past a lens of retribution, perhaps embodied the collective empowerment of non-violent resistance, and is concerned with our inner world that guides the way we show up and engage with others.
Today - discipleship
I think this is really important, because we are essentially good, and at the same time, we have this biology and this programming, coming from our life experience, that can move us to react or lash out. The Way of Jesus invites us disciples to befriend those instincts and show them that we’ve got this with a different way. A way that practices slowing down interactions, that centers before entering a conversation, that stands up with a grounded and centered presence. This practice is an important piece of what we can offer the world today. We’re invited to approach the state of the world with acceptance (not to say it’s ok, but acknowledging that this is happening) and respond as a disciple of Jesus, by practicing the presence of God.
Today - discipleship
I think this is really important, because we are essentially good, and at the same time, we have this biology and this programming, coming from our life experience, that can move us to react or lash out. The Way of Jesus invites us disciples to befriend those instincts and show them that we’ve got this with a different way. A way that practices slowing down interactions, that centers before entering a conversation, that stands up with a grounded and centered presence. This practice is an important piece of what we can offer the world today. We’re invited to approach the state of the world with acceptance (not to say it’s ok, but acknowledging that this is happening) and respond as a disciple of Jesus, by practicing the presence of God.
1 https://www.lutheranpeace.org/articles/transcript-of-walter-winks-nonviolence-for-the-violent/
2 https://www.lutheranpeace.org/articles/transcript-of-walter-winks-nonviolence-for-the-violent/
3 https://www.lutheranpeace.org/articles/transcript-of-walter-winks-nonviolence-for-the-violent/