Sermon on the Mount continues with a sermon that is the Jesus equivalent of parental talk in the cab of a pickup truck driving through cotton fields. Moses sets before us a simple choice: there are two roads; pick the road that leads to life and not the one that leads to death. Paul complains that we haven't grown up after picking the road to life. Jesus teaches us how to live now that we have life.
Sermon compares being in the boat of salvation (very traditional image of the church) with a community of love, prayer, and support, with being in the open water trying to make it alone. Get in the boat.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37
Psalm 119:1-8
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
