Sirach 15:15-20
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew 5:17-37
 
We gave a summary of Sirach not too long ago, however, there is one thing I want to repeat here because it is unique to our scriptures, both the Old Testament and New Testament.  The book of Sirach also goes by the name of Ecclesiasticus which is the Latin name for “church book.” It also goes by the name of the Wisdom of Sirach. The first name comes from the use of the book by the early church. The second name comes from the name of the author. That in itself is unusual because normally the OT books are usually about the person and not by the person. In the forward of the book the author calls himself Jesus and in 50:27 we see his more complete name, Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sirach. You will also hear his name as Ben (son of) Sira.

Ben Sira is giving advice to young men who wish to become scribes. The advice he gives is echoed back from when we hear Moses, in the Book of Deuteronomy, tell the people that if they obeyed God’s commandments, they would live and would be blessed by God. He tells them it is a choice they have to make, to choose life so that you may live.

Both Moses and Sirach are teaching that to follow the commands of the Lord is a choice that people can freely choose or ignore. They are given the choice to choose between fire and water, life and death, good and evil, and they will face the consequences, whatever they choose.

When we make the right choices, when we fear God and act with respect, reverence and awe, when we finally understand that we need to depend on God for everything, then we will be receiving the gift of life from God.

I also want to make it clear that when we fear God, it is not fear of what God will do to us if we are bad and don’t follow his commands.  Fear of God is same as having a reverence for God, respect, be in awe of God and all He can do for us.

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians picks up where we left off last week. He is reinforcing the fact that the rulers of their time did not understand what it meant when they read from the scrolls each week in the temple. If they had understood, if they had allowed the Spirit of the Lord guide them in their actions then they would not have crucified Christ.

The rulers were more attracted to the wisdom and the skills of the orators in their time.
They were so caught up in following human wisdom, they failed to see the wisdom of their God right before them in the form of Jesus and His teachings. Their views were so narrow in what they thought the law was telling them to do, they failed to see what the Law was really telling them. The love that the Lord has for us, and them, was revealed through the Holy Spirit and not by the laws they were following.

The gospel this week is full of Jesus teachings and could take us a long time to cover all of the parts of this particular passage. The very first verse is what sets the tone for the rest His teaching. Jesus had just finished teaching them about salat and light and now takes up teaching about the law, the very thing the Jewish leaders had misunderstood.

Jesus tells His disciples that He has not come to abolish the law, but rather to fulfill it. He teaches his followers that their righteousness must be greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees.

By His own example of Jesus associating with sinners, the leaders had thought that Jesus was changing, doing away with the laws. They failed to see that the law was to be their guide and that they had not interpreted it correctly. Jesus goes on to explain what the others had missed in regard as to how they were to follow the laws from the Lord.

Jesus gives one example after the other of those things that can lead them to stumble on their journey to be with the Lord. These stumbling blocks are the very things that cause us to sin and we need to be aware of the stumbling blocks that are in our life so we do not sin or cause others to do so.

The wisdom of Sirach comes back to us in our gospel reading when Jesus teaches us the results of choosing the evil over the good. God loves us so deeply that He gives us the chance to choose the good or choose the evil. It’s these choices that we make that that will affect our salvation at the end of our earthly journey.