A New Way of Life from The Sermon on the Mount

For Christmas I received The Sermon on the Mount Story of God Bible Commentary  by Scot McKnight. This book made it on to many top ten missional book lists of the last year and one that I am looking forward to working through as I believe that the Sermon on the Mount exemplifies how we as Christians are to live here and now that it is not just for later.

In chapter one, McKnight proposes that the proper response to the Sermon is to follow or obey it's teachings. And McKnight quotes Stanley Hauerwas, who captures the whole of Jesus' vision in the Sermon:

When he called his society together Jesus gave its members a new way of life to live. He gave them a new way to deal with offenders by forgiving them. He gave them a new way to deal with violence by suffering. He gave them a new way to deal with money by sharing it. He gave them a new way to deal with problems of leadership by drawing on the gift of every member, even the most humble. He gave them a new way to deal with corrupt society by building a new order, not smashing the old. He gave them a new pattern of relationship between man and woman, between parent and child, between master and slave, in which was made concrete radical new vision of what it means to be a human person. He gave them a new attitude toward the state and toward the "enemy nation."