February 12, 2017
Epiphany 6A

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Matthew 5:21-32

“…our relationships matter to God…in a way that I think is more faithful to this passage and the larger biblical witness about the nature and purpose of God’s commands. As to this passage: notice that each of these different injunctions concerns how we treat each other. Jesus doesn’t just heighten the force of the law, he broadens it:
• It’s not enough just to refrain from murder. We should also treat each other with respect and that means not speaking hateful words.
• It is not enough to avoid physically committing adultery. We should also not objectify other persons by seeing them as a means to satisfy our physical desires by lusting after them.
• It is not enough to follow the letter of the law regarding divorce. We should not treat people as disposable and should make sure that the most vulnerable — in this culture that often meant women and children — are provided for.
• It is not enough to keep ourselves from swearing falsely or lying to others. We should speak and act truthfully in all of our dealings so that we don’t need to make oaths at all.

Do you see what I mean? All the hyperbole of cutting off body parts and burning in hell serve to magnify just how important our relationships are to God. And I suspect this runs contrary to the way most of our folks think about God and God’s laws much of the time. In fact, I suspect that if you went to whatever street corner is nearest your church and asked some of the passersby what they think of when they think about God, they would say (if they didn’t run away from you first!) that God seems to them something like an old man, probably with white hair and a white beard, sitting up in heaven looking down at us rather sternly and making sure no one is having too much fun. This popular picture of God is perhaps best caught by the secular hymn, “he knows when you are sleeping; he knows when you’re awake; he knows when you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!” 🙂

And I realize the hyperbolic, exaggerated language our Lord uses in this passage can reinforce that picture. But what if God isn’t interested in us keeping the law for the law’s sake, but rather that God cares that we keep the law for our sake; that is, because God loves us. I’ve made many rules over the years for my children, and while they may have thought at times that I was an overbearing tyrant, as they mature they realize that the rules their parents set — don’t play in the street, treat each other well, don’t talk meanly to each other — were all intended to care for and protect them and to help them get more from this life than they could otherwise. (David Lose, workingpreacher website, February 11, 2014, The Relational God)

What is the point we should take away from these texts? Jesus wants his disciples, which includes you and me, Jesus wants us to consider our brothers and sisters this morning and whether we hear their hearts beating in our ears? Are we listening to our religious teachings? You see the law is important, vitally important to our Christian teachings, including “You Shall Not Murder”, “You Shall Not Commit Adultery”, and “You Shall not Bear False Witness”, among the more well known like “You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me”, and “Remember the Sabbath”. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ compels us to consider more than the law, we must consider what is at the “Heart” of the matter. Yes most of us have not murdered anyone, but if our heart is filled with anger, how can we serve the others in our lives? If our heart is filled with “porneia”, or being untruthful, or unfaithful, how can we truly love our spouses with our whole heart? At the heart of all people is every kind of feeling – from anger, to hate, to love, and lust and everything in between. And if we are truthful with ourselves, we will admit that there is a pounding in our ears that will drive us to confess that most of the time we fall short of this kind of living Jesus calls us to – reconciliation, love, forgiveness, and grace. But that is what is at the heart of the meal that we will soon share. We confess that we fall short, that we fail most of the time in living according to the heart of Jesus’ message. But that is why we come here. We fill our ears with gospel medicine that fills us with grace upon grace. And then we meet Jesus at the table, where forgiven and fed we go out into the heartless world – seeking to show our “tell-tale” Christ-like hearts that are filled with reconciliation, forgiveness and love.

Pastor Dave