Sermons at St. John's Presbyterian Church

You Have Heard It Said

 Pastor Max Lynn

 Scripture:  1 Corinthians 3:1-9, Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Matthew 5:21-37

Choose life! Says the Deuteronomist. We came in this morning to worship because it is our intention to choose life. In today’s scripture passages we are reminded that there are consequences to our actions. The main reason to live a moral life is that it will be to our benefit. Our actions and beliefs have consequences. Despite the fact that bad things happen to us that are not a direct result of our actions, and despite the fact that sometimes our good actions provoke a negative reaction from others who do not understand, and despite that sometimes it is the highly moral act that chooses not to avoid suffering so that we can be present to love and serve others, it is still generally true that if we do wrong, we will suffer bad consequences, and if we do good, as individuals and as a community, we will benefit. Choose life. Choose to orient our hearts toward the God of life.

A minister friend of mine was at his first Church. He had great social justice experience. He was replacing the beloved pastor of 30 years. He wasn’t perfect, of course, and when he made what looked like a pastoral mistake, he was attacked by the old guard. Factions evolved: social justice new guard and pastoral old. What to do? A car comes rushing up on your tail. You are already going 68, ten miles an hour over the speed limit. He gets closer. What to do? Though you don’t know it yet, your boss lies about what another coworker thinks of you, changing differing opinion about a project into a personal attack. You have witnessed him lie about others. What do you do or think? A coworker or friend, a co-passenger on a plane, is in a poor relationship. They are having a bad day and lean on you for support. They are vulnerable and attractive. Our spouse isn’t perfect. They are not very impressed with you anymore either. You have friends who have already jumped ship on their marriages. What do you do? There are so many situations that come up in our lives, day after day we are faced with choices. What difficult moral choices are you facing? What will we face tomorrow?

Jesus is training us to move beyond what the law says, beyond the social norm, beyond what we have heard said, toward a deeper orientation of the Spirit. This orientation of the Good Spirit is possible for Jew and Gentile alike, since it is deeper than social norms and customs. On the other hand it presents us with a higher standard than the law, since the law is an outward rule and judge, while Jesus is inviting us to be motivated and oriented by love at all times, above the expectations of society and the law.

The love orientation comes, by the grace of God, from the Holy Spirit within, and therefore we are never without it, never beyond it, regardless of whether society and the law are present or relevant.

So the Corinthians are arguing over the leadership and theology of Paul and Apollos, and Paul chides them as being immature. He says they are acting like “mere humans.” In their arguments they are missing the point. The point is to be loving and forgiving of one another, as Christ is loving and forgiving of all of us. Love each other, love those outside – they are not competition.

           Jesus contrasts conditional love with living life in the Spirit. He gives five examples from the Old Testament: murder, adultery, oaths, retribution, and treatment of your enemies. With each example Matthew repeats the identical refrain: "You have heard it said, but I say". Jesus says that he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, to broaden and deepen it from mere outward ritual or external compliance to an interior orientation. This is a radical movement from living as “mere men,” as Paul says, to Spirit filled living.

A snippet from Buddhism: “Deeds are condensations of thoughts just as rain is a condensation of vapor. Deeds proclaim from the rooftops of action only what has already been committed in the silent and secret chambers of the heart.

A person who commits an immoral act thereby declares that he is not free from unwholesome states of mind. Also, a person who has a purified and radiant mind, who has a mind empty of all defiled thoughts and feelings, is incapable of committing immoral actions.

(What Buddhists Believe Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/whatbudbeliev/145.htm )

So Jesus says,

Don’t just avoid killing; free yourself from anger. Before you get settled into worship, go meet with the one with whom you have problems, and work it out. Not only should we avoid committing adultery, we should avoid thinking about doing it. Instead, focus on positive, life giving things. We are not to look for the easy way out of marriage even when we have the privilege or right, but by the grace of God, we are to honor our commitment to love. Don’t swear that we will do this or that; just let our word be our truth…simply honor our own word. As Gandhi commented, if we all lived an eye for an eye, the whole world would be blind.” Jesus calls us to jump off the merry go round of vengeance, to be oriented toward the God of love regardless of what others do to us. The point of this lesson is not to kick ourselves for mistakes we have made, but to invite the spirit into our lives now, and move forward with God into the future.

On the street respect is a big important word. If someone disses you, if they disrespect you, you are obligated by the honor of the street to get them back. But what Jesus is saying is that our honor should be internal and independent of what others do or do not do to us. If we have to stop and change course toward revenge every time someone disses us, then we are giving them the power to control our lives. This is what Deuteronomy calls the choice of death. With an internal Spirit orientation, we can ignore the law of the street and not let negative people derail the direction of our lives. Rather than letting someone else orient our lives, we choose life.

Inward Spirit orientation is more important than definitions and actions from the world around us, more important than our bodies. Jesus says if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you to sin, chop it off. The point is that it is easier to live a happy and powerful life with a physical handicap than a spiritual one. During my internship at Delta Community Presbyterian Church in Discovery Bay, one of the members of my shepherding committee was Roger Crawford. Roger had been born with two fingers on one hand, one on the other, and had a prosthetic leg from the knee down. Through discipline and hard work and a positive attitude, Roger became a professional tennis player and then a motivational speaker. I was struggling with my sense of worthiness and Rover was a powerful help. He says, I would rather have one leg and a positive attitude, than two legs and a negative attitude every single time.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Now with this radical ethic we are sure to fall short, and so we rely on the grace and forgiveness of God through Christ. We are saved by grace and not works. But through grace we are empowered to produce the fruit of the Spirit. In the knowledge of God’s grace we are empowered to repent and ask forgiveness, and rather than give in and give up, we move forward with the strength and purpose and positive thinking…even when we have made poor choices in the past, today we can choose life.

Even when we are not living this truth, we know it is true. The good life is with God. The Spirit calls us to a new day, a new way.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;

Lord grant us the courage to change the things that should be changed, the grace to accept those things that cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen