Love & Fidelity (pt. 3)

Sermon planned for Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Text: Matthew 5:21-26, 31-32

It’s great to be back with you again after another Moose Lake retreat. Both weekends were a great experience, but I especially liked the sessions this past weekend. Richard Bage and Gabrielle Plenert talked about Hope, and about how we as disciples are called to work for God’s Kingdom with hope and boldness. That’s kind of what we’ve been talking about in the past few weeks, regarding the Sermon on the Mount. How do we live in such a way so that we give hope to those around us? How do we live as a foretaste of God’s Kingdom?

Hippo Tschimanga’s sermon, last week, fit really well into this theme. I had a chance to listen to the audio recording, and I really appreciated his words. Hippo began his sermon by speaking about the Protestant belief in Sola Scriptura –Scripture alone. During the Reformation, this emphasis on scripture was also complimented by two other pieces – Sola Gratia & Sola Fide – Grace alone and Faith alone. These three pieces were the core of the Protestant revolution. We, in this congregation, are the heirs of a tradition of faith that have pointed to Jesus as the centre piece of the Christian life. You could say that we’ve added our own fourth piece to this Protestant perspective; and that is Sola Christi – Christ alone. For us, all actions and beliefs are filtered through the grid of what it means to follow Jesus as a disciple. Jesus is the centre of the Christian life, and discipleship is the required response for every disciple (not just the clergy).

And Jesus is also the centre of scripture interpretation – the centre of how we understand God’s law. This becomes very clear as we read our scripture passage this morning; “You have heard that it was said… But I say to you…” Jesus reinterpreted the laws of Moses – he didn’t get rid of them. When Jesus said that he didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it – well, he wasn’t joking. In the passage for this morning, we have Jesus bringing the laws to their proper fullness. Do not murder – true enough… but I tell you, don’t even get angry at your brother, don’t curse them or slander them, don’t even call them a fool. Jesus brought these laws to their fulness. He filled them up right to the top. Discipleship is a radical call to a radical love that sets every impure thought and hateful word aside – it puts them into the trash bin where they belong.

How can we then call ourselves disciples of this Rabbi? Why did Jesus have to take these laws to such challenging heights? Couldn’t he have made it easier on us? Last week, Pastor Hippo was able to single-out several of you and give you a word of challenge. This morning, Jesus’ words are pointing at all of us. Jesus comes to each and every one of us this morning, standing in front of us in the pews. His words are for each of you.

Each of you is called to be a foretaste of God’s Kingdom. Just like the Beatitudes, the whole Sermon on the Mount needs to be read with the Kingdom of God in mind. Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was near. He gathered a community of disciples that would bear witness to this Kingdom. These disciples were called to be a demonstration plot of the Kingdom, so that when people saw how they lived together they would be attracted to Christ and his Kingdom. We are like the salt that adds flavour and health, like light that shows the way.

But what does it mean for us to be a foretaste of God’s Kingdom? If the Kingdom of God is one that’s characterized by love, grace and peace – well then there’s absolutely no room for disciples holding onto anger, or saying vicious things about each other, or calling each other names. We can’t be a foretaste of God’s loving Kingdom if we hold onto our anger. Now Jesus assumes that we will get angry, but he says that we have to go and reconcile right away. Jesus commanded his disciples to work out our problems quickly and not let them stand. He says that you’re even supposed to excuse yourself from worship so that you can go and make things right. Peace between disciples is so important that we can put aside every other act, including the act of worship, until we’ve made peace. I find this difficult to practice because I don’t like conflict; and I’m guessing I’m not the only one here in that boat. But if we’re angry with someone, we have to go talk about it with that person straight to their face, and as soon as possible. And the goal isn’t just to start a fight, or to get what you want; the goal is to restore a loving relationship. Don’t wait until they bring it up. Take initiative yourself!

And then there’s gossip; whether at the coffee shop, at work, at Mom’s Morning Out, at school, or at home. Gossip is everywhere – but gossip is also unnacceptable. Slander is of the devil. James likens it to a fire that burns down the entire house. You are scoring for the opposite team when you choose to speak badly of a fellow believer. In Romans, Paul admonishes us to let Love be genuine. There’s nothing Genuine about a fellowship of believers that gossip about each other. Now there’s a deep connection between our fear of conflict and our problem with slander and gossip. When we’re angry at someone, most of us have to let the pressure out somehow. Many of us choose to relieve that pressure by talking to a friend or spouse about the person – rather than seeking peace with the person that we’re angry with. The apostle writes, in 1 John, that “All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them…” and he also writes, “Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God” Everything is on the line with this one. If we do not show love, we cannot love God. If we cannot extend forgiveness, neither can we experience God’s forgiveness!

It’s not that these actions save us or damns us. It’s rather that we are disciples and we have a job to do. We are to be a foretaste of something different than what’s prevalent in our world. We are to be a demonstration plot of love and faithfulness, transparency and truth so that people can catch a glimpse of God’s love. If we’ve lost our discipleship edge… if we’ve lost our saltiness… then there’s only one place for us – we’re fit for the pit.

In Jesus’ time, there was a valley called Hinnom outside of Jerusalem; it was often referred to as Gehenna – or hell. It was the same valley where King Ahaz introduced Israel to the practice of pagan worship to the god Molech. King Ahaz taught the Israelites to sacrifice their own children to Molech by burning them. This Valley of Hinnom represented a time when a foul King was able to lead Israel into Satan’s territory.

Later, when King Josiah introduced the reforms that restored some sense of law and godliness to Israel, Josiah condemned this valley. From that time on, the Israelites would bring their trash to this valley and set it on fire. It was a practical act but also a symbolic act. The Hinnom Valley was a garbage dump and incinerator, but it was also a place to cast off all that was evil so that it could perish in the fires. When Jesus spoke about hell, his listeners would have understood these two pieces to what he was saying. They would have thought of this valley garbage dump, and all the stench of rotting flesh and burning garbage; but they would also have thought of the judgment of God. Just as the Jews cast off their useless trash to burn in Gehenna, so too God will cast off those who have become useless. And if we rebel against our calling as disciples – if we become instigators of hatred, violence and division – then we will have become useless to God.

Why does Jesus use this strong language about the punishment for those who call someone a fool? Maybe a story can help us understand. “There was a certain Rabbi, Simon ben Eleazar. He was coming from his teacher’s house, and he was feeling proud at the thought of his own brilliance and goodness. A despised man, who was passing by, gave him a greeting. The Rabbi did not return the greeting, but said, “You Raca! How ugly you are! Are all the men of your town as ugly as you?”, “That I do not know,” said the passer-by, “ Go and tell the Maker who created me about how ugly I am – after all, I am the work of His hands.”

We are the artwork of God. God has fashioned us with tender love, creating us beautiful and good. When we trash someone with words, when we slander them and gossip about them, we are trashing the work of God’s hands; we are talking about someone who is deeply loved by God who made them. If you want to understand this better, then the next time your child or grandchild gives you a piece of art from school, tell them how ugly it is. No? Not a good idea? Why not? So why would we even consider for a moment that it’s ok to do the same with God’s artwork, whether through violence, hatred, slander or gossip? If we are a foretaste of God’s Kingdom of love and peace, then there’s no room for the sour foulness of anger and hate. You wouldn’t put a handful of manure in a glass of milk – it would ruin the taste. God won’t allow any manure in the community that’s called to be a foretaste of God’s grace and love. If you are a gossip, repent. If you hold anger against someone in the congregation – settle it up this week. And if you have forgiven someone – don’t ever mention it again… after all, we ask God to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

The second re-interpreation is on the question of divorce. Right off the bat I want to acknowledge that this issue is terribly challenging to speak about in our time for a variety of reasons. The issues that lead a couple to file for divorce are many. The Church sometimes – unfortunately, too many times – fails to be a community that cultivates healthy relationships and marriages. At least one area of weakness is our extreme individualism and our lack of vulnerability. If we see a marriage hurting, we do not feel empowered to speak into that situation; or we oversimplify the problems. We’ve lost a lot of ground in terms of interpersonal accountabiliity, and many times we play the judge rather than offer Christian love and counsel. Worst of all is the shame, guilt and brokenness that people feel when their marriages fall apart. If you are struggling in your marriage – please, don’t hesitate to seek help. Talk to someone about it; a trusted friend, a counselor, or speak to one of our deacons or to myself. Even if your marriage is healthy, find a group of Christians to whom you can be accountable on a regular basis. We, as a church, need to walk with each other in the good times, but also during difficulty.

Jesus’ words about divorce are controversial today. I’ll read them again:
31 "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 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.
With this teaching it’s really important for us to know a bit more about marriage and divorce in Jesus’ time and in the Old Testament. Here, Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 24:1-4, where Moses made a concession regarding divorce. He said that a man could give his wife a certificate of divorce if he found something indecent or improper about her.

The question that occupied the Rabbi’s was: what did Moses mean by ‘indecent’? Moses’ command was vague. Two major schools of interpretation arose regarding this law about divorce. There was the school under the leadership of Shammai and another under the leadership of Hillel. Shammai and Hillel were master Rabbis, but they each came out at different ends on the law about divorce. Hillel and his students taught that a man could divorce his wife if he found anything indecent about her. It is said that Hillel even permitted divorce if a man’s wife burnt his supper.

Rabbi Shammai and his students, on the other hand, were more conservative. Shammai taught that a man could only divorce his wife if he found her doing something immorral. In this case, she could burn the toast all she liked, but if she was caught gossipping, or breaking one of Moses’ laws, or anything regarding moral impurity, then the husband could divorce her. This was the conservative position in Jesus’ time.

And then there’s Jesus. There were a few occassions where Jesus was asked to weigh-in on this debate between Hillel and Shammai, and in this section of the Sermon of the Mount he was speaking to this issue. Jesus set the bar far higher than anything that Shammai taught, and he blew Hillel’s liberalism right out of the water. Jesus re-interpreted the command from Deuteronomy. He said that if a man divorces his wife for any reason other than unchastity, he causes her to commit adultery – he is the cause of her sin. The Greek word for ‘unchastity’ is porneia. In Jesus’ time, porneia included several forms of sexually immoral behavior, but usually referred to extra-marital intercourse. This was the only exception that Jesus permitted. If she cheated on you, you were allowed to divorce her. But if you divorce her for any other reason, the marriage isn’t really over, and if she was forced to remarry, in order to survive, you will have forced her into adultery. According to Jesus, marrying a divorced person constitutes adultery, because the divorce is only on paper. This is crucially important: when a man and a woman become one flesh they form a union in front of God that goes far beyond anything written on paper, whether marriage licenses or divorce papers.

These two master Rabbis, Hillel and Shammai, argued for the appropriate situation in which a marriage could be dissolved. Jesus, on the other hand, challenged this basic assumption – he challenged the assumption that a legal procedure can end a marriage. Instead, a divorce merely releases a person – and in his time, they were most likely released into a life of poverty.

A divorced woman, in Jesus’ time, was under financial pressure to either remarry or become a slave or prostitute. In that time, women didn’t have many options on their own, especially in terms of making a living. We live in a very different world. When a spouse is released from a marriage, they are not always forced into poverty. Maybe that’s why Jesus raised the stakes so high with divorce in the first place – he hated to see these women thrown into the streets for barely a reason at all. Maybe Jesus spoke out so strongly against divorce because he knew what it meant for these women who were left to fend for themselves in a Patriarchical system.

The question that we might ask is this: can the church today be a place of vulnerability and friendship so that people who are divorced can continue-on, feeling support, care, love and protection? Could we, in Gretna, be a community that would nurture and care for a divorced person so they wouldn’t need to enter into an adulterous relationship? Can we be this kind of community of friendship and love? Well, that has everything to do with whether we will be a community that loves rather than hates, a community that remains faithful rather than commits adultery, a community that speaks lovingly of others rather than gossips about them….

God’s intention for human love is that it would reflect the love that he has for us. The love between friends, between spouses, between parent and child, and between neighbours is supposed to reflect the love that God showed us in Jesus Christ. And the love that God has for us is not built upon documents or contracts; it is the love of an everlasting covenant written in our hearts. In the Kingdom of God, relationships will experience that kind of love, and Christ’s disciples are called to be a foretaste of that kind of love now already – so that the world can get a taste of it and want more.

A word of anger, calling someone a fool, holding on to your spouse’s failures, refusing to forgive, gossiping about your fellow Christians, certificates of divorce – these are different signs of failure. When the world sees us failing, we leave a sour taste in their mouth. These things name the failure of Christians to be salt and light. These things represent our refusal to be a foretaste of God’s Kingdom; a refusal to be a foretaste of God’s love, and of God’s fidelity and faithfulness. Conflict in human relationships and marriages are unavoidable and complex. It’s not always easy to know the right thing to do. But a good first step is being honest, seeking reconciliation, telling the truth, and being faithful in our relationships.

This morning’s scripture passage could be read as a list of don’ts, but I would caution against that. I’d rather encourage you to dream about the kind of life you and I are invited into. Of course we need to be warned about the kind of attitudes and practices that will make us lose our saltiness, the kind of stuff that is useful only in a garbage dump. But even more than this, we need to be given a vision of the life that we’ve been called into. In our baptisms, we have been called into a mission. We’ve been called to give the world a taste of what’s to come: to give them a taste of love, a taste of fidelity and faithfulness, a taste of grace and forgiveness, a taste of justice and peace – a taste of communion with God their Maker.

Use this next week as an opportunity to be a light. Share a kind word with someone who needs it. Listen to someone in their struggle without feeling the need to fix it – just listen. If someone starts gossiping around you, leave or stop the conversation short, or say something positive about the person. If you’re angry with someone, forgive them and seek reconciliation. Repent and turn away from all the bad habits that make us useless and fit for the trash; instead, take up your holy calling to be ambassadors of God’s Kingdom.

May you live out your calling! May you speak peacefully and lovingly with all those you meet! May you forgive and love those who offend you! May you be reconciled with your friends, your enemies, your parents, and your spouse. May you be a living foretase of God’s goodness, all for the sake of His glory. Amen.