Deuteronomy
30:15-20, Matthew 5:21-37
Have you wept at anything during the past year?
Has your heart beat faster at the sight of young beauty?
Have you thought seriously about the fact that someday you are going
to die?
More often than not, do you really listen when other people are
speaking to you instead of just waiting for your turn to speak?
Is there anybody you know in whose place, if one of you had to suffer
great pain, you would volunteer yourself?
If your answer to all or most of these questions is NO, the chances
are that you’re dead.
So writes theologian Fredrick Buechner in
his book, Wishful Thinking. The point being is that life is about so
much more than just physically breathing and walking around - there are choices
to be made.
Moses lays out those choices in our
reading from Deuteronomy. “See, I have set before you today life and
prosperity, death and adversity…Choose life so that you and your descendants
may live.”
Easy choice, right? Given the option of
life or death, unless we find ourselves in dire circumstances, wouldn’t we all
choose life? The instinct to live, to survive, is quite strong. Creatures large
and small go to great lengths to remain alive.
But the choice given here is speaking of
a life that is larger than one of just mere existence. It’s not simply a
decision to subsist. To be or not to be is not really the question. The real
question is how do we choose life in the fullest sense of the word? Life that
is rich and abundant. Life that is not lived just for indulging the self, but
rather a life that is connected and meaningful.
No surprise that choosing life starts at
the source of all life which is God. Choosing life begins with loving God.
Remember the great commandment - the one that everything else hangs upon? Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind. (Matthew 22:37) This type
of love is more than just a passing emotion. It is a whole person experience of
digging into a relationship, of connecting on all levels with the divine. It is
a full body openness to the presence of God in all of creation and beyond. And
as we come to know God's loving presence more and more we naturally love more
and more. Loving God is choosing life.
But there’s more - the more that
naturally flows from loving God which brings us to the second part of the great
commandment. Love your neighbor as
yourself. (Matthew 22:38) The life we have in loving God prompts us to walk
in the ways of God - ways of which Jesus speaks of today in our reading from
the gospel of Matthew as he takes the commandments of old and makes them new
and, seemingly, much harder to follow.
Gone are the days when you were doing
just fine if you didn’t murder someone. Now, Jesus says, even if you’re angry
you’re going to be in trouble. Adultery is not just about physical
relationships anymore but the thoughts and desires within. Divorce may
sometimes be legal but there will always be lasting consequences. Honesty and
truth-telling are not to be governed by an oath but by every word we speak.
Yikes! If this is God’s checklist for us in order to avoid judgment then we are
surely doomed. Doomed, that is, if we separate Jesus’ words from Jesus himself.
Instead, though, these directives are to be linked to our understanding of who
Jesus is as Son of God, Son of Love. For Jesus is not merely giving us a new
way of living that is beyond our reach. Rather he is casting a vision of what
it means to choose life not just for ourselves alone but for the whole
community. Because, notice, everything Jesus is talking about here - anger,
lust, deception - all of that happens within the context of relationship. What
he’s describing is God’s vision of what healthy, whole, loving relationships
look like as we choose the life that allows God’s love to flow in us and then
through us to each other.
Which all sounds wonderful and lovely
until we feel threatened or provoked, insecure or impatient, giving way to a
whole host of dark thoughts and feelings that well up in us unbidden. Even when
we ask for God’s help to choose what is good, what is right, what is life
itself, it still can seem almost impossible to do. And if that is where you
find yourself, bravo! For that is exactly the right response. Jesus’ words are
meant to take away any confidence we have in our own individual goodness. As
Paul in the letter to the Romans puts it we “all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God” (3:23). Once we really know that we are set free to turn from
ourselves to God in ways that open us up even more fully to both receive and
then give love.
And I know this because of all of you.
More often than not, whenever someone tells me about what speaks to them the
most in our Sunday worship service it is the Celtic invitation that either Fr.
David or I say on occasion before people come to the altar for communion. I’ve
yet to hear anyone say the exact words but that really doesn’t matter because
it’s not about the words, per se, but the message of life and invitation that
touches hearts. It goes, “This is the table of the Lord. It is made ready for
those who love him and those who want to love him more. So come you who have
much faith and you have little. You who have been here often and you have not
been here very long. You who have tried to follow and you have failed. Come,
for it is the Lord that invites you. (And it is his will that those who want
him shall me him here.)” Whenever I say those words or hear them my impulse is
always to raise my hand and say, “Yep, that’s me.” And I know I’m not the only
one. These words resonate deeply within so many of us because it names the
truth that we all fall short - not just once in a while, but often. And here,
in this context of church and faith it’s safe for us to say so. Because what’s
so truly amazing is that we are not condemned. God knows it all and still says
come. Come to the table. Come to my love. Come to me - and choose life.
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