Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Matthew 5:21-37
I wonder if Jesus has been
reading our newspapers! Anger! Murder! Divorce! Lust and adultery! Swearing
oaths! Let’s add LGBTQIA++, immigration, abortion, classified documents, spy balloons,
invasion and self-defense, and more.
Jesus is speaking in this Gospel
text about the hot-button topics of his day. He tells the crowd, and us, that
the Ten Commandments are still relevant. They tell us to how to live in
community, so that the community may feel safe. The Commandments insist that members
of the community behave respectfully toward God and toward one another.
Jesus wants us to understand
that even minor violations matter. He suggests extreme measures to ensure that
we don’t sin. Anger leads to murder, so make peace with your neighbor before
you come to worship. That way your gift to God is pure gift, untainted by your
resentment and you no longer wish to do harm to your neighbor.
Lust leads to divorce and
adultery. Pluck out an eye, if it keeps you from looking in lust. Cut off a
hand, if it is tempted to touch something forbidden. It’s easy to be tempted,
with one small thing leading to greater things.
It seems odd to us today that
swearing an oath was such a big problem that Jesus mentions it, but we need to
remember the context. Rome was in charge, along with their culture, their
religion, their multiple gods. Many Jews were Hellenized, more Roman in behavior
than Jewish. So perhaps it became easy to fit in with the neighbors and swear
oaths to Roman gods.
Further, people would swear
an oath – promise to do something – and then not do whatever they promised. So,
they were not fulfilling the promise they made. Jesus says, say what you mean
and mean what you say!
… At our Bible study class last
Thursday, we had some fun with the portion of this text relating to divorce. The
text seems to be very sexist, relating only to men who are bored or angry with
their current wives. Pastor Nate suggested that it doesn’t apply to him, since
he would not be marrying a woman.
Jesus makes clear that since
in God’s eyes the man and woman were still married, there were consequences. If
the man later married a divorced woman, he made her an adulterer. If the former
wife married another man, she was an adulterer. Jesus doesn’t add that the man
himself is an adulterer.
The problem with divorce was that
a law that men could say three times, “I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce
you,” and the woman – maybe with her children – were suddenly out on the
street. By saying that they should not divorce, Jesus has compassion on the
women and children. And consequently, the text is actually sexist in favor of
women.
... So, what does this have
to do with us today? Rather than focus on the specifics, let’s think in more
general terms about the Commandments.
God gave Moses the Ten
Commandments to define how the people Israel were to live in relationship with
God and with each other. The first three Commandments tell us how to be in
relationship with God – have only one God, don’t misuse God’s name, remember to
take time for God.
The remaining seven tell us
how to relate to each other: honor your elders, respect life, be faithful to
your spouse, don’t steal, don’t lie about your neighbor, don’t want what is not
yours.
The Commandments help us know
who we are, in relation to each other – we are neighbors. And who we are in
relation to God – God’s own, chosen. With Jesus, we are siblings, beloved and
blessed, children of God. The Commandments help us know who and whose we are.
… Congregations in transition
have challenges and opportunities. This is a time to consider, to reconsider, who
we are, by paying attention to whose we are. We have examined who we have been: started as a
campus ministry with a supporting or sustaining congregation. Our pastors have
had different visions for how to best serve the congregation and the campus
folks. That was then; this is now.
In a few weeks, we will begin
to develop a vision for who God is calling us to be in the present and into the
future. Last week we adopted a budget, a plan for how to spend what God has
given us. How we spend it will be driven by how we envision the future God is
calling us into.
There is always some unease
about the future, because past experience has taught us that things, life, ministry,
doesn’t always go as planned. Here's a quick, hopeful, story.
Just a month ago, I heard a
lot of uncertainty around the future of Campus Ministry. Several students will graduate
and move on to jobs or more education at other schools. The Peer Ministers were
included in those leaving, with a result that it seemed only 2 students would
remain in the program next year. But then, last week I heard that several more
students had joined the Thursday supper group, and some of those had been in
worship with us, and now the future looks hopeful.
I tell this story because it
indicates for us the reality that the future is unknown, but it is in God’s
capable, loving, and merciful hands. As long as we remember this, the future
for UELC will be almost exactly as God envisions it.
Amen
