Storms

God's thunder sets the oak trees dancing 

   A wild dance, whirling; the pelting rain strips their branches. 

   We fall to our knees—we call out, "Glory!" 

God makes the people strong. 

   God gives God’s people peace.

                       ~ Psalm 29:9, 11 from The Message

In life, we never know when the thunder clouds will suddenly build up and the rain will pour down. The storms of life often sneak up on us unawares and we get caught in the downpours without an umbrella. Can we view life’s storms the way we view nature’s storms? Can we fall to our knees and call out “Glory!”? 

Popular wisdom says that going through the tough times makes us stronger. Sometimes we don’t want to be that strong! An old adage tells us “every cloud has a silver lining.” But sometimes it’s impossible to see any silver linings. After some storms, we get to see the rainbow--or even a double rainbow--but it doesn’t always happen like that. Sometimes we have to simply trust that the sun will shine again. Sometimes we have to imagine the rainbow. Sometimes we have to have faith that God will make us strong (again and again) and give us peace.

There is an awesome beauty in the thunder clouds, and power in thunderclaps. The storm makes the trees dance and the rain can strip their branches. Life-storms can send us reeling (a chaotic dance of sorts) and strip our branches and emotions raw. Eventually the storm passes. Everything comes to life again. There is healing, hope, strength and sunshine. God makes the people strong, God gives God’s people peace. 

If we lift up our face to the sky and throw our arms wide to embrace the storm, we, too, can call out, “Glory!” We, too, can trust the God of love to guide us through the storm.

Copyright 5/29/12. Pastor's column for June, 2012 newsletter.

LOVE vs. LUST

a sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly
at Faith United Church, UCC
International Falls, MN
on Wednesday evening, March 14, 2012
for our Community Ecumenical Lenten Service


scriptures: Acts 8:18-25, Matthew 5:27-30, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13

I’m going to date myself when I say that I think the first time I ever  put any thought into the meaning of “lust” was when there was all that flack (to put it mildly) back in 1976 after then Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter talked about lust and adultery in a very controversial interview with Playboy magazine. 

He said he had looked at women with lust in his heart and that Jesus said that was the same thing as committing adultery. He said lust is a human failing and God forgives us, but that doesn’t mean we should be judgmental of others because condescension and pride are sins too.

Lust popped up again on my radar in 1987, just a couple months after I started seminary. The November issue of Harper’s Magazine had a photo spread on the seven deadly sins. Several advertising agencies had been given the task of creating an ad campaign for each of the seven deadly sins--to make them appealing! And the photographs of those ads were published in the magazine. I would love to show you a picture, but you can’t get into the Harper’s archives unless you’re a current subscriber, which I’m not--and I didn’t care to spend $17.00 on just one sermon, and besides the picture might not be appropriate for all ages...I can’t remember--but I do remember the PR people had made each of the seven deadly sins very appealing. I guess that’s not really surprising because they ARE appealing. That’s why they’re deadly!

So, instead of an appealing photograph of lust, I was amazed to find--on google images--this wonderful list that clearly states the difference between love and lust. But we’ll get back to that in a minute.

What do we find about lust and love in the bible? Well, wouldn’t you know, the bible relates lust to two of humankind’s favorite things: Money and Sex. Either one of those can get a person in all kinds of trouble. We see it in the news practically every day. And it wasn’t any different in biblical times either.

In our reading from the book of Acts, Stephen has just been stoned to death and Saul is running around persecuting Christians and throwing as many as he can in jail. The Christians are forced to leave home base and scatter throughout Judea and Samaria. Wherever they go they continue to tell the good news of Jesus Christ. 

Philip has gone to a city in Samaria, proclaiming the Message of the Messiah. The people were moved by the message and by the signs they saw of God’s action in Philip’s healing and casting out of unclean spirits. They began to follow him, hanging on his every word. 

Also in this town was a man named Simon who was a magician. He had been practicing magic there for years and everyone was really impressed with him and respected him. When Philip came, everyone was inspired by him and they were all baptized, including Simon, who was now following Philip.

The next thing you know, they heard in Jerusalem that the Samaritans had accepted the word of God, so they sent Peter and John there. They laid their hands on the people and they people received the Holy Spirit--with results something like Pentecost, I would imagine. 

Simon was amazed and impressed by this and thought it was magic he’d like to know how to do. So he offered them money to share their “secret” with him. I love Peter’s reaction as translated by Eugene Peterson in The Message, because I think it’s probably very close to what Peter would have said: “To hell with your money, and you along with it! ...trying to buy God’s gift! ...Ask the Master to forgive you for trying to use God to make money. I can see this is an old habit with you; you reek with money-lust.” [1]

Apparently Simon sees the error of his ways and asks for prayers that he would never be like that, and the disciples went on their way, proclaiming the Message of God’s salvation far and wide.

Wouldn’t the world be a great place if everyone saw the error of their ways as soon as it was pointed out to them?

Now, we move on to Jesus talking about lust. You heard the familiar NRSV, but listen to the same verses (Matthew 5:27-30) from The Message. See if it doesn’t hit you much more forcefully.

Jesus says to the people gathered around him, "You know the next commandment pretty well, too: 'Don't go to bed with another's spouse.' But don't think you've preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.

"Let's not pretend this is easier than it really is. If you want to live a morally pure life, here's what you have to do: You have to blind your right eye the moment you catch it in a lustful leer. You have to choose to live one-eyed or else be dumped on a moral trash pile. And you have to chop off your right hand the moment you notice it raised threateningly. Better a bloody stump than your entire being discarded for good in the dump.”

Wow! That’s enough to make us never look at another person again!

So, what is lust? It’s selfishness. It’s thinking only of your own gain, or wanting what you can’t have, or wanting something or someone but not caring how they feel or how anyone else will be affected. Basically, lust is caring more about yourself--your needs, your wants, your success, or your wealth--than anything or anyone else.

And what is love, in comparison?

The answer to that question is in the verses that are chosen more often for weddings than any others. From 1 Corinthians 13, this is what love is: it’s patient and kind; it rejoices in the truth; it bears, believes, hopes and endures all things. And this is what love is not: It’s not envious, boastful, arrogant, rude, irritable or resentful; it doesn’t insist on its own way, and it doesn’t rejoice in wrongdoing. 

Love is pretty amazing! It definitely trumps lust any day, but of course it’s easier to lust than to love, so we have to work at loving--loving well, loving extravagantly, loving always.

Here’s where that list comes in… to help us remember the difference; to provide a reality check on whether we’re feeling lust or love. Just remember:

Love gives                  Lust uses

Love is personal         Lust is objectifying

Love is honest Lust is devious

Love waits                  Lust takes

Love is life-giving       Lust is lifeless

Love is life-long          Lust is temporary

Love chooses Lust uses

Love sympathizes Lust criticizes

Love is committed Lust is unattached

Love is faithful Lust is disloyal

Love is generous        Lust is selfish

Love communicates   Lust manipulates

Love is deep               Lust is shallow

Love is responsive Lust is insensitive

Love is pure                Lust is impure

Love understands       Lust makes demands

Love is kind                Lust is blind

Love appreciates        Lust intimidates

Love cares                  Lust dares

Love accepts              Lust discards

Love is given Lust is obsessed

Love talks                   Lust walks

Love adores               Lust keeps score

It’s pretty clear that the virtues of love outweigh the sins of lust, but just in case we forget--which human beings find it all too easy to do--we have a reminder from 1 Corinthians 13:13 in the Message:

“But for right now, ...we have three things to do...: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

It sure is!  AMEN.

Footnote

¹ Acts 8:20-23, The Message.

Give Up Loneliness

sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly
on March 11, 2012
at Faith United Church of Christ,
International Falls, MN


Scripture reading: Luke 14:1-14


Today is the second in a Lent to Easter sermon series based on the Lent Devotionals 2012 called Give it Up! that was written by the Stillspeaking Writers’ Group of the United Church of Christ. A few of you have the booklet and others of you picked up a copy of the accompanying calendar that gives us suggestions of things to do during each day in Lent, based on the devotional booklet. Today’s suggestion is very practical, especially if you looked at it first thing in the morning. It says: “Daylight Savings Time starts today. Spring forward! (And set your clocks ahead an hour too.)”

Today’s devotional was written by one of my favorites of the Stillspeaking Writers’ Group, the Rev. Lilian Daniel, Sr. Minister at First Congregational UCC in Glen Ellyn, IL.

Before I talk about the story she tells about giving up loneliness, I want to read part of the scripture text again: Luke 14:12-14, but this time from The Message translation of the bible by Eugene H. Peterson. You’ll notice it sounds a bit different in more contemporary language:

“Then [Jesus] turned to the host. ‘The next time you put on a dinner, don’t invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never gets invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ll be--and experience--a blessing. They won’t be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned--oh, how it will be returned!--at the resurrection of God’s people.’”

Lilian’s father was in the military when she was growing up and for a time her family lived in Japan. The story she tells in today’s devotional is about what her mother did while they were living there. She said her mother was always looking for “the lost lambs.” When it was getting close to Thanksgiving her mother would be keeping an eye out for soldiers who were separated from their families, and she would invite them over for Thanksgiving dinner. “She didn’t know these soldiers, and in almost every case [they] never saw them again, but [her] mother would put on a beautiful spread for them anyway.” [1] Lilian grew up thinking that Thanksgiving was a holiday you celebrated with strangers.

In today’s reading--whether you preferred the NRSV version or The Message--Jesus is making it clear to everyone that when we entertain extravagantly we shouldn’t do it for our friends and family, but instead for the people who need it most. He says not to invite people over who can and will invite us back or to pay them back for having had us over for dinner. “He says we should open our doors and our hearts wider.” [2]

In Middle Eastern culture in Jesus’ day it was all about obligation. If someone had you over for dinner you were obligated to reciprocate by having them over for a fine dinner at your house. So when you were planning a dinner party, you would build your guest list around who you owed and who you wanted to invite so you would be invited to their house for a meal in return. So if your neighbors have just totally remodeled their home, you might have them over for dinner so that they would have to invite you to their house and then you’d get to see what they had done to it!

So people tend to stick to inviting just the folks they know when they decide to throw a party. “But we all get stuck in our social ruts. We don’t have time to keep up with the friends we already have, or to make new ones, let alone have them over for dinner.” [3]

You know what Jesus says to that?

Invite them anyway and YOU will be blessed!!

When Lillian was an adult, she complimented her mother on her generosity to all the soldiers she had over for Thanksgiving meals. To her surprise her mother said oh no, Lillian had it all wrong. “‘I was doing it for myself,’ she said. ‘I was so lonely, living across the world in Japan and separated from my family, imagining them all celebrating Thanksgiving back home without me. I didn’t feel like putting on a big dinner, but having other lonely people over, I felt less lonely.’” [4]

So you see? She invited them even though she didn’t feel like going to all the trouble. And in the process she was blessed!

I remember what it was like when Rowland and I moved to Fremont, California when I was pregnant with Bruce. We moved into an apartment complex where we never did get to know anyone because no one seemed to be home during the weekdays. Rowland commuted to San Jose for work, so that meant he was away from home an extra hour on top of the hours he worked. Back in the ‘70s long distance phone calls were expensive and we didn’t have computers yet. The days were often long and lonely.

So I would put Bruce in his stroller and walk over to the open-air mall for something to do and people to talk to. There was a wonderful little shop that sold fresh-baked cookies. Their chocolate chip cookies were to die for! The woman who worked there was very nice and in the late mornings and early afternoons she often didn’t have many customers. So I would buy us a large cookie to share and then she and I would talk. We got to know each other quite well and passed some pleasant times, probably keeping both of us from being lonely, until her husband got sick and she quit her job to take care of him. I think we were both blessed by the times we spent visiting--I know I was--and able to keep some loneliness at bay.

As people grow older they become less mobile, for one reason or another. Maybe they can no longer drive, or walking is difficult so it’s just easier to stay home. Then they get lonely because they no longer interact with many people during the day like they used to when they were younger. Sometimes they will move into a place like the Villa where they can see other people during the day without even leaving the building. But sometimes that’s not an option and the loneliness can really set in when you live all by yourself.

We can help by offering someone a ride to church or community functions. Or maybe we can offer to take a neighbor grocery shopping with us. Or just invite someone over for coffee, or out to lunch. We may feel like we’re too busy or in too much of a hurry, but when we do dare to get involved, we’ll find that the blessings come to us just as much or more than to the person we think we’re helping.

If you’ve never been lonely, you’re very lucky. I think loneliness is a common human experience. But Jesus calls us to give up loneliness and offer an extravagant welcome, not just to our friends and acquaintances, but to others we don’t even know. Do it safely, of course, but consider really doing it and see how you end up being blessed.

Let us pray: “God, show me who needs an invitation from me, and give me the courage to make it happen.” [5]  AMEN.

Endnotes

¹ Lilian Daniel, “Give up Loneliness” from “Give it Up!” p. 23.

2-5 Ibid.

Give Up Despair

a sermon preached by 

the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly 

on March 4, 2012 

at Faith United Church, UCC, 

International Falls, MN

Psalm 31:9-16

Last week I had one of those “aha!” inspirational moments. I remembered how much I enjoyed doing the sermon series on the UCC booklet 16 Ways to Say ‘I Love My Church,’  and it occurred to me that here is the perfect opportunity to do something different for Lent and Easter by doing a sermon series based on the Lent Devotionals 2012 booklet, Give It Up! written by the Stillspeaking Writers’ Group--those folks who bring us the Stillspeaking Daily Devotional each morning in our email inbox or on our church’s and the UCC’s facebook pages.

It’s a whole new way of looking at Lent. In the booklet’s foreword, the writers tell us, “Lent has an image problem. We see it as a time when we should be giving something up--or feeling guilty if we don’t. It’s the serious season of the church year: Christmas is over, Easter is still far away. Lent, we think, is something to be gotten through.”

The Give It Up! Devotional booklet is asking us “to take [our] old idea of Lent and give it up! It will not ask [us] to give up chocolate, or pepperoni on [our] pizza. It will invite [us] instead to re-think the Lenten themes of sacrifice, repentance and renewal in some new and unexpected ways.” It also asks us to “listen to Jesus, whose 40 days and nights in the wilderness Lent recalls.” 1

Some of you have picked up the Give It Up! Lenten calendar which makes suggestions of things we might do each day during Lent and right up through Easter. Yesterday’s suggestion might be a new kind of sacrifice. Instead of personally giving up something, it suggested going to the grocery store and picking up 10 food items and delivering them to a local food bank or shelter. In addition, the calendar suggested that if we have children, we should take them along to help choose the food and deliver it.

It IS a whole new approach to Lent, including inviting a friend to church and telling them why it’s important to us.

And so we arrive at today’s theme: Give Up Despair. 

Have you ever been in despair? I imagine most of us have experienced some degree of despair at some point in our lives. And when we’re in the middle of it, it’s not going to be easy to give it up. The psalmist describes despair quite vividly in verses 9-16 of Psalm 31. Can you feel it? 

“...my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away. I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I have passed out of mind like one who is dead…” 2

The psalms are wonderful because they are full of raw emotion. They are full of emotions that we can all identify with. They are comforting because they show us that the bible was written by and for real people--real people with real problems, real disappointments, and real joys. They also remind us that even in our despair we can count on God. We can trust God. Verse 16 demonstrates that as it calls upon God, saying: “Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.”

The person who wrote about giving up despair in the devotional booklet is the Rev. Donna Schaper, Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City. She tells a story about visiting  an 85-year-old friend in the nursing home. Now this nursing home is one I’d like to visit, for sure! When Donna arrives, her friend is playing chess with another patient and they are both so excited that she’s come to visit that they invite her to join them in the facility’s new cafe for a vodka and tonic! That’s the nursing home for me! I remember quite a few years ago when Harry Anderson had a countertop fridge full of beer in his room at the LIttlefork Nursing Home, but I’ve never visited anyone in a care center and had the opportunity to share a glass of wine or beer with them.

Anyway… in the story, there was, at another table in this cafe, an elderly woman suffering from osteoporosis. With her was her considerably younger, very well-dressed daughter. The mother wanted pancakes and was not handling it well when the waitress told her she couldn’t get pancakes after 4 pm. There was much eye-rolling and misery going on between the mother and daughter   who couldn’t get her mom to understand she just couldn’t have pancakes that day. But then Donna Schaper’s friend went over and whispered in the elderly mother’s ear, “Have a vodka and tonic.” So she did, and she “required the waitress to bring syrup with it.” 3

Donna writes, “Old age is not for sissies. It’s not that good for caretakers either. Our strength does fail. Our bones do waste away. What besides chess and vodka and humor can sustain us?” 4

She continues by saying that she thinks the psalms can and that she often memorizes them in preparation for the time that may come when she can no longer get something she wants at the time she wants it.

But how does one go about giving up despair? The kind of despair I’m talking about is different from clinical depression. Someone who’s suffering from clinical depression will need professional help to get through it and there’s no shame whatsoever in that, and there are good people available to provide assistance.

But despair of the kind where you feel like nothing you do is right, everything you say comes out wrong, things just aren’t going well for you these days…. I think it’s about equivalent to being severely “down in the dumps.” It can be fairly easy to just allow ourselves to wallow in it; to be filled with self-pity. But after throwing ourselves a little “pity party,” it’s time to give up despair and move on.

How? 

Read a few psalms. They’ll help you realize you’re not alone. 

Make yourself get out and do something with others instead of staying home being miserable.

Do something nice for someone--whether you know them or not.

Read a good book, preferably one that makes you laugh out loud.

Go outside--take your camera if you have one--and focus on finding--and taking pictures of--10 beautiful things. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to find them no matter what season it is.

Volunteer your time for a few hours each week--there are plenty of opportunities to do that in this town, whether you know it or not!

And call upon God as the psalmist suggests. Say: “I trust in you, O Lord; You are my God. … Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.”

It’s Lent, so give up something worthwhile! Give up despair.  AMEN.

Endnotes

¹ From the foreword of Give It Up! Lent Devotionals 2012, the Stillspeaking Writers’ Group, Christina Villa, Editorial Director, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland Ohio. 

² Psalm 31:10-12, NRSV.

³ from “Give Up Despair” by Donna Schaper, Give it Up Lent Devotionals 2012, p. 16.

⁴ Ibid.

All Are Welcome

Sermon preached on September 11, 2011 at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN 

Scripture: Romans 14:1-12

We all remember where we were 10 years ago this morning when we heard the news. It’s one of those moments in history that’s indelibly imprinted on people’s memories like the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the day President Kennedy was shot and the day the Challenger space shuttle blew up. 

We won’t forget, but what will we take away from the memory of September 11, 2001? Will we heal? Will we be allowed to heal?

10 years ago I remember hearing about and then reading about in the paper, an incident that happened at a local gas station. A couple who used to live in town because the husband worked at the college had an adopted son whose skin color was darker than most of the rest of us here in the Falls. He was harassed at the gas pump because someone assumed he was Muslim or from the Middle East.

That reminds me of several friends I grew up with in California whose parents and grandparents were in the Internment Camps during WWII. They were American citizens! They had nothing to do with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, yet all Japanese people were lumped together and put in the camps and most of them had to completely start over when they got out after the war.

Many of my Japanese friends were Buddhists but they celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas like every other American they knew. They just had more holidays because they celebrated their cultural and religious holidays as well. New Year’s Day was a big one for them and we used to be invited over for delicious Japanese food and delicacies to help them celebrate. One friend’s mother was a nurse who always volunteered to work Christmas Eve and Christmas day so one of her Christian colleagues could have it off, and then she wanted to be off New Year's Eve and day for her family festivities.

So… what does this have to do with Paul’s letter to the Romans, you may ask? Quite a bit, I think. In the early days of the church--there were both Jews and Gentiles in the new groups who became followers of Jesus. They brought their own beliefs and customs with them and sometimes there were conflicts as to what was right and proper. 

Those who still considered themselves Jews were concerned about eating kosher and not mixing meat and dairy and all those food rules that seem ridiculous to us but made some sense in the days before refrigeration and preservatives. Others believed it was OK to eat anything and that people who didn’t were just silly. They probably even told Paul the famous “7 last words of the church” way back then: “But we’ve always done it that way!”

Paul tells them their job is to welcome everyone, no matter what or how they eat, and even if they are “weak in faith.” I’m sure glad he said that! How many of us have had times in our lives when we are weak in faith? Thank God we’re welcome anyway!

“What Paul seeks in this passage is not merely the tolerance of diversity, [or] a grudging, acceptance of the inevitability of differences. Instead, he articulates an active welcome for those with conflicting views and practices. If Christ welcomed all people (Romans 15:7), then Christians must find a way to welcome one another and to respect the integrity of one another.” [1]

Today we live in a global world where we can no longer afford to be isolationists, even when it comes to religion. Not only do we need to learn to work together with other Christians who believe and practice differently than we do, but we also need to learn about the other great religions of the world and to respect the people who follow them. Of course there are fanatics in every religion and violence is wrong no matter who perpetrates it. But just because a group within a particular faith does something horrible, doesn’t mean that all people of that faith are horrible.

Paul also talks to the Romans about judgment involving celebrations, judgment involving eating and just judging people in general. He says “don’t do it!” That’s God’s job, not ours.

Back in the early ‘70s one of my cousins and his girlfriend got pregnant before getting married. His younger brother’s fiancee apologized to my grandmother that she had to know about their behavior. My grandmother--who I was sure didn’t approve of such things--said, “judge not, lest you be judged.” She might not approve, but it wasn’t going to stop her from loving her grandson and his wife and child. I was impressed. But then, my grandmother was one of the best Christians I ever knew.

It’s VERY difficult for us NOT to judge other people. It may be one of the biggest challenges we face. We’ll never succeed 100%, but according to Paul we’re all accountable to God, so we need to try.

On this 10th anniversary of September 11th, not being judgmental is a very important thing for all Americans to be thinking about. It’s time to heal, time to love, time to move forward.

Diana Butler Bass, whose book Christianity for the Rest of Us was read by the Wednesday morning study group awhile back, has some interesting thoughts on remembering this day:

“In order to heal, to ‘move on,’ as counselors say, one must do the hard work of death--to patiently remember the whole life of those who have died and to learn from the gifts that person left behind. Remembering is a process, a spiritual one at that, by which we come to terms with mortality and flawed humanity, as well as the power of courage and abiding love.

“We all have a memory of 9/11. But have we remembered?

“Silence makes room for remembering. ...I wish for empty public space, a communal practice of quiet, to reflect on not only what happened on 9/11 but in the long, sad decade since. For just a brief time, I long for, in the words of an ancient hymn, ‘all mortal flesh keep silence,’ in the face of the fear and trembling that gripped us one September day ten years ago.

“I wonder what we would find there--of our selves, our neighbors, and God--in that void of words?” [2]

Whether we can do it or not, God loves and welcomes all people. This hurting world has many other moments of horror just as horrendous as 9/11. Technology and communications have made our world smaller and forced us to begin to try to understand one another and respect one another’s beliefs and customs and be non-judgmental. There is much in this world that needs to be healed, loved, and welcomed. Because all are welcome, we must all heal….. And here’s how to start:

To heal the Universe, we must heal the earth...
To heal the earth, we must heal the country...
To heal the country, we must heal the city...
To heal the city, we must heal the neighborhood...
To heal the neighborhood, we must heal the home...
To heal the home, we must heal the family...
To heal the family, we must heal the members...
To heal the members, we must heal the self… [3]

Love heals. God heals. God welcomes. ALL are welcome… even you… even me. AMEN.

Endnotes

¹ Texts for Preaching, Year A, Brueggemann, Cousar, Gaventa, McCann and Newsome, p. 484.

² http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dianabutlerbass/2011/09/09/911-let-all-mortal-flesh-keep-silence/

³ Author unknown. (I got it from John Vlasich on facebook.)

A New Heart

sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Hamly on February 13, 2011

at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: Psalm 119:1-8 and Matthew 5:21-37

Wow! That’s quite a gospel reading isn’t it? It’s not one we get around to very often because we’re usually starting Lent by now. But this year Easter is really, really late--not until the 24th of April--so we have a few extra weeks of the Epiphany season and some texts we haven’t read in awhile.

The psalm doesn’t really prepare us for what’s to come in the gospel. It sounds really nice. Happy are those who walk in the law of God and keep God’s decrees and seek God with their whole heart and who do no wrong.

Oops! There’s one problem right there… NO one does no wrong (except Jesus)! We’re all imperfect so we all mess up at least once in awhile. But we try our best to praise God with an upright heart and follow God’s commandments and ordinances.

And THEN we come to the gospel reading……

Before we even start on that, we need to remember what Jesus said in last week’s reading. That was verse 20, immediately preceding the start of today’s reading. He said: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”[1]

The Pharisees, at least, were the most righteous (or maybe self-righteous) people there were and they devoted themselves to following the law to the letter. They had no room for exceptions, and of course that was one of the problems Jesus had with them. It would seem that if anyone was getting into heaven for following all the rules it would be the Pharisees! So, you weren’t getting there unless you did even better--or were more conscientious--than the Pharisees. And THAT was almost impossible! Basically Jesus was saying that following the rules the Pharisees sought to enforce was futile.

So… now, are we ready? Probably not, but let’s move on anyway.

Today’s reading from Matthew’s gospel is a rule-maker’s dream: You’ve got murder, hate, adultery, lust, divorce and oaths. Anyone quoting from a verse here or a verse there can find ample justification for shunning, judging, chastising and rejecting the ones who can’t live up to the rules.

Those of us who are old enough may remember all the flap over an interview Jimmy Carter did in Playboy back in the ‘70s where he talked about having lusted in his heart. Anyone who has ever looked at another person and appreciated their physical attributes is in trouble, according to a literal reading of this passage.

And divorce… that paragraph will make lots of people uncomfortable or it might even make them give up on the church altogether. The Old Testament said a man could give his wife a written divorce decree. But that meant she was out in the cold with no property and no one to take care of her. So what Jesus is saying is technically better for women because in those days women needed to be provided for by some male person, be it husband, father, brother, uncle or son.

And don’t swear at all. Well, sure, don’t swear false witness is a really good idea, but perhaps it’s even better not to swear on anything, good or bad.

But you know what? I think what Jesus was trying to get across to his listeners was pretty much the opposite of what he was saying. Sure, what he said was good advice to live by, but the thing is no one could do it--not 100%. Perhaps Jesus was saying, “You think you’re following the rules because you know the loopholes. But I’m telling you that it’s about more than just doing the minimum. And you’ve got to see that no one is going to be able to live up to these rules! No one! So stop beating yourself up when you fail. Stop beating up other people when they fail. Everyone fails at this!” [2]

We need a new heart that realizes we can try our best to live up to all the good things we should do and be, but sometimes we are going to fail and God’s grace will be there for us. God’s love will be there for us. And that’s the wonderful thing about God’s love and God’s grace….. God is always willing to give us another chance! With God, failing doesn’t mean “GAME OVER.”

That reminds me of a new game that’s all the rage right now. I wouldn’t call it a video game, but you can play it on smart phones, iPads and computers. It’s called “Angry Birds.” Apparently the birds are angry because the green pigs have stolen their eggs. So the birds fling themselves out of a giant slingshot (that’s where we come in, we have to pull them back in the slingshot and aim them toward the target) and try to crash through the barriers the pigs have set up to protect themselves. You progress through various levels and you have to figure out how to aim the birds so they can hit the most pigs.

Don’t ask my why it’s so addicting, but it is. There is some strategy to it and some skill in figuring out how to get through the different levels. But the most important thing about the game, I think--at least for our purposes today--is that if you fail, you just tap the retry button and go again. You can keep trying and trying until you finally succeed at that level and then you move on to the next. No total failure and no Game Over because you didn’t succeed at a certain number of levels.

That also reminds me of a movie many of you have probably seen, Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. It has become a classic in a pretty short time and I know quite a few people who make a ritual of watching it on or near February 2nd every year. It’s kind of the same thing as Angry Birds. Bill Murray plays the part of a very stuck on himself news reporter who gets stuck on Groundhog Day (Feb. 2nd) and has to live the same day over and over and over again. He finally begins to learn things from reliving the same day and he becomes a different and kinder person by the end. No failure there either, just keep trying until you get it.

Those are contemporary examples of grace. Grace is something that really ticks people off if they are the type who like to enforce the rules on others. But for those who know that everyone fails at one time or another, then grace is a breath of fresh air--and a break--from the hot air of the enforcers. [3]

So, I think this gospel passage is much less frightening or frustrating than it might appear at first reading. God gives us a new heart, but we often forget to use it to be compassionate toward others. So Jesus reminds us that the standards are set so high it’s impossible to attain them all the time. But God’s grace and God’s love are sufficient to get us through and give us another chance. AMEN.

Notes

1. Matthew t5:20, NRSV.

2. Rev. Kirk Moore,

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5L9vpi/revkirk.blogspot.com/2011/02/further-reminders.html

3. Ibid.