Jesus' Commandments

Scripture Lessons: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20 and Matthew 5: 21-37 Preached on 2/12/23 Sermon title: Jesus’ Commandments I’m blessed by a friendship with Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth, a synagogue in East Cobb. Rabbi Larry and I get lunch. Sometimes he comes here to the church, which is a delight for two ladies on the staff who think he’s cute, but getting lunch with Larry also causes me a little bit of anxiety because, it seems, I have an engrained pattern of picking food that Rabbi Larry can’t eat. I may have inherited this pattern of serving non-kosher food to Jewish friends from my mother. When I was a young kid living in Virginia Highlands, my best friend was Jewish. We played together all the time, only he started going home to his house before dinner was served at mine after one fateful evening when my mother served him pork roast. I haven’t taken Rabbi Larry out for pork BBQ or fried shrimp, but the first time he attended the breakfast that our church organizes for local clergy in the community, he was served a nice big helping of breakfast casserole, bacon included. Last time he ate here, I ordered take out and tried to be more sensitive. I ordered salads, hold the bacon bits, only he still couldn’t eat what I’d ordered because along with the grilled chicken was a hardboiled egg. I didn’t know it at the time that it’s against kosher guidelines to eat the mother with her chick. Last month when we had lunch, we went out so he could order for himself. I ordered what he got. The problem was solved, and aren’t you Presbyterians glad we don’t have to worry about dietary restrictions? I bet you were glad until you read the second Scripture lesson for today. Here in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is clear that His commandments will take Moses’ a step further, for He continues the sermon we heard last week, saying: You’ve heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’ but I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment. You’ve heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’ but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. With these commandments, Jesus calls us not just to guard our actions, but our thoughts; therefore, I say that for us Christians, so much more is required than abstaining from certain foods. We must be ever mindful of how our words, actions, and even the thoughts inside our heads can affect our relationships. But wait, there’s more, for to sum all His words up under one neat yet challenging theme, notice that Jesus is here commanding us to make our broken relationships right rather than walk away from them. There is no easy way out of relationship, He says. I don’t like that idea because when I was in 5th grade, my nose started bleeding, and everyone around me accused me of picking my boogers, so as soon as I got home, I announced to my mother that I’d not be going back to that school again. That’s what I wanted. Rather than walk back into an embarrassing situation, rather than talk a misunderstanding out, rather than air grievances and find resolution, I find myself wanting to just walk away. Personally, I’d say that what Jesus has for us this morning is an even greater challenge than avoiding bacon. I’d give up bacon, ribs, and BBQ if I could just walk away from the people that I’ve hurt or who have hurt me. I’d never eat another fried shrimp if I didn’t have to go and apologize to the people I’ve wronged. In fact, so strong is my resistance to reconciliation that years ago, my friends and I were asked to leave the neighborhood pool by the lifeguard. I could hardly force myself back to the pool to make it right again. This is how it all unfolded. When I came home from the pool early that summer afternoon, my mom asked me why I wasn’t still there. “No reason,” I said, and slunk off to my room. Only smelling something suspicious, she called me back to the kitchen to pull the truth out of me. I told her that we had been asked to leave by the lifeguard for not following her instructions. Rather than sitting out of the pool during adult swim, we kept on swimming. When my father got home (Was it that way in your house? Mom would say, “Wait until you father gets home.”), he had a conference with mom while I waited in the living room. They decided I needed to go apologize to the lifeguard. Well, I didn’t want to apologize. They countered, “If you don’t apologize, you can’t go back to the pool for the rest of the summer.” “Fine! Then I’ll just not go back,” I told them. Now, can you imagine that? A 10-year-old boy, all that hot Georgia summer, staying home while his friends swim in the neighborhood pool. This is just how hard it was for me to go back into such an uncomfortable situation. I’d rather walk away, which is foolish. Fortunately, dad saw my attitude as short-sighted. He drove me up there. I walked up to that lifeguard and told her I was sorry for how I had behaved, which took all the courage I could muster. I imagined she’d yell at me or judge me harshly. I don’t know what I was so afraid of, but the last thing in the world I wanted to do was go face that lifeguard I had wronged. Only do you know what happened when I did? Do you know how she responded to me with those tears of shame in my eyes? She responded to me with compassion. She offered me grace. I tell you all this just to say that for me, again, I’d rather give up bacon, ribs, and BBQ. I’d even rather give up going to the pool for an entire summer than face someone I’d disappointed, but every time I’ve done it, every time I’ve put my vulnerable self out there to really apologize and make it right again, it’s been so much better than I’d feared. Has it ever been that way for you? Rev. Dr. Joan Gray was the interim pastor here back in 2016. I’ve heard her say, “What people don’t know, they make up, and what they make up is almost always worse than the truth.” When I don’t know how someone will react to my apology or my attempt at reconciliation, I make it up. I imagine they’ll yell at me, hate me forever, or something like that. Only how often have I been forgiven? How often have you been forgiven? How often have you received grace? That’s what’s at the heart of this long passage from the Gospel of Matthew. Don’t think you can walk away. Try to make it right again. That’s what Jesus commands. Therefore, I say to you, Christians, that Jesus doesn’t mind so much if we eat shrimp or bacon or BBQ ribs, but He commands us to keep on accepting grace, to keep on asking for it, and to offer it to others who don’t deserve it either. Did you hear all that? I said that He doesn’t mind whether we keep our heads uncovered. He’ll be OK if we work a little bit on the Sabbath. He’ll even live if we put a little bit less than 10% in the offering plate, for the main thing for Him is that if you bring “your gift to the alter” then remember “that your brother or sister has something against you, you must leave your gift there before the alter and go.” “First be reconciled to your brother or sister,” He said, for reconciliation matters more than your gift. Reconciliation matters more than what you eat. Reconciliation matters more than what you drink. Reconciliation matters more than where you go to school or what you do to pay the bills. Therefore, if you think for a minute that you can call yourself a Christian because your kids go to a Christian School and you have a Jesus fish on your car, but you hold a grudge against your neighbor and tattle on her to the HOA without speaking to her first, then you had better ask yourself who you really think you’re following. Did you read what Jesus said? “Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison,” yet when the fights happen among people like us, everyone starts calling his lawyer. You know, lawyers take a lot of heat. There are more jokes about them than any other profession. I heard someone say that “the difference between a lawyer and a catfish is that one is a slimy bottom-dwelling scum sucker… and the other one is a fish.” I have more. Surely you do, too. We make these jokes about lawyers; however, we’re the ones who hire them. Jesus isn’t sure we should be so quick to do so. Therefore, He questions the practice of dismissing your spouse, saying, “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’” That’s how they used to do it. That’s what Moses said they were allowed to do. Just call the lawyer and pretend the marriage never happened. Say to your spouse, “I wish we’d never met,” then act like you never have. “Wait a minute,” Jesus says. If you have children, you can’t pretend you’ve never met, and while there are plenty of good reasons to get a divorce; while I’ve counseled plenty of couples to go their separate ways, you can’t ever stop treating a person like a person, especially when they’re on the other side of a lawsuit from you. Now that’s hard to do, but Jesus commands it. Jesus doesn’t mind so much if we eat shrimp or bacon or BBQ ribs, but he commands us to keep on accepting grace and giving grace, to keep on asking for it, and to offer it to others who don’t deserve it either. While I’m just as short-sighted now as I was that summer when I faced the choice between apologizing or not going to the swimming pool for the whole summer, and while I’d gladly give up eating shrimp or bacon or BBQ ribs if it meant I never had to face the people I’ve hurt or who have hurt me, I want you to know that I have been blessed again and again when I finally summed up the courage to pick up the phone to apologize or face my accuser remembering that he or she is a child of God. Do you know how rich life can be when we treat each other like children of God? Last Friday, Sara sent me into Publix to buy peaches. Somehow, I’m checking out and the total is $138. How did that happen? You know how they ask, “Did you find everything you were looking for?” Well, I found a lot more than that. I asked the man who was bagging if he could use paper instead of plastic. He said, “Ask and you shall receive.” I thought to myself, “This is about to be good.” “That’s somewhere in Scripture,” he said. “I’m not so good at quoting Scripture. Some people can tell you the verse and who said it just Bam Bam Bam.” I said, “Yeah, I’m not too good on that either.” Opening up a little, he said, “Now, I go to church every Sunday, but I’m not so good at quoting Scripture, chapter and verse.” “Where do you go to church?” I asked him. He said, “I go to Saint Joe’s not too far from the Square, right by the hospital.” I told him that my next-door neighbors go there, too. “Meg and Jamie Tuck, do you know them?” He said, “I don’t, but I go the 7 AM service.” “That explains it; they go on Saturday night, I think.” As though he weren’t quite sure that “that explains it,” he said, “You know, it’s the strangest thing. I go out into the parking lot after the services, and sometimes I see people rushing to their cars, fiddling with their keys, as though they’re trying to escape that place as quickly as possible, without having to talk to anyone they’ve just been to church with. It’s right after the service just as we’ve received the body of Christ, and yet people are all trying to get into the car just as fast as they can.” At that, I looked at his name tag, and said, “Gregory, it’s true, and that’s about the worst thing in the world. I’m a preacher, and I’d really like to quote you in my sermon if you don’t mind.” He said, “Well, of course I don’t mind. And the peace of Christ be with you.” After that, I sat in the car and cried for just a minute because it was so beautiful. My friends, it is always so beautiful to make a relationship with somebody. It’s very hard to maintain a relationship, but it is so beautiful to keep one. Doing so matters more than what you eat. It matters more than what you drink. It matters more than what you wear. It matters more than what you do on Sunday morning. It matters more than where you send your kids to school. We used to sing with Mrs. Vivian Stephens down in the church basement, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love,” for when we treat each other like the body of Christ is within each other, that’s when the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed. The peace of Christ be with you all. Amen.