Choose Life

Scripture Lessons: Deuteronomy 30: 15-20 and Matthew 5: 21-37 Sermon Title: Choose Life Preached on February 16, 2020 Scripture is easy to misunderstand. I don’t understand a lot of the Bible, but there are parts that I do understand, other parts that I’m trying to understand, but there are many who misunderstand most of it and that’s probably because misunderstanding is easy to do. It might be easier to misunderstand than it is to understand. That’s how it is with people, so why not with Scripture? When we encounter strong moral admonitions like that of the two Scripture Lessons we’ve just read, it’s possible to misunderstand the intention of our Father in Heaven just as children misunderstand the intentions of their parents on earth. Parents, has it ever been the case for you, that when attempting to save your children from harm, self-inflicted or otherwise, they’ve reacted as though you were not trying to save them at all, but instead, as though you were trying to ruin their lives? Last Sunday afternoon we were on the way to the Cub Scout Troop 252 Blue and Gold Banquet. That’s an annual event for our Scout troop which celebrates the birth of scouting. Because our Scout Troop, like many others, has gone co-ed, our 8-year-old daughter Cece has joined the troop that both my brother and I were in, and which our father, Cece’s grandfather served as a leader. While Sara went to the grocery store, I took both girls to the Blue and Gold Banquet along with our covered dish, but coming out of the house they beat me to the car. Locking the door to the house then walking towards the car I could see that Lily, who is now old enough to sit in the front seat, was there in the front seat, already buckled, and when I opened the door, I found Cece, though only 8-years-old, in the driver’s seat. I couldn’t see her until I opened the door because she was lying down so that her feet could reach the pedals. From that position she said, “Daddy, I’m tall enough to reach the peddles. Why don’t you let me drive us to the church?” That’s a fair question. I responded with a couple fair answers: 1. Because you don’t know how to drive 2. Because if you’re laying down in the driver’s seat to touch the pedals you can’t see over the steering wheel 3. Because you don’t have a driver’s license and so it’s illegal for you to drive the car These are only three of the logical reasons why I couldn’t allow Cece to drive us to the Blue and Gold Banquet. A more emotional one: Because I love you and don’t want you to wreak this car and get hurt. Regardless, my logic was met with complete and utter indignation by both of them. Our children reacted to me as though I had suddenly mandated that no children in the Evans household would ever be allowed to eat, smile, or drink water again. Though I was standing on the moral high ground they lashed out at me, saying: “Gosh Dad! You never let us do anything!” Consider that experience and reflect for a moment on your relationship with God. Or think for a moment about someone else’s relationship with God. It is a common thing to begin our prayers, “Our Father,” and so also, it is a common thing for us and many others to encounter God’s law with the same indignation as children to their parents. “Why should I let God tell me what to do,” some say, as though the Father’s intention were to keep us from happiness or fun rather than ensure that we enjoy the benefits of an abundant life. Too many have rejected the Church because they believe that a life of fulfilment will be found outside of it, and too many inside the Church validate such an assumption by living miserable lives that no sane person would ever want to imitate. Last Sunday Jesi Allers preached a beautiful and vulnerable sermon on Jesus’ command that we be salt and light. I remember talking with my barber about the passage as few years ago. He told me that salt is good so we need to be salt. “Without it, food tastes boring, and I sure have been to some boring churches.” Why would Jesus tell us to be salt? Why would Moses tell us that in God’s law is life? Then considering today’s Second Scripture Lesson from the Gospel of Matthew: why would Jesus call us to watch, not just our actions but our thoughts? Some say it’s because God doesn’t want us to have any fun, but I say it’s because God wants us to choose life and not death. The Choir just sang so beautifully: “If you love him, keep his commandments,” but don’t forget, it’s because He loves us that He gave them. God’s intention in giving us rules to live by is not to rain on our parade but is simply to ensure that we avoid hurting ourselves and the people around us. God gives commands for the same reason that loving parents stop their 8-year-olds from driving the car. It is for love that God does it. Still, so many, when reading a list of moral admonitions like the ones we’ve just read from the Gospel of Matthew, would say, “Why follow those rules? I’d rather live a little!” Live a little? As though a life of sin were a life of freedom. As though a life indulging the flesh led to fulfillment. As though breaking the rules insured happiness, when in fact, to quote the worst hymn to sing but my favorite one to quote: We are not free when we’re confined to every wish that sweeps the mind, but free when freely we accept the sacred bounds that must be kept. And what are those sacred bounds? We just read them. These moral admonitions from the very mouth of our Lord do not abolish the law but fulfil it. His word for us today is one that requires self-examination, change, and repentance, for Christ does not just call us to refrain from murder, but even the thought of it! It’s true. He does. Is there forgiveness in our Lord? Of course. Is there love? Absolutely. In him is all compassion and goodness, for he is one who loves us too much to allow us to stay as we are. As he opens the car door of our inner thoughts to see us trying to drive without seeing over the steering wheel of our lives he says simply, “Get out of the front seat and listen to what I have to say.” “Your thoughts are dangerous,” he says. That’s the point of this entire Second Scripture Lesson, and when we really think about it, we know he’s right. They are. Our thoughts are dangerous. I’ve been using an app on my phone to meditate every morning. In addition to reading a short devotional, then praying through my personal list and the list that Rev. Joe Brice provides, I use this guided meditation app to spend time in the presence of God in quiet for too often my prayers are too much talking and not enough listening. The guided meditation suggested to me last week that I notice my thoughts, then label them. That I think about what I’m thinking about. That’s a strange concept, but it’s helped me. If I’m at home and my mind has wandered, just noticing what that thought was about tells me something. So, I ask myself, was that thought about my children, my wife, my parents, or much more likely, my church? In labeling my thoughts I begin to notice where my mind is, for my mind is not always in the same place as my body, nor are my thoughts always bringing me closer to the people right beside me. I was thinking about changing the title to this sermon to more accurately reflect what I’m trying to say this morning, and so I came up with the alternative title: “your phone is from the devil.” I don’t really think that. Not exactly anyway. Because your phone, like so many other things: money, guns, anger, sex – can be used for good or for evil, depending on how you use it. The intention of course is to provide connection, and indeed it does. Because of technology and the power of the internet our worship service reaches all the way to our friend Kay and her family in Australia, but sitting next to my wife on the couch, my phone can also take me right back to my study at the church, it can distract me from my family with Facebook where bridges are burnt between me and all my Facebook friends once I learn how they really think, it can threaten my most important relationships because my phone can take me anywhere and it can show me anything. Be careful with that thing. Why? Because if you’re mad at someone you need to go and tell them why your mad, you don’t need to vent on Facebook. God created us to love and put us in relationships. God gave us feelings of attraction, sexual and otherwise, and if you get used to watching other people through pornography you won’t be able to do it right with the person who you’re supposed to be doing it with. What did Jesus say? He quoted Moses and the Law. Moses said, “You shall not murder.” Good. Don’t. But don’t think about murdering people all day either because hate will rot you out from the inside. Moses said, “Don’t commit adultery,” and he was right. Don’t. But thinking about adultery all day is going to mess you up too. Then, “it was also said, ‘whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’” OK, but if you think you can end a relationship with a piece of paper then you’re crazy, because the hate you feel towards him or the resentment you feel towards her will still hurt your kids even after the separation. They can feel it. Watch your thoughts. But have you ever been afraid that God was watching them? I have. And whether you think of God as a loving father or a judgmental one matters tremendously in this way, for whether God wants to help us change that we’d have joy or wants to see our thoughts so that He can judge us and reject us makes all the difference in the world. Know this then: Jesus isn’t talking about thoughts because he’s a member of the thought police. Jesus isn’t calling us to look inside our heads so we’ll be consumed by guilt or shame. Jesus doesn’t call us to monitor what we’re thinking so we’ll know whether we are among the righteous or the unrighteous. Instead, he gives us these instructions because the choice is always ours: abundant life or death and like Moses, he calls us to choose life. Stop worrying about what other people are doing and recognize where your thoughts are leading you. Just stop. That’s what this is about. Just stop hating, lusting, gossiping, coveting, and being jealous, and live. So often our society points fingers at the ones who dance during the Super Bowl. Don’t worry about how they dance or what they wear. They can’t hurt you. Worry about the thoughts in your head, because they can. It’s time to stop worrying about who can go in which bathroom and what happens in other people’s bedrooms, because Christ calls us to consider what happens in our own bathrooms, our own bedrooms, and in between our own ears. Everyone knows that the grown-ups in Washington can’t get along, but don’t worry so much about it that you fail to worry about how what you say about them is affecting your relationship with your friends and your family. What matters so much to Jesus here is how we get along with the people we actually know, not how we view the people we see on TV. “I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgement… So, when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift and go; be reconciled [!]” And if you do, you will live. Choose life. Amen.