For this sixth Sunday after the Epiphany in year A, our texts for worship are Matthew 5:21-37, Deuteronomy 30:15-20, and Psalm 119:1-8.
Here’s my sermon for St. Peter Lutheran Church in Greene, Iowa, given on February 12, 2017.
As some of you might know, my undergraduate degree from Luther College is in computer science. Have any of you done any computer programming? (To my surprise, there were actually four people who raised their hands that they had!) The basic idea of computer programming is that computers are very simple and can only deal with binary choices. Although they make them really quickly, they can only make one decision at a time.
When you write a program, you do a lot of what are called “If-then” statements. If the person presses this key, then do this. If this happens, then do this. It’s all very logical and straightforward. If this condition is met, then here’s the result. Every single time. If you want a result, just satisfy the conditions leading to that result. One choice at a time.
Today’s reading from Deuteronomy is great for a programmer. This reading is a little piece taken from Moses’ farewell speech to the Israelites. Moses has led them out of Israel and through the wilderness for forty years, and they’re about to cross the Jordan River into the promised land. Moses knows he won’t be able to go with them, so he lays out this program for them.
If you obey God’s commandments, then you shall live a successful life in your new land. But if you forget about God and start worshipping other idols, then you will not live long there and you will die. It’s your choice. You can choose to follow God, or you can choose to abandon God. You can choose life, or death. This is a simple, straightforward choice, with huge (but clear) consequences.
Except… just like the reading two weeks ago about seeking justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, choosing life isn’t a one time thing. Even though it sounds like a simple if-then statement, Moses is not asking the people to make a one time commitment. There’s no box to check off, no statement to sign saying “I believe.” Choosing life, turning towards God is a whole life orientation.
If we were to keep reading through the end of Deuteronomy and all the way through the next book, Joshua, we’d find out in the last chapter of Joshua that the people do indeed choose life. In Joshua 24, the people declare their choice: “We will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:21)
They boldly choose to keep following God…until they get distracted. And they get distracted a lot. In fact, you can boil down pretty much the next 34 books of the Bible to them getting distracted and forgetting their vow to choose life and follow God.
Fortunately, God remains faithful to them even when they turn away. God keeps calling them back, reminding them to return to the Lord their God. They come back, vow to choose life and live according to God’s law, then they fall away again. It happens over and over.
Sometimes, they forget the first commandment to have no other God, and they start worshipping idols and false gods. Sometimes, they look around at the great nations lined up against them as enemies, and they forget God is with them and they give in to fear. And sometimes, they forget the purpose of the law and start trying to use it to manipulate God.
The purpose of God’s law is to show the people how to live God’s way, how to live in a way that gives life. The law is intended to be a gift to allow God’s people to live together in unity with each other and in right relationship with God. You can see some of that sense of the law as gift in the Psalm we just read.
Over time, and this shouldn’t surprise you, the people stopped seeing the law as a gift to help them orient their lives toward God, and they started seeing it as a list of rules to be precisely followed in order to stay on God’s good side. The freedom that comes from choosing life turned into legalism. What was supposed to give life started to be used to condemn.
And then Jesus comes along. Jesus looks at the situation, and he sees that the law has become so rigorous, so detailed, so much the focus of the religious life, that it’s actually taking away from God. People are relying so much on how well they follow the law for life that they’re not looking to God as their source of life.
But he doesn’t get rid of the law. Jesus doesn’t say, “Well, then, just live however you want to.” Instead, he makes the law harder. Much harder.
The people’s legalism had given them a false sense of spiritual security. They thought they could do whatever they wanted, as long as they followed the letter of the law. Jesus says, “No, it’s not just what you literally do that matters to God, it’s your whole life. It’s what you think, your intentions. God cares who you are in your heart, not just what other people see.”
Have you succeeded in not killing anyone? That’s great! But if you’ve been angry at someone, if you’ve insulted them, if you’ve looked at anyone else as less than you, then that’s just as bad. God cares how you see other people.
Have you made it this week without stealing anything? Wonderful! Well done! But if you’re not seeking the best for your neighbors, you’re hurting them. Or if you’re giving an offering to God, but you’re not on good terms with your neighbor, stop and go deal with that first.
Not cheated on your spouse? That’s good, but if you look at anyone else with lust, than that’s just as bad as committing adultery. Ever been divorced? Not so easy.
Jesus’ point here is that relying on the letter of the law, doing something just because it’s technically legal, is not truly following God. Having a right relationship with God is about what’s inside your heart, not just what others see you doing.
I would challenge you today as you leave this service to go for the rest of the day without breaking the law, without sinning, but with the way Jesus defines sin, I’m pretty sure going the rest of the day is impossible.
In fact, I bet you can’t make it out of the building without thinking ill of someone else, or putting yourself before a neighbor. As long as we have food and shelter and clothing and there are people in our world who don’t, we’re as guilty as if we had literally stolen from them or killed them. The law won’t let us off the hook.
Jesus makes the law so much harder to follow because he gets rid of all the ways we can skirt around it, all the loopholes we can try to slip through. If the “choose life or death” passage is good for computer programmers, the sermon on the mount is terrible for lawyers. There’s nothing left to interpret.
Later, Jesus will sum up the whole law in two phrases: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. Love God; love people. That’s it.
On the one hand, Jesus makes the law much harder to follow. On the other hand, he makes it much simpler. Everything you’re doing, feeling, or thinking; everything you are is either loving, choosing life, or not loving and choosing death. Love is the fulfillment of the law.
And as God did with the people of Israel when they fell away and chose death instead of life, God remains faithful. God keeps loving us, even when we fail to fulfill the law. In fact, the law, especially the way Jesus defines it, shows us how much we need God’s love and forgiveness, because as we confessed at the beginning of worship, we can’t fulfill the law ourselves. The good news is that what we cannot do, Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross. Thanks be to God.
Let’s pray. Holy, perfect God, your law shows us how sinful we are, and yet, when we fail to choose life, when we choose death and fall away from you, you come to us anyway. You remain faithful. Help us to choose life, to truly love and serve our neighbors more and more each day.
Thank you for all your blessings to us, and for calling us to be a blessing to the world you love. We pray in the name of our Savior, the one who has fulfilled the requirements of the law that we could not meet, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.