Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Look at what I’ve done for you today: I’ve placed in front of you Life and Good, Death and Evil. And I command you today: Love God, your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his commandments, regulations, and rules so that you will live, really live, live exuberantly, blessed by God, your God, in the land you are about to enter and possess.
But I warn you: If you have a change of heart, refuse to listen obediently, and willfully go off to serve and worship other gods, you will most certainly die. You won’t last long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him so that you may live a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Matthew 5:21-22
You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.
The primary reading today comes from the Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is largely a book of words, not actions. Most Old Testament books are stories of the ancestors – who they were, what they did – heroes, kings, judges, and often, ordinary folks – and especially, what God did for and with them.
This book is clearly pedagogical and prescriptive – repeating and passing on Moses’ teachings and telling the people how to live, what rules to follow, and just what God demands of them. The only real storytelling action comes at the end of the book, with Moses’ final exhortations and his death. Deuteronomy ends with the people massed on the shore of the Jordan, prepared, in the opening chapter of the next book, which is Joshua, to finally cross over the Jordan into the long-awaited promised land.
This reading, with its “choose life” theme, has in recent years been largely co-opted by the anti-abortion movement and applied only to the moment of conception. I would like to claim it back for all of us and remind us all that the life God offers us is so much more than simply drawing breath.
This book is clearly pedagogical and prescriptive – repeating and passing on Moses’ teachings and telling the people how to live, what rules to follow, and just what God demands of them. The only real storytelling action comes at the end of the book, with Moses’ final exhortations and his death. Deuteronomy ends with the people massed on the shore of the Jordan, prepared, in the opening chapter of the next book, which is Joshua, to finally cross over the Jordan into the long-awaited promised land.
This reading, with its “choose life” theme, has in recent years been largely co-opted by the anti-abortion movement and applied only to the moment of conception. I would like to claim it back for all of us and remind us all that the life God offers us is so much more than simply drawing breath.
Love God, your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his commandments, regulations, and rules so that you will live, really live, live exuberantly, blessed by God…
Live exuberantly…that’s a wonderful phrase. Jesus tells us elsewhere in the gospels that his gift is life -- abundant life! What a wonderful idea!
We do try to live this way – trustingly, abundantly – but it isn’t easy in the world we have around us right now. If we pay any attention at all to the news or the internet or even just overheard random conversations in line at the grocery store, we cannot escape the fact that, instead of abundance and gratitude, we seem too often seem to live in a world of suspicion and scarcity – a world where everyone is the enemy and therefore it’s OK to hate them – a world where total strangers can routinely be attacked with threats and obscene language and sometimes even physical injury.
And this is where our second reading comes in – words from Jesus, as quoted in Matthew’s gospel:
We do try to live this way – trustingly, abundantly – but it isn’t easy in the world we have around us right now. If we pay any attention at all to the news or the internet or even just overheard random conversations in line at the grocery store, we cannot escape the fact that, instead of abundance and gratitude, we seem too often seem to live in a world of suspicion and scarcity – a world where everyone is the enemy and therefore it’s OK to hate them – a world where total strangers can routinely be attacked with threats and obscene language and sometimes even physical injury.
And this is where our second reading comes in – words from Jesus, as quoted in Matthew’s gospel:
I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.
What we hear from much of our world today is not life – it is fear – largely manufactured fear, I believe, but fear presenting itself as rage, as miserliness, as a complete absence of empathy or compassion. There is no life to be found in hearts that scream out, “I’ve got mine and I’m keeping it -- to hell with you!”
Last week we heard that we are to be Salt and Light for the world. Today we are being told that, unlikely as it sounds to us, we are the ones called to build the reign of God’s love here and now. We, it appears, are somehow called to heal the fear in our world – especially the fear of others simply because they are other. After all, what has that fear gotten us so far? Only war and injustice and division.
There are valid reasons for some fears, there are those whose hatred drives them to hurt – of course there are. But they truly are the very smallest minority of humanity. And hatred is an irrational response that scatters itself widely over everyone -- the innocent along with the guilty. And the simple fact is that more hatred has never helped anything – it just enlarges the pool of hate.
So, the question for today is: What can we do, as followers of Jesus, as children of God, to lessen the hatred in our world? (Maybe starting with ourselves?)
Last week we heard that we are to be Salt and Light for the world. Today we are being told that, unlikely as it sounds to us, we are the ones called to build the reign of God’s love here and now. We, it appears, are somehow called to heal the fear in our world – especially the fear of others simply because they are other. After all, what has that fear gotten us so far? Only war and injustice and division.
There are valid reasons for some fears, there are those whose hatred drives them to hurt – of course there are. But they truly are the very smallest minority of humanity. And hatred is an irrational response that scatters itself widely over everyone -- the innocent along with the guilty. And the simple fact is that more hatred has never helped anything – it just enlarges the pool of hate.
So, the question for today is: What can we do, as followers of Jesus, as children of God, to lessen the hatred in our world? (Maybe starting with ourselves?)
DISCUSSION STARTERS:
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 19th century
"Angry people are not always wise."
Maya Angelou, 20th century
"Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet."
Martin Luther King Jr., 20th century
"Let no man pull you so low as to hate him."
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 20th century
"There are just some kind of men who--who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results."
Craig D. Lounsbrough, 21st century
"Contradictions are the impossible chasms that create forever separations. God is the forever bridge that creates impossible reunions."
Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith, 21st century
"Truth can be told in an instant, forgiveness can be offered spontaneously, but reconciliation is the work of lifetimes and generations."
Leo Tolstoy, 19th century
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
Will Smith, 21st century
"Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too."
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