Matthew 17:1-9 "OK, I Give Up"

         A brilliant magician was once performing on an ocean liner. However, every time he did a trick, the ship captain's parrot would yell, "It's a trick. He's a phony. That's not magic."

         Then one evening during a terrible storm, a disastrous thing happened.  The ship pitched and rolled once too often and began to sink – far from land and right in the middle of the magician’s evening performance.  All of the passengers and crew scrambled safely aboard the lifeboats, and a few of them watched in horror as the ocean liner slipped beneath the waves and disappeared. 

         As luck would have it, the parrot and the magician ended up in the same lifeboat. For several days, they floated on the now gently rolling swells of the ocean.  However, the whole time they just glared at each other, neither saying a word to the other.  Finally, the parrot broke the silence.

         "OK, I give up,” the bird said.  “What did you do with the ship?"

         That bird could not rationally explain what had happened. It was too much to comprehend, even for a smart parrot.  And so it is for us when we begin to reflect on this story of the transfiguration. 

          “OK, I give up, “ we say.  “What happened up there on that mountaintop – and whatever does it mean?”

         Well, whatever the “it” was, it happened “six days later” we are told – six days after Jesus had quizzed his disciples on exactly who those folks following him from town to town and village to village as he preached and taught and healed – who they thought he was anyway.  Some were saying he was John the Baptist or one of the great prophets such as Elijah or Jeremiah, come again.

         Then, of course, Jesus had asked point blank just who the disciples thought he was.  Peter, for once, got it right.  “You are the Messiah,” he quipped, and Jesus liked his answer so much that he called Peter a rock, the rock on which some day a church would be built. 

         It was just when Peter was basking in the glow of this particularly benevolent compliment that Jesus blew the lid off of all their expectations – not that he was the Messiah but rather what being the Messiah would entail. 

         You see, Jesus went on to tell them about the journey they all would take to Jerusalem.  He told them it would be there – in the Holy City – that the most unholy thing would happen. 

Under the hateful gaze and catcalls of the temple hotshots, Jesus said, he would die a terrible and ignoble death – which only meant one thing in that day and age – and, guess what, there would be crosses enough for all of them, he went on, should they choose to pick one up. 

         Jesus also told them he would be raised to life in three days, but it was only the death part that grabbed Peter’s attention, maybe because he could not possibly make sense of it in light of all they had hoped and dreamed for in a Messiah.  Anyway, Peter piped up again, this time all hot and bothered - and this time getting it all wrong. 

         “That must never happen to you,“ he declared, which was when Jesus called him not only Satan, but, even more cutting, an obstacle to everything that must occur.  Once again, confusion reigned among the twelve. 

         “OK, I give up.  Who is this man Jesus that we have been partnering with for the past several years?  What’s his shtick anyway?”

          It was six days after all that happened that Jesus took Peter, James, and John along the wilderness trail littered with stones and dust up to the top of a nearby mountain.  He led them on a journey at the end of which they would never be quite the same.   

         You see, when the four of them were alone at the top, all this transfiguration business took place.  First, the Gospel writer tells us, Jesus began to glow.  Soon his face shone like the sun was shining right through him, and finally his clothes turned a sparkling white. 

         Not only that!  In the mere blink of an eye, the Gospel writer goes on, Jesus was not the only one dazzling.  Moses and Elijah – the number one Jewish lawgiver and the crackerjack prophet – the great saviors of Israel - flanked Jesus on either side – like bookends - and the trio was chatting as if they were old buddies, a savior-to-savior conversation of sorts.  What ever were they talking about?

         Ecumenical pastor Russell Rathburn makes one tongue-in-cheek suggestion:  Perhaps they were just catching up, he speculates.  “Like, ‘Jesus, we haven’t seen you since the incarnation, how’s it going down here?’  And Jesus is like, ‘well pretty good — I’m not gonna say there aren’t some problems…but over all not bad.’

        Or are they doing official business? Is there something that Elijah and Moses know that Jesus really needs to know so they have to run down to earth and tell him right quick?

         It could just be to impress Peter, James and John — it’s not just that Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus — Jesus actually knows them. (Maybe) Jesus is saying to Moses, ‘Are they looking? Are they looking? OK, pretend you’re talking to me like we’re old pals and I just said something really funny.’

         And Elijah and Moses go, ‘ha, ha, ha, ha’ and slap Jesus on the back (or) give him a playful punch in the shoulder. Or maybe they’re complimenting him: ‘Jesus, those clothes are whiter then anyone on earth could bleach them — what is your laundry secret?’

         Of course, it probably was not that way at all, but the truth is that we do not know the gist of their conversation, though we do know that what happens next is pretty unbelievable as well.  I mean, right in front of him, two of the greatest figures in all of Jewish history are chatting up our rabbi, and Peter, who has absolutely nothing to add to the conversation, no matter what they were talking about, interrupts them.         

         “Peter’s like, ‘Uh excuse me, uh Jesus….Rabbi, it is really good for us to be here, lemme tell you what I think we should do: Why don’t we make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah? — then you can sit down relax — be a little bit more comfortable while you’re talking.’ Jesus just looks at him; doesn’t say a thing.”  (Rathburn)

         Only then did a cloud enshroud the mountaintop, and out of the cloud came a voice that presumably even Peter recognized as the voice of God Almighty.  “This is my Son,” the voice proclaimed, “my Beloved, the one marked by my love.  Listen to him.”

         And at that, the three disciples threw themselves facedown in the dirt, terrified.  But, hey, how else do you take in such a close encounter with the Holy One?

         And then it was over – except that Peter, James, and John felt Jesus touch their shoulders.  Actually, the Greek word that we translate as “touch” means “fasten or adher to.”

         So – Jesus fastened himself to the three frightened followers, and this time when Peter, James, and John heard a voice, it was his voice speaking – in that special way he had of being gentle and yet oh so strong at the same time.  “Don’t be afraid,” he said.

         And with that phrase echoing in their hearts and minds, they walked down the wilderness trail together, and I like to believe that they really were not afraid because they were fastened to Jesus.  And I like to think deep down inside they knew that they were not alone – even as they traveled into a dark and unknown future together.  And I like to think that the unspoken words among them were:  “The journey has begun.” 

         And that, my friends, is the story of the transfiguration.  “OK, I give up, “ we say.  “What really happened up there on that mountaintop – and whatever does it mean?”

         As far as what actually happened up there on the mountaintop, I, for one,  do not know.  As Methodist pastor Jim Parsons remarks, “We live in a factual world. If we want the answer to a question all we need to do is pull out our phones and find the answer. It is right there in Wikipedia. We want answers to all of our questions and we are as demanding as a three year old as we constantly ask any authority around us, why? Why? Why?

         And the answer “just because” doesn’t cut it anymore. But the truth is what happened on the mountain…doesn’t make sense….(just like) I cannot explain to you with facts and a pie chart how the Holy Spirit is present in the sacrament we are about to partake in. I do not have an answer to how God is God (and how God goes about manifesting that Godly self).  It is a mystery.”

         However, that being said, maybe exactly what happened on that mountaintop is not as important as the meaning of whatever happened there.  And I do have a thought about that.  

         I think the transfiguration is like a preview for a movie.  It is a glimpse of what is to come.  As we get ready to begin Lent on Ash Wednesday this week, this story reminds us of what we will discover at Easter.  This story shows us the ending of our Lenten journey just before it begins. 

         And when we know the ending, we can see that this journey we are about to take – with all its dust and pebbles littered along the way – in all its darkness and unknown twists and turns – is a journey that, if we take it seriously and intentionally, will be one where we will learn oh so much about love – because, in the end, that is really what Easter is all about – love.        

         Jonathan Turtle, who is a pastor in the Anglican Church in Canada, puts it this way:  “For Matthew, love looks like (Jesus, God’s Beloved,) journeying towards death in Jerusalem…For Matthew, to love this Jesus is to listen to this Jesus, even though it means we too will end up picking up our crosses to follow him to his death, and indeed our own death….

         For the next 40 days we have the opportunity to consciously journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem. Are we willing to do this?...Are we willing to love like Jesus? Because this is the way of Jesus. There is no other way. Love looks like a life poured out for others, a life lost….Love looks like Jesus. Specifically love looks like Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. It looks like Jesus hanging on a Roman cross outside of the city walls…And because love looks like Jesus we know that (for us as well) a life poured out, a life lost, is not in fact a life lost. No, it is a life found.”

         “OK, I give up.  Previews of the end, lives lost, love poured out?  All in this one little story?  Seriously, what does this transfiguration business mean?”        

         In the end, I suppose, it means simply that Easter will come – April 20^th – whether we choose to journey through Lent to get there or not.  Easter will come whether we use these next 40 days intentionally or treat them like any other 40 days.  Easter will come whether we commit to deliberately injecting a bit of extra prayer time into our lives or a Bible study or some planned self-reflection or just a few acts of kindness and justice done in a purposeful and considered way.  Easter will come whether we make time for extra loving or not – in our homes, our schools, our workplaces.  Easter will come regardless of what we may - or may not - do.  We all know that.

         But I also know – because of this transfiguration story - that Easter will be all the sweeter for the journey taken to get there.  And the journey will be all the richer knowing that, throughout it all, we are fastened to Jesus and bolstered by his words:  “Don’t be afraid.” And the 40 days of Lent will be all the more profound by remembering the time that Peter, James, and John saw Jesus in dazzling white, and those 40 days will be all the more significant because we know that they saw with their very eyes the ending of the story and that only a God’s love could make that kind of the ending possible.

by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church UCC

         

Matthew 5:38-48 "We Have Met the Enemy"

         A pastor once preached a sermon based on the passage we just read.  Because he always tried to make his sermons interactive by somehow including the congregation, he began in this way.

         “Now, I’ll bet that many of us feel as if we have enemies in our lives. So raise your hand if you have many enemies.”  Quite a few of the more honest people raised their hands.

         “Now raise your hand if you have only a few enemies,” he dared.  About half as many people raised their hands that time.

         “Now raise your hand if you have only one or two enemies.”  In response this challenge, just a couple of people raised their hands.

         “See,” he said, feeling smug now that he had made his point, “most of us feel like we have enemies. Now raise your hand if you have no enemies at all.”

         The pastor looked around the sanctuary.  Not expecting – and now not seeing – any hands waving, he began to move on.  However, out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed an elderly man in the very back row begin to stand up. 

         The gentleman interrupted the pastor and announced, “I have no enemies whatsoever!”

         Astonished, the pastor invited the man to the front of the church.  What a blessing!” the pastor said.  “How old are you?”

         “I’m 98 years old, and I have no enemies,” the elderly parishioner declared.

         The pastor responded warmly, “What a wonderful Christian life you have led! Tell us - how it is that you have no enemies.”

         “Why, it was easy!“ the man replied.  “I outlived them all!”

         We have been reflecting for the entire month of February on what we call the Sermon on the Mount – and it has not been an easy journey. We began with Jesus blessing the poor and the meek and the pure in heart and wondered just where that left us who would rather not be poor and thought of as weak and who think that life is a lot more fun when a tad of impurity is thrown in every once in a while. 

         Later, we tackled the difficult topics of anger, swearing, adultery, and divorce.  And now the Gospel writer wraps it all up by focusing on what Jesus had to say about those people we despise, the ones who have hurt us, double-crossed us, trampled on us, the ones we can not forgive: our enemies. 

         In this final passage of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges us to reflect on the three R’s that seem to characterize our culture – rights, revenge, and relations.  One blogger I read this week put it this way:  “We’re driven by a concern to hold onto our Rights, we want to hold onto what is ours. We’re driven by a need for Revenge; we want to take back what should be ours. And we’re driven by loyalty to our Relations; we all have an inner circle of family and a few friends and our main task is to be loyal to them.” 

         This blogger has most of us pegged, no doubt about it.  Who among us does not want to get the best of those who have wronged us and who among us does not want to come out on top? 

         And to think that way is not necessarily a bad motive.  Jesus might even agree with it.  After all, he did not want us to be downtrodden doormats – really!  Perhaps it is just a matter of how one goes about getting that upper hand.

         And that is where Jesus and our dominant culture differ.  You see, our most common method of achieving that goal of besting our enemies has traditionally been violent forms of retaliation –

be it striking out at our kids, domestic violence, or finding ourselves, if not supporting then passively standing by, as our nation engages in war after war after war, financed by a burgeoning military budget that eclipses that of any other nation on earth.  After all, we reason, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: It is in the Bible, right? 

         An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:  It is our God-pronounced justification for violence – in addition to being a sign of power, a symbol of strength, and, I mean, who wants to be a doormat and get walked over by a child, a spouse, a nation.  Violent retaliation?  Passive acceptance?  Revenge?  Doormat?  Those seem to be the choices.

         However, if we carefully read this challenging passage, we find Jesus saying:  No, there is another way. You do not have to turn to violent revenge, and you do not have to be a doormat either. 

         “How so?” we engage him.  And Jesus takes the bait, beginning to weave his countercultural philosophy at precisely the same point where we always seem to begin - our age-old justification for violent intervention – an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. 

         Did you know those words are in the Old Testament?  They are found in Leviticus, the book that outlines in detail the entire scope of ancient Jewish law. 

         And did you know that this particular requirement – and eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - was actually meant to curb and set limits to, not justify, all out violence?  This Jewish law contrasted the typical ancient practice of killing an entire family or burning down a whole village to avenge the loss of an eye or a tooth. 

         This law was a new way of doing things.  Rather than hurting someone more and escalating violence, the Jewish law declared that retribution should be consistent with the wrong done.  The punishment should fit the crime, so to speak. 

         However, Jesus goes a step further and declares that the cycle of violence needs to be broken all together.  In this text, he offers three examples of how to respond to a commonplace situation in his day and age without violence, yet still not end up as a doormat.  Jesus talks about three behaviors - slapping the right cheek; suing in court, and being forced to go a mile carrying a heavy Roman soldier’s pack.  Before we look at them more closely, it is important to understand that these behaviors were not behaviors anyone could take on.  Only the affluent, the privileged few could engage in them – and did – when it came to the peasants and low lifes that Jesus preached to.

         The first behavior was turning the other cheek.  At least, that is how we refer to it even though the behavior is in fact offering your left cheek to be slapped – and that is an important distinction.  David Ewart in his blog “Holy Textures” summarizes the situation well. 

         Masters slapped the right cheek of their servants and slaves as a sign of rank, privilege, and power.  “It was always done by hitting with the back of the right hand across the right cheek….
(Ewart writes) And to preserve one's honor (or) public standing - it (was) crucial everything be done according to (these) socially accepted protocols.

         The slave must obediently stand facing you....You must strike only the right cheek; and only with the back of the right hand. Any variation on this would demonstrate that you were not in control…
Now imagine your overlord has just slapped you on your right cheek, and without saying a word you silently turn your head to expose your left cheek.

         It appears that you are becoming doubly subservient… But you are actually rendering your master powerless!
 Turning your head hides your right cheek and presents your left cheek. But the angle of your head will be such that the master can see, but cannot strike your left cheek with the back of his right hand.  (Remember how important the protocol is).

         You would appear to be meek and servile; obediently waiting for a second blow. But the Master would be totally helpless. His only options would be to hit you with the palm of his right hand, or use his left hand, or walk away. All three would cause him to lose face.”

         Even though you are a servant or slave, you have made your point.  You have retaliated, but not with violence.  

         OK - Let’s look at the second behavior Jesus points to - being sued in court.  Again, David Ewart explains Jesus’ reasoning for what might seem like passive acceptance.  

         “Since peasants quite literally only owned the clothes on their backs, being sued for your coat was being sued for the only thing you owned - except for your underwear! Which is what a "cloak" means.        

          Being seen in your underwear is shameful for you. So why not publicly expose the shame which allows someone with wealth and privilege to take away the only thing a poor person owns by going naked! Give him your underwear. Let him explain why you are naked.” 

         Once again, even though you are a serf or a peasant, you have made your point.  You have retaliated, but not with violence. 

         Finally, Jesus ends with that troubling statement about walking the second mile. “Soldiers were allowed to conscript civilians to carry their packs, but only for a mile, (Ewart notes). However, this was no minor inconvenience for anyone who worked and fed his family day by day. Walking a mile with a heavy pack and then back again would mean missing that day's labor, and therefore that day's food for the family.

         Offering to go a second mile publicly exposes the unjust hardship of being forced to go even one mile, but does so in a way that seems to cooperate while at the same time brings shame and ridicule on the ones doing the forcing.”

         And for the third time, even though you are one of the least of these, you have made your point.  You have retaliated, but not with violence. 

         By now, it should be pretty clear what Jesus’ philosophy is.  No matter the extent to which we as Christians may try to justify violence and revenge, Jesus did not. 

         Jesus was non-violent.  Time and time again, we hear this personal stance reflected in his stories and parables.  In all four Gospels, we see the way he lived his life – right up to the moment the nails shattered the bones in his hands and feet and the cross was raised.  Jesus was non-violent, and that is the bottom line. 

         Did he ever get angry?  Sure he did. He overturned those tables in the temple during Holy Week.  But he was not seeking violent revenge.  I actually think Jesus would oppose those Stand Your Ground laws, especially when they lead to shooting a teenager when you thought he was playing his music too loud.

         Jesus was non-violent, and that is the bottom line. If we truly desire to follow him, then we need to, first and foremost, strive for and advocate for non-violent solutions as well. 

         In the end, Jesus says, love your enemies rather than just outlive them.  Even pray for them on occasion.  Be the child of the Holy One that God dreamed you could be. 

       Wow!  Love your enemies?  Pray for them?  Resort to collaboration rather than violence?  Is this all a bunch of naïve claptrap?  As Presbyterian pastor Jon Walton writes, “Jesus (must have) lived at some higher level of existence than we do. How else could he have come up with such an illogical set of suggestions for living?

       So we rationalize, “You have to forgive him. He got carried away sometimes. All compassion you know, all gushy about the goodness in people’s hearts, all soft in the middle about that little spark of God in everyone. We have to forgive him that. It doesn’t pan out in real life.”

         But maybe, if given a chance, carefully thought out non-violence does pan out in real life. Maybe it works.  I mean, in the end, it has to work.  At this point, humanity really has no choice.  After all, as Mahatma Gandhi understood:  “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”       

         In a sermon preached in 1957, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote “Of course this is not practical; life is a matter of getting even, of hitting back, of dog eat dog… My friends, we have followed the so-called practical way for too long a time now, and it has led inexorably to deeper confusion and chaos. Time is cluttered with the wreckage of communities, which surrendered to hatred and violence. For the salvation of our nation and the salvation of mankind, we must follow another way.” 

         Our choice cannot be between violent retaliation and passive acceptance.  If we are Christians, then our starting point must be, first, that non-violence will work, and second, that it is up to us as followers of Jesus to put it in motion. 

         If you take away nothing else from this sermon, maybe taking to heart this two part shift in perspective is enough: Non-violence will work, and it is up to us – not our enemy – to put it in motion.

         Before you hurt someone as they have hurt you, before you slap, before you abuse, before you stab another in the back, before you kill with words, stop and ask yourself one question:  Why would a reasonable person act as he or she did? 

What might be an explanation?  Is there any common ground here?  As Steven Covey wisely wrote: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.  It needs to begin with us, not our enemies.

         You know, we talk a lot about our enemies – the ones out there, the ones trying to get the best of us, the ones we do not trust, the ones we will not forgive, the ones we hate.  But sometimes I wonder if the cartoonist Walt Kelly had it right all along when he put these words into the mouth of his character, Pogo:  “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” I think Jesus would say amen to that.

        

         

Matthew 5:21-37 "HeartSong"

         Valentine’s Day:  Maybe you bought a cute or funny card or incredibly romantic one for the person you love – be it spouse, partner, parent, or child.   Maybe you arranged to have flowers – a dozen red roses or a springtime bouquet - delivered.  Perhaps you celebrated the role of love in your life by going out for a candlelight dinner or by feasting on a special meal at home.  If you were really lucky, the one you love gave you delicious chocolate truffles – that is what Joe did. 

         But that was Valentine’s Day.  That was Friday.  This is Sunday, and today we are sitting here in church about to reflect on anger, adultery, divorce, and the swearing of oaths.  It hardly seems like an appropriate follow up to the Day of Love.

         Oh, that Jesus!  What was he thinking as we move ever more deeply into the Sermon on the Mount?  He said in the passage we read just last week that he had not come to do away with the Jewish laws handed down by Moses, but rather to fulfill them – whatever that means.  Beef them up a bit perhaps?  Make us inwardly squirm?

         After all, as we read this passage, it seems that he has become awfully nitpicky.  You see, Jesus covers in just a few verses a wide range of topics that are predestined to make us feel really uncomfortable: murder, anger, adultery, lust, divorce, swearing. 

         Though some people have thought that, in this passage, he is contradicting the Jewish laws, how could that be so?  After all, Jesus was a good Jew himself, and we have no evidence that he had any intention of being otherwise. 

         However, certainly what Jesus is saying is going to really rile up the temple Pharisees.  After all, he takes a bunch of straightforward and clear rules and challenges anyone who was listening (maybe even us?) to recalibrate those moral compasses.

         What is Jesus trying to do here? Is he attempting to “out-Pharisee” the Pharisees by showing us that we can never uphold all of the law’s demands?  After all, it was that group of religious elites who interpreted these rules and regulations in the first place with all their tedious and hairsplitting requirements.  Or is he telling us that we should be taking these laws far more seriously than we ever imagined we would have to? 

         Listen to what he is saying as he goes into his singsong “You have heard it said” countered with “But I say to you,” a cadence he uses for just about every single one of these topics. You have heard it said – don’t murder.  But I say to you – don’t even get angry.  You have heard it said – don’t commit adultery.  But I say to you – don’t even look at another man’s wife and fantasize what might be. 

         And that is only some of it!  There are his words about oaths – let your yes simply be yes and your no be no.  And, of course, he really stirs the pot in our times when he speaks about divorce.  And it is these words about that topic that, down through the centuries, have perhaps inflicted more pain and heaped up more guilt and burdened women and men alike with a greater sense of alienation than just about any other verses in the Bible.  What are we to make of this Jesus who speaks to us this morning?

         Methodist pastor William Willimon tells the story of a woman who came to a church he served. One day in a small group, people were telling their own stories of Jesus – testimonies in a way, I guess. One man said he was feeling confused about his life, but Jesus had helped him work things out. A woman said she felt Jesus near her when she sang in the choir.

         Then another woman started talking. She said, “Look, I don’t know what kind of Jesus you all met, but my life was going along just fine before he showed up. I wasn’t looking for anything.

         And now, now I’ve lost control of my whole life. I’ve been to Haiti twice to do mission work. I never wanted to go to Haiti. I think all the time about how I’m spending my time and my money. Before you go telling people they should be getting close to Jesus, you should warn them. He’ll mess things up.”

         And yes, the woman is right.  If we take it seriously, the Gospel message of Jesus will mess us up because Jesus is perfectly capable of turning our world and our lives upside down and inside out – but not in the way we might think – not by burdening us with the specter of microscopic legal infractions of laws we do not understand in the first place, but rather by freeing us to catch a glimpse of God’s dream and passion for the world. 

         In these troubling verses we just read, what if Jesus is inviting us to see the Jewish law as a doorway through which we might step to experience the Kingdom of God? Episcopal priest Roy Almquist puts it this way:  “I would challenge you to think about the law of God not in terms of doing a certain number of impossible things before breakfast, but in terms of being in the right relationship … with God and with those around us. It is not about your need to do the right thing, color within the lines, keep your nose clean; no, it is about loving your neighbor, controlling your anger, modifying your drives for personal fulfillment, all to the end that you might be an instrument for deepening and strengthening the community in which you live.”

         Jesus is asking us to take a good look at what is going on in our hearts.  He is making the point that our “heartsong” is what is important.  You see, it is in our hearts that the bonds between us and the rest of humanity as well as the bonds between the Holy One and us are forged.  What if this passage then is less about legalism and more about relationships, relationships that lie at the very foundation of community?

         As Episcopal priest David Sellery wrote, “Jesus is quick to tell us that he has not come to contradict the law. Rather he is here to give us a fresh perspective on God’s law... Instead of governing our lives by constant reference to an encyclopedic canon of regulations, he would have us look for God’s love in all things…In Christ, our focus shifts from the dos and don’ts, to actively witnessing his love, looking not only to the letter of the law, but to the spirit of the Lord. What would he do? What would he have us do?”

         This passage is about strengthening our relationship with God and with one another. As he deals with these tough topics, Jesus is reminding us that we do not live in isolation from each other.  There is always a neighbor.  There is always a “you” at the end of our thoughts.  There is always a “you” in our sphere of vision.  There is always a “you” at the conclusion of every action we take.

         And so, as Presbyterian pastor Mary Harris Todd reminds us, “The way we look at others truly matters, for behavior starts in the heart, in the way we regard the other person.  It’s not enough to refrain from murder.  Regarding others with contempt, scorning them, nursing anger against them, speaking of them using insulting terminology (we even call it ‘stabbing someone in the back’) is deadly serious in Jesus’ view…That is a “you,” a human being, a person, a neighbor you are speaking about.”

         What’s more, it’s not enough not to technically commit adultery.  That woman whose body you want to possess, that is a “you,” a human being, a person, a neighbor.”

         And, of course, Jesus also talks about divorce, and that has been such a stickler for so many of us: that somehow we are a flawed and failed human being if our marriage, flawed as it might have been, has failed.  So let’s take just a moment to better understand what Jesus had in mind when he spoke these verses about divorce. 

         In the patriarchal society in which Jesus lived, men had the upper hand, and it was exemplified perhaps best when it came to divorce.  As Mary Harris Todd explains, “If you think divorce is easy now, then it was a piece of cake, for men, anyway.  For just about any reason men could draw up a statement of divorce, sign it in the presence of witnesses, and that was it.  The ex-wife is out on the street.  Women, being considered property, had no possibility of divorce.  Too bad if your husband beats you.  You’re stuck.  ‘No!’ declared Jesus, ‘Women and wives are not objects!’”  You cannot put your wife out with the trash.

         I believe that, in the end, this passage is pointed at people who grow tired of being married, their lives too constrained with those little rug rats running around, who never (if they had given it an iota of serious thought) really intended to make the relationship work in the tough times. 

This passage is pointed at the deadbeats, the self-involved, the lazy, the ones who do not want to try, the ones who when push came to shove really were not looking for a relationship that would last for as long as we both shall live.  Is divorce wrong?  Jesus does not say that, but I think he does say that marriage is a very important matter of the heart.

         It is all about relationships, about how you interact with the other.  It is all about your “heartsong.”  One of the great dangers in being a Christian, you know, can be the inclination to get so caught up in keeping the letter of the law in order to keep your own nose clean in the apparent sight of God that you forget about your neighbor, the one you are called to serve.  And when you do, you do not hear your “heartsong.”

         Jesus’ teaching in these difficult verses is direct, to the point, and very, very challenging.  He calls us to reflect on our own lives, on our attitudes and value system, on what is going on in our own hearts.  And that is not easy.  Self-examination seldom is.  So what do we do with these hard words of Jesus?  Give up because we can never attain such an ideal? 

         No – rather than give up, let’s embrace these opportunities to glimpse the world as God dreams it can be, and let’s walk through the doorway of the Law.  Because if we do, there we will find that Jesus himself beckons us as he reorders the world and challenges us to break open our hearts and listen to our heartsong,

         And in the notes of that song, he assures us, we will find a new way of living, a kingdom so to speak, and a God who loves us, who has promised to embrace us and heal us even as we reach out to embrace and to heal those around us.

by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church (U.C.C.)