Deuteronomy 30:15-20 (NRSV)
15See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. 17But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Matthew 5:21-37 (NRSV)
21“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ 22But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. 23So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25Come 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. 26Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell. 31“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
33“Again, you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ 34But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.
Sermon:
When I was in elementary school, I clearly remember riding the bus home one day and yelling at the kids behind me “let your yes be your yes and your no be your no!” because they were trying to get somebody to do something and promising it would be fine, saying “I swear!” Well, my folks had always taught me not to swear, and I figured that’s what they meant. Just say yes or no. Don’t make your promises more serious by saying ‘I swear,’ as if it wasn’t good enough just to give your word. Of course, my folks were talking about using foul language, but I had heard this last line of today’s Gospel sometime in church and connected swearing with the way the kids on the bus used the word. But ‘let your yes be your yes, and your no be your no,’ and anything more comes from the evil one.
Which, watching my Dad head off to work in the morning and mom teaching us kids in Sunday school how to follow along in worship, was a lesson I took to be about integrity. Be a man, or woman, of your word. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Keep your promises and commitments, clean up after yourself, leave things better than you find them, and so on.
Integrity is a word I’d like to spend a lifetime delving into. Consider the power of our words, the effects of our choices, as well as how we live into the life we have been given and Baptized into. When folks talk about finding balance in their lives, it usually boils down to integrity. Presenting ourselves honestly. Finding wholeness and grace in celebrating the parts of ourselves that we admire and still loving even those parts we’d rather not acknowledge. Are we who we say we are, and can we be that even when we fall short? Those sorts of questions.
Integrity seems so easy for some people, but we’re talking entire lifetimes here, not just who we are now, but who we have been, who we might be. Are we, in the best of times as much as in the worst of times, still ourselves, or do we strive to be someone else, some other ideal, some false presentation of something that will get us what we want, be that money or peace and quiet or whatever.
All over Scripture, God’s people are being called to lives of Integrity. We are the people of God, the people of a God whose history with us is well-recorded in our scriptures. Are we living like people who have been set free from slavery, who have been rescued from hell? Or are we running scared and calling ourselves Christian just to check off a box in our brains so we can be glad we’re not as bad off as “the heathens”?
In the Deuteronomy reading this morning, God is calling the people to lives of Integrity: “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life that you may live!” We are people of life, of new life, of resurrection life, and God time after time offers life to us... and time after time we choose death. We choose death when we are dishonest and build more lies around ourselves. We choose death when we are poor stewards of our resources, either being mindlessly wasteful or fearfully hoarding. We choose death when we hold grudges, spread rumors, sell ourselves short. We have gotten so good at choosing death over life that when life stares us in the face we wait to see “what’s the catch.” When freedom is handed to us freely we avert our eyes and claim we’re not yet worthy. When we are given opportunity to step out in faith and give what we have to strangers who cannot repay, we doubt God will take care of us in our taking care of others.
Even as a people of God, we struggle with Integrity. Even with a God who is ultimately faithful, we are suspicious of Integrity. Even as we desire Integrity, and balance, and joy, we find ways to hide, like we did in the Garden of Eden, and the wounds which are part of us, the resurrection stories we have lived, which make us whole, are hidden for shame. And we hide our bodies and our histories, the witnesses to God’s life and grace in us, lest in our Integrity we are mocked, scandalized, or shunned. There is a fine line between being a man, or woman, of your word, and being taken advantage of and thought gullible.
It goes deeper, of course, than just keeping our promises. You keep enough painful promises, you learn to make fewer promises, and to take them more seriously. But it is more than saying what we will do and following through on it. If it were only that easy, we wouldn’t need God to intervene. It’s not just black and white, yes and no. It’s motivations, thinking, it’s the heart of the matter.
Jesus makes this pretty clear in the Gospel today. You think monogamy is easy? Ask anybody past the age of puberty if they’ve ever looked at a magazine and wanted what they saw there. Might as well sleep with all those models, even if they are photoshopped. You think it’s easy not to kill somebody? Ask anybody who’s ever driven in New York City traffic at rush hour what they think of the driver who cut them off. Ask any student who’s ever had a teacher they dislike. Ask any political commentator what they think of the public shouting matches happening on television these days.
Ask yourself what body part you’d need to cut off if we took Jesus literally today. Does your eye cause you to sin? You could just stop looking at anyone you’re not married to, but it would be easier to gouge it out. Does your hand cause you to sin? You could lock yourself up in solitary, but it would be easier and more straightforward to head over to the woodpile.
But we know it’s not eyes or hands that cause sin. It’s not eyes or hands that cause us to make solemn vows we later break. It’s not eyes or hands that direct themselves toward hitting or lusting. It’s not eyes or hands that need to be thrown out and start over. It’s hearts.
It’s hearts that get us into all sorts of trouble. It’s hearts that harbor hate, and greed, and fear. Hearts that need to be cut out and remade. Heart, soul, mind, and strength are required to love God as God intended us to be whole. Heart, soul, mind, and strength, are what Jesus is talking about. Heart, soul, mind, and strength are given by God for the purpose of loving God and loving our neighbor. And that’s where we’re a bunch of scoundrels, in our hearts. As time after time we choose death over life, hardening our hearts, denying the hearts of the other people around us, we might as well be killing, and stealing other people’s spouses, and manipulating the world around us to suit our needs regardless of our community’s needs.
Oh, Jesus, are we ever a mess. We can’t even be taken at our word.
But God can be. God can be taken at his word. God’s word can be trusted. God’s word is the word that called forth creation out of nothingness. God’s word is the word that anointed prophets and kings to lead God’s people in Integrity, and even when those prophets and kings made a mess of things, God’s word kept speaking new life, resurrection promise, resurrection reality, in the middle of the mess. God’s word in Jesus is simply ‘yes.’ Not ‘yes, but,’ not ‘yes, if only,’ just ‘yes.’
We’re talking about the Holy Trinity with the Confirmation students this year. Down in Valatie Pastor Slater and I get to hang out with Junior High students and their High School mentors, and they know about Integrity. They know when they’re welcome and when they’re just there because somebody expects them to jump through hoops. They know they’re allowed to ask questions and not have all the answers. They know they’re in a safe place when we come together for class. At least, I hope they know that.
But they’re just beginning the conversation about the Trinity, and what a confusing concept it is, and the Trinity is one of those ways we try to explain God’s Integrity. God’s Three-Persons-One-God-being. Creation, Redemption, Sustaining and growth in holiness, all traits of this one God, expressed in the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Trinity. For every area of our lives that is broken apart, dis-integrated, God speaks new life in a creative, redeeming, sustaining way. For every bit of falling apart we experience, God somehow brings new life together out of it. Because that’s who God is, that’s how we have come to understand God and try to express God in this Trinity concept.
Integrity is the work of God. Making one whole body out of many parts. Not making us all the same, assimilation is not the same thing as community. Got to have the eye and the hand and the foot and all those different parts to have a whole, Integrated, body. But what God does is restore us into community, put us back together where we are broken, and maybe in ways we didn’t expect or even know were possible.
Not that we’ve seen anything like that work here in the past five or six years with the new community out of two communities. Oh, wait, yes we have. And it has been the work of God to make that happen. The work of our Faithful God to bring us together here, to connect us with our ecumenical partners for the Lenten soup suppers, to bring us from miles away to come together for worship and education and support in this community.
Christ Our Emmanuel is a fantastic example of how God is always making things new, always bringing resurrection. We have seen and know and live as God’s people, no matter how broken and scattered, no matter where we have come from, because that is who God is. God is the one who is faithful, who brings us together, who gives us himself in this meal at this table and at every Table where the Eucharist is celebrated. God is the One who makes us whole, heart, and mind, and soul, and strength. Brokenness is not God’s ideal, but it happens in so many ways, and God jumps right into it with us, letting us break his body on the cross, break his heart with our sin. And in joining us, God breaks the walls we build around our hearts and between ourselves. In joining us, God re-makes us. In Jesus, God is giving us new hearts, whole hearts.
Thanks be to God.
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