Sermon for February 23rd

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 9-18

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of the field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God. You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the LORD> You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the LORD. You shall not render an unjust judgmental you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the LORD. You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Matthew 5:38-48

You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right check, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Sermon:

I wish when folks got up in arms about the book of Leviticus they’d get up in arms about this part of Leviticus. There is so much energy wasted quoting the Law of God simply to shame people, or to prove we’re better than others, or to kick people out of the church. But this part of the Law? This part is gorgeous. This is the kind of Law that fanned the flames of the prophets, that inspired great leaders in the religious freedom movements, that revived and renewed communities of faith across centuries to actually be a light to the nations instead of warmongers and thieves.

It’s the kind of Law that seems commonsense. Which means its a Law that grew out of people not living by commonsense but by something else. If the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, how can we claim to own anything, how can we decide to hoard and store more than we need while others in the community go hungry and cold? Common sense that if it all belongs to God we can’t keep it. Common sense that, as ecosystems are interconnected to support each part of the whole, we as part of that whole are most alive when connected to the whole. Common sense, but we don’t trust it. Common sense, but it’s too good to be true, too easy, too opposite to the way we have come to compete for space and stuff in this life.

So when we mess up the common sense stuff, we get laws like Leviticus, to pay our workers on time, to live honestly, to leave the edges of our fields for the rest of the ecosystem including travelers. To love our neighbors and hate our enemies...

Wait, no. Loving our neighbors is part of the law. Loving our neighbors is part of the great top ten commandments. Loving our neighbors is that golden rule which is such common sense it shows up in every major world religion, not just Christianity.

But hating our enemies? That’s not in there. Jesus in our Matthew reading this morning, has just misquoted Scripture.

And I think he did that on purpose. Because if it was Law to hate our enemies, it would be the one Law we’d be really good at. It’s easy. It’s like second nature to us to hold a grudge when we’re cut off in traffic or interrupted at dinner or insulted. Hating our enemies makes us feel important and powerful, hating our enemies seems pretty common sense.

So when Jesus misquotes Leviticus, any of the religious leaders nearby would know that he just added that line. Anybody who’s ever been raised to memorize Scripture, or the Catechism, would know from years of practice and recitation what’s there and what isn’t. But when Jesus misquotes the Law, if we call him on it, if we speak up and say, ‘hey, that’s not what it says,’ how do we explain ourselves? How do we confess that even though it’s not Law to hate our enemies it’s still the way we live?

And hating our enemies, remember, is as easy as calling them fools. Hating our enemies is as easy as dismissing their opinions and concerns because we disagree. Hating our enemies isn’t always actively working against them, but spending our energy avoiding them, or turning them into the bad guy, or stewing in that grudge from that thing seven years ago which we just keep holding onto.

But that’s our law, not God’s Law. 

Not that God’s Law is any easier. But it’s the basic stuff we teach our kids in Sunday School. Be nice. Share. Don’t make fun of the kids who are different. Somewhere around Confirmation age it seems those basic lessons sort of disappear when kids become grownups and see all the fighting going on around them. How divided the church has become over everything! Like siblings who just can’t get along, no matter how many time-outs they have.

And from both Leviticus and Matthew we get the same word: Be holy! Be perfect. Well, thanks, Jesus, if we didn’t feel badly enough this is just icing on the cake.

Except. Martin Luther understood the Law of God in three ways. The first is to kill, to let us know what stinkers we are. The second is to draw us into God’s mercy so we fall on God’s grace alone to save us. The third is to give us a way to live now that we know we have been set free from sin, death, and the devil.

Can you hear Leviticus and Jesus in this way, in these second and third ways? Can you hear Jesus saying ‘be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,’ not as a challenge but as a promise? I mean, if the word of God can say 'let there be light' and it is so, why not 'be perfect,' and it is so?

The first time in Scripture we hear that we are like God is in the very beginning, when we are in the garden, when we are first created in the Image of God. And we are in right relation there, with God and with the whole of creation. Good stewardship does not have to be taught, because we are connected to the world around us, aware of interdependency, eating from the trees and resting in their shade. But the great lie that sneaks in and spoils everything is that sneaking suspicion that God might be hiding something from us, that God might not trust us, the God for some reason has something better than we do, and we have to steal from God in order to be like God. Knowing good from evil, right? 

But, brothers and sisters, we were created in the Image of God. We were made to reflect God. To be whole. And when we live carrying grudges or hoarding what was given freely, we are not living in the wholeness God meant for us. That’s the other meaning of this word ‘perfect.’ ‘Wholeness,’ is what God has for us. Wholeness is God’s ideal for us. Wholeness is perfection. And in the Laws of Leviticus we are reminded that wholeness is not solitary individuals being self-sufficient, but wholeness is known when we embrace our interconnectedness, when we leave gleanings for travelers and pay workers the wages they’ve earned. Wholeness is recognizing the impact we have in the world and the way the world reflects God’s wholeness back to us.

Wholeness, perfection, does sound like a challenge. But it is also a promise. Because we are created in the Image of God, wholeness is where we come from, and wholeness is where we are headed. While we are between life and life, perfection and perfection, we are granted this promise in the midst of the struggles: You will be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. As the Lord your God is perfect. I love the way Martin Luther said it:

“This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”