Sermon - June 1, 2008 - Ordinary Time: Sunday 9

Pastor Heisley

You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead.” 

This powerful, evocative start to today’s first lesson makes me curious. I want to ask, “What words?” If you mean the words that I hear from God, well, I’m just not psychotic enough to think that I have a direct connection. If you mean the words that make up the Bible, that’s a lot to wear on my forehead and on my hand. That’s even a lot to memorize and store in my heart. What words? 

The book of Deuteronomy is a problem for Lutherans. It’s all about the Law. It’s all about the Law of God that we are supposed to follow, that will teach us how to live, that will shape our lives and will win us favor in God’s eyes. And here, at every turn, Lutheran hearts and minds start to shout, “No!” No, because if there are requirements that we have to fulfill then we are saying that Jesus doesn’t matter. All that matters is being good. All that matters is living the right way. All that matters is following God’s word, whatever that means. Instead of bringing clarity to our situation as Christians in the 21st century, Deuteronomy creates confusion, maybe even makes us a little crazy. 

And here’s another thing: there are so many laws in churches these days. Different denominations and different sects have widely variant ideas about what God’s Law is. Which Law is God’s law? 

The Philadelphia Orchestra does about ten concerts every summer at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. The Mann is a large natural bowl in a hillside overlooking the city skyline in the largest urban park in the United States. If you sit on the lawn, under the open sky, your tickets are free. All you have to do is clip them from the newspaper and bring a blanket to sit on. And people do. By the thousand. They bring blankets and picnics and they bring lots of conversation. Loud conversation. There are mounted police there to keep order and there are all of the gentle, outdoorsy sounds that you might expect: birds chirping, and horses whinnying and cars on the freeway below and people telling jokes all around you and jets taking off from Philadelphia International right over your head and, the music. 

The music becomes a distant background sound. Distant and broken and it sounds like something beautiful is happening if only I could hear it. You try to focus your ears and your mind, and the frustration grows. Bits of Beethoven. Shards of Shostakovich. Pieces of Prokofiev. They all let you know that you’re missing something. 

You’re missing what holds them all together. Because of the birds and horses and people and cars and airplanes, because of life going on, you miss the beauty of what’s happening. 

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God.” Bits. Shards. Pieces. Of the Law. And we are condemned. 

It was an exciting time to be sitting in the natural bowl formed by the ancient hills at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. People had come from all over the countryside, even from Judea and the Transjordan, like I said last Sunday. Thousands of people came to hear Jesus. And they sat and paid rapt attention to his words, looking over the natural beauty of the Sea, the village of Capernaum far below, the odd fishing boat out on the lake, birds, and animals and the sounds of creation all around them. 

Jesus started out with all of them listening to only him: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…Blessed are you…Rejoice and be glad.” And: “You are the salt of the earth.” And: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” And then things began to slip into the more difficult. “Do not swear at all.” And: “Do not resist an evildoer.” And: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” 

And I’ll just bet that Jesus began to lose some of them as the speech wore on. Do this. Don’t do that. Yah, we have Law, Jesus. And their attention faded away until by the end of the Sermon on the Mount he had to get their attention back for the big finale: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock…And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand…and great was its fall!” Focus. But, because of all the rules, it’s hard to look behind them, hard to hear the music that laces them together into a great overture of nature and people and instruments, all created by God who loves every aspect of the beauty of creation. 

Because of all the words, it’s hard to hear the Word. Lutherans have a love/hate relationship with God’s Law and the Gospel of Jesus. Somewhere deep in many Lutheran hearts there is a longing for the Law just to go away. It’s all about Gospel. It’s all about being free and being formed by the Holy Spirit and being saved by the cross of Jesus. It’s all about good news. 

Well, here’s good news for ya! The Law IS good news. Write these words, the Law, on your heart and wear them on your forehead and on your hand, so that what you think and what you feel and what you do is focused. What you think and what you feel and what you do pays attention to the beautiful music being played and, at the same time, lives in peace and happiness with the people on the next blanket and the mounted cop whinnying by and the noisy transportation taking people away from here. 

God’s Law is the beauty of God resting in us that teaches us when we have sinned by drawing us to love and to serve others; to accept and embrace others; to laugh and to cry with them, and to give and give and give, until it feels like we cannot receive any more. That’s right. Until we cannot receive anything more. In our giving is our joy and in it is the gospel. Giving is good news. You don’t need to live for yourself. 

Build the house of your life on the solid rock that is Jesus, and the sands that blow around your feet, through your toes, the sands of time and relationship, the eroding sands whose sounds would drown out phrase after phrase of the music, the sands will not overcome you. Your house, your life will be solid. Like a rock. Amen.

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