I was always one of those disgusting kids at school who got good grades in everything. Whether it was history, English, science, math, or later, theology, I almost always made A's, or maybe a B+. For many of those classes, I didn't even really need to study very hard.
But, then, in the middle of college, there was Linear Algebra. How bad could that be? I had already had two semesters of Calculus and easily gotten A's, and I was pretty good at math.
But as the class went on week after week, I struggled harder and harder. I just couldn't get it. In theory, I understood the technical aspects of what I was supposed to be doing, but it just didn't seem to register! And in the end, I think I remember that class because it was the only class in college where I got a C+ and I was happy to get it and be done with it!
But as I reflected on that experience, I realized that my problem wasn't the math. The math was theoretically easy. My problem was that from beginning to end, I just couldn't figure out what the point of Linear Algebra was...
And because I never could figure out the point, I struggled with material that, at least in theory, should have been relatively easy for me.
What's the point? Why is this important? Why should I even bother to pay attention to this? These are really important questions in life. And unlike Linear Algebra, most of those questions don't go away after a semester.
I bring this up, because we've been reading Jesus' Sermon on the Mount for the last few weeks as our Gospel readings. And one of the ways to understand the Sermon on the Mount is to see it as Jesus' running commentary on many of the laws, statutes and ordinances of the Old Testament.
Today's Gospel reading, in particular, is a series of sayings in which Jesus lifts up some of the commandments of the Old Testament as important and meaningful for his hearers. Yet when Jesus does that, he doesn't simply say, "Well, here it is - remember to do it." Instead, he talks about them in ways that help folks understand the point - why these laws are important in the first place, and why we should bother to pay attention to them.
The rules, for Jesus, are more than simply a math equation that you should just do and be done with. Rather, the rules have a point. And you start to understand the point when you realize that most of the rules are NOT about what you're supposed to do for God. Instead, most of the rules are about how you live with your neighbor - which is illustrated by the fact that most of the 10 Commandments are about how we live with our neighbor ... (which we point our frequently in Confirmation classes...)
And the fact that most of the rules are about how we live with our neighbors is a departure from virtually all ancient religions. In most religions in the ancient world, the gods cared deeply about being served and honored. If you did that, life would be good for you. If you didn't, your crops wouldn't grow and you'd die. But whether you mistreated your neighbor was really beside the point. The gods usually didn't care one way or the other.
But the God of Israel does. And most of Jesus' commentary on the rules are focused on the rules regarding how we live with one another. And he comments and expands on the rules, so that we understand the point.
So what's the point for Jesus? It's clear in the Sermon on the Mount that the point of all these rules is to help us create and sustain healthy and viable communities with one another. God wants his love for us to be reflected in our life together, and so Jesus works to show us that the point of the commandments is about:
- Having the humility to remember that you're not God, even when you're sure that your neighbor is bad or wrong ... (Jesus doesn't tell us to turn the other cheek because it's fun and enjoyable - it's merely a reminder that vengeance, if it's doled out at all, belongs to God and not to us, as the first reading reminds us...)
- Building and strengthening healthy community with one another, even and especially with people you don't like and don't agree with ... (because if God makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, then the point is that even the evil and unrighteous are objects of God's care and concern...)
- Being open to constantly wrestling with God for the answers in life, instead of being sure that we've got it right because we've plucked out a Bible verse that we like and decided that we've got the right answer now ... (after all, if Jesus calls us to be "perfect", that's something we can never fully achieve. But if that's the goal we're supposed to be working towards, then the point is that it involves constant engagement with God to work out the questions and problems of life...)
And at a time when so many people in our country and in our world are divided and angry and fearful, I'm not sure that insisting that we've got the right set of rules is either helpful or faithful. That is, instead of picking out a few rules from our faith tradition and acting like we've got the answers to life's problems, perhaps what God wants and needs from us at this moment is to lift up the point of the rules.
After all, that's what Jesus did. He showed people that the point of God's rules was about helping people to live in the kind of peace, love and justice that reflects God's character. And so perhaps Jesus' call to us at this moment is to be people who consider the point of all the rules by:
- Reflecting humility in our discussions with others - a kind of humility that shows genuine respect for others - even others who we're convinced are wrong - instead of simply trying to show them how stupid they are ...
- Seeking to build and strengthen healthy communities - in the end, people of other faiths and no faith at all are usually interested in that goal. We'll certainly disagree with many people, but if we can be salt and light by lifting up the point of rules, instead of just the rules, we may be the missing element in the discussion ...
- Continuing to be people who wrestle daily with God - through prayer, and study and discussion with others, not because we think we'll finally be perfect, but because we actually trust that in the midst of human imperfection, there is a perfect God in whom we can trust, who transcends all of our imperfections, and who finally has the last word...
In the end, it's not enough to just remember the rules and follow them. Instead, Jesus calls us to be people who remember the point of the rules. For it's in remembering and living the point of the rules that we bear witness to God's goodness and love in our lives. It's in remembering and living the point of the rules that we can act with humility and compassion. And it's in remembering and living the point of the rules that we remember our call to constantly rely on God's perfection instead of our own.
Amen.
