The Gift of a Grown
Up Faith
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
February 12, 2017
Deuteronomy 30: 15-20
1 Corinthians 3: 1-9
Matthew 5: 21-37
Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and
from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
AMEN.
“You’ll
understand it better when you’re all grown up.”
Have you heard that before? Maybe
you’ve even said it to a child yourself.
In your infancy, that was a phrase of acceptable reassurance because you
knew there was so much more to learn about life and because you trusted your
elders, your parents, your teachers, your leaders, who had so much ore life
experience. But as you grew older, more
aware, more mature, and thinking for yourself, it became a phrase of intense irritation. “How much more grown up do I have to get
before it all begins to make sense?” You
ask that, hoping that your time of mature awareness was now at hand.
But are
we ever really ready for full awareness, for deeper understanding, for total
revelation, for everything to make complete sense? Often we can be frightened by the truth, and
find its responsibility too hard to handle.
The Old
Testament book of Deuteronomy reviews the history of God’s chosen people after
Moses had led the children of Israel, wandering through the wilderness for 40
years. The key word in that sentence was
the word “children,” the children of Israel.
In 40 years they hadn’t done much growing up. They were still entirely dependent upon
Moses, but questioned whether Moses knew where he was going. They were grateful to the God who delivered
them from bondage in Egypt, but were easily distracted by claims of false gods
for momentary relief.
Now
they were about to cross the Jordan River to take possession of the Promised
Land and become a responsible people, without having Moses any longer to guide
them. It was time for them to grow
up. So Moses sets before them a choice
between life and prosperity or death and adversity.
Sounds
like a pretty easy choice! But it wasn’t
for them; just as it isn’t for us. What
choices did we make instead that have led to war and destruction in our
world? What choices have we made instead
that have led us to drug addiction, obesity, anger and despair, meaninglessness
and faithlessness? Seeing the look of
immature bewilderment again on their faces, Moses answers the question for
them: “Choose life! Choose life, love
and faith!”
It
sounds like such a simple formula for success: 1) Love the Lord your God, 2)
Obey all of God’s laws, 3) Live long and prosper. Kind of a combination of Mr. Spock and Joel
Osteen! Many immature Christians still
cling to that line of thinking. It can
be attractive when it seems to be supported by such well-defined absolutes. That is, until, matured by human reality of
day to day living and the complexities of life’s hard choices you realize that
the only results can be either hypocrisy or impossibility.
Jesus
sat down on a hillside to teach immature hypocrites by focusing on the extreme
of impossibility to reveal the gift of a grown up faith.
“As
children you were taught not to kill and you feel pretty smug thinking that
you’ve never deliberately murdered anyone.
Well, that was easy! But you
know, don’t you, that every time you lash out in anger against your brother or
sister you have killed a little bit of their soul each time. For that, you should have been thrown into
prison for life!
“As
children you were taught not to break your marriage vows. Single people and faithful couples are
breathing a sigh of relief. But you
know, don’t you, that this commandment has more to do with the purity of your
soul than with the purity of the bed.
When Jimmy Carter was President of the United States, he confessed in an
interview with Playboy magazine that he had broken this commandment because he,
along with all the rest of us, can’t help but look at another with lust in our
hearts. For that you should have had
your eyes plucked out and your wandering hands cut off!
“As
children you were taught not to bear false witness and to put the best
construction on everything. Oh, come
on! We lie like a rug all the time. We are all masters of alternative facts. For that you should all have your mouths
washed out with soap!”
The
crowds surrounding Jesus are mystified at his teaching. It all seems so hopeless. What then can we do to be saved, to be
healthy, to live in everlasting peace?
Nothing. You can do nothing to earn your
salvation. You have no choice in the
matter. God can’t let it be dependent
upon us children. The choice is God’s
and it is all God’s doing. Jesus, in his
death on the cross, would fulfill the sentence of punishment that we, because
of our sin, our bad choices and our disobedience, deserve. And Jesus, in his resurrection from the
grave, would win the victory over sin and death and open the gate to true
peace, true prosperity, true love and true life, that we, because of our sin,
our bad choices and our disobedience, could never possibly deserve. Jesus used the alarmingly bad news of our
inability to decide to obey and turned it into the good news of a free gift,
the blessing of a God who loves all the children of humanity.
St.
Paul is still concerned about this. He’s
not certain that the children of human flesh can fully appreciate and
incorporate such a Gospel message of God’s grace, love and forgiveness in their
words and actions. It’s so much safer to
continue to treat them like little children.
But if he were to treat them like grown up Christians, would they act
towards one another lie grown up Christians and leave behind their jealousies
and their quarreling? Having heard and
received the gift of a grown up faith, would they then act and speak in the
maturity of that faith? Having been
reconciled to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, would
they then be reconciled to one another, sharing the peace of Christ which
passes all human understanding?
I would
rather choose to treat us all as adults, as grown up Christians, acutely aware
of our sins, but even more joyfully aware of God’s grace, striving to make
better choices for ourselves and for our world, focused on being connected and
in touch with God’s will for our lives, praising and giving thanks to God for
all the blessings we have received and that we have to share with others, and
embarking upon a Promised Land where all God’s children may know peace,
prosperity and everlasting life.
