Sermon for Friends Congregational Church
Delivered by Reverend Kyle Walker
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Deuteronomy 30:9-14
“But mom, you didn’t tell me I had to do that.” “I shouldn’t have to tell you to do the right thing,” says my mother. How many times did I hear that? My mother was pleading with me not to have a lazy conscience and to think about what the right thing to do is beyond following the rules.
Following the law can be absurd.
In 1993, at a primary school in Long Island. the local fire chief appeared around Halloween dressed as Officer McGruff. the police dog that promotes safety. He noticed all the student art tacked to the walls. Within days. McGruff had done his duty: the art was gone.
Why? The New York fire code addresses this public hazard explicitly:
"Student-prepared artwork must be at least two feet from the ceilings and ten feet from exit doors and not exceed 20 per cent of the wall area."
No one had ever heard of a fire caused by children's art. The school principal, accused of permitting a legal violation, suggested that he had used a rule of thumb "on how much to decorate."
Liz Skinner, a first-grade teacher, said "The essence of primary education is that children show pride in their work."
Now, said one observer, the school looked "about as inviting as a bomb shelter."
Governments have imposed fire codes for centuries. But only our age has succeeded in barring children's art from school walls.[i]
This isn’t anything new. By the time of Jesus’ first coming people had become weak in conscience and leaned on their laws to tell them how to live. They actually idolized their law.
It is clear to me from cover to cover that God’s goal for us as humanity is not for us to be a people of law or people of the book but rather a people of conscience.
Don’t get me wrong, I respect law and I respect the 10 commandments and the Bible but I only see it as a tool that is only as good or bad as those who enforce and follow it’s teaching with a Spirit led conscience.
We need look only to the references to the authorities of Jesus’ day who sought to use God’s laws to get the result they wanted whether or not it matched the spirit of the lawgiver….and who is that lawgiver? That would be God.
When it comes down to it, law is the weak, impotent cousin of conscience. 10,000 laws on a subject cannot move a society to right action as well as one ounce of right conscience.
This last Wednesday, Dan and I went on a circuitous route to Coupland, TX to the Jam and Bread meeting of ministers for the Brazos Association of the UCC. When we got there we heard Ryan Valentine, Director of the Texas Freedom Network, talk about their work to keep the separation of church and state in tact. You see there are those who believe that if we have more Bible courses and teach a creationism that excludes evolution as a possibility, that we will have fewer school shootings and fewer teenage pregnancies. However, we shouldn’t deal with our culture of violence and sexual taboo. That couldn’t have anything to do with it, could it?
I don’t know how many of you watch the Colbert Report but I
love it. One time, Stephen Colbert interviewed Congressman Lynn Westmoreland
of Georgia. I wish I could show you the clip this morning but here is the
dialogue and when you get home go to look it up on google and take a look: (http://gorillamask.net/colbert10c.shtml)
Colbert: You cosponsored a bill requiring the display of the ten commandments
in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Why was that important to you?
Westmoreland: The Ten Commandments is not a bad thing for people to understand
and respect.
Colbert: I'm with you.
Westmoreland: What better place to have something like that than in a judicial building
or a courthouse?
Colbert: That is a good question. Can you think of any better building to put
the Ten Commandments in than in a public building?
Westmoreland: No. I think that if we were totally without them, we might lose
our sense of direction.
Colbert: What are the Ten Commandments?
Westmoreland: You want me to name them all?--Um... Don't murder. Don't lie.
Don't steal Um... I can't name them all. [ii]
Congressman Westmoreland isn’t the only one who has trouble remembering the 10 Commandments. If you were to put me on the spot, I might not be able to recall them either. There is a long history of this kind of trouble dating back to the early Israelites. This is why even back to the earliest time of the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4, we hear this idea of the law being writing on our hearts. Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheynu, Adonai Ehad. Hear O Israel the Lord is our God, the Lord Alone. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Jesus felt the need to sum up the Law to help us remember the essence of the 10 Commandments when he summarized it into the law of love. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. On these hang all the law and the prophets.”
Then Paul couldn’t even remember all the 10 Commandments in Romans when he says:
Romans 13:7-10
9 The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
No, Congressman Westmoreland, our problem is not that we do not know the law, we’ve all had that trouble. It is rather that we do not understand it and we do not match the spirit of it in our hearts. But that is messy, subjective and requires thought on our part to figure it out in given situations and contexts. It might cause us to look at ourselves too hard and it might even cause us to rebel against authority, after all.
Thousands come across our southern border responding to the most successful marketing campaign in our country’s history. That marketing campaign is posted on the statue of liberty and reads “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.” So they come at our invitation only to find that the invitation is not real if they actually make it across the 120 degree Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona. Over 200 have died and not made it across the desert to find out the bad news that the statue of liberty’s words are no more true than e-mail spam. But today, courageous college students are walking that desert with water and medical care, in defiance of the law, to help save lives. Sometimes law is not what matters most.
It is why I spend less time making my students at United Campus Ministry memorize Bible verses than I do try to help them encounter people who are outside their comfort zone with love. It’s why I encourage them to spend time in places like New Orleans after hurricane Katrina or on the border of Arizona, helping immigrants get water and medical care. It is why I want them to know their Muslim neighbors and become friends with Longhorns….like Dan.
Why? Well I believe being in solidarity with those different than us is the essence of loving God and neighbor. I believe that even when these relationships are entered into without a pure motive, those relationships change all who are involved. I believe it is the ultimate selfless act. And, no other Christian group on campus is doing this. We are unique. I’m tooting my own horn a bit here because Dan asked me to do so but seriously I think we offer something unique in creating a community of solidarity with others. If more of our alienated communities came together, then we would not need new laws to tame us into loving each other.
The problem in our society is not that we do not have an official language or big enough walls on our borders…it is that we do not take the time to know our neighbor as an equal child of God.
The problem in our society is not that we don’t have anyone to vote for…it is rather that we don’t want to learn about politics and government.
The problem isn’t that our music isn’t labeled properly…it is that we are not teaching our children how to know what is true and beautiful.
The problem isn’t that we don’t have the right laws…it is that we don’t want to work at using our freedom responsibly.
The problem isn’t that we indulge…it is that we don’t want to learn moderation.
That problem isn’t that we are at war…it is that we don’t know how to love our enemies.
The problem isn’t that we we lack security…it is that we don’t know what to do with our fear.[iii]
The problem isn’t that we lack the right laws to keep us in check and protect us…it is that we don’t really believe that extravagant universal love can make any difference in our world.
If you believe in Jesus Christ, then you know that this kind of love is the only thing that has….