People were just floored by how Jesus spoke and taught.  “[H]e taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Mk 7:29).  The rabbis said, “According to Rabbi So-and-So.”  The prophets said, “Thus says the LORD.”  Jesus says, “I say.”  I would never stand up here and say anything like, “This is true because I say it’s true.”  That would display a shocking lack of modesty: ludicrous, offensive arrogance.  I wouldn’t be winning anyone over or influencing anyone in the right direction, that way!  I bring in William Barclay, W. Graham Scroggie, and others who have spent lifetimes carefully studying, reflecting, and praying about the Word of God and its faithful interpretation and application.  I hope the Spirit might be pleased now and again to use me to say something that helps you.

Jesus had a different approach to the Word of God.  You and I understand why, but people hearing him for the first time did not understand.  They just knew this was something quite different, a little disturbing, and maybe even true.  We each must decide for ourselves whether or not Jesus knows what he is talking about.  Each of you could teach me something—many things—and I would be able to tell that you know what you’re talking about.  As people listened to Jesus, they had the sense, even if they couldn’t quite put their finger on why, that Jesus knew what he was talking about.  They maybe didn’t like that they felt that way.  They maybe wanted to believe that Jesus was a crank and a charlatan, but something kept removing that resistance and eroding that objection.  That didn’t keep some from feverishly laboring at throwing up bigger, stronger barricades; they just did it either with less enthusiasm or more anger.

Jesus teaches, on his own authority—for whatever that’s worth—that the limits of the law as it had been understood had not been entirely understood.  Confused about the Law, confused about love: we need help!  The law regulated behavior: what people should do for one another and ought not do to one another: do this not that.  The law set up a reasonable, predictable way for returning balance when there was imbalance: regulation and restitution; you know, justice.  Jesus teaches that the Law isn’t about eyes or teeth, weights and measures, exactly balancing the scales; the Law is about the heart: loving obedience.  When the Law is written upon the heart, the Word changes the heart.  The heart then begins to speak, sing the Word.  We then start living, a little more each day, on God’s terms.  Only the Spirit can write the Law upon the heart.  The Spirit-written Law changes what the heart wants.  When the heart wants what God wants, there is no longer any Law.

How to have the law written upon the heart?  Oh, beloved, there’s the question!

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.”  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.  Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, “Raca,” is answerable to the court.  And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.  (5:21-22).

Stern stuff.  “Raca”—must be something bad, but what?  The closest we might get would be to call someone worthless, useless.  “Fool” seems clear enough, though maybe not quite as bad as worthless?  The fool is hopelessly dull, a perpetual blockhead.  Here, the term has the additional or maybe particular sense of someone hopelessly dull regarding the things of God.  In olden times, Catholic missionaries would speak of the invincible ignorance of some to whom they attempted to introduce the Gospel.  Let’s hope that no one is perpetually, unalterably ignorant, especially concerning the things of God.  We say many things about others outside their hearing.  We say too many things about people in their hearing.  Jesus is reminding us that words have effects, just like actions.  Our words do things.

“You shall not murder.”  God help us.  The FBI began collecting national data on crime in 1930.  In 2021, there were 26,000 murders in the US.  That is atrocious.  Would you want to try life in Mexico, then, or South Africa, or maybe El Salvador?  People are fleeing those places for good reasons.  In 2021, of those 26,000 murders, nearly 21,000 (or about 80%) were by firearms.  Texas led the way with 2,064 murders.  With a population of 29.5 million people, Texas ends up with a lower murder rate than our neighbor to the east: Louisiana had the highest murder rate in 2021.  Oh, the law is there, always there; in too many instances, it is not written upon the heart.  The Spirit of the Living God has not been invited to dwell there, though He knocks and calls.  One old hymn tune is named Pleading Savior.  Yes, indeed.

So much violence.  Yes, guns are certainly involved: a preferred means for carrying out violence.  Guns are not causing the violence.  I’ve never seen a gun get up under its own power, point itself at someone, and fire.  What we need to be talking about is the state of mental health in this society, which means we also need to be talking about the state of social health.  If the news is providing an accurate account, our society currently is sick, even gravely ill.  Attacks, beatings, mobs, rampant theft, lawlessness, squatters—symptoms.  You and I know the illness, sin, will be fatal if not treated.

Jesus gets it right: stopping with the act itself isn’t enough—we need to address the underlying anger, the rage boiling over all too often: the dehumanization, not to say the demonization, of others.  From where is it coming?  Who is stoking it?  For what purpose?  What can be done to name it and counter it effectively?  I suspect you also realize the solution isn’t more laws, regulations, and prohibitions.  Our lawbooks and manuals of regulations are thick and voluminous as it is.  The answer to this epidemic of rage unto murder is Jesus, the Word of God.  Unless and until God writes His law on these hearts, all we can expect is more of the same.  I don’t regard that as hopeless but as a call to service, to discipleship.  People need to encounter Jesus: we can introduce them.

If we want to see change in this society, this culture, if we want to be agents of true change, it isn’t only in the voting booth—if you still believe it makes any difference who you vote for.  To be agents of true change, let’s you and I proclaim Jesus Christ, and keep calling, sharing, loving, teaching, encouraging, correcting, serving, and upbuilding in his name.  That doesn’t mean we’re out at intersections with bullhorns, though that might not hurt.  What can this congregation be doing about the mental health of children and young adults?  What could we be doing to counteract the quick, sharp anger, the casual loathing?  Or is that somebody else’s job?  But what can we do?  Study, learn, advocate, petition, serve, seek connections and relationships—protest, if necessary—pray.  And yes, vote.

Society is built by the ties we maintain with one another, personal ties.  Jesus focuses in very quickly on the hands and heart of the individual—me, you.  “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.” (5:23-24).  Blessed are the peacemakers.  Blessed are the meek.  What keeps us from taking steps toward reconciliation?  Fear?  Shame?  Maybe it’s pride: “I’m right and you’re wrong.”  Strange, how that seems to be exactly the attitude of the other person, too.  That right/wrong call is a short step—shorter than we often realize—to I’m righteous and you’re damned, you’re evil.

Who is right?  Who is wrong?  Maybe you’re both right.  Maybe you’re both wrong.  Who knows?  Well, the answer isn’t nobody.  God knows.  He knows a lot more than that, too.  Blessed are the merciful, and the poor in spirit, and the meek.  Blessed are the peacemakers.  When we refuse to offer forgiveness, or when we don’t seek it, why do we bother to come before God, whether here or in our time of prayer?  If you want to enjoy the blessings of the reconciliation you have from God in Christ by the Spirit, seek reconciliation with those with whom you have been experiencing stress, tension, resentment, anger.  This doesn’t mean grovel.  It means honesty, candor, and desiring to get a divine perspective on this life.  You know, what this society of ours is telling us is good and desirable and best no longer bears much resemblance to what God is telling us about these same matters.  God gives us only so much time.  How does He want us to use it?

The disposition of the heart matters.  Who is enthroned there matters.  Christ encourages those who would follow him, who claim him, to apply themselves to the work of maintaining relationships, building community, and upbuilding a community of faith.  That’s not such easy work, God knows!  It’s the little sins of omission—what we neglect to do—and the little sins of commission—what we do that we ought not do—that, combined, do big harm to our relationships.  The time to seek reconciliation, peace, is always now.  I blew it, again!  You blew it, again!  Now what?  Confess.  Seek forgiveness.  Rebuild, again.

The only forever relationship is our relationship with God.  Despite our best efforts, friendships can fade.  Some are probably supposed to.  Jesus isn’t saying never let a relationship change.  He isn’t suggesting that we can or should try to freeze every relationship at some happy point in time.  He is saying don’t harm your relationships.  And if you have caused harm, take prompt, active steps to reconcile.  You can’t control how the other person will respond.  That’s not your job.  You do have some control over what you say and what you do, especially as you have been claimed by Christ, and the Spirit is now at work in you, writing the Law of the Living God upon your heart, the law of loving obedience.

Maybe today, before we open hands and mouths to receive Christ’s gifts of bread and juice—the blessing and benefit of his life, at work in and through us—maybe we should take a few minutes to go outside or where we’ll have some space, and send a text, make a phone call, or invite a brother or sister here to talk.  Maybe we should do that.  Would it be just too embarrassing, an intolerable interruption?  God is very patient with us.  He is always holding grace out to us.

It’s when we keenly know the need in which we come that God can do the most for us.  It’s when we know we’ve done what delights God that we begin to experience the fullness of the joy of the Lord, and His peace.  William Barclay wrote, very truly, pointedly, that “Loyalty always brings revelation; it is to the man who is true to him that Jesus most fully reveals himself [. . . .] [the] reward [of loyalty] is a closer walk with Christ, and an increasing knowledge of his wonder.”[1]  Let us ponder these words with this table prepared for us this morning.

Now, to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

               [1] William Barclay.  Gospel of John.  Vol. 2.  1955.  Daily Study Bible.  Philadelphia: Westminster P, 1975.  50.