Sometimes the jokes about our President, like the message of scripture, are characterizations, taking a little bit of truth and exaggerating it out of proportion. It makes a good joke, and who would be so dull as not to appreciate the humor? But if you take the half-truths as serious, well, it's not fair to individuals...and it's not fair to scripture.
For instance, the hell-fire and brim-stone preacher strikes one side of the message. He or she believes the "fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." Well, to be sure, that's in the Bible. It's a part of the message. But actually as they reemphasize this, and concentrate on this, they begin to believe more than that. They begin to believe hat the fear of the Lord is the beginning, the middle, and the end of wisdom. The part is taken and substituted for the whole and you have an exaggeration that's no longer a joke. It's a serious misinterpretation of God's relationship with us. And we in the liberal churches look over at it and see what's going on.
And sometimes...not always, but sometimes, it works the other way too. Sometimes it's said that, "God is love." And that's part of the message of the Bible. But here's the whole message: "Beloved, let us love one another, ........for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8) In other words God's love puts a responsibility upon us. There is God's own kindness, gentleness, graciousness toward us as individuals. But it doesn't end there. Because we are loved we now have a command to love one another. It's not an option. It's an expectation. And so closely are these ideas linked that it goes on to say that you can't know this love of God if you remain unreconciled to a brother or sister. This love of God actually carries a condition - that we love one another. Unlink that and you've got half of it.
Sometimes, you see, we characterize scripture as one-way. And when we do, we kind of make a joke out of it. Or worse than that, we take it seriously and base our faith on half the truth. And there's a long history of it. In the Reformed tradition the emphasis was on obedience. In the Lutheran tradition they said, "It is by grace and grace alone..." Like a committee that is blind-folded trying to describe an elephant, the parts do not do justice to the whole.
That's what is striking about these words of Jesus in Matthew. Did you notice? Did you notice how it begins in judgment, words of from condemnation of Capernaum, that it will be brought down to Hades even. And then the closing, right there after, some of the most comforting and reassuring words of scripture.: 28"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
There they are, about as close as you can get them. Righteous indignation is followed by warm invitation. Zealous anger is paired with tender comfort. Judgment and grace.
One of America's great patriots saw that we shouldn't reduce our relationship with God to a one-dimensional, simplistic slogan. He saw that it was far more complex than that, and that it called for greater wholeness in us....that it calls for both responsibility and forgiveness, it involves trust and action, that it settles and calms and centers but also moves us. There is love and grace but there are expectations as well.
That patriot was Martin Luther King, Jr. and if you've never had a chance to read his sermons, well, do. For he saw into the fullness of the relationship. One sermon was entitled the "tear and the flame."
The tear was a symbol of the tenderness of God, and the tenderness that we might have toward one another. The tear that runs down the cheek...whether at a wedding or funeral or just in a meaningful moment....it's a tear of sympathy and connection. Brian Ritter was married yesterday and they asked a friend to read a moving poem. At the rehearsal she could barely get through it. She was choked up and you could see the moisture in her eyes. In a moment of connection with her friends, even the rehearsal was full of this powerful feeling. The tear is part of what it means to be human, to be touched by tenderness. Certainly we understand that.
But King knew it was just as important sometimes to carry a flame inside us, to not be content with the way things were, to recognize there is injustice, oppression, people who take advantage of others for their gain, their benefit, their comfort and security. And to use God to condone such injustice simply deepens the injustice. Isn't it sometimes right that God would expect more of us? Isn't it right that sometimes God would draw our attention to how we're lagging behind and how much further there is to go? In those cases isn't it the flame that should appear, and not just a tear?
Interesting learning for me this week. I don't know whether it was conscious or not, but at MLK, Jr's. grave site there is both a reflecting pool and a flame....calm water and burning fire, peace and the encouragement to change, a spiritual centeredness and security as well as a passion for justice.
What I'm sure of is this...both are prompted by a single love of God for us. For what parent would express their love only in judgment or only in acceptance. What parent would say, "Whatever you do is ok, I never expect any more from you, it's "ok" even though you didn't really try and didn't really put much effort forth or didn't care. Is it real love to accept what is simply mediocrity?
When you think about real life the complexity of it becomes more clear. A couple of stories...
Anna Carter Florence tells about opening the New York Times and finding there an article about a number of priests who had been arrested in her home state. She scanned the list and then went numb. Father M....the priest in her home town. The priest of all her Catholic friends. The priest who presided over the first funeral she had ever attended...of a 10-year old classmate. The priest who presided over the many funerals she attended in high school, of friends killed in car accidents. The priest who ministered to her best friend when her father died, her senior year. The priest whom everyone loved; the priest the whole town loved. The priest who stood for everything good and right and who even supported women in ministry, which made an impression on Anna. There was his name. How could this be....
And right there is the complexity. A man who had done many good things was revealed to have done some very bad things too. She had every right to feel betrayed, to feel let down. You don't just cover this over with a platitude like "God is love." No, this priest had not truly loved his neighbor. He was not truly whom everyone believed him to be.
But then she remembered the text he used at each one of those funerals. It was this text we just read. "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest..." And with such words he had also spoken of real love to people who grieved. (Lectionary Homiletics, June/July 2008, p. 52)
It's complex. And it's not just so with the priest. It's complex within us too. The good, the bad, the ugly are woven into the world, to others....and the truth is that it's woven into our own hearts as well.
Another story...
The ex-con was heading home. He ignored the noisy college kids on the bus and stared out the window until, after a rest stop, a young woman sat down next to him and struck up a conversation. He told her that he'd been in prison for four years and that his wife hadn't written in three and a half. When he learned that he was being paroled, he wrote again and said he still loved her. He would understand, however, if she never wanted to see him again. To make it easier on both of them, he suggested that his wife use a yellow handkerchief to communicate her feelings. If he was welcome at home she would tie the handkerchief on the old oak tree near their home. If there was no handkerchief, he would stay on the bus and keep going.
Word of the arrangement spread throughout the bus. As it came into town, the college kids flocked to the windows. When they saw the tree, cheers broke out. On the tree was not one but hundreds of yellow handkerchiefs. It's the story that led to a song. (Evan Drake Howard in Christian Century, June 17, 2008, p. 21)
Like these stories, the words of Jesus bring judgment and grace together. And behind it all, somehow, God's love is real.
Let us pray,
O God, the world is complex. And yet you are work in the world and with us, seeking to redeem, seeking to make whole, seeking to fulfill your promises. So be for us the God we need: encourage and correct....convict, convert, consecrate until we are wholly yours. Amen.
Children: to see the fire works...to see the stars...to imagine and dream and then make real.