As you know, we serve as the anchor church for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lyons. They’re planning a special worship service for Memorial Day weekend. I was working on that service last week. It occurred to me that Memorial Day and the recent income tax season stand in stark contrast to each other.
I assume you filed your income tax forms with the federal and state government, and maybe others as well. Maybe you filed yourself. Maybe you paid someone to file for you. And maybe you helped others with their taxes. The thing about taxes is that it is as if we consider the government to be our adversary. We want to pay as little as possible. There are formulas and deductions and all sorts of strategies that just about everyone employs to the fullest in order to lower the taxes we pay as much as possible.
How often have you ever sat back and thought, “I get a huge benefit for the taxes I pay. In fact, I get more benefits than what I’m paying for, so I will do my duty to my country and voluntarily pay more”?
Have you ever filled out your taxes and discovered that you had to pay money in and felt, “Good, I’m glad the government is holding me accountable for the benefits I receive. I certainly wouldn’t want to short my country by being selfish and greedy with what I earn”?
Heh, I doubt it!
It almost feels like the money we pay in taxes is money that just goes down the drain. It is as if we do not make a connection to our taxes and: the roads, national defense, safety regulations, law enforcement, education, and more that we get from our governments. We immediately focus on whatever type of government spending there is that we don’t like. And there is plenty to choose from!
So it is a huge contrast then when we consider Memorial Day coming up. Memorial Day is about honoring those who have died in miliary service to this nation. They certainly didn’t stop at contributing to this nation through their taxes. They gave everything – their lives! And they may have done so with unwavering and unquestioning commitment to the nation.
Do we think them stupid? Nope. We honor them. We remember them. And rightly so. But it is certainly a contrast. Taxes are an adversarial relationship with our government. Military service is one of absolute commitment and incredible trust.
A member of the armed forces trusts that as they are working and acting, at the orders of their commanders, they are indeed doing things for the betterment of the nation, and perhaps the world as a whole. Refuse orders… disobey… and likely receive serious consequences. I wouldn’t suggest being a member of the armed forces with the same attitude you have when doing your taxes!
The attitude for taxes is to study the technicalities of the law and get away with as much as you can. The attitude for military service is to offer yourself to the needs of your country with deep trust.
As we move deeper into the Sermon on the Mount today, we find Jesus talking about the religious laws. What approach should people take? Using our contrast between taxes and the armed services as a framework, is it faithful to study the religious law looking for loopholes and then exploit them, or is it faithful to generously live into the spirit of the law? Of course the answer is this second approach. God did not give the law for people to find loopholes and wiggle through. God intended the law for good. People should recognize that and desire to live into it fully.
It is important for us to realize that Jesus isn’t saying anything all that revolutionary about the law. We have records of other Jewish leaders of that time, and in prior times, who said basically the same things. They encourage people to see the spirit of the law and want to live into it. Seeking loopholes is not what God intended.
Actually there is very little of Jesus’ teaching anywhere that is new. From a certain perspective he is no different than many other morality teachers. So what stood him apart?
What stood him apart is that he sets himself up as the fulfillment of the law. He does not point a finger at people and say, “Be warned. Straighten up or you’re going to get it!” He doesn’t say, “God’s watching you and God’s not happy.” No, that’s the sort of message the prophets often gave.
Again, Jesus says he is the fulfillment of the law. He is the fulfillment of the law because he knows full well he will die for it. Because he will die for it he is proof that his life and teaching are the definitive revelation of the will of God.
Fulfilling the law frees us from being tangled in its technicalities, but it does not mean we are exempt from it.
Jesus creates a pattern as he teaches about the law. He does this pattern six times over. Let’s look at the first one as an example.
He starts by staying, “You have heard that it was said…”
Then he states the law, “You shall not murder; and, whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.”
He continues, “But I say to you…”
Then he roots the law in its origin and radicalizes it, “…if you are angry with a brother or sister you will be liable to judgment.”
Something important happens as he does this. It doesn’t happen with just once. It happens with the whole set of six. And all six together take us into a fundamental truth.
Maybe as you’re hearing the six you think, “Okay, I don’t get angry easily, or at all.” And then, “I don’t commit adultery or even have lustful thoughts.” And then, “I’m not divorced.” And, “I don’t swear ever.” And, “I never want revenge for people who hurt me.” And “I love my enemies all the time.”
And I think you get the point. Perhaps you can escape some of these. But no one escapes all of them. As Jesus radicalizes the law he entraps absolutely everyone. Since he roots his radicalization, not in the letter of the law, but in the fundamentals of God’s intentions behind the law, we have no wiggle room out. Our hearts have to be truly in the right place.
We fall short. We can’t do it. We are forced to recognize that we need God’s grace. We aren’t going to do it on our own righteousness.
None of what Jesus says is intended to make us feel guilty. But it is intended to keep us from getting smug. No matter how “good” you are, you are – at best – only fulfilling the barest minimum of the requirements. There’s no way to fulfill them all.
So, we have to depend upon grace. We can’t earn it.
If it’s hopeless for our own righteousness should we then give up trying? You’ve surely heard that before. Even the earliest Christians were learning how to exploit God’s goodness.
No. The sermon is intended to spur us on to ever greater energy and commitment. It is to cause us discontentment with the way things are in the world around us and spurs us on to endless engagement.
There’s no room in the morality Jesus describes for someone to say, “I’ve done my part. I’m good. It’s up to someone else.” Instead it is the mindset of the soldier who is giving everything to his or her country. And since we know the story of Jesus well, we know that he asks nothing more of his followers than he himself is willing to do.
May we live in the spirit of the law, rooted in God’s intentions. May our hearts truly desire the good that God seeks to bring about. And may we realize that try as we might at this, we will still fail at it, but know that we can rely upon God’s grace for us always.
Amen, and thank you for your work!
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