Jesus Christ Laws – 2/01/09

A young man and young woman notice each other across the room. They bump into one another again in town and notice that they are reading the same book. They begin talking. They start dating. They write letters. They exchange gifts. They fall in love. The happier they become with one another the harder it is for them to be together. They long for a future together but are told that they will never be able to marry. It’s not because of distance. It’s not because of disease. It’s because of the color of their skin.

Three young men walk into town after football practice. They’re thirsty. They’re hungry. They’re tired. What they really want is a nice, thick chocolate milk shake. The only place in town with a working milk shake machine is Mae’s Diner. The three young men know that they won’t be served a milk shake there. There’s a sign out front that says white only. It doesn’t refer to the type of money they take or to the color of clothes that are acceptable. The sign means that you must have white skin to enter.

A group of little girls meets on the same corner every morning. They have woken up early and finished up their homework. They ate breakfast and kissed their parents good bye as they rushed out the door. They have promised one another that they would always walk together to school in the morning. Part of their walk is passed a big, brick building that is flooded with children. It looks like a really nice building and very important. Every morning that they pass they wonder what goes on inside. They wonder why their skin color should prevent them from learning in that place.

It’s election season. The candidates couldn’t be more different from one another. One was about change and the other about the status quo. One seemed kind and the other seemed cold. An older woman had begun paying close attention to what they said in their speeches. As a woman she was finally given the right to vote. But she was the daughter of a slave and was never given much chance to learn to read. She couldn’t pass the test that they made her take and the $2 in her pocket she needed for her rent.

Today is the beginning of black history month and these stories represent some of the most tragic parts of that history. They represent Jim Crow Laws. After slavery was over and the southern states were restored to their full place in the union, many of them passed new constitutions. From 1876 to 1965 states in the north and in the south passed and upheld laws that separated people based on the color of their skin. Black and white people were not allowed to marry, black and white people were to eat in separate restaurants, they went to separate schools, and, in effect, had different rights when it came to voting. For all most 100 years of this nation’s history people were legally discriminated against because of the color of their skin.

Some people would say that these laws were meant as a protection for black people. That is, if black children were to attend the same school as white children they would be harassed and abused without end. They mind as well be at a different school. There were others, however, who were motivated by science. Those who said that black people were genetically inferior to white people. There were others who were simply motivated by hate. We sit here today knowing that those Jim Crow Laws are wrong. Today, we are able to judge those laws and their motivation as out of line with the values of this country. But there are other laws today. Laws that people argue about. It’s more difficult to judge if they’re right or not; if they are just or not. Both of the passages we heard this morning deal with the law; with God’s law and the motivation that is behind it.

“So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?” It’s helpful to know that this question comes immediately after the giving of the 10 Commandments. The second time around that is. You may remember that Moses smashed the first two stones on which the commandments were written as he saw the Israelites worshipping a golden calf. He had to go back up the mountain. He had to carve up two more tablets of stone and God wrote out the 10 Commandments once more. These commandments were to form the foundation of God’s law. From these laws, many more laws would be written. From its foundation, many more foundations would be laid. “So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you?” We might imagine that the people would respond with the 10 Commandments like an ancient Heidelberg Catechism. They do not.

Moses continues on by describing what is behind this law. Or, more appropriately, who is behind this law. It is the Lord. It is the one who owns the heavens and the heaven of heavens and the earth with all that is in it. This Lord your God is God of all gods and Lord of all lords, might and awesome. No doubt Moses means to remind that people that their God is supreme and that they are to acknowledge him as such. What does the Lord of the heavens and earth require of you? “You shall fear the Lord your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear.” This sounds like the commandments we all know and respect. And we have come to respect God for them as the Israelites had.

But there was more to God than just his supreme nature. Moses also described this God of gods and Lord of lords as one who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. This same Lord who owns all the heavens, looked down and set his heart in love on one people out of many. He looked on them in their slavery in Egypt and made them as numerous as the stars of the sky. What does this God of gods and Lord of Lords require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being…You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Moses has laid out a classic description of God. He is one who is the transcendent lawgiver and supreme over all other kings of the earth and all other gods of the heavens. One before whom we bow down and worship. One before whom we can have no others. But God is also the imminent caretaker. One who takes special notice of a people enslaved in Egypt and leads them out of slavery to a Promised Land. One who has a special concern for widows and orphans, and loves strangers. One who provides them food and clothing. One in whose footsteps we walk. He is a God of justice, and love and provision. This God does not discriminate and he cannot be bought off. He gives laws, not to control the people, but for their own well-being. What humbles us in this description of God is that the one who is Lord over all created order is also one who loves even the least in that creation.

Israel would carry these words with them throughout their history. Well, most of them. The would always remember that their God was supreme. They would remember their commandments. They would look after their own. But through the years they had forgotten That God does not discriminate. He had chosen one people out of the many, but he was not partial to one people out of the many. In fact, he loved the stranger and wanted Israel to love them too. Jesus was sent to remind them of this forgotten message.

While the Phraisees and Sadducees were arguing about minor points of the doctrine and trying to trip Jesus up, one in the crowd that he’d get to the heart of the matter. Which commandment is the first of all? This scribe, who certainly was familiar with the whole law, was not going to let Jesus tell a story or do a fancy trick to get out from underneath him. It was a straightforward question and he was looking for a straightforward answer. That’s what he got, plus one. Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. Notice those last words.

Jesus has considered the first 5 books of the Bible with all 600 plus rules and regulations and picked out two and called them the greatest. Greater than “you shall not steal” or “you shall not commit adultery,” greater than “remember the Sabbath” and “do not covet,” Jesus picks two commandments that are not even in the first 10 Commandments. Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter. Perhaps we should say that, in picking these two commandments, Jesus gets right to the heart of God. He makes it plain and he makes it simple. The law is about love and love is the law. All of the distinctions, all of the divisions, all of the discrimination that have resulted from the use of God’s law actually go against the law. The law is about love and love is the law.

The scribe, it seems, agrees that loving God and loving neighbor is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Pages and pages of instructions regarding sin offerings and thanksgiving offerings and grain offerings and well-being offerings and guilt offerings were reduced to a secondary status by two verses about love. Laws that many people held dear were nothing compared to love. Jesus said to the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” From that day on, no one dared to ask Jesus anymore questions. Either they knew he was right or they knew they couldn’t prove him wrong. Some would start to follow him and others would try to kill him all for advocating love.

What was lost in the shuffle in Deuteronomy becomes abundantly clear in Jesus Christ. In him, we see the transcendent lawgiver draw near as the imminent care taker. In him, we see the one who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the widow and orphan, who loves the stranger and provides food and clothing for them. In Jesus Christ we discover again, that God’s law is not for arbitrary control. Instead, God’s law is given for our own well-being; that we may have life and have it abundantly. Our only motivation in making rules and regulations is love. It doesn’t get more complicated than that. Though we do try.

We make rules for ourselves all the time about our appearance, about our weight, about our job performance, about our social status; rules that we feel the need to follow, but rules that end up enslaving us to some image or end that burdens us and weighs us down. Not many of those rules we make flow out of love that we have for ourselves. We make rules for our children about how they should act, about their grades, about their friends, and how they spend their time. As a parent now, I’m more aware than ever of the need to make rules and provide structure for children. However, I’m also more aware than ever that many of my rules are motivated by my own selfish desire to not be annoyed or bothered. There are plenty of rules that I make that are not about keeping will healthy or safe, but about keeping me sane.

Jim Crow Laws are a vivid and recent reminder that black history, our history really, has been fraught with laws that are not always motivated by love or that seek the well-being of others as God’s law does. Of course, that history has been changed by another and significant degree in the past two weeks with the election of this country’s first black President. A man who would have been enslaved, a man who would not have been free to marry, to eat at restaurants, to go to any school, to vote for President, is now president himself. At least in this last election the history of skin color was put aside and a man was judged on his character and qualifications. That is something that everyone, male and female, black and white can celebrate this month.

I heard two black women talking about black history this past week and they described the photo in which Martin Luther King Jr. stood over the shoulder of Lyndon Johnson as he signed the Voting Rights Act. The two women remarked on how the black man is now the one who is sitting in the presidential seat and the wondered who would serve as Barak Obama’s Martin Luther King. They remembered the story in which LBJ said to MLK, “Go out and make it possible for me to do the right thing.” The two women wondered who would make it possible for Barak Obama to do the right thing. I hope it is the people who are obedient to Jesus Christ laws.

If we want the orphan and widow to have justice we are the ones to make it possible. If we want the alien to be welcomed we are the ones to make it possible. If we want food on every table we are the ones to make it possible. If we want health care to work for everyone and for everyone to work for their health we are the ones to make it possible. If we want marriage to be respected as a foundational institution we are the ones to make it possible. If we want the family to be supported and children to be nurtured we are the ones to make it possible. If we want laws that promote the well-being of all people regardless of race or class or gender, we are the ones to make it possible. We’ll make it possible with our voice, with our feet, with our hands, and with our hearts. We’ll make it possible when we love God and when we love our neighbor as ourselves.

This table around which we gather is a vivid and present reminder that what brings us together is not slavery to a law, but gratitude for love; gratitude that the transcendent lawgiver is also the incarnate caretaker and out of all the universe has set his heart in love on us. We are welcome at this table, not because we have followed all the rules this week and kept up proper appearances, not because we have fulfilled some law, but because the fulfillment of the law is love; because God is love. We find at this table that we are not far from the kingdom of God. This table reminds us that in making the right thing possible we are not leading the way, but simply following in the steps of Jesus Christ, the one who lived, the one who died, the one who was raised so that all might have life and have it abundantly. Amen.