Seek First God's Kingdom (Matthew 6:24-34)

 Integrity is a word that has kind of followed me around for much of my life.

The first time it really grabbed my attention was over 30 years ago when I interviewed for a job, and the person who interviewed me said afterward that he would not be hiring me because I lacked integrity. 

This was before I became a minister, before I went to seminary. I had applied to work with a good organization that I really liked, but which had policies that were homophobic. 30 years ago, that was not unusual, though this particular organization was already starting to feel some pressure to change its policies.

The person interviewing me asked me if I was OK working for this organization and supporting its homophobic policies. (He didn’t use the word “homophobic,” but whatever.)

I said—because I really liked this organization and really wanted this job—that if I was hired, I knew that I would be expected to enforce the policies. And I would do so. I also said that if I felt that any policies were unjust or immoral, I would advocate for change within the organization, to help make the organization even better than it already was.

He didn’t like that answer. In his eyes, I lacked integrity.

And maybe I did. To work for an organization that held ideas that I considered immoral… and to be expected to enforce those policies, even if I didn’t agree with them… Is that lacking in integrity?

It made me think about people I know who worked for the church. Pastors and all other sorts of people, working in all sorts of different types of churches… some of them paid, some of them volunteers… And some of them straight, and some of them gay. 

All of them believing in affirming people of all sexual orientations and gender identities; all of them believing that the church should be affirming of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

But not all of the churches they worked for did.

Yet they loved the church, they loved what the church taught them about Jesus; and because of what the church taught them, they believed that Jesus unconditionally loves and affirms all people. 

So they stuck with the church, hoping and praying and working for the day that those churches would realize that our God is an inclusive, affirming God, and that churches should convey that love in every aspect of their ministry.

And many of those churches, over the years, did change, and now they do welcome and affirm all God’s children.

Now: were they lacking in integrity by working for a church before that church became inclusive and affirming?

It’s really hard to judge, isn’t it? It’s complicated. But I think most of them are to be commended.

Looking back, I think the organization I interviewed with was lacking integrity more than I was…and the organization came to realize that as well. A few years later, they got rid of their homophobic policies.

But I still wonder what it would have been like if I had been hired, before they changed their policies. I don’t know exactly how that would have played out. It may be that the issue wouldn’t have really come up much in my professional duties. But maybe it would have… and how would I have responded?

Having thought about integrity, I have come to define integrity as acting in a way that is consistent with who you say you are. It means walking the walk, and not just talking the talk. It means if you claim certain values, and if you encourage others to live by those values, that you try to live by those values yourself. 

You don’t say, “this is who I am, this is what I believe…” and then act in ways that are contrary to what you’ve just proclaimed.

****** One of the best things our denomination’s General Minister, Terri Hord Owens, has done, is encourage us as a church to “be the church we say we are.” We say that we are a pro-reconciliation, anti-racism church; let’s show the world this is who we are by the way we live and by the work we do, not just the words we say. 

We say we are a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world… so let’s get out there and actually work for wholeness, for all of God’s people. 

This is what it means to have integrity. It means we actually prioritize, in our lives and in the work we do, things that are in line with the values we claim. We don’t claim certain beliefs and values, and then live lives that demonstrate that our real values and priorities aren’t what we say they are.

And because—ever since that interview—I have thought a lot about integrity, I ponder and meditate on things. For example: I claim to be a person who prioritizes caring for the earth and protecting our climate—yet I still get around town in a vehicle that burns fossil fuels.

This leads me to ask myself: how can I continue growing in integrity? What changes can I make to my life, so that my actions and my lifestyle are more in line with the things I say are important to me?

How can I live with greater integrity?

***** In today’s scripture, Jesus says to seek first the kingdom of God. In other words, make God’s kingdom your number one priority. 

And God’s kingdom is everything that Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount. 

God’s kingdom—the kingdom we are instructed to seek first—is the kingdom where the poor are blessed… the kingdom where the peacemakers are blessed…the kingdom where those who hunger and thirst for what is right are blessed… the kingdom where the meek and the merciful and the pure in heart are blessed.

God’s kingdom is where LGBT youth find affirmation; where immigrants find a home; where strangers find welcome; and where Black lives matter.

(What else should we add to this list?)

God’s kingdom is where women and girls are protected, and do not walk in fear.

God’s kingdom is where families are nurtured and supported… and not torn apart.

God’s kingdom is where those who are sick are cared for.

God’s kingdom is where those who mourn find comfort.

Seek first this kingdom. Seek first the righteousness of God, who reigns over this kingdom with love and compassion.

We claim to be people who seek God’s kingdom. Every Sunday, when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray that God’s kingdom may come on earth, as it is in heaven. 

But then we leave here, and we go about our lives, and we focus our attention on so many other things. We make compromises every day. And we worry so much about so many things, while neglecting the kingdom of God. 

***** What shall I eat? What shall I wear?

When Jesus talked about worry, I wonder if he was responding to those who wanted to follow him, but were held back by these cares and worries. 

If I follow you, Jesus, who will provide for my family? Who will pay the bills? Who will mow the lawn and prepare the meals and do the dishes? Who will get my tax paperwork ready? Who will keep the car running? 

I’m not saying these things aren’t important. I think even Jesus might say that these things are important.

But the amount of time we spend worrying about them, compared to the amount of time we spend worrying about the kingdom of God, is out of proportion. 

We should be worrying about the kingdom of God first—the kingdom where the poor are fed and the sick are cared for and the vulnerable are protected. 

That should be our priority.

If we are truly the people we say we are. If we are truly the followers of Christ we claim to be.

***** With each generation that comes along, fewer and fewer are going to church. And sociologists and historians and church leaders have studied this trend, to try to figure out why.

There is no “one single reason.” But one of the most significant reasons—and perhaps the number one reason—is that people are seeing that the church has not always been who it said it was.

The church has not always followed the way of Jesus—the way of love and compassion. 

The church has not always acted with integrity. 

Many grew up in a church that taught them about the unconditional love of God, a church that nevertheless placed conditions on the love it shared—a church that failed to practice the very love that it preached. 

It’s like a nation that proclaims that “all men are created equal,” but then denies equal rights based on skin color.  

Every day I worry about these things. I worry about a lot of other things as well. I worry about money—whether my family will have enough, and whether this church will have enough—even though I know that sometimes, my worrying about money becomes a form of worship, a form of idolatry, and that I can’t worship both money and God.

I spend too much time worrying about things that Jesus says aren’t as important, and not enough time worrying about the one thing Jesus says is the most important thing of all.

It’s hard to be the person I claim to be, the person I want to be, the person I believe God calls me to be. It’s hard to be a man of integrity.

***** Jesus never said that following him would be easy. He did say—later in the Sermon on the Mount—that the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

And anyone who tries to follow Jesus, and live with integrity, soon discovers how hard the road is.

Yet what a blessing it is that we are here together, you and I, a community seeking that road to life, and helping each other travel that road as best we can.

None of us travel that road perfectly. Our journey is full of wrong turns, delays, and detours.

But traveling together, hand in hand, side by side, we follow that path. 

And we continue working on behalf of God’s kingdom, seeking to make that kingdom a reality for us and for all our neighbors near and far. 

And, with God’s help, we continue becoming the church we say we are: a church of integrity. A church that seeks first the kingdom of God.

"You Have Heard It Said" (Matthew 5:21-37)

 To some, it sounds like Jesus is doing away with the law, the teachings of ancient Judaism. As if Jesus is saying: “The law said this; but you can ignore it, because now I’m saying something else.”

To say it like that, it sounds as if Jesus is throwing out the law, and replacing it with something completely different.

But that’s not how Jesus sees it. That’s not what he intends.

In fact, just before he says all these things, Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the teachings of the prophets; I have come not to abolish, but to fulfill.”

It’s not about abolishing the ancient teachings or casting them aside; it’s about living in to those teachings in a more complete way. It’s about expanding them.

It’s not about looking for loopholes; it’s about looking to go even further than the law demands, to follow through on the teachings to an even greater degree than you have been taught or have come to understand.

It’s not about limiting how much God’s teachings control your life and your actions; it’s about letting God’s ways control everything in your life and all your actions.

It’s certainly not about twisting and manipulating God’s teachings to justify your way of living, as so many do even today; it’s about bringing your way of living ever closer to what God wills; ever closer to the way of Jesus.

It’s about living in the kingdom of heaven. When I began preaching on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount a few weeks ago, I mentioned how the Sermon on the Mount is a description of life in the kingdom of heaven; an invitation to live in the kingdom of heaven. Right now.

And those who live in the kingdom of heaven seek to live lives of love to the fullest extent; to let love guide everything they do; to always grow in love, so that the love we express becomes ever more complete, ever more whole, ever more transformative, radical, revolutionary, liberating, life-giving.

The law says you shall not murder. Those who seek to limit the law might say: “Fine; I won’t murder you, you no good, dirty, rotten, filthy…”

Ah. No. Stop. You have failed to understand and embrace the love that is at the root of the law, the love that is the foundation of God’s law. If you fully lived in love, you wouldn’t even utter insults, and you wouldn’t call anyone names, because that isn’t loving. Go, think about this, and what it truly means to love.

The law says to not commit adultery. Those who seek to limit the law might say: “OK. I’ve never slept with any woman besides my wife…so I have followed the law.”

Ah. no. Stop. You have failed to understand and embrace the love that is at the root of the law. If you fully lived in love, you wouldn’t even look at another woman with lust in your heart. 

By the way, on this particular issue, notice how it is addressed to men, and talks about looking at a woman, but doesn’t say anything about a woman looking at a man. Why is that? Well, in ancient times, women were considered property. In the first century, adultery was wrong, because it involved “stealing” what rightfully belonged to another man.

Yet Jesus, throughout his ministry, treats women as well as men as human beings. When he sat and talked with the woman at the well, the disciples were astounded that he was talking to a woman. Did he get permission from her man before doing so?

No. No, he did not. Because his love compelled him to treat this woman as a human being.

The law says: when you make a solemn vow, you must honor the vow you have made. : When you place your hand on the Bible, cross your heart, whatever, you have to tell the truth. But those with a limited view of the law might say, “OK fine. When I’m under oath, I’ll tell the truth. But the rest of the time…”

No. Wait. Stop. Let all your words be true. Words have power; power to create, and power to destroy. For a person living in the kingdom of heaven, growing in love, all your “yesses” will mean yes, and all your “noes” will mean no.

If someone is mean to you, can you be mean back to them? If they steal your candy, can you turn around and steal their candy?

An eye for an eye, right? That is what the ancient law says…

But the ancient law was putting a limit on the amount of restitution one could demand.

To fully understand and embrace the love that is at the root of the law means realizing that love demands no restitution. No payback. Love turns the other cheek. Love says, when something is taken from you: “Do you need anything else?”

Now, in a way, this is kind of subversive. If the person who has taken from you has done so because they are desperate, because they are in need, them taking from you your coat or whatever may alert you to the opportunity to provide assistance, to care for them—something that love would do.

On the other hand, if they are taking from you, stealing from you, or doing any other thing to you viciously, vindictively, then your turning the other cheek, or offering them a second article of clothing, or going an extra mile, might, at the very least, cause them to rethink their actions, and might even spur them to remorse.

This is non-violent activism. And the key to understanding nonviolent activism is to first of all recognize that non-violent activism doesn’t always work—it’s not magic—but neither does violent activism. Both are capable of success OR failure.

But only one is rooted in love. Only one recognizes one’s opponent as a human being.

Which brings us to one more thing Jesus said: Love your enemies.

These are all hard sayings, but I feel like this is the hardest of all. 

There are a lot of people in the world right now I really don’t want to love. People who, I think it would be great if they just disappeared off the face of the earth.

In her last interview, Jane Goodall said there are some people she’d like to get rid of. People she’d love to put on a rocket ship together, and just send them off into space, away from earth, never to return.

And Jane Goodall was, I think, one of the kindest, most loving people on earth.

It’s so hard to love those who are against us; those who seem so intent on committing evil in our world.

But only love has even a chance of getting them to turn around. 

Hate certainly isn’t going to get them to change. Anger directed toward them isn’t going to get them to change. 

Hate and anger isn’t going to convince them to be more loving.

If there’s any hope of getting them to be more loving, we’ve got to be more loving ourselves.

Now, it may seem that Jesus is expecting the impossible from us.

Martin Luther, the 16th century reformer, said that the Sermon on the Mount offered an impossible ideal, for we can never truly love our enemies or be perfect the way Jesus wants us to be perfect.

I/you/we will never follow all these teachings perfectly. We can try, but it just isn’t going to happen.

***** But we can meditate on these teachings every day. We can spend time in prayer, seeking God’s guidance on how we can more fully live out these teachings and grow in love, every day.

And every day, we can get closer to the kingdom of heaven.

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that Gandhi read the Sermon on the Mount every day? I get why. 

“Love your enemies” isn’t something to which you can say “Yeah, alright…” And it’s done.

Every day, we need to think about what it means, to love our enemies… how we can better love our enemies… how we can turn the other cheek… and speak words that are true… and and honor every person we meet as a human being, not as property, not as a tool, not as an obstacle… and grow in compassion and kindness and empathy… and truly understand what it is that makes for peace in our world.

At last week’s elders meeting, Heather shared a devotion based on Philippians 4:8, which says: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable… think about these things.” 

The CEB says “focus on these things.” The Message Bible says “meditate on these things.”

I don’t think they mean to just do it once, and check it off your list. I think they mean to think about these things, focus on these things, meditate on these things… every day.

Every day, ask God to show you how you can be more loving; how you can be more true; how you can be more kind… so that you may be drawn closer to the kingdom of heaven.

***** This week, from a book I’m reading, I learned about Etty Hillesum. Etty was a Jew in Europe during World War 2. As things gradually got worse and worse, she saw her freedoms disappear, her rights taken away, and eventually, she died in a concentration camp.

And yet, throughout it all, she never lost her faith in humanity, and she never gave in to hatred.

Before going to the concentration camp, she lived in an upper-floor apartment, and from her window she could see the German soldiers marching in the streets. In her journal, she wrote down what she saw, along with some prayers that she prayed. 

One of her prayers went like this: “God, do not let me dissipate my strength, not the least little bit of strength, on useless hatred against these soldiers. Let me save my strength for better things.”

She also wrote: The only way to truly fight war is “by releasing, each day, the love that is shackled inside us, and giving it a chance to live.”

It was right for her to pray for the strength to love, for only with God’s strength is such love possible. 

These times that we live in are challenging times. There’s no doubt about that. 

Now, more than ever, we need these teachings of Jesus, to guide us, to lead us to a better world. 

If Etty can do it, so can we. As long as we practice, daily, and pray, daily… and as long as we rely on God to help us do what seems impossible.

To speak what is true. To keep our anger in check. To turn the other cheek. To engage in the struggle for justice, while at the same time, loving our neighbors and our enemies.