The Whole World In Our Hands (Matthew 5:21-37)

Last month marked the 25th anniversary of my ordination. Holy cow! What an adventure this has been. So many things I did not expect or anticipate, so many changes to ministry and church and in the world…

25 years ago, the internet was a brand new thing. We were just learning how to use email, and to find websites on our big clunky computers using slow dial-up connections which seemed so fast and amazing to us then.

And none of us had these devices that we carry around in our pockets that not only make phone calls, but allow us to do so much more - including livestream our worship services so that people across town or across the continent can worship with us.

I was reminded of all this while reading an article by Yolanda Pierce in the January issue of Christian Century magazine. In that article, one sentence in particular caught my attention. Pierce wrote:

“Mere children now have cell phones with enough computational power to reach the ends of the earth.” 

In that statement, all she did was state the obvious, and yet, how remarkable it is when you think about it. These little devices that many of us now take for granted give us, almost literally, the entire world!

The knowledge that we can pull out of our pockets—to get that knowledge 25 years ago, most of us would go to the library, rummage through drawers of the card catalog, or flip through the dusty pages of heavy encyclopedia volumes. 

And maps—we had Thomas Guides and atlases… Yes, kids: we used maps printed on paper, like pirates! 

Now even restaurant menus are accessed via our phones, and even some churches are now using digital bulletins. The other day I had a wonderful meeting with Leslie Thomas, the pastor at North Long Beach Christian Church, and she told me that, starting today, they are using digital worship bulletins, which people pull up on their phones.

When I went to First Christian Church in Orange to see The Many in concert, I noticed that they are also using digital bulletins. You just use your phone to scan the QR code that is attached to the backs of all the pews, and voila! There’s your bulletin, on your phone.

I also saw this week an online video of an episcopal priest explaining to his congregation why they were no longer printing their bulletins on paper. The amount of money they’re going to save on paper and ink, he said, could fund another staff position, and it would save 40 trees per year (Must be a big church… or a really big bulletin). 

No more photocopies. It’s all on your phone. 

Yolanda Pierce wrote in her article that our hoped-for future didn’t give us the flying cars we were promised. Not yet, anyway. 

But it gave us these cell phones, which can do so much, and which far exceed what we could have imagined just not very long ago. We really do have the whole world in our hands.

How else are our cell phones a blessing to us? Many of you share prayer requests with me and with one another via text message. Sometimes you also send silly images, to help us laugh and make it through the day.

And we can get updates on our phones, like the ones I’ve been seeing this week from Week of Compassion, about the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, and how our church is responding. This month a portion of all money we receive here at BKCC goes to Week of Compassion, which means we are already helping those earthquake victims. And if you want to contribute to our offering and support the work of Week of Compassion, using your phone to access our paypal donation button is one way you can do that.

In these ways you practice the love and care that Christ calls us to. Our cell phones help us be a blessing to each other.

But as we know, there is a darker side to all this technology; a darker side to cell phones, and the way they allow us to access knowledge and communicate with one another.

Cell phones and technology are not always used for good.

It makes me think of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the book of Genesis, and the fruit of that tree, which God forbade Adam and Eve to eat. 

I’m not going to try to make sense of that story—at least, not right now. I don’t know why God didn’t want Adam and Eve to have access to all that knowledge. 

But I do know that having access to everything that a cell phone gives us access to is not always a good thing. Sometimes, the access a cell phone gives us can be incredibly good, but other times, it can be dangerous. Or deadly.

Through cell phones, people spread lies and misinformation, sharing those lies and misinformation on social media like Twitter. They spread lies about how vaccines cause autism, or how vaccines aren’t safe—that you are safer without a vaccine than you are with.

And people read those lies, and believe them - and end up dead from a disease that could have been prevented or, at least, made less severe. 

Using cell phones, people have access to the ideas of white supremacists and Christian nationalists and those who encourage and incite violence. Using cell phones, people can distribute pictures that are embarrassing—or they can blackmail people by threatening to do so, and engage in other forms of cyberbullying.

And some who are targets of this behavior have died by suicide as a result.

What power we have, that we carry around in our pockets - power to do great good, but also the power to do great evil; the power to bless, and the power to curse.

And because the use of our cell phones has the very real power to bring life or bring death, I see a strong connection to today’s scripture reading. Obviously the Bible says nothing about cell phones and modern technology, but if the Bible were written today, I think there would be something like this:

"You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that if you tweet a lie that leads to someone’s death, you will be liable to judgment; and if you seek knowledge that is destructive or is used to destroy, you will be liable to the council; and if you use your cell phone to tear someone down, you will be liable to the hell of fire.” 

And the more I think about it, the more I believe that this is a natural extension of today’s scripture, in which Jesus condemns not only death and murder, but all the things that lead to death, all the things that destroy or deny life or lead a person on a path toward death.

Your cell phone isn’t a weapon like a knife or a gun. If you throw your cell phone at someone, it might give them a little bump or bruise, but it’s not going to kill them. 

But, after reading today’s scripture, I’m pretty sure Jesus would say to us that we will be judged by how we use our cell phones, whether we use them for good or for evil, to nurture life or destroy life.

It also reminds me of a passage in the book of James, which says: “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.”

What it says in James about the tongue can also be said about a cell phone. “From the same cell phone come blessing and cursing. This ought not to be so.”

The power of cell phones to do both good and evil has been noted by Pope Francis, who said: "The world of communications can help us either to expand our knowledge or to lose our bearings." 

I don’t know what else the Pope has said about this, but it’s clear to me that we in the church need to say more.

As a teacher, I see high school and middle school students with their phones, and I think: they have no idea the power they have. Power to do good, and power to do evil. Power to nurture life, and power to destroy life.

They treat their phones and use their phones so carelessly, so thoughtlessly, as though having access to all this power, this knowledge, is no big deal! And they share messages and post things to social media, without understanding the moral implications of what they’re doing.

And I know it’s not just them. People of all ages do this.

And it all makes me think that we need some moral guidance. At the very least, we need a formal recognition of the power we have, and the impact it can have on our neighbors near and far. 

The church is far behind when it comes to helping people appreciate and respect this power, and the responsibility we all have to use this power for good, to show love to one another, to build each other up, to help make God’s kingdom of shalom real on earth, as it is in heaven.

So I started browsing the internet to see if anyone had developed a liturgy or blessing resource about cell phones.

There’s not much there. 

Mostly, if you do a google search on what the church says about cell phones, it’s mostly reminders to people to silence their phones during worship. OK, that’s good, but that’s not what I’m looking for.

I did find a blessing of sorts on the website of the Catholic archdiocese of New York; it was designed to be used at a New Year’s Day worship. And I found one other blessing (I forget what website that was on). 

I also learned that St. Barnabas Lutheran Church in Cary, Illinois recently had a Blessing of the Cell Phones—and that’s where the image comes from—but I couldn’t find the actual words or liturgy they used.

So, based on what little I found, and inspired by today’s scripture, I wrote my own blessing, and I’d like to lead us in that blessing now.

First, if you have a cell phone with you, please take it out. If you are using your cell phone to watch with us via livestream, you’re all set. 

And now, with these devices in front of us, let us join our hearts together and ask for God’s blessing upon them and guidance for their use…

Loving God, we hold in our hands incredible, miraculous devices. Tools for connection; tools by which we have access to so much information and knowledge.

Bless these devices we use each day. May we use them in ways that add to our own wholeness and wellbeing; ways that contribute to life. Help us be free from addictive use, and free from what distracts us from true communication.

Bless those with whom we communicate  and connect. Guide us as we reach out through texts, emails, posts, videos, and airdrops. Help us be channels of your peace, seeking to meet others where they are.

Let the fruits of your Spirit be present in every interaction we make. May all our time spent on our devices be characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Just as you have blessed us, O God, may we be a blessing to others, in every possible way, showing love to one another as you command.

Amen.

Salt and Light (Matthew 5:13-20)

 Nine years ago, the Boy Scouts of America decided that the Cooking Merit Badge should be one of those merit badges that every scout must earn in order to become an Eagle Scout.

Don’t you think it’s great that boys are learning to cook?

Anyone who cooks knows the importance of salt. Just about every recipe requires at least a little bit of salt - even sweet recipes like the banana bread and granola I often bake at home require salt. 

When you add a little bit of salt to a sweet treat, it reduces the bitterness and enhances the sweet and umami flavors. That’s part of the secret as to why boy scout popcorn tastes so good!

Jesus told his followers that they are the salt of the earth. This week I’ve done a little more reading and reflecting on salt, to try and understand a little more about what Jesus meant. I read a book by Amy-Jill Levine on the Sermon on the Mount, which today’s scripture is part of, and I consulted a few other articles and webpages… Here’s what I learned.

The first thing is that SALT IS GOOD. Salt is a blessing. As I said, it enhances flavor; without salt, the flavor just isn’t right. 

Jesus calls his followers the salt of the earth because he wants them to know that they are a blessing. YOU are a blessing. And just like a recipe without salt just isn’t right, a world without you just isn’t right. Without your gifts, your talents, and all the things that make you unique, the world just isn’t right. 

You enhance the world’s flavor.

For some of you, it may be weird to hear me talk about how good salt is, because you’ve been told that salt is bad, or your doctor has told you to eat less salt; but salt isn’t bad; too much salt is bad. You don’t need a lot of salt. Just a little pinch is enough.

In the same way, you are enough.

You may be just one person; one person in a world of eight billion people. Comparatively speaking, that’s less than a pinch.

But you know what? It’s enough. YOU are enough. You are just what the world needs, just as you are.

One year at Thanksgiving, someone brought a homemade pie to share. My brother-in-law was the first to take a bite, and when he did, his face contorted into a startled expression. He immediately jumped up and ran to the sink to spit it out, knocking over his chair in his haste.

The person who made the pie got things mixed up, and when the recipe said to add one cup of sugar, they added one cup of salt. You don’t need that much salt! You don’t need a million dollars or ten thousand followers on youtube or 100,000 followers on tiktok. What you are able to do for the world, just as you are, is enough. Just a pinch of salt is enough.

You know, Bixby Knolls Christian Church isn’t as big as it once was. We’ve gotten even smaller since the start of the pandemic. And troop 29 isn’t as big as it once was. A small church and a small troop do present some challenges, but that doesn’t mean they are no  longer blessings to the world. Remember: just a pinch of salt is enough.

One more thing about salt: In Jesus’ time, salt was valuable. Even though people only needed a little bit of salt, everyone needed salt, which made it a valuable commodity. Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt. In fact, the word salary comes from the Latin word for salt. 

That’s something else to remember when you hear Jesus say, “You are the salt of the earth.” You are worth something. You are not worthless. You are valuable.

Jesus also says to his followers: “You are the light of the world.” If salt is valuable, necessary, and a blessing, that’s even more true for light.

Light is necessary for plants to grow. Plants take in water and carbon dioxide and energy from sunlight to create glucose energy for the plant, and oxygen which humans and countless other life forms depend on.

But we don’t just depend on the oxygen; we depend on the plants themselves. Think of all we depend on plants for:

We depend on the food plants provide. Even the meat we eat comes from animals that eat plants. 

We depend on trees for wood, which most of our houses are made of. 

Animals, plants, and humans all depend on each other; and that entire system also depends on the light of the sun.

Sunlight can provide us with the energy we need. Solar power has become so much more technologically advanced, and economical. If it weren’t for all the subsidies our government gives to fossil fuel companies, solar power would be just as cheap, or cheaper, and it’s certainly better for the planet and better for humanity.

Maybe that’s why Jesus said “You are the light of the world,” instead of, “You are the oil of the world.” 

You are the light of the world, so let your light shine. Let it shine forth in all the colors of the spectrum. Let it reflect the image of God that is in you. Let it illuminate the world.

There is a verse from Psalm 119 that says: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” The light that shines has a purpose. It is to help you find your way along the path, along your life’s journey. And when you reflect that light into the world, it helps other people find their way along the path.

And I admit, there are some people - some Christians - who think it’s their job to shine their light right in the eyes of those around them. That’s not helpful. If you’re on a camping trip and you’ve got your flashlight, it never helps to shine it in the eyes of those around you. It’s not helpful, and it annoys and aggravates them.

But if you’re walking along, and you shine your light on the path, you’re helping another find their way. 

I know that some of my fellow Christians and some of my fellow pastors like to enter the public arena and shine their light in everyone else’s eyes. They’ll go into public spaces and declare, “THE BIBLE SAYS…”, and to me, that’s like blinding those around you with the light of your flashlight… it’s like a car coming toward you on a dark road with their high beams on. 

But if we act in love, with humility, showing kindness to one another as Jesus taught…I remember some years back, on Scout Sunday, I talked about how kindness is the most important point of the Scout Law. 

I didn’t used to think that; I used to think that kindness was maybe the least important point of the Scout Law. Who really thinks about being kind? Kindness isn’t going to save the world!

But once I took the time to ponder what kindness truly means, and what it means to show kindness to others, I realized that actually, yes, kindness can save the world.

Anyway… If we act in love, with humility, showing kindness to one another as Jesus taught,... that’s allowing the light within us to light the path, and is helpful when it comes to journeying through life.

And it doesn’t take much light. On a pitch black night, a single candle provides more than enough light to see by. The light of the stars, which does little to illuminate the earth, can guide voyagers across land and sea. 

On the other hand, if you walk out of a dark movie theater on a sunny day, you better have a pair of sunglasses, because otherwise that sun is too bright. 

So, again, don’t worry if your light doesn’t seem as bright as someone else’s. It’s more than bright enough. Your light is more than enough to help someone find their way. YOU are more than enough.

A candle in the night… a small pinch of salt. No act of kindness is too small. No act of love is too insignificant.

On other occasions, Jesus used other metaphors. A tiny mustard seed. A small amount of yeast…

We all want to be the biggest, we all want to be the brightest, and we all get discouraged or depressed when our light doesn’t seem to shine as brightly as the light of those around us.

It doesn’t matter. Your light is enough. 

And the gifts you have to share with the world - everything that makes you unique - is just what the world needs.

Stayed on Jesus (Matthew 5:21-37)

1. But I Say To You...

Some scriptures, we really, really like. Right? Many of you probably have scriptures that are your favorites. Maybe you even have them written in calligraphy, framed, and mounted on your wall.

I’m guessing it’s not one of these verses that we just heard from the gospel of Matthew.

But as I think about this passage, the more meaningful and profound it becomes for me.

Jesus says: “You have heard it said, even in ancient times: ‘You shall not murder.’”

Nearly every society, every civilization, looks down upon murder, and has laws against murder, and severe consequences for those who do commit murder.

Then Jesus says: “But I say to you: Don’t even be angry with a brother or sister. Don’t insult a brother or sister. Don’t call them a fool, or any other derogatory, demeaning name.

“Instead, seek reconciliation.”

This is why many churches have a passing of the peace as part of their worship service… Jesus says, “Don’t come to the altar, don’t come to worship, if you haven’t sought reconciliation with your brother or sister. First, go and make peace, and then come to the altar.”

And that sounds good. But what does that have to do with murder? Or adultery? Or divorce? Or “looking with lust?” 

Jesus knows that the worst things we do toward one another don’t just happen. They develop. They grow. They originate in tiny seeds of hate.

Like Yoda said, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” It all starts somewhere.

A person doesn’t just wake up and decide to murder someone. They do it because their fear, their anger, and their hate have been growing over time. Maybe some event or offense triggered these mental formations, and the person didn’t know how to handle them, didn’t know how to direct them toward something that might bring healing.

And every morning, they woke up with their mind stayed not on freedom, not on peace, not on love, but on their anger.

2. Anger

I’ve spoken before about what I’ve learned when it comes to caring for our anger. First, you stop fighting against your anger.

I know: that sounds contradictory, that you learn to control your anger by not fighting against it. 

But your anger is a part of you. Fighting against it is fighting against yourself. And fighting yourself is not a healthy way to manage things.

Instead, acknowledge your anger. Picture it like you would picture your infant child. Your child is crying. You wouldn’t yell at your child to stop crying, because you know

that yelling would only make the child more upset. 

What you would do is you would gently hold your child in your arms. You would speak gently and soothingly to your child. You would show love and care to your child, and you’d let your child know that everything will be alright.

It’s the same with your anger. Hold your anger gently. Speak soothingly to your anger. And tell yourself that everything is going to be alright.

Only then can you begin to work through your anger, and find a way to peace and healing.

In this way, you can work on developing more desired mental formations. In this way, you can focus your intentions in a positive way… which is what Jesus is talking about.

Because an act like murder begins in the mind and in the heart long before it is actually carried out. 

Our intentions matter. What goes on in our hearts and in our minds matters. 

3. Intentionality

Here’s an example for you: every week, I put a lot of planning into what goes on during worship. I put a lot of planning into what goes on in the sermon. There is a lot of intentionality behind it.

And there is a lot of intentionality behind what others do in worship. Every week, Barb puts a lot of intention into the music, and so does the praise team on the Sundays they play. And Gretchen puts a lot of intention into what she does, the power point, and the printed materials. 

And I know there is a lot of intentionality in Lillian’s wonderful Black History Presentation that she shared with us. 

But - for me - after worship is a whole different story.

For example, last Sunday, after worship I went home, and I sat down on my bed until I decided what I was going to do next. 

And I just sat there, leaning back on the pillows. I didn’t have a plan, so I just sat there.

Now, there are a lot of things I could have done after worship last Sunday. I could have worked in the yard. I could have gone on a bike ride. I could have read, I could have made myself lunch, I could have just taken a nap.

Any of those options would have been better than doing nothing.

But I hadn’t put it into my mind ahead of time what I was going to do. I hadn’t set my intentions. 

And what a waste of time those few hours after worship last week turned out to be.

Before you laugh too hard or judge me too harshly, let me turn things around. 

I know you know how important it is to be on time for worship. And I know you want to be on time for worship. But many of you have not set your intentions to be here on time on Sunday mornings. 

I once heard someone say that we need to set our intentions on Sunday worship before we go to bed on Saturday night… just start setting our mind on worship the night before.

One way to do that is to pick out the clothes we are going to wear the night before, and set them out. 

I often do that during the week. When I’m looking for a substitute teaching job, sometimes that job doesn’t appear until the same day it’s needed. A teacher wakes up sick, and needs a sub.

The night before, if I know I want to teach the next day, I’ll set out clothes to wear as if I already had a job. Everything will be ready. So then, while I’m eating breakfast, if a job opportunity comes up, I’m inclined to say yes.

However, if the night before I’ve made no such plans and have set no such intentions, and I’m eating breakfast in my sweatpants and the t-shirt I slept in, I’m much more likely to say no to any teaching opportunity that comes up.

Because I hadn’t set my intentions. I hadn’t prepared my mind to say yes to the opportunity.

Likewise, if my goal is to wake up and exercise, then I might set out my clothes for exercising the night before. 

And if I want to eat healthy, I need to set those intentions not when hunger arises, but when I make my shopping list. Because at home, if I’m hungry, and I go to the cupboard and all that’s there is junk food… guess what I’m going to eat?

4. Set Your Mind

How can you set your mind so that you will arrive on time for worship?

You know the reasons to be on time.

You know that it’s disrespectful to our musicians and our praise band to show up late. They work hard, they practice hard, they dedicate many hours of preparation...yet when worship starts at 10:15, there are only a handful of people present. 

You know that if you’re late, you miss out on the passing of the peace, which I’ve already talked about.

And you know that, as members of Bixby Knolls Christian Church, one aspect of ministry that we all share in is making our church a hospitable and welcoming place for visitors. But if no one is here to greet and welcome visitors when they arrive, then we have failed in that responsibility, and visitors quickly feel that they’ve made a mistake, choosing to worship here.

In fact, for that reason, it would be ideal if every member was here fifteen minutes early - by 10:00 - to help make any visitors we have feel welcome.

So ask yourself: how can I start getting my mind and my heart set for worship? 

You can start setting those intentions right now, for next week. And be sure to reinforce those intentions on Saturday night. 

Don’t wait until Sunday morning to focus your energy into being on time, because by then it will already be too late.

If you want to avoid murdering someone (I know, that’s quite a leap, but I’m getting back to the scripture), you need to nurture your mind and learn how to deal with your emotions long before passion and rage overtake you. You need to train your mind, and practice the ways of love, compassion, peace, and reconciliation.

If you want to live healthy, you need to set your intentions the night before you want to exercise, and set your intentions long before you open the cupboard to grab something to eat.

If you want to show up for worship on time, you need to start mentally shaping your Sunday morning before you go to bed on Saturday night.

This, I think, is the point of Jesus’ teachings in this passage from Matthew.

5. Prayer

Related to all this is the idea of mindful consumption. We know that the health of our bodies depends in large part on the food we eat. But it is also true that the health of our minds depends on the things our minds consume.

And just as chips and soda are junk food for the body, too much TV and social media and gaming are junk food for the mind. Especially if the TV and social media we watch are filled with gossip, hearsay, violence, or play into our fears and anxieties. Studies show that too much TV or too much social media use - too much screen time, really - leads to depression and anxiety.

One antidote to this, I think, is time spent in prayer.

Prayer helps us focus our minds. Prayer helps us train our minds. Prayer helps shape our thoughts. 

When I lead prayers here in worship, I do a lot of talking, but when I pray by myself, I mostly just listen. And maybe I offer whatever anxieties I’m feeling up to God, or whatever anger has built up within me, and I ask God to help shape my mind and my intentions toward something more positive.

This is not the only component that leads to a healthy mind, but for me, it is an important one.

And I’ve learned not to overcomplicate my prayers. As I said a few weeks ago, sometimes my prayers involve me seeking a word from God - just one word - and then focusing on that one word.

And it helps. 

It helps me bring my own way of thinking closer to the things I think God would like me to think about. And that thinking becomes intention, and those intentions become actions.

Perhaps all this is an oversimplification of what Jesus is saying in this passage from Matthew, this segment of his Sermon on the Mount. A lot more could be said. 

But I do think all this is a part of what he is saying here. Watch your mind. 

Set your intentions. 

Focus and meditate on what is good, what is loving, what is peaceful… 

and you will be well on your way to living the life God desires for you, that holy way of living, that life of the ages that is both now and forever.

Sermon: "What is Owed" (Matthew 5: 21-37)

In civilized society, when a person commits a crime, that person has wrongfully taken something from society. Property. Life. Something. And therefore that person owes a debt.

But who determines what is owed?

Through Moses, God gave a command that what is owed is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That was a limitation on what is owed. In other words, no more than an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Most modern societies today recognize that even this limitation is somewhat primitive. Barbaric, even. So instead, in our society, the criminal is ordered to serve time in jail or prison. The criminal’s debt to society is repaid by serving time. Once society feels the debt has been repaid - once the debt has been satisfied - then the criminal is set free.

Murder is a crime that involves violently taking the life of another person. It is the most extreme form of violence, the most extreme crime. How can that debt be repaid? Some say it can only be repaid if society takes the life of the person who committed the crime. The death penalty is the most extreme punishment for the most extreme crimes.

In today’s scripture passage, Jesus says that anyone who is angry, anyone who entertains violent thoughts toward another (whether or not those thoughts become actions), anyone who speaks any words of insult toward another, is just as guilty as the one who commits murder. And the debt owed to society by any person who does any of these things is the same as the debt owed to society by the one who commits murder.

Anyone who is angry with their brother or sister is in danger of judgment. Anyone who says to their brother or sister, “you idiot,” will be in danger of being condemned by the governing council. Anyone who says “you fool” will be in danger of the ultimate punishment.

So if you call someone a name, if you insult someone, if you even think, “oh, I wish that person would go jump off a cliff,” your thoughts and your words are just as bad as if you had gone out and killed the person; and the debt you owe to society is just as great.

These are difficult teachings...

Great religious teachings do seem extreme at times. In the Quran, it says that the one who kills a single innocent person is as guilty as if he had killed all of mankind, and that, for the one who saves a single innocent person, it is as if he had saved all of mankind.

Most of us have not killed anyone directly, and yet the government that acts in our name has certainly killed many, including many who were innocent. I don’t think we can completely consider ourselves innocent on this issue.

And certainly, we cannot consider ourselves innocent on the issues Jesus talks about. Even the best among us have had moments of frustration, with family members, with drivers on the freeway, when our thoughts and our words expressed our anger and our ill intentions. So our debt to society is - according to Jesus - the same as if we had actually committed murder.

That’s a big debt.

I’m reminded of a story I heard by someone - I forget who - who had been given the task of driving Martin Luther King, Jr. to a speaking engagement. As they were driving along the road, a car approached from the other direction with its high beams on. In frustration, the driver of King’s car flashed his high beams back at the oncoming driver. King then commented how he shouldn’t have done that, that flashing his high beams in anger at the oncoming driver was an act of violence, and all acts of violence were to be avoided by the one who wished to live with peace.

Flashing your high beams at someone, calling them an insulting name, just thinking malevolent thoughts toward them - all are acts of violence. All are as if you had actually carried out the most violent acts toward them. Your thinking toward them, whether you put those thoughts into action or not, is violent, and therefore you are guilty, and you owe a debt to society.

This is true even if the other person was at fault initially, like the oncoming driver with his high beams on. I suppose that means it’s also true if your least favorite politician comes on TV, and you respond by calling him names or wishing bad things to happen to him. It doesn’t matter how terrible a person he is or what debt he owes to society, if you say “you idiot,” “you fool,” if you ridicule him or wish for his demise, you become as guilty as him, and your debt to society is just as great.

That’s a difficult teaching! Impossible, really. We all are guilty, and we’ve all accumulated a lot of debt. How can we possibly repay it all?

Jesus goes on. He speaks about adultery. If you commit adultery, if you cheat on your spouse, you have done a terrible thing, and your debt is great.

But most adultery doesn’t begin with sex. Most adultery begins with a simple thought, a simple longing, and Jesus knows this. The path to infidelity is a long series of little baby steps. Most people don’t jump off the cliff into a sea of unfaithfulness. But as you’re walking down the path, taking those baby steps, where do you stop? Where do you draw the line? How far is too far?

Jesus says even that first baby step is too far. If you take that first baby step, it’s as bad as if you had just jumped off the cliff into the sea of unfaithfulness.

And what about divorce? Attitudes about divorce have changed many times over the centuries, but Jesus compares it to adultery, and says that divorce is either the result of adultery or the cause of adultery. Most of the people I know who have been divorced, they got divorced for good reasons, and everyone involved is probably better off because of it. Yet divorce is just another area in which we have failed to live up to perfection, another area in which we humans have fallen short of what is ideal.

And that, I think, is the whole point. We humans fail. We fail to live up to God’s expectations. We fail to live up to our own expectations. We have spoken insultingly, we have thought violently, we have taken baby steps in the wrong direction, we have broken vows and promises.

And therefore we all owe a debt.

What is that debt? What is it that we owe? What is it that is required of us, to make things right?

Jesus showed us. Jesus showed love. Jesus showed forgiveness. Jesus showed compassion.

Now, the story of Jesus is a long and fascinating story. Most of you know all about Jesus, but in case you don’t, the love Jesus had for people was greater than any love the world had ever seen. His love was too much for some people. His love, and his compassion, were RADICAL. His love and compassion led him to stand in solidarity with those who were denied love, denied opportunity, denied rights.

And it was his love that pays the debt.

We in the church often say that Jesus paid our debt by dying on the cross. But I think it’s more accurate to say that Jesus paid the debt by how he lived… by how he loved.

Some in the church say that God requires the death of a person as payment for sin. And I know, even scripture says that. But scripture says something else, too. Scripture talks about love covering over a multitude of sins [1 Peter 4:8]. Scripture talks about love being the one debt that is owed [Romans 13:8]. And if we were to read a little further in Matthew, where Jesus talks about all these sins, we’d read him commanding his followers to love, to let love be perfect as God’s love is perfect, loving even enemies, and forgetting about all that “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” stuff [Matthew 5: 38-48].

So it is love that pays the debt. God demands that we show love and compassion and forgiveness as payment for our sins. Love is the only thing that will satisfy the debt we owe to society and the debt we owe to God.

If violence and death are offensive to God, then it makes no sense to say that more violence and death are needed to pay the penalty for the violence and death we have caused.

Love is the pathway to life. Love is what is required.

Love leads to justice. Love leads to reconciliation. And what is justice and reconciliation? They are doing what needs to be done to put things right.

Jesus paid the ultimate price. I do believe that. But the ultimate price wasn’t dying. The ultimate price was living a life of perfect, complete love. Those who felt threatened by love killed him, yet love lived on.

As today’s scripture reading shows, living a life of perfect, complete love is not easy. Even though it is our calling, we cannot do it perfectly. Fortunately our God also loves us, and forgives us, and has compassion on us … and, through Jesus, God reconciles us to him. Through Jesus’s love, God makes things right again.

Love is the answer. So keep trying. Keep living in peace. Keep living in love. Keep striving for perfection. This is your calling.

Because it is love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Of all the spiritual gifts given to us by God, the greatest is love.