Three Strikes and You're In? Sermon 9/7/08

In the heavenly justice system, God’s people are affected by two separate but equally important concepts—the LAW which convicts the heart and causes despair, and the GOSPEL, which allows us to be judged not guilty. These are their stories.

LAW. No other word in the English language can evoke such fear, as well as such relief. Such feelings of guilt, and such feelings of justice. For instance, your neighbors go out of town and their teen-aged son takes the opportunity to throw a wild party. And there’s kids parking in your driveway, kids peeing on your wife’s rose garden, kids drinking who knows what—music blaring, loud voices, and mayhem in general. Now imagine the relief you feel when you see those flashing blue lights and hear that siren. The LAW is here, and everything will be right with the world soon enough.

But now, a different scenario. You’re at home all nestled in for the night, eating a Ding-Dong and watching America’s Got Talent, when suddenly there’s a pounding on your front door. Opening it, you come face to face with a big, burly state trooper. And is it just you, or does he look angry? You start thinking, “Did I ever pay those parking tickets?” Your heart rate hits the ceiling, the chicken pot pie you had for dinner does a flip flop in your stomach, and fear rises like bile in your throat. The LAW is here, and everything is frightening and uncertain.

It’s a two-edged sword, LAW is. The one edge protects us and keeps order. The other convicts us and demands restitution. We need LAW, we can’t survive without it. And yet we bristle at its restrictiveness, we dread it for the punishment we know we deserve, and we hate it for revealing that which we would rather keep secret. The LAW is our best friend and our worst enemy rolled up in one.

Of course there’s more to the LAW than police and criminals and victims. There’s more to the LAW than legislatures making laws, courts interpreting them, and governmental leaders upholding them. There’s more to the LAW than just that basic instinct for what’s right and what’s wrong—natural law, they call it. There’s more to the LAW—because the LAW is God’s LAW, and as such its implications for the world run far deeper than an episode of Cops, a filibuster in the Senate, or even the OJ trial, part two. Because, in reality, LAW comes to us as a gift—from God.

Yes, I know, I know—in the annals of gifts received, it would seem that the LAW is right up there with underwear on Christmas morning. In actuality, the LAW is the best present we’ve ever received, except for one (later for that). For it is through the LAW that God not only orders the world, but it is also how God set Israel apart from the world—holding them to a higher standard, and manifesting in them the shape and texture of the righteousness, peace, and justice he intended for all creation.

And so it was that LAW became a part of human existence. From the very first days of creation, during which there was only one law (don’t eat of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil), to natural law, to the reception of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, the LAW gradually became more focused, specific, and set in stone (esp. the 10 commandments!). LAW eventually grew to include the regulation of the good and bad of social interaction, and the protection from harm due to food borne disease and contagion. LAW also covered the ins and outs of religious practice, specifying the types and procedures for the ritual sacrifices that were a part of Israel’s piety.

One thing God discovered about his gift of LAW, though. And that was that right from the get go, people broke it. Adam and Eve gave into the temptation to be like God. The people of Israel at the foot of Mt. Sinai, gave into impatience and danced around a golden calf-god, thus breaking the newly minted first commandment, and causing Moses to break all ten at once!

Even comfortably ensconced in the land of milk and honey, God’s people developed a disturbing pattern of first carefully obeying the LAW and living in peace and prosperity, and then turning a blind eye to God’s care and reaping the bitter harvest of consequence. God would chastise them through the prophets, and sometimes they would repent and turn back from the darkness of sin to the light of God’s favor and forgiveness. But then hard times or temptation creep in and the people strayed from the LAW again.

Like in today’s first reading from Ezekiel. The LORD tells Ezekiel to warn Israel that their waywardness is about to earn them some dire consequences. Yet God’s intention is not to see them destroyed, but instead to love them. God longs for them to turn back to him and return to a peaceful relationship with him. But they consistently make the wrong choice. And they know it, for the repercussions are swift and unpleasant. Many parts of the book of Lamentations and a good number of the Psalms speak in the agonized tones of an Israel suffering from displacement and persecution as a result of their sin.

The question for the people became, “What can we do in order to insure that the LAW is kept?” Over time the answer became apparent—add a man-made layer of “law” to God’s LAW. A layer devised to assiduously prevent transgression by making it impossible to occur. These are the “works of the law” that Paul wrote of constantly and pejoratively.

Eventually, this overlay of law became more important to the people than did the LAW itself. In their zeal to keep it, the people actually succeeded in totally circumventing the purpose of LAW, which was to keep order, to help God’s people interact with God and each other, and to care for those who needed it. They turned its focus from the community’s need to live peaceably together, to the individual’s desire to gain God’s favor. God was not pleased.

Oy, such a mess! What to do? What to do? If works of the law are another form of breaking LAW, and we as humans can’t help but break the LAW—then there’s only one thing to do. Throw yourself on the mercy of the court. That mercy being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Thanks be to God for the GOSPEL, the other part of the salvation equation.

GOSPEL means literally “good news.” And what is God’s good news? That through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, God has counteracted the power of the LAW to condemn, with the offer of forgiveness and a renewed relationship with God based not on your merit, but on Christ’s. Simply put GOSPEL is the sweet word of total forgiveness, totally free! In this respect, GOSPEL is equivalent to another “G” word—Grace. The good news is that God is gracious, and God’s grace comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ. The LAW convicts us, but Jesus exchanges that condemnation with his righteousness—making us holy and pure before God.

Again, this is done for us not because we earned it by works of the LAW, and not because we keep the LAW—for that is not possible (let me repeat – that is not possible)—instead we receive God’s grace by faith in Jesus. Grace is unearned, undeserved, and unpaid-for. One thing it is. It’s irrevocable. GOSPEL is forever—despite what we do or say. From God’s point of view, you are his—even if you don’t believe it or accept it. The GOSPEL is relational, not contractual. Just as I am Erik’s father and he is my son—and nothing can ever change that—so too are we God’s children, and always will be. There’s no “cutting someone out of the will,” we all receive the inheritance.

This changes everything! No longer are the people of God distracted by fear of the LAW and its condemnation. They can rest assured that nothing can ever separate them from God’s love in Jesus Christ. Not even death. And if you’re not worried about scrabbling over everyone else to strut your stuff and get in good with the big guy, then you are free. Free to see others in something other than a competitive light. Free to think of them as neighbors. Free to love them as you love yourself. You are free to interact with them the way God intended. Justly, compassionately, equitably, humbly.

Take, for instance, the reading from Matthew. Usually if someone sinned against you, you might take one of two options. Either cause him or her physical harm, or sic the LAW on him. But as reconciled sinners ourselves—we who are not under LAW, but are free in the GOSPEL, we go with a third, new course of action. We talk to the transgressor. Individually. Give them a chance to explain or repent. Give the relationship a chance to become whole again.

And it doesn’t stop there. If one on one doesn’t settle your differences—if you genuinely listen, but aren’t listened to, Jesus says then take two or three other people with you and try again. No go? Let the church intervene as mediator. And if the person refuses to listen even to the church, says Jesus, then let him be as a tax collector and Gentile to you.

Which seems to go against the new way of living together. But I seriously think that Jesus was saying this with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Because, how did he treat the Syro-Phoneician woman who came to him for a cure? He healed her daughter. What did he say to the tax collector called Levi? “Get away from me you blood-sucking son of a gun!” No he said, “Follow me!” Jesus offered the kingdom to Gentiles. Jesus ate and associated with tax collectors. “Let them be as Gentiles and tax collectors to you?” You can just imagine Jesus saying that with a wink. And Matthew chuckling in the background. It’s not like our justice system. It’s three strikes and you’re in!

LAW and GOSPEL. In the Lutheran Church they go together like horse and carriage, or perhaps beer and pretzels is more relatable for Lutherans! The LAW convicts and the GOSPEL forgives. But don’t think that the GOSPEL negates the LAW. Jesus did not come to abolish the LAW, not to change it, he came to fulfill it. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that “loving one another” as Jesus first loved us fulfills the LAW as well. And remember, grace frees us to care for others. So LAW is not put aside by the GOSPEL, it transforms it. It becomes the “new obedience,” as Luther called it. We try to keep the commandments in thanksgiving to God, instead of trying to win God’s love. And we no longer use the LAW as a bludgeon to attack people or groups. Instead we hold it up together before our eyes like a mirror, and trust in Jesus to make whole what is broken.

LAW and GOSPEL together form the basis for the kingdom of God. That’s why us Lutherans give it such close attention. For us individually it is the mechanism of salvation. And for us corporately, it is a new and better way to relate to each other. LAW AND GOSPEL. (cha-dah!)