Epiphany 6: God of Love and Law

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be always
acceptable in your sight oh Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

The church makes many claims about God –
about who God is and what God does and what God is like.
One of the biggest claims of all:
One that is at the very core of the rest of our claims:
Is that God is love.

We talk about it all the time.
We sing songs about the God of love:
We pray to the God of love:
We offer the gift of ourselves to the God of love:
We follow the God of love:
We love, because he first loved us.

And then this morning:
Which happens to be the Sunday before Valentines day,
We hear these lessons that are largely about law.

We may be taken a back,
As the God of love sounds a bit harsh today when he says phrases like:
“If you call your brother or sister a fool, and insult her,
You will be liable to the hell of fire.”
And, “If your right hand causes you to sin:

Cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go
into hell.”

It’s not the most good-feeling-reading in the Bible.
And there isn’t a way to get around it.
These are words from the God who is love.

We can’t throw these words out,
And since we can’t get around it:
We need to go through it:
To get to the very heart of it:
To get a glimpse of the heart of the God who is love.

And this gospel reading says a lot about what we would hear:
If we would listen to our hearts:
And If we would listen to the heart of God.

We hear the sounds, and feel the beating of the heart all of the time.
We’ve felt, even heard the sounds of our own hearts beating in excitement.
Some of us have heard the beating of an unborn baby’s heart.
Touching a loved one, we might feel their heart beating.

While the heart is a vital physical organ:
The word “heart” is also used to describe the core of our selves.

We talk about the human heart as the seat of loving,
Of compassion, tenderness, and courage.
We can see it in our language, when we say, “take heart.”
Or in speaking of a change of heart,
we mean that there has been a shift of perspective.

The Heart is also the seat of memory.
To know something by heart is to know it perfectly.
The heart is the center of yearning and desire:
To seek with your WHOLE heart:
Is to pursue diligently,
To strive for something with all of the perseverance you can muster.

And so what does all of Jesus’ talk about the law have to do with our hearts, and
the heart of the God of love?

The answer is in the fact that our hearts are not perfect.
While our hearts are the center of love,
Our hearts also harbor fear, hatred, judgment, and selfishness.

And yet:
The God who is love, loves us anyway.
And offers opportunity to mend our hearts: striving for a heart more like God’s
own.

In today’s Gospel story, Jesus is sitting with his disciples:
Teaching them what it means to follow him.
It’s a continuation of the famous sermon on the mount:
Which we’ve heard pieces of the last few weeks.

Last week, in particular, Jesus said that he came not to abolish the law, but to
fulfill it:
And that righteousness must be greater than the scribes and Pharisees in order to
reach the kingdom of heaven.
What we hear today, are the illustrations and implications of those statements.

Today, Jesus talks about some of the big commandments:
You shall not kill,
You shall not commit adultery,
You shall not swear falsely…

And the disciples might say:
Yes. We’ve heard this all before.
We know that’s what God wants for us.

But then Jesus goes on to breathe new life into these commandments,
By explaining what they mean in their fullness:
By getting to the heart of the matter.

He explains what these commandments mean if we are to love as God loves:
Because law tells us what is in Gods heart.
The law exposes God’s fondest desires of how we would live with one another.
And the law also shows us the difference between our hearts and God’s heart.

The God of love:
Wants more for us:
Has higher expectations for us:
Because of that love.

Jesus came not to abolish the law:
But to make it even tougher:
Not as a punishment:
But because God listens to our hearts:
And knows just what our imperfect hearts need.

God listens to our hearts,
and knows that even if we can keep the commandment not to kill one another:
We still hate and despise others.
We are willing to kill relationships with others:
To treat people as if they are dead to us.

And so God fulfills the law:
Makes it stronger:

All for love’s sake.
So that our hearts might become more like Gods.

God listens to our hearts,
and knows that even if we can keep the commandment not to commit adultery:
We can still let lust overtake us,
And allow it to disrespect others by treating them, or seeing them as less than
fully human.

And so, God fulfills the law:
Makes it stronger:
all for love’s sake.
So that our hearts might become more like Gods.

God listens to our hearts,
And knows that even if we can keep from swearing falsely:
We are still willing to manipulate others with our words:
To lead others astray by what we say:
To let our words be meaningless, rather than letting our yes mean yes, and our no
mean no.

And so, God fulfills the law:
Makes it stronger:
All for loves sake.
So that our hearts might become more like Gods.

Our hearts:
Though we are made in the image of God:
Do not keep time with the beating of God’s heart.
Our hearts fall short.

And so:
In God’s great mercy:
The God who is love gives us law--
Not as a punishment:
But so that we might be better.

So take heart.
Do not be afraid:
Because our God IS love.
The heart of God knows our hearts:
However imperfect they might be:
And God continues to give us the opportunity to perfect our hearts through the
law of love.

Amen.