Rules: You can't live with 'em, you can't live without 'em!

I remember when I was in college doing my Junior year abroad in the United Kingdom a gazillion years ago. I took the train from Oxford to London, just to be a tourist, when I ran across this tough band of punkers. Actually, they ran into me! They shoved me, and others, aside rudely. They wore leather, had wild, outlandish hair and many piercings. They were playing loud, blasting music from a boom box (remember those?). Their actions were saying to the world that they would do what they wanted when they wanted wherever they wanted. So, they pushed us aside and walked loudly and confidently down the street--- until they got to the curb, when the crossing light was red. There they stopped. Waited patiently until the light turned. Looked right. Looked left. Then proceeded once again on their loud and independent way.

That’s the thing about rules. You can’t live with ‘em; and you can’t live without ‘em!

Jesus teaches us that in today’s Gospel, but it is hard for us to understand.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said (in last week’s Gospel) that he was not here to overturn the Law of Moses and the Prophets of the Hebrew Bible, but to fulfill them. He said that unless our righteousness exceeds that of either the scribes or the Pharisees, then we’d never be able to get into heaven.

Well, right there in that statement, we hear the tension. He says that we must be more righteous that the scribes or the Pharisees. Well, which is it? The Scribes knew the content of the Law of Moses like the back of their hand. When you ask “what is written in the Law?” who better to ask than the guys who write it down? That’s what the Scribes did. Or should we be like the Pharisees, who were the Episcopalians (or at least the main-line Protestants) of their day, and who were interested in making Judaism relevant and accessible in a world that needed a temple less and less because Jews more and more lived all over the Roman Empire.

So today we hear Rabbi Jesus say “You have heard it said…” and then follows it with “…but I tell you….”

You’ve heard it said “don’t murder” but I say to you “don’t hate because that is killing a person with your heart.”

Jesus says that everyone says “don’t commit adultery” but he says instead “don’t lust because that is wanting to possess a person in your heart.”

And Jesus says that the conventional wisdom is to “never swear falsely” but he says instead “never swear at all, simply let your truth be your truth and live with integrity instead of hitting people on the head with your stack of Bibles.”

Is Jesus turning the Law of Moses upside down? Didn’t he just say he’d never change anything? But Jesus is not overturning the law, he is intensifying it. He is zeroing in on the heart of what it means to live a faithful life.

Bishop Andy Doyle of Texas talks about following the way of Jesus:

The higher way of following Jesus is to acknowledge this death and to seek reconciliation. Both illustrations make clear that not only is anger a destructive force in the life of Christian community but that it is an unacceptable manner of leadership. One cannot offer gifts and talents at God's altar unless one is reconciled with one’s enemies.

Somehow in our culture we have decided it is okay to be angry and to treat others (service providers and enemies) with scorn, discontent, and hostility. Jesus teaches us that we destroy the creatures of God and one another when we do this. Yes, we live in a country where we honor a person's right to free speech. That does not mean that such manners of speech build up our country or the communities in which we live.

It all goes back to our love hate relationship with rules. You can’t live with ‘em and you can’t live without ‘em.

Rules are important. We all agree in this country that we should drive on the right. We are to stop at red lights. And we don’t eat our peas with a knife.  But red-light rules don’t tell you where to drive. They might regulate how you drive. You might get a ticket if you break the rules, but they can’t make you a competent driver, let alone a happy one. That requires using your head and opening your heart.

Aidan’s parents will be setting a lot of rules and they will watch out where he walks, what he’ll eat, and from time to time tell him to use his indoor voice, but all along the way these rules and the guidance that goes with them will both help him grow as a person and deepen your life together in your household.

Which is why Jesus does not eliminate the law in his teaching but intensifies the meaning of the law. He reminds us that murder is important and certainly contrary to God’s will for us but it is hate that really eats up the soul. Jesus focuses us on what the Law means when he says that adultery is bad, but the heart of human dignity is found when we see people as more than possessions or as objects of desire. And he reminds us that character is important, so speak the truth but not out of compulsion but instead as coming from our natural selves.

In 1967, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his last book “Where Do We Go From Here?” In it he writes:

Through violence you may murder a murderer but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.

King echoes in Jesus on this point. We are free people who have the capacity for love, creativity and insight. We need rules to help build a framework so that we can be the persons God made us to be. But rules work best when they guide our hearts and orient our hearts towards God.

Remember, though, following the rules is not the same as faithfulness because rule-following comes from outside while faithfulness comes from a heart and mind oriented towards God. A heart oriented towards God doesn’t just do what it wants, and it doesn’t just react. A heart oriented towards God tunes our eyes, our emotions, our ethics, and our relationships to make God’s love real and apparent in all we do and in all our relationships.

And so I say again: Rules. You can’t live with ‘em. You can’t live without ‘em. The heart of the law is neither a slavish adherence to rules nor utter freedom to do whatever we please, but is, instead, an orientation towards God that shapes us and guides us. And in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we have the basis for a rule of life that practically and realistically tilts our heart, our mind, and our ethics towards God every day.

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Bulletin for Worship for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany February 12, 2023 at St. John's, Clearwater, Florida.

Scripture Lessons for the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, February 12, 2023.

Here is a video of the Sermon at St. John's Clearwater, Florida on February 12, 2023.

Here is a video of the Liturgy at St. John's, Clearwater, Florida on February 12, 2023.