"Called to Integrity" - February 16, 2020

Matthew 5:21-37

            I’m about to stand here for roughly twenty minutes and talk about talking too much.  Or maybe it will be about talking the wrong way. 

            Speech must have been an important topic of moral education in the household of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth.  The oldest child in the house, Jesus, had a lot to teach people about speech later on, but so did his younger brother, James.  James said things like,

“How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire.  The tongue is placed among our member as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and it itself set on fire by hell.  For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  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.” [James 3:5b-10]

And he’s very right about that.  Anyone who has ever lost their temper, or who has ever even innocently managed to say the wrong thing or the right thing in the wrong way, or who has said something the right way but at the wrong time – in other words, pretty much all of us – knows the power of language.

            My friends and I kid around a lot, and make jokes at each other’s expense.  But we know what topics may be off-limits for certain people.  Do not mention this person’s brother.  Do not mention that one’s hairline.  The name “Melissa” should not be used.  And for the sake of peace and decency, do not bring up Bernie Sanders around a certain person.  If you don’t know the person you are talking to very well at all, be extra careful.  Start with the weather. 

            Jesus was more direct than James.  His language was plainer.  He taught that what we say may govern what we do.  Our words and our actions are on one long continuum.  Calling someone a name may lead to viewing them in a certain way.  Viewing them in a certain way may lead to treating them in a certain way.

            This past week, the World Health Organization announced a name for the coronavirus that the world is facing.  Historically, we’ve referred to diseases by associating them with the places they’ve come to prominence (which isn’t always their true place of origin).  In 1918 we were hit by Spanish Influenza and fifty years later by the Hong Kong Flu.  People had begun to call this one the Wu-han Virus, but they’ve gone with “Covid 19” out of a well-founded concern that after this outbreak is over it will take a long time to break the association of Wu-han with illness.  The earlier you can cut that off, the better.

            Jesus understood that and taught his disciples that one way to go to the root of some major sins is to avoid smaller ones.  It’s like when you are preparing the soil for a garden in the spring and you see a grub or two as you dig.  You toss them aside and smoosh them so that they don’t grow up to damage the plants in the summer.  So Jesus says,

“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 are angry with a brother or sister you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.” [Matthew 5:21-22]

I wish he hadn’t said that. 

There is a kind of righteous anger, to be sure, but it gets so mixed up with the regular kind that I cannot entirely separate them – certainly not in a moment of personal hurt.  So I want to allow myself some space for that to exist, walled off (I think) safely.  I want to be able to excuse myself or to justify myself for some thoroughly ugly impulses by saying, “Well, at least I didn’t act out.”  I may have had words with that so-and-so, but at least I didn’t punch him.  I may have felt road rage, but I held my foot steady on the accelerator.  I may have said, “Drop dead!” but I never tried to make it happen.  And while restraint is good, the resentment can live on.

Sooner or later, we all know, resentment and bitterness and all that goes with them, can gnaw at someone from the inside and do a lot of damage.  Billy Joel describes the process:

“Give a moment or two to the angry young man
With his foot in his mouth and his heart in his hand
He's been stabbed in the back, he's been misunderstood
It's a comfort to know his intentions are good
He sits in a room with a lock on the door
with his maps and his medals laid out of the floor
And he likes to be known as the angry young man.”

 

The end of the song says, “He’ll go to his grave as an angry old man.”

            Jesus’ way is one that isn’t just saying, “Be good!” because it produces peace and quiet.  It’s a way that points us away from the harm our words, no less than our actions, bring on others but also bring on ourselves.  His way is often the opposite of the one that I would naturally, sometimes even reasonably, choose.  But it arises because he not only asks more of us, he sees more good in us.  He wants more from us because he wants more for us.  He puts the question to you and me, “You’re better than that, aren’t you?”

           

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” [Matthew 5:43-45a]

And what is God like?  Try this:

           

“He makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” [Matthew 5:45b]

Our way to echo that is not only to watch out not to use our speech for harm, but to use it for good.

“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” [Matthew 5:46-47]

The goal is not to lower the standards to meet our desires.  The goal is for us to reach toward what God shows us when he loves us completely.

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” [Matthew 5:48]

            “Integrity” is a state where things fit together.  In any mechanical system, where the parts are integrated, the system runs smoothly and does just what it is made to do.  The same is true for people.  Where words and actions match and where the guiding purpose of their Creator oversees them, there is a harmony and wholeness that is unmistakeable.  To be perfect doesn’t mean that we never get knocked out of alignment or never need to be set straight.  It means, in part, letting God do that for us, because we know when we go wrong, and we know what he wants is for our good and the good of all that has been made.

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” [Matthew 7:7]