Let's not talk about that

Abby has fallen into the routine of sleeping in the same room with her brothers. There was a short stint of unknown fear, which led to this arrangement. We will occasionally say, “Abby, when are you not going to sleep in the same room with your brothers?” Abby will reply, “Let’s not talk about that.” Out of a four-year-old comes such deep and adult like thinking; oh excuse me, a 4-and-a-half-year-old (if Abby heard me she would correct me).

Anger, lust, divorce, and oaths, as in our lesson for this week from Matthew 5, are just what any preacher wants to talk about. I am sure Pastor Z is thankful this is the text he gets to preach on while I am gone. No matter how much we trust or look up to a leader, nobody loves everything he or she says.  There are plenty of things that rub us the wrong way. In this case, with the leader being Jesus, and Jesus being perfect, it means that He is going to challenge us where we need to be challenged.

With the child-like faith of my youth, I questioned whether stepping on an ant was murder. As an adult, I often fly by such worries because I have so many more important things to worry about. Continuing with Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He brings us back to understand these laws the way they were intended. Murder is not just murder, but also includes anger that burns within someone. Lust is not just committing the act, but also just thinking about it. Divorce devastates a family no matter the sins that precede it. And finally, in our sinful world, one’s word is seen as not strong enough to trust, and so we think we have to add things to it to make it stronger.  Jesus says not so.

God, as our leader, is constantly shaping us. And while the cultural norms allow anger, lust, divorce, and oaths to thrive, Jesus calls us to truly understand what He wants for His people. He came to give grace to all people so that we can be what we spoke about last week—a unique spice to this earth & light to the world. Could we do this on our own? No way, no how.  That is why He gives us His grace as a gift.

Then comes the next step, the Holy Spirit working on us each of us, challenging us where we need to be challenged. For some of us He may challenge our anger. For others it may be the way we use our tongue. Perhaps it is our giving, or better said, our lack of giving. The Holy Spirit is restoring what was intended by the law, which somehow got interpreted softly along the way.

Challenges and changes we need to make are always hard to hear at first. But, each time I am reminded of an area I need to work on, I am also reminded of the grace of God. Jesus lived perfectly, and He gave me grace because He knew I could not do it without Him. My selfish ways want to pretend like I can do everything perfectly, but thanks be to Jesus I am not left in despair, because I do not do everything perfectly. The laws come from a God who brings hope to the hopeless (as we talked about just two weeks ago) and made us all unique to be the spice/salt of life (as we talked about last week). “God is Love” (1 John 4:8) is one of my favorite passages in Scripture. His grace restores us, and then He fine-tunes us to be His extraordinary servants. So often we face the tough challenge of seeing things differently than what the world may accept. But unlike the world, we have a peace and joy they cannot explain, and that is worth every challenge that comes our way.