Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
August 30, 2009

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Yesterday, as we were waiting for the parade to start, Kim asked me what today’s sermon was about. She sometimes asks me about the sermon when she’s going to be doing the children’s time in hopes that she can somehow tie what she shares with the kids to what I’m going to share with you. Usually, I just tell her, and that’s all there is to it. Yesterday, however, her question actually changed what I’m going to preach on. Or not so much changed the subject as changed the way I’m approaching the subject. You see, the thesis of this sermon is that Christian morality is not about rigid rules of what is right and what is wrong, about what is permissible and what is impermissible. Rather, Christian morality is a matter of responsibility in freedom, a matter of responding in freedom to God’s love in ways that are loving under the particular circumstances in which we must act. Yet as I was trying to explain that thesis to Kim yesterday in the context of what she would say to the children this morning I had an insight about my thesis that I hadn’t had before. As I talked to Kim it dawned on me that my thesis may not be the right thing to say to young children. I occurred to me that young children need clarity and certainty in what they are told about right and wrong. They need to know what the rules are, what they can do and what they can’t do, what’s right and what’s wrong. They aren’t mature enough yet to enter into the kind of freedom I’m talking about. They need to learn the rules so that they will have a solid basis on which to make their own decisions as they grow into mature adults. It dawned on me that the kind of Christian freedom that I want to talk about is something we have to grow into. It is something that comes with maturity.

And that thought gave me an insight into what’s going on with our two scripture readings this morning. The first of those readings is from Deuteronomy. It dates from the early sixth century BCE, which makes it really ancient. In that reading Moses says to the people of Israel: “Give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe….You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.” The commandments to which Moses is referring are the Jewish law, the law that appears mostly in the book of Leviticus and that is restated and somewhat revised in Deuteronomy. It covers a wide range of topics, from sexual ethics to the proper way to sacrifice animals to God to what it is permissible to eat. Deuteronomy’s Moses tells the people that they must obey each and every one of these laws strictly, rigidly even. He says that they contain everything the people need by way of laws, for he prohibits not only deleting any of the laws but also adding anything to them.

Now, please understand that what I am about to say is not a criticism of contemporary Judaism. Contemporary Judaism, in at least some of its forms, practices a mature morality not significantly different from mature Christian morality. Still, the approach to morality that we see in our passage from Deuteronomy is, I believe, an approach that is appropriate for people who are spiritually immature. It is a childish approach to morality. A childish approach is of course necessary and appropriate for children. But what we have here in Deuteronomy is a rigid, legalistic approach to morality that comes from a very early period in the history of human moral development. It is an approach that is appropriate for people who have not reached a degree of spiritual maturity. That’s the insight I had about this passage when I was answering Kim’s question yesterday about today’s sermon.

Now take a look at our passage from Mark. In that passage some Pharisees and scribes, that is, the leaders of the Jewish religious establishment of Jesus’ time, object to the way in which Jesus’ disciples don’t follow all of the Torah laws regarding washing before eating. The Jewish leaders are critical of Jesus’ followers because they are taking something away from the law, which is precisely what Moses prohibits in our reading from Deuteronomy.

In response Jesus teaches an entirely different approach to morality than the legalistic one we see in Deuteronomy. He begins by calling the laws that the Jewish leaders insisted came from God “human tradition.” Then he stands the traditional way of seeing the law completely on its head. He says: “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” And he adds that it is from within the human heart that evil things come, not from outside a person. And it is the evil things that come from the heart that defile a person.

It may not be apparent how radical Jesus’ statement here is. The Jewish leaders of Jesus’ time taught that it was precisely external things that defile a person—ingesting unclean food or coming in contact with unclean substances or unclean people. And Jesus will have none of it. He makes morality an internal, not an external matter. What is evil is evil intention. That is, whether something is evil or not is a matter in the internal state of the person doing or saying the thing. Jesus here gives us a very different way of thinking about right and wrong.

Jesus’ way of thinking about right and wrong is the way of spiritually mature people, and it is the way of Christian freedom. It removes the external directions and constraints. It eliminates the absolute rules and the inflexible laws. It directs our attention not outward to external things but inward to internal things. It says don’t look to something that others tell you. Don’t look to things that the world imposes on you. Look to your heart. You know what’s right and what’s wrong. Your heart knows. It will tell you. It knows that the things Jesus lists are wrong: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. You don’t need rules to tell you that these things are evil. You don’t avoid them because something external tells you to. You avoid them because your heart knows they are wrong. You don’t avoid them because you are a slave to rules and laws. You avoid them because you are a free mature person in Christ, and you know they are evil.

Jesus sets us free from the law. That’s the essence of Christian freedom. That’s the essence of Christian morality. Christ gives us the freedom to make moral choices, relying on our hearts. And he tells us what must inform our choices. He gives us the commandment to love God, neighbor, and self. That’s all the direction we get, and it’s all the direction we need. Christian freedom is the freedom to say that sometimes what the law teaches contradicts the law of love. It is the freedom to reject the law and live the ethic of love.

In Christ we have freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility. Christian freedom is not license to do whatever we want. With our freedom to live the command of love comes the responsibility to live the command of love. With our freedom to follow our hearts comes the responsibility not to do what our hearts know is wrong. With the freedom to choose comes the responsibility to choose well.

Sometimes it’s easier to fall back on the law, to look only to something outside ourselves and conform our behavior to it, not because we’ve thought the matter through and made a moral decision but just because it’s the law. Sometimes that’s easier. But in Christ we are no longer spiritual children. In Jesus Christ a new level of moral and spiritual maturity came into the world. Jesus calls us to that new level of moral maturity. He calls us to hold the law up to a higher standard, the standard of love, and to make our own decisions. Many centuries ago St. Augustine summed up the freedom of the Christian by saying “Love, and do what you will.” That way of putting it can sound like license, but it isn’t. It isn’t because if you truly love you will not will anything evil, anything that is harmful to God’s world, to God’s people, or even to yourself.

Some laws are necessary for humans to live together in society. I’m not advising you to go out and violate the traffic laws because you don’t think they have anything to do with love. Some laws are necessary, but when it comes to issues of right and wrong, to the most fundamental moral issues of our lives, we are free. We are free because we are “in Christ,” to use Paul’s famous phrase. In Christ we are free. We have the freedom, and the responsibility to live in love. It’s a great blessing and a great challenge. In Christ, we can do it. Thanks be to God. Amen.