Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, I get a little jealous of my preaching forebears who had at least an hour, sometimes two to explicate the Gospel. On the other hand, if they hadn’t had so much time, perhaps less damage would have been done when it comes to teaching anti-Jewish interpretive bias in passages like this one from Matthew. Through that defective, distorting interpretive lens, this section of the Sermon on the Mount gets taught as “old way = Judaism, new way = Christianity.” This passage gets taught like that, even though it follows immediately after Jesus says that he has not come to abolish the law or the prophets – not one jot or tiddle. His work, says the Gospel of Matthew, is all about fulfillment.

So let’s not hear these teachings as antithetical to faithful Judaism at all. The very method of teaching that Jesus is using here is a rabbinic one: “You have read [this]….but the meaning is [this].” The whole rabbinical point is to get at the deeper meaning of the teaching. The meaning that Jesus is making is to remind his hearers about the underlying value of the ancient teachings. That underlying value of all of the law and the prophets is whole-hearted Love. The rabbis taught in the Talmud, “It matters not whether you do much or little, so long as your heart is directed to the Holy One.” (1) Or, also in the Talmud, “Better is a sin which is done with the right intention than a commandment (a mitzvah) which is not done with the right intention.” (2) The teachings are clear that the Torah is grounded in the love of God and enacted with loving-kindness (in Hebrew, chesed). (3)

So instead of imagining that Jesus is leaving the Torah in the dust, or even somehow improving on the Torah, I want to re-assert that the Torah is the interpretive key. Today the wisdom of the lectionary designers is to select the end of all of Moses’ teaching for our Hebrew Bible reading. The Word, Moses says, is very near to you; it is at hand. It is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe. “You know God by heart,” Moses says in verse 14. And then in verse 15 he says, “See, today, right in front of your face, I have shown the way to well-being and a fulfilling life and the way to badness and death.” (This is my translation, by the way.) Moses says, “I am charging you (in Hebrew, mitzvahcha) to love the Holy Name, your god, to walk in God’s ways, to keep God’s code of wisdom (mitzvotav)” (I want you all to hear the repetitive emphasis on mitzvah.) “Keep the Holy One’s code of wisdom, the one carved in stone, and the Holy One’s justice (which is compassion), and live! Be fruitful and multiply! And the Holy One will bless you in the land you are going to possess.” (4)

 “You can choose,” Moses is saying, “you can choose between life and death. Choose life for yourselves and for the people around you and the people who will come after you. The word life (cha’im) is in these six verses five times! Life here is all about loving God, listening for God’s voice, and staying close within God, because that’s where blessing is. It’s not a once- for-all-time kind of choice; it’s choosing over and over again. And it’s you the community of God-strugglers (which is what Israel means) whom Moses is addressing.

And it’s you the community of God-strugglers whom Jesus is addressing. (We are Israel too as Rabbi Berman told us several weeks ago.) Remember in this setting, Jesus is speaking to his disciples loudly enough so that the crowds will hear. He’s just told you that you are blessed nine times. He’s just told you that you are the salt of the earth. In God’s realm you are valuable currency, God’s salary, God’s healing medicine, God’s preservative, and God’s zest! (Bishop Grew preached about the value of salt last week) Jesus has just told you that you are the light of the world; you are to get out there and shine! Here’s how to shine, Jesus is saying. Here’s how to really live! It’s not just about following the letter of the laws and feeling smug and justified. You might look shiny on the outside, but inside, not so much. It’s about your shining spirit too – your life force (in Hebrew, your nefesh). Yes, when we are choosing life we are not committing murder. Nor are we annihilating others with our righteous anger. Nor are we committing character assassination, treating another as if she or he is irrelevant to God, somehow less precious than we are. You know, I don’t think that Jesus is teaching people to never get angry. There’s a huge difference between using anger to destroy someone and using anger as fuel to change whatever is not right or unjust or devoid of compassion.

So, Jesus is saying, not only are we refraining from destroying other people, when we are choosing life, we are remembering people who have something against us and seeking them out to ask forgiveness (and risking the pain of knowing that they won’t give it). As you approach this altar today, offering the gift of yourself, with whom do you need to be reconciled? Don’t make a long overwhelming list. I encourage you to think of just one person at a time – think of the first one who comes to mind. Who has something against you? Did you know that Judaism teaches that one must sincerely ask for forgiveness three times before one is released from the obligation? Once you have sincerely asked for forgiveness on three separate occasions, the obligation has been transferred. You are free to leave the prison of your remorse.

When we are choosing life, we are remembering that adultery or infidelity is more than taboo physical contact. There are all kinds of ways to be unfaithful to the vows we have made. We all know that. And there are honorable ways to be released from vows, even life-vows, which are no longer life-giving. (We don’t all know that, but I’m here to tell you, there are honorable ways to be released from vows that have become death-dealing.) Jesus is teaching here that the deeper meaning of this commandment to not commit adultery has to do with living with integrity versus dis-integrity or disintegration. Here I take his words to mean personal integrity and communal integrity versus personal disintegration and communal disintegration. This is so important, Jesus says, that the loss of offending body parts is more desirable than the loss of integrity. “If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out…if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.” I do wish Jesus had thought more about the people who would take his words literally before he offered this particular pearl of wisdom!

“And,” Jesus cautions, “don’t swear falsely. In fact, don’t swear at all.” Don’t bother swearing on a stack of Bibles, or swearing on your mother’s grave, or even crossing your heart and hoping to die. Just tell the truth. Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. Don’t be like the Vicar of Dibley character, Jim Trott, who, when he wants to answer in the affirmative says, “no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…..yes.” Pause, take a deep breath, and just tell your truth. It’s not always easy but it is always freeing and life giving.

What do you suppose Jesus wants us to hear in this teaching today? What is it about fulfillment of the law and the prophets that we need to understand about choosing life and love – not half-heartedly, but whole-heartedly? I think it’s something like this.

In a wonderful book called, Women’s Uncommon Prayers, Diane Janes-Tucker writes: