Thou Shalt Not Kill, or Objectify

Thou Shalt Not Kill, or Objectify 

Deuteronomy 30:15-20   

Matthew 5:21-37 

I am a person who believes that what brings out the best in us is nearly always a function of our relationship with others. This is so much the case, that I really think it is hard for us to recognize our own sinfulness if we try to live too isolated, too remote from our families and friends. 

This is not the time to explore that idea further, but I can make a case that we will reach the day of judgment in community, alongside the folks we have chosen as our associates. We may well find ourselves living forever next to the person in the church that most makes us crazy in this world. Appearing in judgment as part of a community we are credited with the generosity of those around us, and diminished by the selfishness and foolishness that we are willing to permit. We become responsible for who are within our community, today, tomorrow and forever. But that is a discussion for another time. 

The gospel of Matthew takes a long time to tell the story of the Sermon on the Mount. I recommend you go home and read the entirety of the sermon; chapters 5, 6 and 7 through verse 28, in order to appreciate the context of what Jesus is doing here. 

Where the beatitudes expressed the positive rewards for living a life of virtue, today we seem to be hearing the more legalistic specifics, if you sin you will be punished. Let me encourage you to take the wider perspective. Jesus as pastor, is sitting on a broad grassy hill, likely with a wide view of the fresh water Sea of Galilee. In this pastoral setting he offers encouragement, much like Moses did on the far side of the Jordan River at the end of the Exile. 

“I set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.” “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him.” Moses cautioned the Hebrew children that the way to full life is to cling close to the commands of God, and value their place within the community of the faithful. 

In a similar way, Jesus is trying to hold up an interpretation of living well within the family of the faithful. If our minds have tried to hear these admonitions as rules and penalties, we expose our failure to listen with our hearts first. 

The law says do not kill. That is a good and valid law. In the ebb and flow of life in the wider community, it is useful and important to have just such a law, along with the specifications of punishment that communicate just how important that law is to the community. When Jesus says that if you are angry at your brother or sister, or insult your brother or sister, you are liable to judgment. The intent is to touch our hearts, and sanctify - or make holy - our family life. 

The meaning of this kind of caution, is to clarify the sense of family and community. It puts a clear and necessary focus on our own responsibility to each other and for each other. He starts out with comparison to the commandment thou shalt not kill, In order to get our attention.

Jesus goes on to say thou shalt not commit adultery.  He is  speaking to a community where men have all of the legal protections and opportunities, and women had no protection under the law or culture. This admonition speaks to the requirement of personal responsibility for the actions that we take and in the commitments that we make.

In fact Jesus goes on to make it perfectly clear that this admonition against adultery, is rooted in rejection of any objectification of any other person. Feeling lust in your heart for a person that is not in an intimate relationship with you, makes them an object of your desire and not a partner in your joy of living.

This is a radical teaching for his time. I remember the first time this admonition came to my attention. Jimmy Carter was running for president. In an extensive interview - done in Playboy Magazine of all things, he admitted that in the past he had lusted in his heart for other women.

I laughed out loud when I first read this. In that day and age Playboy Magazine was understood to be the primary vehicle for objectification of women. I did not know this kind of language at the time, and failed to see it as sin. There were some claims made to the value of the articles in Playboy, but no contrary claims were made to the objectification of women. All these many years later, I still remember the insight provided by President Carter. 

To move this thought beyond the context of sexuality, we can read this as an admonition to resist the sin of labeling segments of the population. I was so struck by the prevalent attitude in Israel that ALL Arabs are terrorists, and this is why the Palestinians cannot be trusted or dealt with in an honorable way. People who profess this, may even have Arab friends and colleagues, without realizing the contradiction they make between their expressed beliefs and their living.  

Among the prominent moves of our own new national government administration, are specific ways of labelling groups of people, and loading those labels with the trappings of fear. These are the kinds of activities that cause me to become more articulate and more vocal in resistance. 

We have wandered around in the scripture, and reflected on the advice that Moses offered the chosen people upon entering the Promised Land, and find at the core of these instructions personal responsibility within the context of the faith community. 

These teachings are not celebrated in the nightly news. These kinds of teachings best exist within the context of a faith community. This is the kind of teaching that clarifies our role about being a light in the darkness. This greater sense of responsibility and attention to each person, spells out what makes our relationship together as the people of God important. It is important to us as individuals, and important to our families, and a critical ingredient to building the wider community. 

You see, when we are a mature voice and connected to the community, we make the community better. This is also true in our families. We may withdraw at some point because of pain and mistreatment, but we cannot make things better until we bring our best selves back into the mix. We become a resource and give the others permission to try to do better, and be more caring. 

The salt and light of the gospel is lost if it sits in the book on the altar all week, with no one here. The book may be perfectly lovely, but the word of God left unspoken in the world, does not reflect the will of God. 

The percentage of Christians in the West Bank of Israel is now under 2%, and yet they are responsible for the biggest hospitals, health care clinics and cultural centers. In a world that has become enamored by diagnostics and demographics, we have yet to develop a scale sensitive enough to measure the influence of mature, respected, and engaged people of faith. 

When you speak words of love and reconciliation in the community, the community becomes immeasurably better. The power of God’s spirit touches even those who may not acknowledge God in the way that we do. That’s all right. God is loving them and working on them to live lives of righteousness, whether they find their way to church or not. 

Membership in our faith community is a tool to better living, it is not the goal of better living. There are many wonderful people who never found a way to be at home in a faith community. That is a testimony to the power of God’s love. 

So let us be ready to testify. Let us honor the individuals who we are associated with, allowing their faithfulness to lift ours, and permitting them to lean on our faith when times are hard. The call to the gospel is to be true to the commands of God, not just because there is a rule with punishment for failure, but because the rule guides us towards a close and rewarding relationship with our good and just God. 

Jesus and Moses combine this morning to remind us, the strength of our church community depends on the accountability of individuals living up to the commands of God, and letting the light of the good news - shine through them for the good of all of God’s children. Amen.