PEOPLE'S CHURCH OF DOVER

Matthew 5:21-26                                                                      You  Shall  Not  Murder
Sermon February 28, 2010:  People’s United Church of Christ, Dover, DE:  The Rev. Dan Griggs

            You may remember the name Oscar Levant:  he was a pianist, writer and wit.  During the Second World War, even though he was in his middle thirties, his draft-board sent him that letter that begins with greetings from the President.  He appeared before the draft-board on the designated day, and the examiner asked him, “Do you think you can kill?”  Levant answered, “I don’t know about strangers, but friends—yes.”[1]  This second Sunday in Lent my subject is the Sixth Commandment:  “You shall not murder.”  This commandment has often been expressed, “You shall not kill,” and that has led to discussions, complications and implications around such issues as war, the death penalty and euthanasia.  I don’t want to preach for two hours this morning, so I’m limiting the translation to “you shall not murder.”  And my point is this:  The moral bottom line is “you shall not murder,” but you ARE called to a higher morality.         

            The bulk of Matthew chapter five is given to Jesus’ reinterpretation of Israel’s ancient moral law, and he uses a formula to introduce each one:  “You have heard it said . . . but I say to you . . . .”  And what Jesus says doesn’t change the ancient teaching, it makes it more focused.  So he says, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not murder,’ but I say to you, no unchecked anger, no name-calling.”  That sounds pretty absolute, until we realize that there seem to be contradictions in Jesus’ own behavior.  He called the Pharisees “hypocrites,” he called the king “that fox,”[2] and when he saw animals being sold and money being exchanged in the temple courtyard he took the time to braid a bullwhip and drove them all out, calling them “thieves.”[3]  Jesus’ own behavior is consistent with the ancient prophets’ serving as agents of God’s “wrath,” and there is a limitation, as the Book of Ephesians expresses it:  “be angry and sin not:  do not let the sun go down on your wrath.”[4] 

            In fact there’s plenty of anger in the Bible.  God’s anger is noted in the story of King David’s census.[5]  God had forbidden any census of ancient Israel, but when David got his kingdom organized and expanded he wanted to know how many people were out there—maybe for taxation purposes, maybe for conscription; but for whatever reason, he conducted a census.  First Chronicles says that “God was displeased.”  The prophet Gad gave David a choice among three punishments, and he chose a plague that devastated the kingdom.  I’d say that’s angry.

            After King David had Bathsheba’s husband killed so he could take her, the prophet Nathan came and told him about a rich farmer who had a large flock of sheep, but when a guest visited him, instead of slaughtering one of his own sheep he took the one lamb of his poor neighbor and slaughtered it.  This time it was King David who became angry.  He wanted to know who this evil farmer was so he could punish him; and then Nathan revealed that it was a parable about David’s own behavior with Bathsheba.[6]  We encounter righteous anger in the old prophets’ words, and in Samson’s mighty deeds to defend the Hebrews against their enemies, and in Jonah’s snit under the castor oil vine.[7]  The Apostle Paul comes across again and again as a “hot head”:  when Barnabas’ nephew Mark pulled out of the missionary trip, Paul wouldn’t let him go with him the next time.[8]  Paul and Barnabas had a big disagreement and parted ways.  And some of the things Paul says in his correspondence with the Corinthian Christians is nothing short of harsh.  That may be why, although Paul’s letters are the oldest writings in the New Testament, it was only after the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke were published that somebody (probably Onesimus[9]) collected Paul’s letters and published them—the churches that possessed his letters just filed them away:  they didn’t want to hear such anger.  But I think the most angry part of the Bible is the Book of Revelation where the martyrs’ prayer to God is, “How long, O Lord, until you avenge our murder?”[10]  So there’s a lot of anger described in the Bible.

            But at the same time the Bible contains warnings against what anger out of control can do.  The Book of Proverbs says:  “A fool gives full vent to anger, but the wise quietly holds it back.”[11]  In Ecclesiastes we read that  “Anger lodges in the bosom of fools.”[12]  And in the Letter of James:  “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.”[13] 

No wonder Christians get confused about anger!  It feels bad to be angry, and the Bible seems to say opposite things about it.  Is the feeling of anger itself wrong, or is the wrong just our acting out our anger?  Is it okay for some to be angry but not for others?  If so, who?  Is it better to swallow your anger or to acknowledge that it’s real?  In a church I served several years ago there was a man who did something that caused a great explosion of animosity and split the congregation.  One woman said, “I’m not supposed to be angry, right?”  A man commented to me, “He’s old enough to die:  I’ll help.”  It took a lot of energy and time to keep that anger from becoming destructive; but the interesting thing is, when we finally got it organized and properly channeled, it was that anger that gave the people in that church the unified will to prosecute the man who had committed the crime, and in the end there was justice.  Anger is useful, if you know how to use it. 

            So about this Sixth Commandment:  the moral bottom line is “you shall not murder,” but you ARE called to a higher morality.           

            In arithmetic there’s a term in fractions called “the lowest common denominator.”  You have two fractions that you want to add, but one is in fourths and the other is in thirds; so you look at the four and the three and find the lowest number that they will both divide into, and change both fractions to that denominator; and now you can add 3-twelfths and 4-twelfths and get your answer:  7-twelfths.  In arithmetic you want the lowest number possible as the common denominator; but in morals “the lowest common denominator” is not what we seek at all.  In morals we seek the highest value; so in all cultures and in all religions we find prohibitions against murder, theft, lying in court, and so on.  Without these ideals, these goals, there could be no community at all—things would fall apart quickly.  And some people’s behavior falls below even these, so we have laws, courts and prisons. 

            Jesus is telling us that we are called to a higher way of living, a more noble life, a richer moral standing than some lowest common behavior.  The Ten Commandments, or something very much like them, are necessary to preserve society; but the Christian is invited to something more.

            One recent commentator, Eugene Boring, says that Jesus holds up a vision before us:  the kingdom of God, a society of divine perfection which is our hope and also God’s promise.[14] 

There is a higher ideal for human life together:  God wants more for us, and has made a promise about it. 

            Now this gets very practical.  Using the image of temple sacrifice, Jesus says that if you are in worship, presenting your sacrifice at the altar, and remember that somebody has a problem with you, leave the sacrifice there, go get your relationship with your neighbor straight, and then come back and get your relationship with God straight.  May we define a “hypocrite” as someone who lives a life lower than they believe?  I’m not talking about mistakes, I’m talking about the values we embrace every day and what we do with them:  if those values are less than we really believe in.  The moral bottom line is “you shall not murder,” but you ARE called to a higher morality than just not murdering your neighbor. 

            Think for a moment who the saints in your life have been.  Were they absolutists who forced law onto everything and everybody?  Or were they people who lived in the real world with graciousness while all the time they were leaning toward a higher way? 

            You mother used to tell you, “If you can’t say something nice about somebody, then don’t say anything at all.”  Jesus said, “If you can’t bless, then keep quiet.”  And so if we can bless a neighbor but keep quiet, we have also fallen short and need to pay attention. 

            I have a friend who swears up and down that he met Charles Manson a few weeks before the Sharon Tate murder.  My friend says that Manson was with a group of kids who came to his door to ask for help.  He said that even seeing those penetrating, evil eyes, he answered their request with kindness.  It was all he could do—bring just a little goodness into some people’s lives who were on a slippery slope; but he did what he could.  The moral bottom line is “you shall not murder,” but you ARE called to a higher morality.

AMEN