The Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

The Love of God, Lived
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Matthew 5:38-48

Today is the Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany. Many years we don’t even have a Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany, but as you probably know, Easter is very late this year. Most years, therefore, we would not hear the Scripture lessons appointed for this day (at least not at this point in the calendar). When we do, though, I’m thinking we should subtitle this Sunday “Commandment Sunday.” Both the Old Testament Reading and the Gospel are all about God’s commandments or ethical teachings.

The passage from Leviticus is a variation on the theme of the Ten Commandments. This is not the clear articulation of the Ten Commandments that we find in Exodus and Deuteronomy, but it should have sounded very familiar. “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely or lie to one another. You shall not swear falsely, profaning the name of your God. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is how God’s people live in relationship to one another and to God.

Then in this morning’s Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus gives very clear ethical instructions to his followers. This passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount. With the Ten Commandments brought to mind by the Old Testament lesson, as I read the Gospel I found myself wondering why Christians are not clamoring to have these commandments of Jesus posted in courthouses and public places. These are Jesus’ own words to us. This is Jesus’ teaching on how we are to live as Christians, what code of behavior should govern our lives as followers of Christ. Why are we not fighting to have these posted in our halls of justice and public squares?

“If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well.” I think that one should be posted in our halls of justice. “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you…. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Why is there no movement to display these commandments of Jesus in our public places? Probably because most of us really don’t want to follow them. It would be difficult, certainly, to actually live our daily lives according to these precepts.

But this is how Jesus lived. These statements are not so much guidelines or commandments or a set of ethical precepts. They are not instructions or abstract ideals set down to govern our daily lives. These words are descriptive. This is how Jesus lived. These words are not prescriptive, they are descriptive. This is what the love of God looks like when it is lived by a human being. This is the love of God, lived.

We are the Body of Christ today. We are the human shape of God in the world today. In John’s Gospel, over and over Jesus says to his followers: “Abide in my love.” He invites his disciples then and now to share and live in the love of God in the same way that he does. So maybe these words from the sermon on the mount describe how we are to live. We are the Body of Christ; we are called to abide in and live God’s love. We are to be the love of God, lived.

When we think about the love of God, I wonder if most of us would very much like to receive God’s love, but we are a lot less enthusiastic about sharing it or giving it to others. We like to be the recipients of God’s love and to know its peace and comfort. We yearn to be loved by God. But it feels like work, and often unpleasant work, to be the donors of God’s love to others.

We think of receiving God’s love and giving God’s love to others as two different things. And we probably say to ourselves, “Well, if I just received a lot more of God’s love, then maybe I’d be better at sharing it.” Or, on our better days, or if we happen to be deeply steeped in the Protestant work ethic, we may say to ourselves, “Maybe if I work really hard at showing God’s love for others, then I’ll receive more of it for myself from God.”

But as I consider this morning’s Gospel, I have come to think that we go seriously astray when we try to separate receiving God’s love from giving God’s love. I’m not sure they are two different things. I don’t think they can be separated. I don’t think you can have one without the other. I don’t think we can even think about receiving God’s love or giving God’s love. There is only living God’s love. There is only God’s love, lived. The receiving and giving are completely woven together in the living.

So how do we become people who are the love of God, lived? Prayer. Listen again to this morning’s collect. “O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing….” We can be the love of God, lived, or the alternative is being nothing more than a bunch of worthless actions. “Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you….” There it is again, without God’s love we are virtually dead. So let us pray this collect over and over again. “Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love.” So that our human lives may be the love of God, lived.