"Can We Behave Like God?"

Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – June 23, 2013

Centenary United Methodist Church

Matthew 5:13-20; Galatians 3:23-29

 

    Our lesson from Galatians today begins with these words, “Before the time when trust in Jesus’ teachings arrived in our lives, the Law kept us locked up as prisoners until his new orientation toward life and God was revealed.” 

    Few words are as suggestive as these that separate Christianity from all other religions. With this definition, the Apostle Paul captured the essence of a new life of freedom. As always, however, a more precise definition needs to be supplied because freedom can also lead to chaos in any society.

    For example, each time drivers get behind the steering wheel of their cars, they should be grateful that most other drivers are obeying the law.  Obedience to the law is simple and requires no effort.  Stop signs say, “Stop” not “drift.”  A sign with the word “Yield” on it while we are approaching a round-about does not imply, “Speed up.” 

    For those of you that go back historically much further than we do have told us numerous stories of the drama that routinely took place in front of our church prior to the installation of the traffic signal.  Today, without that light, there would be total chaos at the intersection of South Road and Collector’s Hill.  Unfortunately, courtesy has given way to the self-interest of many people that are always in a greater hurry than most of us. 

    The “me-first” attitude is the reason why laws are necessary.  Societies could not exist without the common consent of citizens to the presence of a prescribed way of living together peacefully. 

    The ancient Jews, for example, were masters at formulating laws for personal hygiene and for methods of preparing foods so that everyone stayed healthy.  They were thousands of years ahead of their time by insisting that everything from their hands to their food must be washed repeatedly.

    As the centuries passed, the priesthood began to develop laws that governed a person’s relationship with God that were far beyond anything that Moses had proposed.  These laws defined what a person’s life should look like in order to please God and honor their nation’s Covenant with the Creator.  The Ten Commandments gave birth to a law code that became so complicated and convoluted that even wealthy and highly religious Pharisees had extreme difficulties being obedient.

    Jesus responded to this inherited legal system by teaching people that every bit of the Law needed to be obeyed.  (Matthew 5:17-19)  He then added an ingredient that was even more shocking and mystifying to his listeners.  He said, “You can only enter the Kingdom of Heaven by being more faithful than the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what will join your spirits to God.” (Matthew 5:20)

    How can that be? When we think about his words and really understand what Jesus was saying, living this way is very simple.  There is nothing complicated about it.  There is no memorization of rules and regulations required.  What Jesus taught is to love and create from the same spirit as God. 

    Is this impossible?  Was Jesus too idealistic by assuming that people can love like God?  Not at all!  Jesus knew that inside of us are the same qualities that God possesses.  We can create.  We can demonstrate authentic compassion.  We can be generous to a fault.  We can learn how to eliminate hurt feelings by allowing others to be who they are without our need to personalize any of their responses.

    Stephen Covey was conducting one of his seminars on his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, when he told his audience a personal experience while riding on a New York subway one Sunday morning.  Only a third of the seats were filled with people in his car.  It was a quiet train ride.  People were reading various magazines and newspapers.  At one of the stops, a man boarded the train with his five children.  Suddenly, the entire environment of the car changed. 

    The children were loud.  They were chasing each other up and down the aisle.  They began throwing things.  Passengers began to glare at the father of these children who was seated next to Stephen.  These out-of-control children evoked no response from the father.  After awhile, Covey turned to the man and said, “Your children are being very disruptive to the other passengers.  Don’t you think it is time to settle them?”

    The father that had been staring at the floor looked up and spoke, “I suppose I should do something.  My wife and their mother died an hour ago at the hospital.  I don’t know what I am going to do.”  Stephen said to his audience, “Instantly, my frame of mind changed.  I was able to bring to the surface of my personality a spirit of compassion and empathy toward this man who was emotionally devastated by the loss of his life-partner.”

    Dr. Covey’s point was that his initial response of irritation came from a judgment he had made about what was taking place in the subway car.  He told his audience, “We do this to ourselves all the time.  We are the ones who make ourselves miserable by choosing frustration, irritation and resentment before we realize that we have other responses at our disposal.  We can just as easily choose patience, compassion and a willingness to be helpful even before we know the logic or reason for what we are experiencing.” 

    During the second night of his seminar, he was approached by a nurse, who said,

Last night I left your lecture fuming with anger by what you said.  I thought, ‘How dare you suggest that I choose my responses when clearly it is the presence of nasty people that evoke my frustration. 

During my shift, I have one of the nastiest patients I have ever encountered in my career.  Today, however, I had an epiphany.  Your words last night scored a direct hit the moment this man started in on me this morning.  I realized that you were absolutely correct. Why should I allow this ornery, irritable patient to hijack my happiness and my normal gentle nature because he is bitter about his life?  This morning, I brought that gentleman a bouquet of flowers for his table.  I am free!  Thank you!

    Jesus knew that all of us have the ability to live in the Kingdom of God where love flows forth from us quite naturally when we no longer judge other people.  Love sets us free from everything while also encompassing our obedience to all the teachings found in the Hebrew Law and the Prophets.  

    In Galatians, Paul was simply telling his readers that they no longer need a law that says, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself” before they follow through on doing so.  Sometimes it is just plain fun to pretend that we are God and then respond to others with a variety of loving attitudes as though we were.  Doing this helps us to practice the attitudes that we would like to experience from others.

    Two weeks ago while Lois and I were in the States, we were in the express checkout line in a local grocery store when the woman immediately behind us began putting 17 items on the belt.  The cashier reminded her that she was in the express line reserved for customers with ten items or less.  The drama started.  The woman raised her voice, called the cashier rude and demanded to see the store manager.  She knew the unspoken rule in retail business that the customer is always right.

    My immediate response that I kept to myself was to ask her, “So, when did you become a bully, when you were a young girl or an adult?”  By thinking this way, my initial response demonstrated that I had flunked my test by not providing a more loving response. When we got to our car, Lois and I continued this kind of thinking by speculating, “If this is how she responds to a grocery clerk, what must she be like at her office, or when she is with her husband and members of her family?” 

    The difference between this woman and the husband, who lost his wife on Stephen Covey’s subway train, is that she was well-dressed, well-spoken and she knew exactly what she was doing.  She is one that needs guidance when rules are enforced.   A competent store manager would support his or her cashier and invite the customer to shop elsewhere if she could not follow the rules of the store. Rules are not necessary, however, when love is present. 

    We have to realize that the world is filled with all kinds of people that are on different levels of awareness that govern their responses.  God has been a witness to saints and rogues since the beginning of creation.  God loves all of them equally.  God knows that individuals have to find their own way in their own time when they are ready to respond in all their circumstances with a loving spirit.   

    Some people need to be told what to do, what to pray, and what to believe.  In some respects this is like having to obey the extensive law code as did the early Hebrews.  Having to maintain certain key beliefs in order to feel accepted and loved by God is like being in prison.  Paul was teaching his readers that all of us are free from such a prison simply by loving.  Jesus and Paul said this simple, uncomplicated understanding helps us to comply with all laws.

    Paul described this freedom with these words:

You were baptized in union with Christ Jesus, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Jesus himself.  There is no difference between Jew and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with the spirit of Christ Jesus.  (Galatians 3:27f)

    There is nothing we can do to earn God’s love or to be deserving of God’s love.  Why?  God loves us just as we are.  When we can respond this same way to others, we are free from the negativity that often accompanies our judgmental attitudes.  This is why Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is within us where our attitudes and responses have their origin.

    People cannot be more deserving of our care and compassion because they have more pleasing personalities.  We love because that is who we are.  Some recipients of our love may not recognize what our spirits are communicating.  However, just because a message of love is not received does not mean that it was unworthy of being sent. God’s love has no barriers to its flow and neither should ours. 

    When we have this understanding, the way is fairly straight forward to behave like God any moment that we wish to do so.  We have two basic choices in life, behave like God or remain a prisoner of an illusion that others are to blame for making our lives unhappy and miserable.  Only the first choice brings freedom and happiness.