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“Living Without Laws” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – February
12, 2017 Centenary United Methodist Church
Psalm 119:33-40; Matthew 5:38-48
Last week, we
eavesdropped on Jesus as he was preaching to a crowd of listeners.
In an attempt to clear up what people must have been saying about
him, Jesus said, "I have not come to do away with the Law, but to make
its teachings come true. Not
the smallest detail of the Law will be done way with until the end of
time." (Matthew 5:17f) As soon as
Jesus said these words, he began to change certain Laws.
He said, "You have been taught that it is right to get even with
those who have hurt you. Now I
tell you, 'Do not take revenge on anyone who has wronged you.'
Jesus continued to preach this point-of-view by giving his
listeners examples to illustrate further what he meant: If someone slaps
you, let him slap you again.
If someone wants your shirt, give him your coat as well.
If a Roman soldier demands that you carry his military gear for a
mile, you offer to carry it for two miles.
If someone wants what you have, give it to him.
If someone wants to borrow something from you, loan it to him.
(Matthew 5:39f) When we are
bothered by these teachings of passive responses, we question why Jesus
would have taught such things. Jesus really tested our reasoning when he
taught, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
(Matthew 5:44) Why would we think of doing such a thing? Where is the
justice in allowing people to take advantage of us? Jesus supplied the
answer, "I am teaching you to
respond this way so that you will remember your true identity as
descendents of God."
(Matthew 5:45) Jesus was not
asking people to remain passive recipients of what others were demanding
or needing from them.
He knew that nothing can
ultimately hurt any of us.
We are not our bodies. No one
can disturb the spirit within us unless we allow it.
He was urging people to remember their invincibility.
Jesus could have easily said:
For those of you
that want to recover from your
amnesia of what your lives were like before you came here, you
cannot allow anything in this world to affect the spirit of love
by which you live. Rather, identify with your divine
origin which will help you to remain free from the labels that others
will use to define you.
What Jesus was
teaching obviously has not had a widespread appeal even among believers.
Look at how many people are trying to impose their solutions on
everyone else for correcting our world. He
taught these passive responses
knowing that most people would find them completely unacceptable.
(Matthew 7:13f) What we
experience today is a century-old
we-they drama that perfectly illustrates why Jesus was teaching his
followers to have a very different orientation toward life. The world
needs more people to awaken to their true identity. Once, a famous
Italian artist had 15 of his valuable paintings stolen from his studio.
His family, who stood to inherit these creations, was distraught
and demanded that the police find the thief and return the paintings.
When the artist saw what the theft was doing to his family, he
gathered them together and offered his observations.
He said: All that the thieves
stole were my paintings, and, if they find the right buyers, they could
conceivably come into wealth that they did not earn.
Throughout their lives, however, they will never escape
remembering that they are thieves.
We cannot allow these thieves to steal our spirits as well. What
you are feeling right now will not change what has happened.
My joy comes from creating. I
can easily paint again every canvas that was stolen.
The thieves have not stolen anything that matters.
I still love to paint and we
still have each other. It might be a challenge
for us to elevate our consciousness to the level of the Italian artist
even though we may appreciate the value of his point-of-view.
Jesus would not be
teaching values that contain no justice unless he possessed an awareness
that his listening audience did not have. (Philippians 2:6f)
Jesus knew that all of us are
sons and daughters
of God. We are
spirit-beings that have
entered this world having left behind our enormous power and abilities
in order to experience the
humility of living in forms that drastically limit who we are and
what we can do. We entered this
world with nothing and we will leave with nothing but memories. One Saturday
afternoon I was searching through the channels and found an interesting
infomercial on
The program
reviewed the various activities that are available to tourists from
experiencing a four-course meal prepared and served at their private
pavilion by their own personal chef. There were endless scenes of people
at various bars, people lounging on the beaches in what looked like
canopy king-size beds in an environment where no one else was visible on
these expansive beaches. The producers
of this tourism program wanted viewers to see themselves in
this picture.
They wanted their audiences to fantasize that they could choose a
resort where they would not have a single care in the world.
The feeling of being in this idyllic setting floods the
viewer's spirit with the illusion that fear, anxiety and uncertainty are
emotions that do not exist.
While this description
sounds like the
conspicuous consumption of
millionaires,
for purposes of our thinking this morning, suppose this is what our
experience would
feel like while being in
Heaven.
Heaven
promises to offer us endless peace, happiness and the awareness of
our invincibility. Let us use our
imaginations for a moment and pretend that these feelings of peace and
tranquility found in a He is currently
living in this remarkable paradise
when he decides to participate in an adventure like those that have
always been available to everyone.
He knows the drill for
experiencing these adventures.
When he enters
our world, he emerges from his mother's birth canal in the helpless,
dependent form of an infant with near total
amnesia of the life that he
left behind. He enters his temporary adventure in our world of time and
solid forms. The experience
is like entering a movie theater on a Friday evening to see an action
packed movie. This new
reality allows him to experience sensations that he cannot experience in
paradise.
He enjoys the experience of
touch, of making love, of feeling water on his skin, of driving a car,
eating prime rib, living in an enclosure and sleeping. While growing
up, his parents taught him to label his emotions that come with
the territory of being in his
solid form. He was taught
what it meant to experience fear, disappointment, uncertainty as well as
joy, compassion, generosity and forgiveness.
He develops a strong urge to thrive by creating value for himself and others by selecting a profession. In doing so he finds himself living among millions of others that often appear conflicted and uncertain about their lives. Each individual appears searching for meaning, purpose and emotional stability while possessing different levels of awareness and understanding. He chooses to
become a medical doctor because of his need to help people whose bodies
often malfunction. One day
he was with a patient in the Intensive Care Unit of a large As soon as she
became aware of her surroundings, she asked him to disconnect her from
the devices that had been keeping her alive.
She wanted to go back to where she was prior to regaining her
consciousness. With a smile on
his face, the doctor told her that he could not honor her request. He
explained that more than likely she was recovering from the results of
medications that were used to keep her sedated. However, out of
curiosity, he asked her to describe where she had gone during the last
five weeks. Her reply put
this doctor face to face with a
mystery that he could not explain.
She described
her surroundings as a place where she experienced total freedom unlike
anything she had ever known. It was an environment where there were no
opposites like good and evil, hot and cold, male and female, happiness
and sadness. Her freedom,
confidence and peace came from an energy that was being used by everyone
around her to create anything that they wished and to travel anywhere
they wanted to go. However, she
could not do these things because she remained connected to her body
that was still functioning. What she was
describing suddenly became very personal.
She told her doctor that she had met his parents.
They had asked her to say "hi" to him when she awakened. His
parents knew that she would be alone with him in her ICU cubicle.
They said, Ask our son if he
remembers the time that he rescued our cat when it seemingly could not
come down from the gigantic tree in our front yard or the time when he
had his driver's license for only two weeks, and, while backing up our
car, he smashed into the garage door.
Ask him if he recalls the time when his Mom had become so
distracted that she only remembered his favorite pies in the oven when
the house began to fill with smoke. Suddenly, the
doctor found tears streaming down his face because no one could have
possibly known about those incidents but his parents. She told him that
everyone has the ability to transform themselves into forms that friends
and family members would recognize as they cross over.
The doctor would have no trouble recognizing his parents.
She explained that this ability eases the transition for
spirit-beings that are
returning from the experience of
their dramatic adventure. How would we
respond to such a mysterious encounter with this patient?
How could a total stranger know these things about our parents?
This experience could be like finding a message in a bottle that
tells us about a massive treasure
that is awaiting our discovery when we leave this life. Jesus' teaching
that afternoon was totally supported by this knowledge that only he
understood. He was teaching his
listeners such passive responses because he knew that they were
currently as invincible that day as they would be after they
graduate from their adventure.
Jesus knew this and displayed
what he knew with nails driven into his wrists and feet while hanging on
a cross.
Jesus was a messenger that brought to the earth an understanding
of our next reality.
He demonstrated the healing and loving attitudes
that each of us can display during our brief time in these limited,
physical forms in the world of
time. We have nothing
to lose by believing the truth
about the reality to which all of us will return.
(Matthew 10:28).
Remember, Jesus said to the thief who hung next to him on a cross, "I
promise you that today you will be with me in
paradise."
(Luke 23:43)
If we choose to follow
Jesus' teaching, we will remain
artists
where laws and boundaries are irrelevant.
If we still have doubts about the
fantasy we have just listened to, Jesus would quickly tell us, "I have
staked my life on the fact that none of you will be disappointed when
you leave your bodies." If only each of
us could move beyond how our earthly experiences have formed us with its
values, laws and customs, we could carry ourselves with the same
awareness that Jesus possessed. If
we wake up, we can bring what is waiting for us in the next world into
our every day experiences today.
We might be pleasantly surprised if we try it.
It starts by remembering who we are. Loving God, we thank you for giving meaning and purpose to our lives.
Fill our cups with
the water that causes us never
to thirst again. We tend
to seek fulfillment in many tangible symbols of our world, as though
having what we want is the pearl of great price.
There are times when our identities are clearly anchored in this
world rather than in our trust in you. Encourage us to remember that our
faithfulness in trusting you is what saves us from having sleepless
nights. Encourage us to become signposts
so that others will understand what trusting you feels like.
Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER
Thank you, God, for being the
inspirational source in our lives. We want to make thoughtful
decisions. We want to wear smiles and carry ourselves with
joy-filled attitudes. We want our spirits to communicate that this
world is not the only one that we know. However, as you know all
too well, it is so easy for us to turn off our glow because of hurt
feelings, frustrations in our relationships and health issues that
produce anxious moments.
We
seek healing for the areas of our lives that evoke worries and rob us of
our peace. Guide us to use our Sabbaths as days for rest. Guide us
to take better care of ourselves. Guide us to saturate our minds
with the words of thoughtful authors and to spend more moments in prayer
and reflection. Inspire us
to reserve more quality time to be with our families. Guide us to
understand that our spirits need nourishment if we are to bear fruit.
Today we pray for people who find themselves caught in financial
challenges because of our struggling economy.
We pray for the leaders of our country who daily find themselves
bombarded with issues that have no quick-fix solutions.
With so many nations in rebellion against their leadership, how
often we are reminded of our need to turn our spears into plows, and our
killing fields into gardens.
In all of our pursuits, guide our memories to recall the words of our
Master, "Love one another."
We pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who
taught us to say when we pray . . .
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