Fulfilling the Law

This past week I came across an article in the current issue of The Christian Century (September 3, 2014) that referred to a book I read a few years ago.  The book is titled The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. The author, A. J. Jacobs, is a Brown graduate who wrote this book in 2007.  It is both humorous and serious.  Jacob’s goal was to discover what it would be like to keep all the commandments and the more than 600 laws enumerated in the Bible.  He assembled a committee of ecumenical advisers and attempted this for a full year.  Imagine how his wife felt while he did this.  He mentions her in his book.

A review in Publishers Weekly states, Jacobs “didn't just keep the Bible's better-known moral laws (being honest, tithing to charity and trying to curb his lust), but also the obscure and unfathomable ones: not mixing wool with linen in his clothing; calling the days of the week by their ordinal numbers to avoid voicing the names of pagan gods; trying his hand at a 10-string harp; growing a ZZ Top beard; eating crickets; and paying the babysitter in cash at the end of each work day…. In his attempts at living the Bible to the letter, Jacobs hits the road in highly entertaining fashion to meet other literalists, including Samaritans in Israel, snake handlers in Appalachia, Amish in Lancaster County, Pa., and biblical creationists in Kentucky.”

The Christian Century article quotes what Jacobs had to say during the first month of his effort to live the Bible literally: “In college I learned about the theory of cognitive dissonance.  This says, in part, if you behave in a certain way, your beliefs will eventually change to conform to your behavior.  So that’s what I’m trying to do.  If I act like I’m faithful and God loving for several months, then maybe I’ll become faithful and God loving.  If I pray every day, then maybe I’ll start to believe in the Being to whom I am praying.”

With this background let’s look at our lectionary readings today from the Book of Exodus, the Gospel of Matthew, and Paul’s Letter to the Romans.  Taken together they contain a lot of directions and rules or ordinances for living a good religious and spiritual life. 

The Exodus story is about the Jewish Passover.  It is an account of how God acts in history.  Following the persecution of the Israelites by the Egyptian Pharaoh God instructs the chosen people to take a lamb for each household and to keep it until the fourteenth day of the month.  The whole congregation of Israel shall then slaughter the lamb at twilight, roast the lamb over a fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and then eat the lamb that very night.  This is a celebration “as a festival to the Lord.” It is the origin of the Passover commemorating how God rescued his chosen people.  It is a day of remembrance that is to be observed as a perpetual ordinance throughout the generations.

The Gospel reading from Matthew discusses how one should act if a member of the church sins against you.  It involves an ascending order of ways to work for reconciliation and mutual forgiveness. The first way is a private conversation with the offending person.  If this doesn’t work, involve one or two additional people “so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.”  Should the offender still refuse to listen, then take the matter to the whole congregation.  Then, “if the offender refuses even to listen to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”  In other words, have nothing further to do with him.

Finally, in the letter to the Romans Paul summarizes the ten commandments and discusses his instructions about ethics and what it means to “love your neighbor as yourself.”  He echoes what Jesus said about love being the fulfillment of the law.

What really matters here is how do we fulfill the law by living in loving relationships.  God’s love, and the love that Jesus displayed is both radical and inclusive.  The statement in Romans tells us how much better it would be for the author of The Year of Living Biblically if he would recognize that all “the commandments are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.”

This is not to say that loving one’s neighbor is any easier that trying to keep all those biblical laws, those rules and regulations that A. J. Jacobs tried to live by for a year.  Telling us that that love is the fulfilling of the law Paul neglects to say exactly how we are to do this.  There is no easy way, no specific guide or rules to follow.  It is up to each of us to wrestle with the question of how we are to act in loving relationships.  What constitutes love?  What does love include?

The article I read in The Christian Century correctly states, “Love requires vulnerability, hospitality, forgiveness, risk, and trust.”  In other words, love is not easy, especially in the context of a community of people who are different from us.  Ours is a multicultural and multi-racial community.  Our cities and towns are like that, and our church reflects it.  Jesus taught us that love transcends all the laws, rules and regulations we can devise.  God is love, and the love of God is always present as we understand what it means to be compassionate toward the needs of others.

Listen to the words of this hymn by Charles Wesley.  It is about this love:  “Love divine all loves excelling, joy of heaven to earth come down…. Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love thou art; visit us with thy salvation, enter every trembling heart.”  Wesley concludes his lyrics by stating that love is transformative: “changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place, till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love, and praise.”  Amen.