Making Hard Choices

Today’s Scripture readings appear dueing the season of Epiphany only when Easter is late in the year.  They are readings about making choices.  The choices presented are clear: either love the Lord your God and observe his commandments so you will live and be blessed; or, if you are led astray and bow down to other gods, you will perish. 

The Book of Deuteronomy says, "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses."  It is the ultimate choice: life or death, blessing or curse.  Because we are free, created in freedom with responsibility for our decisions, we must make choices of good or evil, choices of life or death.  There are great differences in the choices we make. Sometimes they are obvious and clear like rescuing someone who is in trouble and needs help; and sometimes they are more subtle like honoring a person's desire not to be treated for an incurable illness even though non-treatment might result in an earlier death.  And, sometimes they are the hard choices, the consequences of which are often fuzzy and not very clear.

In the days of the first Christians, the written law of God, the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), stood as fixed and unalterable.  Even so, there were situations the law did not seem to cover.  Different interpretations emerged to address them.  The first of these was a conservative response held by the Sadducees.  Sadducees were the priestly, aristocratic party in Judaism, whose interest was in the temple.  They held that the law was to be observed as written, but beyond the written limits of the law a person was free to do whatever seemed best.  

A second interpretation was favored by the community of Qumran, the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  They rejected the Mosaic law as inadequate and drafted an idealized version of the Torah that would apply in all circumstances. 

The third interpretation was that of the Pharisees, the most influential party of Judaism.  Theirs was the "liberal" option that recognized that the law applied in all circumstance, even if the prescriptions of the Torah did not specifically address them.  Adherents to this view were required to remember how the law had been interpreted and applied in the past. 

Jesus' teaching differed from that of the Pharisees.  He did not treat the Torah as the final expression of God's will.  Jesus said, "I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  Unlike the group at Qumran Jesus did not hope for a new, idealized version of the law.  All law will finally be inadequate to the human condition.

Jesus invited his disciples to be fully faithful to God's will even if that required someone to go beyond a literal reading of the Torah.  Fidelity to God requires thought and intention as well as action.  The role of the Torah is to serve as the most familiar and complete expression of God's will but Jesus challenged his followers, and he challenges us, to seek God's will in every situation.  

Examples of this are in Jesus’ discussion of the Ten Commandments.  He began each commandment with the phrase, “You have heard that it was said….” Then he addressed the commands to do no murder, not to commit adultery, and not to swear falsely.  

Jesus elaborated on the command not to murder by focusing on anger, insults, and calling another person a fool.  His point was that reconciliation takes priority even over worship.  Worship was the most sacred act for the Jewish people.  But Jesus said, “When you are offering your gift at the altar, if your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”  This is an instruction about the proper use of anger and the need for forgiveness.  Anger should be constructive rather than destructive, and forgiveness is to be practiced as a mutual interaction in order for reconciliation to be achieved.

Another example is the command not to commit adultery.  God expects purity of thought and desire as well as action.  I especially like the phrase in the Collect of Purity that we use at every service of Holy Eucharist: “Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.”  Adultery, more broadly defined, is the betrayal of relationships.  Right relationships with God and neighbor are what matters.  Purity of heart is the perfect way to love God.

As for the command, “You should not swear falsely, but carry out the vows you have made to the Lord,” Jesus admonished his listeners always to tell the truth.  Jesus actually said something like, “let your ‘Yes’ be yes and your ‘No’ be no.

Each of us has at times labored over a difficult decision.  Hard choices might range from decisions about a career or a vocation, choosing a spouse or partner, placing an elderly parent in a nursing home, or seeking intervention for someone caught in the grips of chemical dependency.  The ability to choose is often difficult and complex.  We may be fearful or anxious, or we may experience a deep sense of frustration and anger about the very necessity for making a decision.

Regardless of the circumstances of our lives we should remember that our free will, our ability to reflect, consider and decide, is a hallmark of our humanity.  Jesus retained his Jewish understanding of the law as God's gift.  But instead of serving as an arbitrary and capricious limitation of human freedom Jesus focused on the fulfillment of the law.  The list of blessings in the Sermon on the Mount focuses on our relationship to God.  What it means to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves concerns our relation-ships with one another. 

Love is the fulfillment of the law; it is the bedrock of Christianity, and it forms the foundation for all the decisions and choices we make.  Amen.