“Your True Love”
Text: Matthew 5:21-37 (Deuteronomy 30:15-20)
[This is a gentle reworking of my
sermon from three years ago on these readings and on this weekend.]
Grace, mercy, and
peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. Amen.
This past Friday was Valentine’s Day. I think the snow might have
gotten more attention this year, but still, as usual, whether you did anything
for Valentine’s Day or
not, it was hard to look around the last couple of weeks without noticing the
hearts everywhere. What started as a day to honor an early Christian martyr has
been co-opted by our culture as a day to celebrate love. It is the day of the
heart.
But what seems to have happened for
many is that this Christian day, co-opted by the world,
has been co-opted again. Because for many, Valentine’s Day
has become not an expression of love, but a burden, an obligation - something that is expected; something that is required;
something they have to do in order to stay in the good graces of their beloved.
But if that is the case, then this day is really not a day of the heart at all.
It is not a day of love, but of law.
Which is also how the readings of the
Word of God that we heard today sounded - full not of love, but of Law. From
the lips of Moses we heard: Obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today. And then
from Jesus: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not
swear falsely, and Jesus’ explanation of how
to understand those words in all their depth of meaning. And many, when they
hear those words, regard them in the same way as Valentine’s Day - that these are things we have to do in order to stay in the
good graces of God.
But if you listen to these words a
little more closely, you discover that they’re not
first and foremost about what you have to do or not do - they’re
actually about your heart. Moses is warning the people about their hearts
turning away from God, and Jesus is teaching that sin is, in truth, not just
what you do or not do, but heart disease. For He reveals that beneath all these
sins are problems of the heart - anger, hatred, pride, and lust. Problems that even if you gouged out your eyes and cut off your
hands, would remain. To be rid of these sins, you’d have
to cut out your heart, which is to die.
So what we need, then, are new
hearts, clean hearts. Which is also what we will sing after the sermon again
this morning: Create in me a clean heart, O God. Those are words that David
spoke after he did all those things that Jesus talked about today - after he lusted
after his neighbor’s wife, Bathsheba; after he commited adultery with her; after he murdered his neighbor
to cover it up; and after he lied about it by taking
his cohort to be his wife and pretending that everything was on the up and up.
In fact, even more than that - pretending that he was the good guy, taking care of this poor little lamb after her husband had
been killed in such an awful way. David had heart disease.
And so God sent Nathan the prophet to
speak His Word to David, to reveal the sin in his heart, which caused David
then to pray: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me (Psalm
51:10). David needed forgiveness yes, but
also a new heart. For only from a new, clean heart, could come right love.
And so David prayed: Create in me a
clean heart, O God. That word create is an important
one, for whenever God creates, he always does so - to put it in fancy,
theological language: ex nihilo. From nothing. In the
beginning, when God created all things, He did so ex nihilo: from nothing. He
used no existing matter, but only His Word. He is the sole source of all
things.
And so it is with the good that He
gives to and works in us. To create a clean heart in us is not to use anything
in us, to simply reform or improve our hearts, but to create new and clean
hearts in us ex nihilo - from nothing already existing within us. By His Word
of forgiveness alone He creates in us what was not there before, taking hearts
that are by nature sinful and unclean, and creating in us new and clean hearts.
And not only once, as if once were
enough and now we’re good. Just as God’s work did not end after He created all things, but He
continues to care for His creation, so also He continues to work in us. Which is good, and necessary, for how often do anger and hatred and
lust and pride and all sorts of sins erupt in our hearts and make us unclean
again! And so the Christian life, as Luther said, is a life of constant
repentance. Which is to say, a life of constant reliance not on what we do, but on the
life-giving forgiveness and cleansing of God. Create in me, O God.
It is all from you.
But David not only prayed: Create in
me a clean heart, O God - but also: and renew a right spirit within me. For
along with the grace and forgiveness of God, we need a new spirit. We need our
old, wrong thinking and loving to be renewed - to make them new again, as they
were in the beginning, filled with and controlled by not our old, sinful
spirit, but the Spirit of God. That we not think that God’s love
is conditional or earned by what we do, but that we learn to see God and His
love rightly.
And to learn that,
the Word and Spirit of God point our eyes to the cross. For there is the unconditional love of
God for you, in the person and work of Jesus. His love that did not
say: clean up your act, get better, and then I’ll love you; but who
came for us while we were still sinners. Who came for us while we, like David,
were still mired in our sins and acting as if we are the good guys. Who came
and offered up His hands and feet and eyes and all His body parts - though they
did not sin - for all our body parts that do. That as our substitute in
death, He provide life for us in His resurrection from
the dead.
That is the life now given to you
through the water of Holy Baptism. For in baptism, the Word and Spirit of God
join you to Jesus in His death and resurrection so that you die and rise with
Him to a new life. That all your sinful body parts be offered up and cut off
with His, and you be raised in forgiveness to a new
life, with a new heart, a new Spirit, and a new love.
And this new love
not just a love of God our Saviour, but a new love
for one another. For in truth, these are not two different loves - one for God
and one for our neighbor - but one and the same love. For just as the love of
God was made manifest for us in the flesh of Jesus and His self-sacrifice for
us (as we just sang), so too our love for God is made manifest in our flesh and
our self-sacrifice for our neighbor. That just as our outward sins reveal a
diseased heart, so now our acts of love reveal a heart created new and right.
The commandments not rules that we have to obey, but now how we love one
another as Christ has loved us.
And so in Jesus, a great shift has
taken place. The Law still shows us our sin and rightly condemns us, yes. Like
David. But the life of Jesus in fulfilling the Law for us and in suffering its
condemnation for us, has provided for us all the
blessings of God promised to those who keep the Law. That by
faith in Him, we receive not what we deserve, but the forgiveness, life, and
salvation that is the gift of our Saviour.
So we now pray with David, Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me. And as you do today, also rejoice that your
prayer is now answered here, in the cleansing and renewing Body and Blood of
Jesus in His Supper. To come here is to choose life. For here you are fed, you
are strengthened, you are forgiven, you are filled with Christ - the same Jesus
who served you on the cross, now serving you here with His Supper and in His
Supper. Same Jesus, same forgiveness, same love, same life.
On the cross given for you, on the altar given to you.
That there be no shortage of love in your heart and life, but you be reconciled with your brothers and sisters, live in
chastity and faithfulness, and speak with honesty and truth. That
your Saviour’s life be
your life. That your Saviour’s
love be your love.
And that is the heart and love
you now have in Christ. The heart and love of your heavenly Bridegroom poured
out for you, His Bride. The heart and love that enabled
Valentine to lay down his life, and you too. For
friends and enemies. For those who love you back and those who don’t. The heart and
love of Jesus - given for you, given to you, and now given by you.
In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.