Some things never change

A sermon preached in the construction site that is Faith Episcopal Church, October 23, 2005.

The French have an oft-used saying Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. It means, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” A more down home version might be “nothin’ new on God’s green earth.” Jesus sparring with the Pharisees and Sadducees is more like the pages of today’s news than you might think. A little back ground…to start with who were the Sadducees and the Pharisees? They were the two main religious parties of Jesus’ day. In modern lingo, they would be the conservative and liberal voices of the day – both trying to get a damaging quote out of Jesus.

As much as I appreciate our Lectionary cycle, here’s a time when it creates a problem. We’ve been working our way steadily through Matthew’s account of Jesus in the Temple teaching and being challenged by his opponents. But between last week and this week, we have skipped his run in with the Sadducees – it’s referred to today, but we didn’t read it. It’s the trick question posed to Jesus about a woman whose husband died, leaving her without children. According to the Jewish law and culture, it became his brother’s responsibility to marry her and have kids. In their test scenario, this deadly woman runs through seven brothers without having children. They’re all dead and then she dies. Their question is “in heaven, whose wife is she?” What they are really asking is “are you saying there is an afterlife?” To their mind, such a belief was unsupported by the Torah. They are trying to lock him in to an admission that would undermine his credibility. Of course, Jesus doesn’t take their bait and his response sends them away sputtering.

The Roman historian Josephus wrote about the Sadducees as strict constructionists in their interpretation of the Torah – they were the literalists of the day. They understood God as uninvolved in the affairs of the world and denied any life beyond this one. The critique of them was that because they had not fear of divine retribution in the afterlife, their ethical lapses went unchecked. Their ideas maintaining the status quo were favored by the wealthy land owners and the families of the High Priests. It is thought that it was the Sadducees who were most interested in the silencing of Jesus. New Testament scholar Douglas Hare says that “the God of the Sadducees is too small, little more than a theoretical principle to be honored in formal worship but safely ignored at other times.” Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The Pharisees were more of a popular voice than the Sadducees and known for their accurate and authoritative interpretations of the Torah. The great rabbis of the Jewish tradition come from the ranks of Pharisees as well as the apostle Paul. They believed in living simply, in harmony with others. They believed that our lives are affected by both providence or fate and free will. On the subject of the afterlife, Pharisees accepted that the soul continues after death and is punished or rewarded with another life. In other words, they believed in reincarnation. As a movement, Pharisees sought to renew fidelity to scripture as well as social and political change which put them into opposition with the Sadducees. This is such a soap opera. Much of what Jesus taught is right in line with the Pharisees’ tradition. These close ideological ties are probably the reason that the Pharisees are cast as Jesus’ main opponents in the Gospels – particularly in Matthew. We struggle the most with those in whom we see ourselves. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

In today’s reading, the unexpressed little trap set by the lawyer comes from the idea that all of the Torah is equally important – no commandment has more weight than any other. He is asking Jesus to violate that. So what does Jesus do, well he repeats the often connected commandments to love God and your neighbor. What this says is that, no law is important alone. You can’t separate a law from its context because they are all interrelated. You cannot love God and ignore your neighbor and you cannot love your neighbor without loving the God who made him. This is the biblical theory of relativity. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

It’s good to pay attention to Jesus’ response to the Sadducees and the Pharisees. None of them can successfully trip him up and none of them can successfully coopt him to their side. It didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now. Jesus will not be a shill for any particular point of view. We don’t get to flaunt him as a spokesman for our politics – I know, I’ve tried hard enough. When ever I think I can score an “Aha! What would Jesus do” moment it doesn’t work or actually get me anywhere.

The previously mentioned Douglas Hare points out a really tantalizing question – can love be a commandment? Bonnie Raitt, that fine, rockin’ country woman was right when she said “I can’t make you love me if you don’t. You can’t make your heart feel somethin’ it won’t.” Love, like faith, is not of the head or any other part subject to a command; it is of the heart. God can command us all day long to love back but we have to want to. We have to want to love something that challenges us to go where we don’t want to go and do what we don’t want to do! On the face of it, God has a pretty faulty gameplan. It would be much easier if loving God meant that we all won the lottery and had perfect bodies and more hours in the day to enjoy total success and fun in the sun. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind – no problem!

My good friend and professor Clark is fond of saying that God loves us into freedom and frees us into loving. The 1^st Letter of John says “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…We love because God first loved us.”

Was there ever a time when you didn’t want to pray for something because you were afraid to get it? It’s safer to pray, “God, please let me be happy” rather than “God, show me what you want me to do.” The latter can take you places you never intended. “God, keep me safe” is less risky than “God, open my heart to truly love my neighbor.” or “God, open my heart to love you completely.”

The bottom line truth for Christians is that when you do truly open your heart to God, as Jesus did, what ultimately awaits you is freedom from fear, a much larger view, abundance and love and peace that surpass understanding. It’s a promise made at the beginning of time, made flesh 2000 years ago, and, then, you guessed it… Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.