How Can We Possibly Choose Life? – 12 February 2023
Matthew 5:21–37
Jesus is laying down a law that we cannot possibly meet: choose life. And he says it with such explicit details, we can’t just ignore it. But we try to get out of it! Get around it! Explain it away! Excuse ourselves by complicating the matter with questions like Isn’t shooting a gun worse than anger? Jesus says, Nope. If you are angry at anyone, it might as well be murder.
How is anger akin to murder? A possible answer is that if I’m angry, I keep you at a distance. I cannot hear your point of view. I cannot hope good for you. I cannot appreciate your difference from me. And that is where war begins.
Over the centuries, the church has tried to make it okay to kill by distinguishing when killing is acceptable. Starting in the time of Cicero in ancient Greece and then in Augustine’s time in the 400s and then in the Middle Ages around the year 1000, the church has slowly shaped what is called the Just War Theory.
It says four criteria have to be met to justify killing:
1. the threat must be real: lasting, grave, and certain;
2. you have no alternative; all other means have been exhausted;
3. there must be serious prospects of success; and
4. the use of arms won’t be more destructive than the damage from the current threat.
This is one way that people of faith weigh when war is acceptable––or at least understandable––forgivable. But you and I are still complicit with killing when our taxes go to war. –– Melinda A. Quivik
1 Corinthians 3:1–9
Paul reminds the church at Corinth... and every other gathering of people of faith… Paul’s final words are, you are God’s field, God’s building.
Because of Christ Jesus, we have been drowned in baptism and raised in the Lord. Now we don’t just have the promised land, the field… we are the field.
We are planted in the midst of each other
We are given a casserole when we are in mourning… a ride to the doctor… a piece of advice… prayer… healing touch… music to soothe the weary soul. –– Melinda A. Quivik
Deuteronomy 30:15–20
What God is really saying through Moses is this: I want to give you Israelites, you people I love, not just a lot of choices; I want to give you a lot of blessings.
God has already made the most important choice (the Israelites are, after all, the chosen people). God rescued them from Pharaoh, led them through the wilderness, and now gives them the Promised Land. [Suspend for the sake of focus on God’s gift the troublesome fact that the land was already occupied.]
Here at the end of Moses’ life and the end of their desert wanderings, God is saying: Do you see how much you’re worth? Don’t close your hearts to all I have in store. In the end, the weird truth of Israel’s long love affair with God is that they do receive all the blessings –– the land, the life, the length of days – and all the curses too. In the midst of all the good, Israel is defeated again and again by enemies in war, corrupt kings, exile, and a destroyed temple. –– Melinda A. Quivik
Melinda Quivik, an ordained ELCA pastor (who served churches in Montana, Michigan, and Minnesota) and former professor of worship and preaching, is the Editor-in-Chief of Liturgy, a writer, and a preaching mentor with Backstory Preaching at backstory-preaching.mn.co.