Don't just obey, fulfill the Law

Don’t just obey, fulfil. I have spent a lot of time this week considering what that phrase means and what it might look like in my life and that of the congregation. And in doing so I was reading and re-reading the Gospel for Sunday (Matthew 5.21-37).

One of the things that stood out for me was something simple: it is all about the attitudes we carry as we go along in life. Without trying to live and working to be holy and righteous people, without having the right attitude towards both God and neighbour, faith doesn’t mean a whole lot and amounts to nothing. We need to live with the righteous attitude. We need to live in the right kinds of relationships with everyone around us, not just God. This means that we need to be radical in the ways we live and how we live within the community. We are called as followers of Jesus to deal radically with the things that would separate us from God and from one another. We do this because we cannot be holy or righteous apart from being in community, in communion with one another.

Therefore there is a real need for love, power and self-control. We need to control our hearts, minds, tongues and lives. As St. Paul pointed out to Timothy, For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2nd Timothy 1.6-7 ESV) It is not enough for a follower of Jesus to simply obey the rules. It is not enough not to do murder. We as believers must work to curb our anger so that there is no possibility for murder. This means that the things we say and do, have consequences both in the here and now and in eternity. Thus a Christian must move beyond obedience into the fulfillment of the Law. And this we do not do alone. We have the help of the Holy Spirit and of the community that is the Church.

And because we are a part of a community, a communion, there is the need for accountability and responsibility for and to one another. We are accountable for how we treat and act towards each other, first to God and then to each other. Through our baptismal vows and the life of the follower, we are expected and encouraged by Scriptures and equipped by the Spirit to resist and confront the devil, principalities and powers, evil and personal sin. We are not to let such things have mastery over us because as sin escalates, life falters. It was in the doorways of our lives, waiting and watching for ways to overcome and overwhelm us.

This is why it is important to take care in what we say and do to and for each other. What we say and do matters, both now and in eternity. This is why it is important to reflect the light of God’s glory into the lives of our families, friends and neighbours. In the life of this Church, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one tribe. And if that feels like it is heavy and hard to bear it should. I have a picture, a collage of pictures from the night of my ordination to the sacred priesthood. It hangs above my desk as a reminder of being chosen to be a leader in the Church and the weight of the laying on of hands as a remembrance of the responsibility I bear where the Church is concerned. What I say and do has an impact on the life of that wonderful community.

And at the same time, as scary as that might be, it is also an immense joy. Being part of the Church community means that in my walk with Christ, I am not alone in my following. I am a member of the brotherhood and a part of the community of those whom Christ has called to follow. I am not in a solitary struggle that could lead to frustration and futility in my vocation. Going out and calling people into the sacred community in this society, in this day and age, is a countercultural act. It is totally against everything that this society wants and says is necessary to be successful: autonomy, independence and individual choices. The call to community is a call to giving, to self-denial and to self-sacrifice. It will not be a popular message and people will not thank you for preaching it because of the threat that comes with it.

Nevertheless, it is what the Church and wider society need to hear: Without God and community within the Church, there is no life. “God with us” means that God is with all of us and is calling us into community and communion with him and with each other. God is not just with me, or with some of us. He is with all of us. God believes in community and calls you and me to it. Don’t just obey the rules to be a dutiful person. Live your life to fulfil the love that God has or each and for all of us that we would know his community in our midst.

Jason+