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Sermon February 16, 2020
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers,
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Epiphany/AEpi6_RCL.html
You have heard that it was said… Matthew 5:27
Please be seated
My family was very involved with politics and so I became involved in politics. When I was 16, the voting age changed to 18 and I was knocking on doors getting people to register to vote. A few years later, I worked on a congressional campaign. I’d go a few hours each week and take a voter registration list and look up people’s phone numbers and write them on the list, so calls could be made. Of course now you just buy a list of phone numbers!
One day people in the campaign office were talking about an upcoming fundraiser. The Governor of Georgia was coming. I thought that was really weird and odd. Why would you have a Governor of Georgia of all places come to a political fundraiser in Pennsylvania? Needless to say, I did not attend.
Of course the Governor was Jimmy Carter and a few years later, he was elected President. On inauguration day in 1977, my parents and I got on a bus with other friends to attend President Carter’s inauguration. It was a first for all of us. We bundled up as best we could – it was SO cold. We decided to get a spot along the parade route rather than try to get close enough to hear the swearing in and inaugural address.
I love a parade, if you haven’t yet noticed. Newport has some of the best and they all go by my front door. The inaugural parade started with a frail Senator Hubert Humphrey as parade marshal, riding on the back of a convertible. Then came a truck filled with photographers all taking lots of pictures. We knew the presidential motorcade would be coming soon. But then there were the three, yes three, anchors of the nightly news stations. I was very excited to see Harry Reasoner.
Finally, all of the police lining the route closed ranks, so we knew the new President was near. But what a surprise when we saw him, because President Jimmy Carter, his wife Rosalynn and his family were all walking down the street. They weren’t in a big limousine as we expected. They were walking. Why should that make such a difference? But it did. We were so close to him and to his family.
The memory of that event over 43 years ago is vivid.
Mr. Carter’s presidency is not considered one of the best, although we in this area were certainly grateful that he had been on nuclear submarines and came when the accident at Three Mile Island occurred and the historic peace accord between Israel and Egypt was amazing. Yet, one thing I believe we can all say is that Mr. Carter was and is a man of deep faith. In his 90s, he still teaches Sunday school at his church.
In 1976, before the election, then-candidate Carter was interviewed by Playboy magazine. In that interview, which was published before the election, Mr. Carter admitted, “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” Time magazine labeled this as one of the “Top 10 Unfortunate Political One-liners.”
However, in 2017, just before his 93rd birthday, Mr. Carter said in an interview, “Christ set some almost impossible standards for us.” Then he cited some of the words from the Gospel we heard today.
Yes, Christ did indeed set some almost impossible standards for us. This Gospel is part of the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon is filled with Jesus’ teaching and in Matthew we learn he was instructing a multitude – a large crowd.
In this section, Jesus is instructing us into the deeper lessons from the Ten Commandments. So, for instance, what is known as the 5th commandment – Do Not Kill – is expounded upon. Jesus is asking us to examine ourselves and the behaviors that might lead us to murder or kill another person. Jesus says our anger or discord with another person or group of people can escalate into a situation where we might kill. Jesus tells us to be aware of those behaviors and emotions and to address the conflicts in the early stages. In other words, to let these conflicts go and not address them is just as much of a sin as allowing them to escalate into killing.
The same is true when looking at adultery. The sixth commandment is Do not commit adultery. Jesus knows there are behaviors and actions that come before the action of committing adultery, such as looking at another person as an object and not as a person. Jesus tells us that doing so is as much of a sin as actually committing adultery.
Jesus is teaching us more about how to live with each other and how to live within our communities. Jesus is asking us not just to abide by the “do nots” in the commandments, but to look deeper into ourselves and into the actions and behaviors that lead to the sins noted in the commandments. Sins as in those things that not only separate us from God, but also separate us from each other…the issues that create unliveable communities or make it even more difficult to love God, love our neighbors and love ourselves.
Yes, the standards Gods asks of us and Jesus teaches us are challenging. The Holy Spirit is here to help and hopefully we in our parish community are here to help each other. As professed Christians, we can do no less.
Amen
https://www.ajc.com/news/when-jimmy-carter-lusted-his-heart/kzdD5pLXvT3qnf5RyJlIiK/
