Built for Blessing

Last week we talked about our call to embrace our deepest identity in God, and attend to the integrity of our witness so that who we believe we are and how we act in the world are as perfectly aligned as possible.

This week our readings draw us deeper into that discussion of identity and integrity with a specific focus on matters of the law and life.

We hear the voice of Moses in Deuteronomy instructing us to choose life instead of death, which means following the “commandments, ordinances, and decrees” of God instead of chasing after other gods.

The promise is that if we do so, our lives will be marked by blessing and, if we do not, our lives will be characterized by curse.

A host of prosperity Gospel preachers have latched onto this passage, and ones akin to it, in order to convince their congregations that following in the way of God presents a clear and straightforward choice—and that the lives of those who choose life will be marked by abundant blessings—often construed as an abundance of financial, career, and love life successes.

Please hear me, I am a firm believer that choosing the life we are offered in God DOES lead us to a blessed life that is abundant in the riches that the world cannot give.

But as our own scriptural canon knows, as Jesus explains in today’s Gospel, and as the witness of our own lives testify to each one of us, choosing to follow God with integrity does not always lead to the prosperity these preachers promise.

Our Jewish ancestors in faith wrestled with this whole blessing and curse motif throughout the Old Testament, but nowhere more pointedly than in the book of Job.

Bad things can and do happen to good people, and choosing affiliation with the orders and institutions that speak for God is no guarantee that one will not suffer.

Jesus’ words today in the Gospel, which follow the “Blessed are you” sections from Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, are intended for those who are seeking the level of spiritual maturity regarding observance of the law that Paul speaks of in his Epistle to the Corinthians.

When we first hear the call of God to choose life—I mean truly hear it in the way that inspires the conversion and reorientation of our lives—it is as if we have been welcomed into the magnificent home of God.

The contrast between how we lived outside and how we live under the roof of the Almighty is stark, and often we are so thrilled by that new life that we become zealous in defending the doors of the building.

We pay great attention to following the rules and enforcing them with others, because they are the rules of the road that helped us enter God’s home.

We should take great care not to discourage or turn away a zealous, new convert to the way of life—because without them the message of life that we proclaim would not reach new generations beyond the boundaries of our earthly lives.

And yet, if we encourage the members of our body to REMAIN simply zealous gatekeepers and within the surface level of conversion that characterizes new faith, we are doomed.

Paul, a new convert himself, encourages the Corinthians to move from the spiritual milk of simple observance of the law, marked by quarreling and disagreements over surface concerns, to the solid food of a deeper engagement with the law and one another.

Jesus’ discussion of the law moves from satisfying the exterior elements of the ordinances that give life to attending to the roots and foundations of sin that give rise to the need for laws in the first place.

The life that comes from the observance of the law doesn’t arise from simply avoiding murder and infidelity, or coming up with clever ways to divorce your spouse that satisfy the letter of the law.

Abundant life arises from our attention to the seeds of division that are planted and watered in our own hearts and homes.

The prosperity we know as resurrection life is made manifest when we observe the two greatest commandments— Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself—as an invitation to deeper levels of mature exploration and understanding.

Like a great home or church building, those who are called to care for them have to keep them free of dust and debris on a regular basis.

That is the bare minimum of care that is required to sustain life.

But if stewards and caregivers only attend to surface cleaning and neglect any rot in the walls or creeping plants threatening the very foundations, the house and church will soon be unable to stand.

Jesus, and his apostle Paul, are asking what the prophets did before them, namely that the people of God choose to live into the deeper calling to partner with the Lord in the mending of the world—by observing both the letter and the spirit of the law.

And accepting that call leads to the richest blessings that God offers.

At times our fidelity to this call will put us at odds with others, but we never wish to make an idol of our divisions that might keep us from reconciliation.

At times our journey will be marked by feast, at times by famine—at times we will know what it is to be rich, at times what it means to be poor—at times we will know the harmony of healthy relationships, at times the sting of divorce and love’s dissolution.

The promise of life that is offered to us in Christ is not that we will lead an easy life, a long life, nor a prosperous one.

The promise is that we will live an authentic and abundant one—gathered together as members of the same body— “working together; as God’s field, as God’s building.”

We have been built for blessing, and to serve as true channels of reconciliation, we must choose to grow together in this lifetime in the way that Christ taught and revealed.

As God continues to draw us into deeper levels of personal and communal maturity, while we remain connected and committed to the mission of Christ, the life that we have chosen will choose us back and we will truly begin to live “in the land that the Lord swore to give to our ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

In a land that does not need defending from earthly enemies because the Lord is its ever-vigilant guardian—a land that responds to our careful tending with infinite fertility—and a land whose mature foundations may yet give shape to and transform our countries, communities, and church today.