The sermon for October 15 was based on Matthew 22:34-46.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Abraham Lincoln, old Honest Abe, is once said to have asked this. "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog?" The correct answer, of course, is four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't actually make it a leg! Our words don't have that kind of power. Only God can make something true just by saying so. We have greatly and dangerously exaggerated the power of our words.

We Americans burst onto the world scene with a bold Declaration of Independence written in fiery letters and signed in the most permanent of ink and now the citizens of the greatest nation in history have become afraid of their own words. The kind of passionate proclamation that characterized the patriotism of our Founding Fathers would be considered hate speech by the goofy and gullible people of our day. Too many people in our nation have become so weak and effeminate that every time someone tells them what they think they claim to have been verbally abused. There was a time when people used to teach their children to sing "Sticks and stones can break my bone but words can never hurt me." Today we teach them that its as bad or worse to be called a name as it is to be beaten. We have completely lost our way.

We have become so obsessed with the way people talk to us that we don't even pay attention to what they are saying. We have made style the equal to substance and we have diminished ourselves in the process. The Buddha is famous for having said this about human speech. "Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world." We hear a statement like that and we think to ourselves, "Yeah, that sounds about right, true and kind, sounds like a good combination." And I agree. But what happens when the truth is unkind? What happens when the truth is painful to say and even harder to hear? What happens when truth and kindness collide? Which is the more important?

To the Buddhist, the answer is kindness, of course. And it would seem that modern Americans have more in common with that fat little idol than they do with Jesus Christ. It is almost a creed among modern people that we are not ever to say anything that makes someone else feel bad, as if we were responsible for the feelings experienced by others. Put another way, we judge the virtue of a mans speech by the way it makes us feel instead of by how accurate and truthful it was. If a guys words make me feel good then he gave a good speech. If he makes me feel bad then he gave a bad speech. Some of the more flighty among us will even judge the man himself by how we feel about him. If he makes me feel good he is good if he makes me feel bad he is bad. This is completely irrational to say nothing of being utterly unbiblical, godless even.

It is one of the great temptations of well-meaning people the world over to value emotions more than truth. It is the hallmark of our age and the very definition of a sin called pietism. When this dread of words creeps into the Church it does the same kind of damage to the Bride of Christ that it does in the homes of our countrymen. It tears apart the fabric of the family. Where truth is supplanted with anything, especially something as irrelevant as feelings, it leaves the whole community in state of instability and discord. But it happens all the time even to us.

Why should people who have achieved so much and been so passionate in one thing or another be so easily intimidated by mere words. Guilt. The one thing that a guilty conscience cannot stand is the truth. A man who is lazy hears the word lazy as an assault on his very soul. The weak and ineffective woman receives those words like a knife through the heart. The dishonest person simply cannot stand to be called anything even remotely like dishonest. Nothing is more abhorrent to a guilty coincidence than the truth. If guilty people can pass a law to limit the ability of their fellow men to tell the truth to and about them you know they will. If guilty people can label the facts as hate speech or verbal abuse you know they will. If guilty people can control the words of their fellow men they will make every effort to do so. Such has been the long and tyrannical history of mankind. Only a people fully committed to truth and willing to admit their own failures would ever, ever write laws ensuring the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and the freedom of religion. Men who are confident in the power of the truth can't be bothered with the pettiness of another's way of speech, men of sound consciences and good character are only interested in the truth of what is being conveyed. They can wrestle with the facts using whatever words seem best suited to the moment and remain focused on the pursuit of truth. Such was once the vigor of American men. Such must be the quality of every Christian.

Solomon, it is to be observed, did not ask God for a silver tongue or a way with words. He asked God for wisdom, knowledge and judgment, the most valuable earthly tools of any truly honest man. God was pleased with Solomon's request and granted him unparalleled wisdom. In his proverbs and in his psalms and in famous Canticle he talks about all kinds of things. He warns against speaking with needless venom and he warns against being overly gentle. Always though, he extols the value of wisdom and the necessity of dealing exclusively with the truth.

St. Paul, likewise, in this morning's Epistle, does not thank God that the Corinthians had become such gentle speakers or soft-spoken people but rather, he praises God, the they have been "enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge." In short, St. Paul gives thanks that God spoke the truth to the Corinthians. And if you've ever read the letters to the Corinthians you know that St. Paul wasn't always gentle with them. He wasn't as hard on them as he was the Galatians but he was certainly no pussy cat. The truth is all that matters.

Jesus is famous for many things and His ministry on earth had many facets but He is not known for being especially soft-spoken. He saves his verbal meekness for His passion wherein words will have become largely irrelevant. While He preaches, He is a firebrand and trouble-maker. Jesus is least gentle when proclaiming and defending the Word of God. He is content to let us figure out for ourselves whether the world is round or flat and whether it is the sun that moves around the earth or the other way around. He is absolutely insistent about Holy Scripture.

Jesus' dealings with the Pharisees today is fairly tame by New Testament standards but it would still be considered manipulative by many of today's Oprah watchers. The Pharisees come looking for Jesus to tell them what the most important commandments are. They, of course, have an agenda, if Jesus doesn't say what they expect Him to say, then they can accuse Him of heresy. If He says, what they know He will, what is recorded for us in today's Gospel, they can go home feeling good about themselves because they think they do those things. They want to feel good.

Jesus isn't going to let them feel good though, is He. Just as He humiliated the Sadducees, He humiliates the Pharisees. He sets them up by saying exactly what they expect, that the Law above all laws is love, first for God and secondarily for the neighbor. But just as they are about to sink into that warm self-righteous feeling of satisfaction, Jesus turns the tables on them. He asks them what they think about the Christ. Just when they though the conversation was over He pulls a Columbo on them and asks that one question that changes everything. As He leads them through the conversation that follows He makes plain that it what one believes about Jesus that is central to salvation and not what one does. We are saved by faith, not by works, let alone feelings. We are saved by believing what Jesus says about Himself and us.

Very often Jesus says what He says in ways the make us feel terrible. Very often Jesus says what He says in ways that make us feel wonderful. Fortunately for us it doesn't matter how we feel. All that matters is what Jesus says. He says we're sinners and we can barely stand to hear it. He says were forgiven and we scarcely keep from shouting for joy. As long as we believe it we're O.K. Faith not feelings is the basis of our relationship to Jesus.

Giving communion to everyone who asks for it will make them feel good and it would be the seemingly kind thing to do. Jesus says that to do so would make many of those people guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord and subject them to damnation. Kindness, in the way that we have come to define it in our times, is simply no substitute for the Truth. People feel good when their sins are excuses or dismissed as being something other than sin. It seems a kindness to tell someone who is upset that they have every right to be angry or vengeful or at odds with the will of God even when they aren't and don't. But to steer people away from the clear and express Word of God just to make them feel better is the farthest thing from kindness. Only the Truth can liberate us from the shackles of our sin.

We cannot find peace or contentment so long as we waste our energy ignoring substance and quarreling about style. Trying to control how people talk to you is the very embodiment of guilt and insecurity. It is a sure sign that your are struggling against the Word of God. Jesus was content to let people address Him in any number of ways because He was always supremely confident in His connection to God the Father. It is the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herod and Pilate who are obsessed with being honored and respected in their discourses.

Tranquility comes from being one with God and from having the same will as God our Father. That kind of tranquility isn't afraid of language because a person who is one with God isn't afraid of the truth. A believer has no reason to be afraid of the truth. If the truth is that he has sinned, he is forgiven and he knows it and can therefore readily admit his sin. If the truth is that he is in the right, he has no reason to fear vindication. If you are one of those people who is trying to control the words of other people you need to look inside and see whether or not you might not be at odds with the Word of God. His are the Words you are really afraid of. If you are refusing to admit your guilt then you will only get more law. But if you are aware of your sin and ready to admit it and leave it with Jesus, then you will only be told that you are forgiven and that all is well between you and your Creator. To everyone who is repentant I say, You are forgiven. Amen.

The Peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Last Updated: 5/27/2009