On Law (21st after Penetcost, 25th October 2020)

Copyright Wolf Kirchmeir

O Holy Spirit, assist us we contemplate your word, that we may be enlightened by your truth. Amen.

Dear Friends in Christ,

     Today’s gospel begins with a question from a lawyer.
     Lawyers. There are lots of lawyer jokes. Jokes are often criticisms of their targets. That’s how it is with lawyer jokes.
     For example, A 50-year-old lawyer has been practising since he was 25. He dies and arrives at the Pearly Gates for judgment. The lawyer says to St. Peter, “There must be some mistake! I’m only 50 years old, that’s far too young to die.” St. Peter frowns and consults his book. “That’s funny, when we add up the hours you billed, you should be at least 83 by now!”
     Lawyers. We love to make fun of them. We love to be cynical about them. We don’t like it when lawyers insist on applying the law as written. We don’t like it when they argue that the law as written is somehow wrong. We don’t like it when they get us all tangled up in the fine print. We don’t like it when there’s no fine print to protect us. Our attitude is basically Heads I win, tails you lose. If you’re a lawyer, you can’t win. Except in court.
     I suppose one of the reasons for that attitude is that we need lawyers. Words do not have simple, single, clear meanings. People have trouble putting their intentions into simple, clear writing. Language is ambiguous and vague, and even worse, it changes over time. The laws our ancestors made often no longer apply, or can’t deal with modern situations. People change their minds about what they wanted, and go to court to change contracts. People make bad choices. People are poor planners.
     The world is not perfect, human beings in particular are not perfect. That’s why we need lawyers. That’s why we need that cumbersome machine we call the justice system, which sometimes seems to cause more damage than it repairs.
     Lawyers, laws, courts of law, the police, rules and regulations, all these remind us that we are liable to make mistakes at best, and to wish for and do evil at worst. The need for law and lawyers feels like an insult to our self-esteem. No wonder we have mixed feelings about lawyers, and that’s putting it mildly.
     I’m sure you’ve seen Peter Cavanagh’s billboard that says, Everyone hates lawyers. Until.... Yes, until we need one.

     Today’s gospel begins with a question, a question about the Law. The Pharisees had seen how Jesus had silenced the Sadducees. They were going to do better. They had a trick question to put to Jesus. They were trying to test him, and if possible to trap him. They begin by addressing Jesus as Teacher. This acknowledges that Jesus, like them, considers the Law to be God’s guide to righteous living. Understanding the Law, and applying it correctly, is essential to being a good person.
      The Jewish religious Law is recorded in the Talmud. It’s central to Judaism, because it specifies the rites and rituals that an observant Jew should perform. More importantly, it discusses the ethical questions that we all face, and how the Law applies to them. It gives guidance for the religious and personal and day-to-day life. It consists mostly of commentaries on the Torah, the five books of Moses, and commentaries on those commentaries.
     Discussion of the Law is essential. One needs to understand what the Law was, and how it applied in the past. That should lead to understanding how the Law should apply now, in the present. That’s important because things change. We change. The available choices change. How we can exercise those choices change. New options displace old ones. All this and more means we constantly have new ethical and moral questions to answer.
      There are several ways of thinking about the Law. At one extreme, we may think of the Law as a set of fixed rules. But then we have problems when the rules have nothing to say about new situations, new issues, new options. For example, our smart phones keep a log of all our calls and emails and photos and such. Very convenient for us. And also for the police. Can they search our phones? There are no generally agreed upon rules about that.
      At the other extreme we may see the Law as a way of making sense of the predicaments of what we call everyday life, so that we can figure how to do right thing. For example, the law says that if we do not take reasonable care, then an unintentional injury to someone else can make us liable for paying damages at least, and a criminal conviction at worst. For example, how much care should you take to keep the path to your front door clear of ice in the winter? What do you think?

     So the Sadducees had failed to trip up Jesus. The Pharisees decided they could do better. Their test question would work better than the one the Sadducees had asked. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?
     This is both a trick and a test. It’s a trick, because to say one commandment is the greatest would mean that all the others are less great, that they don’t matter as much. But every commandment in the Law is important, because every commandment comes from God, right? By picking one, Jesus would be showing some personal preference. But the reason for having the Law is that personal preferences are not a reliable guide to righteousness. Why obey the Law if all that really matters is what you like or don’t like? So, any answer that suggested a personal preference would be a win for the Pharisees.
      The question is also a test, because Jesus’s answer would show how well Jesus understood the Law. Why elevate some rule to the number one spot? Why not another rule? He might reveal some gap in his knowledge. He might misquote, or put the commandment into his own words. There’s lots of opportunity for error when you’re referring to a text of many hundreds of thousands of words.
      Jesus answers the question by quoting from the Talmud: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

      The first part of this Law puts God at the centre of each our lives. The second part is the Talmudic version of what’s been called the Golden Rule: Deal with others as you yourself would wish to be dealt with. Some people would like to say this is a supremely Christian Law. It’s not. First of all, it’s in the Talmud. Secondly, it’s at the centre of all the great world religions. Islam means “submission to God”, and the prime duty of a Muslim towards his fellow humans is charity. The Buddha said we must put aside the self, and exercise compassion for all things. The Hindu advises union with the Spirit that breathes life into all things, and peaceful co-operation with our fellow humans. All these are versions of the Great commandment, they are different ways of expressing the same insight.

     So where do we go from here? How does the Great Commandment apply to us here and now?
     I think it does so in several ways. Firstly, it provides the framework for relating to the world into which we are born, and in which we must find our way: Love God.
     Then it provides the framework for relating to each other in this community into which we are born, and in which we must live: Love your neighbour.
      Finally, it reminds us that we need a principle to interpret the rules so that we can apply them properly, and extend them to cover whatever new problems we face: On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. This principle is a rule about rules. It’s a law about laws. It guides interpretation and creation of the laws that we must make in our efforts to resolve conflicts, promote security and prosperity, and strengthen the community without which we cannot survive.

     No wonder the Pharisees and others no longer dared to ask Jesus any more questions. But maybe they should have. Because seeing that these two laws are central doesn’t make the work of answering the ethical and moral questions any easier.
     We may now understand the questions better, but figuring out specific answers to specific problems is still hard work. We need all the help we can get. We get that help from our traditions. We get it from the experts. We get it from each other.
     And most of all we get that help from the Spirit. We trust that we will be able to do the best we can. Any mistakes we make will be corrected, if not by us, then by someone else; and of not now, then later. As the cliche has it, the only thing that doesn’t change is change.
     Herodotus, a Greek philosopher, said you can’t step into the same river twice, for it has flowed on while you dried your feet before stepping into the water again. But by measuring our choices by the principles encoded in the Great Commandment, we can be sure that we won’t drown.

Let us pray.

Lord God, creator and law-giver, grant us such insight into your will that we may guided to do your work of love. We ask this in the name of him who embodied the Great Law in his life and death, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.