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Health & Fitness

Extra 1%

Extra 1%

Deuteronomy 30:15-20   Matthew 5:21-37                                                       

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, was conducting his "Second Annual Highly Unscientific Dilbert Survey," in which he asked this question:

 "If you had a chance to hit your boss in the back of the head with one of the following objects, with no risk of being caught, which would you use?”

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Here's how his respondents answered:



A large bean burrito -- 19 percent



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"Nerf" ball -- 17 percent



Ripe melon -- 14 percent



Framed certificate of appreciation -- 13 percent



Outdated computer you are forced to use -- 13 percent



Your last performance review, including the 600-pound filing cabinet you keep it in -- 13 percent



All your coworkers, bound by duct tape and flung from a huge catapult -- 8 percent



A Ford Pinto with a full tank of gas -- 7 percent



Adams explains why the bean burrito is the big winner: "I think the bean burrito won because it would make a really cool sound and it would be messy with or without guacamole." He observes, further, that the bean burrito may have picked up a few votes for another reason: "Over 64 percent of respondents selected a non-lethal response, knowing if their boss were injured, it would mean more work for them."

 That's how things work in the twisted universe of Dilbert. But even in the real world, you have to admit that letting out anger can be attractive.   

 

In our scripture this morning, Jesus gives us a warning about anger.  It’s not enough just to follow the commandment not to murder.   That’s a pretty easy one to avoid, hopefully.  I often find myself relieved to say after a church event – ‘well, I didn’t kill anyone!”   Anger can also be destructive.  Jesus pushes us to go deeper, to push past what is conventional, and to consider what’s happening inside our hearts: holding anger, being resentful, raging inside our own heads can be destructive.  These experiences undermine our spiritual health and erode community by alienating ourselves from others.  Push deeper, Jesus says.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us a glimpse of what he calls the Kingdom of God.  That is God is installing a new structure, a new way of living, that goes beyond external laws and basic morality. Jesus calls us to go beyond the ‘letter of the law’ – beyond rules that Moses laid down and to look to the heart – to have hearts of integrity and vision.   We are to dig down to the root, to be real and have integrity, to sincerely strive to become the person Christ calls us to be – to unite with God’s vision and purpose for our souls.   So, no bean burritos – at least not in my direction, please. 

 

It’s not enough just to live on the surface – drifting along with assumptions about how to act.  It’s not enough to just judge people on their externals, or to get seduced by talk-show hosts, or sentimental movies, or the latest fad.  It’s not enough to take for granted stereotypes or profiles or ethnic slurs.  Dig deeper, Jesus is staying.  Step up to a higher morality based on love.

 

I was recommended a book by a UCC minister friend: Raving Fans by Kenneth Blanchard.  In this parable his main character is a sales director, who is terrified for his job because client numbers are down and he has no clue how to spur his business.  Suddenly, into his office “poof!” there appears his Fairy Godmother named Charlie – yes, go figure.  Charlie teaches him how to recharge his business by creating, what he calls “Raving Fans.”  Here’s a diatribe Charlie gives to describe the problem as he sees it:

 

“Now here it is in a nutshell. Service is so awful customers expect to be abused.  Cold food in restaurants, dirty public washrooms, late deliveries, rejected parts, lost orders – it’s all normal.  Bottom line: People expect bad goods and rude service.  Give ‘em junk and they’re not surprised.  Just what they expected.  As long as the abuse isn’t any worse than they expected, they’ll be back for more.  They’re not upset. Do a survey.  Check it out and they’ll say they’re satisfied.  Satisfied cusomers.  Ha!  Satisfied sheep, that’s what I call them. The service at your company should be so good,” continued Charlie, “your customers are a revolt waiting to happen. They’re only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one else is doing any better.  Your customer service slogan should be: No Worse Than the Competition.”

 

Charlie’s point is that it is not enough nowadays, just to satisfy customers, to offer them the bare minimum.   Successful businesses need to give what customers want, plus 1%.   That little extra, that 1% is essential to get people from being OK with you, to being ‘raving fans,’ to be those who on completely in love with what you are doing.   So you need to do extra, to step up. 

 

My minister friend suggests that our churches need to try this – not just to do the ‘same old, same old,’ but to go the ‘extra mile,’ that Jesus describes. We need to offer people our sincere help, love, and presence.   We need to greet people with sincere and extravagant welcome.  We need to offer caring, the light of Christ, and the living water of the spirit – authentically, from the heart. 

 

In our scripture today Jesus is pushing us to give that extra 1%.  It’s not enough, he says in the Sermon on the Mount, to just obey the law, to fulfill the basic commandments.  In our spiritual lives we need to look deeper, to live up to the ‘spirit’ of the commandments by curbing our inner rage, lust, callousness and greed.  For Jesus, the rules are still important, but the spirit behind the rules are even more important.  It isn't just about commandments written in stone; it is about the character and law of God written on the hearts of God's people (Jeremiah 31:33). 



 

The scribes and Pharisees knew the law backward and forward, and, as the self-appointed legal conscience of Israel, they were bound and determined to make sure everyone obeyed the law to the letter. The scribes acted as lawyers for the law of Moses, and the Pharisees believed that God's kingdom would come only when the people of Israel all obeyed that law perfectly. 

The problem with that approach is that focusing on the law alone imposes limits on obedience since you only have to comply with the law and nothing more, not on the basis of compassion toward others or the needs of the community.



 

This is why Jesus drops the bombshell of a statement: "For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."   If the people thought the scribes and Pharisees had it all together because they obeyed the law to the letter, then they were missing the point. The law points to something bigger.

Jesus says: "You have heard that it was said ..." and then he pushes deeper toward compassionate, community-building intention behind it: "... but I say to you ..."   Jesus takes the old law and radicalizes it, shaking it down to the roots of the law's intent (that's what "radical" means -- the base word "radix" means "root"). Jesus is rooted in the law, but he calls his disciples to live a much deeper rootedness than the legalism of scribes and Pharisees. The Pharisees were concerned with what people did or did not do with their hands. Jesus was more concerned about what people had in their hearts and how that would translate into their relationships with people as a sign of God's new world.

 

Look at the first of these statements: "You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, 'You shall not murder'; and 'whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.'" (v. 21). "Do not murder" was one of the original Ten Command-ments; laws set in stone. Murder destroys the humanness of another, thus the law of Moses minces no words. Murder is something to be avoided, which most of us are able to do.  And yet while it's clear that we should avoid murdering the body of another, Jesus radicalizes the old commandment and goes down to its root. "But I say to you, that if you are angry with a brother or sister you will be liable to judgment." Jesus understood that the dehumanizing act of murder has its roots in the dehumanizing of another person through rage and resentment. And not only does anger dehumanize the other, it dehumanizes us, too. Every time we decide to allow anger to smolder inside of us, we become less than fully human, less than the people God created us to be. Instead of merely avoiding murder, we should embrace reconciliation, which leads to community.  It's the difference between following the rule and engaging a relationship.

 

The second statement: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (vv. 27-28). Lust dehuman-izes people into objects that we use for our own pleasure. We might avoid the physical act of adultery and thus obey the law, but forget that the emotional or psychological attachment of lust is just as destructive. Jesus here calls us not to merely avoid breaking the law but to avoid breaking the fidelity of marriage that supports community, trust, and love.    It’s not enough not to cheat, it’s better to see others as people, not just objects to use for our own pleasure. 

God's new world is characterized by faithfulness, and when we embrace fidelity in our hearts and in our relationships, we will learn how to embrace it forever. In these verses, the ethical pattern for the people of God's world emerges. It is a pattern that goes beyond the letter of the law, to the spirit of the law. It goes beyond what we do with our hands, to who we are in our hearts.   

 

Our church is now engaged in a campaign to raise funds to support our ministries for the coming year.   We’ve done this before, and without thinking much we can just give what we did last year.  We will fill out the pledge card and give as little as we can feel comfortable doing, making money our highest value, as it is in most of society.   Or, if we follow Jesus’ advice today, we can dig deeper and step up.  We might give 1% or 5% or 10% extra - to assist our church’s future vitality and ability to be the “Kingdom of God” here in this community.  We can give from our hearts and not just with our hands.

 

This Stewardship campaign is our one chance to raise enough funds to carry forward the vital ministries of this church – to keep our outreach and mission programs focused, our worship and music vibrant, our education classes sparkling, our face-to-face groups energized.   Without strong pledges, much of our ministry will wither on the vine.   With dedicated pledging, we can face our new year – starting in June – with energy and strength, bringing the Kingdom of God to life here in our families, our communities and this world.   We are offered a chance to do this season: to give from the heart, and to give the extra 1%. 

 

It’s not enough to just drift along and do the minimum, to expect that’s all that God requires.  No, God seeks our whole hearts and whole selves in authentic ministry.  So, no flinging bean burritos, no ripe melons, no Ford Pintos.   Let’s go deeper, curb anger, greed, lust, selfishness and foster compassion, integrity, generosity, and love – here, in this church, in our homes, in our hearts.

 Amen.

 

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