TAKES ON LAW – UH OH’S!

The title of my homily is, “Takes On Law. Uh Oh’s,”
 
Laws, statutes, decrees, commandments, are the theme of today’s first reading – for this Wednesday in the 3^rd Week of Lent. Here in the Book of Deuteronomy – today’s first reading – they are bragging that Israel’s laws are the best of any nation in all the world.
 
Today’s first reading says to brag about our laws. Don’t let them slip from your memory. Teach them to your children and your children’s children.
 
Today’s gospel  from Matthew has Jesus saying, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.” [Cf, Matthew 5: 17-19]
 
It adds that we better not let the smallest letter  - or the smallest part of a letter of the law – pass out of the Law.
 
Now a problem – a pause – something to think about.
 
Whenever we have this gospel reading I feel an, “Uh oh!”   It says, “You better not let anyone break one of the commandments of the law. If you do so, you’ll be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”
 
My “Uh oh!” comes from all those new testament comments from Paul about not letting the law take away our freedom.
 
My “Uh oh!” comes from all those comments from Jesus about using the law as a way of not loving or serving one another.”
 
My “Uh oh!” comes from thinking we can control God by our keeping a law.
 
My “Uh oh!” comes from when we use laws to control things – especially mainly for our own convenience.
 
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan which we heard in a talk here last night, two people – a priest and a Levite – keep the law by not stopping to help the guy who was beaten up. The Samaritan stops to help the injured man.  Samaritans and Jews had laws not to deal with each other.
 
Jesus told that parable to answer the Lawyer’s question on what he had to do to gain eternal life.  The law said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
 
We need Laws. We need love. We’re seeing on television and the news Putin breaking all kinds of laws – international laws – written and unwritten laws – and he hopefully will be judged and condemned at the Hague – their courts – for war crimes.  We need laws. We need laws for protection – for hedges (a Hebrew metaphor for law) – for markings – for boundaries.
 
We had on television yesterday – the hearings on Judge Ketantji Brown Jackson. It was to look at her skills and expertise on laws and the constitution. People viewing the confirmation hearings can make a judgment – can be a judge - and see through and pick up the nuances of negativity and nastiness and capture the purpose of those who will vote against her or for her.
 
Law is important – but it needs to include the Golden Rule and justice and conscience and honesty – love and concern and care for each other.
 
Law is also complicated – so we need to have hearings and courts and honesty of deliberations – to know and to discover the nuances and as many sides of the question as possible.
 
That’s the stuff we need to hope for and praise when we see it – and hear it – as we get trials underway and when we weigh the law.