There’s a scene in a River runs through it, where the older brother is being homeschooled by his Father. He hands him a piece of writing, the father takes out his red one makes notes and hands it back with the corrections and says, half as long. The boy exhales, looking dejected, comes back again after who knows how long having worked on it, again the father takes out his red pen, marks it up, hands it back and says again, half as long. On the third try, the father reads it, doesn’t mark it up, hands it back and says “Good, now throw it away.”
(SCENE-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA-sEfXOaEQ)
Some of us may have had fathers like that. Many of us have had teachers like that. And we all remember them. We remember them as tough. Tough teachers were just that, tough in the moment, but we remember them for a reason. Tough teachers held us to a higher standard. They required us to dig deep and do better. Again and again.
In college, when 30 of us actors entered Joe Stockdale’s class for Theatre History, we last a week. After our first paper, which was nothing more than an introduction to who we were, where we had been, how we got there, that kind of thing….He kicked us allot of his lass and required that we go take Expository Writing 101 and come back next semester, because as he put it, not one of us knew how to write a complete sentence. I still can’t always write a complete sentence but nw I have people like Beth to send things to and she marks it up with red highlights on her computer.
But the tough teacher I remember most was Mr Talbot Thayer….Who taught highschool Choir. The first thing he did was to make sure we belonged there by weeding out the kids who took choir because they thought it would be easy. It wasn’t easy. Anything worthwhile is rarely easy, including our faith journey. Mr Thayer taught us the art of waiting. We would sing our alto part and then we waited. We waited until every other section practiced theirs. And there was no talking or even doing anything else, not even reading, you were to sit there, and listen to each of the sections learn their part, painstakingly slow process for a 15 year old, but in the end, when it came together, we created music, entire Masses in latin, we made an album, we won awards, and we learned what it meant to have a strong work ethic, what it meant to have self discipline and what it meant to collaborate. Like the father in the scene you saw, he expected we could do better. And when the performance was over, we moved on to the next thing. Just like that. Not by note, we were good, but we were expected to do better.
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Many called Jesus Rabbi, meaning teacher. And at times he’s tough. You’re good, he says. And you can do better, he says. We generally don’t think of Jesus as tough. We have a tendency to oversimplify Jesus, to domesticate him as some call it. We tend to think of Jesus the way we introduce him to children, Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so…Little ones to this belong, they are weak, but He is strong. He is strong.
To be strong comes with an enormous responsibility and it includes expecting more from ones pupils. To affirm their goodness yes, and then to expect more and hold them to a higher standard.
In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking to his disciples, and they aren’t new to God, the disciples were good students, had been following God for some time, and they new the laws, they followed the laws. And Jesus is saying, good, now do it again, only do it better.
- You don’t murder, good. But you can do better… You should also be keeping hatred in check.
- You don’t commit adultery, good, but you can do better…. You shouldn’t be objectifying others
- You follow the letter of the law regarding divorce, good… But you shouldn’t treat people as disposable and you should make sure that the most vulnerable -- women and children -- are provided for.
- You don’t swear or lie, good… But not good enough…you should speak and act truthfully in all of your
This entire section is about how we should be relating to one another. The law is good. But we can do better, he says. And that’s as true today as it was then.
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It’s one thing to follow the rules, but when we follow the rules in one area of our life and then make some lousy choices in other areas, it’s not enough. It’s not enough to follow the law, we also have to keep in check what’s in our heart and how we treat those around us. And why? It’s for your own good: that is, it’s for your own goodness. The good that’s in us, given to us by God, at birth, but we’re also born with another ability, some call this evil, born with good in us on the one hand on evil on the other… but as Rabbi Stacy Friedman once said in a sermon, I don’t like the word evil, I prefer to say we’re born on the one hand good, and on the other, not so good.
Our goodness is like anything else that is living and breathing. It needs water and light. It needs nurturing and sometimes it needs discipline. It’s for our own good when God gets tough and says, that’s not enough, you can do better, and you should, for your own good, and the good of those around you, which for Jesus are one and the same thing. Love God, love others. (Matthew 22:37-39) Love one another as I’ve loved you. (John 15:12) Treat others the way you want to be treated. (Luke 6:31) We can do always do better. And it’s for our own good. Collectively.
Sirach…16 and 17…
He has placed before you fire and water:
stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.
Before a Man (and woman) are life and death,
and whichever he chooses will be given to him.
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NY Times columnist David Brooks wrote an article this week….titled, This is How Scandinavia Got Great, The Power of Educating the Whole Person.
In the article he writes about generations of a phenomenal educational policy that began in the 19th century.
First, it comes with the recognition that if a country is to prosper, it means educating the least educated among them. And learning doesn’t stop, it’s lifelong learning and becomes a part of the natural fabric of society.
We think of education in this country as reading writing, arithmetic, biology., but in Scandinavian countries, “to educate a person means “the complete moral, emotional, intellectual and civic transformation of the person.”
And there’s a focus on understanding “the relations between things — between self and society, between a community of relationships in a family and a town.”
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That’s the kind of education Jesus is teaching, one that takes into account the personal responsibility towards all relationships, God and self, self and family, friends, society, and ultimately all of humanity.….. It’s kingdom building, and it’s good to follow the law, but it’s more than the law….and we can do better.
For our own good and the goodness of those around us. Showing up at church is good, but it’s not good enough. What we do here, what we practice here, what we receive here, should be taken out there.
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The values we exhibit, the choices we make as Christians should reflect the values of our lord and savior. Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so, but not always in the way we'd like. He holds us to a higher standard and he holds this country to higher standards of decency and kindness than we’ve been exhibiting.
We’ve lost sight of what it means to do the right thing. The stand-up thing. The morally good thing. The just thing. Righteousness was never about us, and always about God. Our country was built on it. Even our currency reflects this.
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The next time you look at a dollar bill, look at the back. In 1935 the pyramid was added with an eye. Some call the eye the evil eye. Others call it the eye of God, looking over us, as a country, with the image of a pyramid, because the pyramids are seen as lasting throughout all ages, and some say the pyramid is unfinished, on purpose as a reminder that we’re never finished as a country, that we can do better, we’re meant to do better. And this eye, is one of choice, between good and not so good. Choose good.
For your own good, and the good of others.
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Jesus spoke to the common beliefs or laws knitted into the fabric of a society; You’ve heard it said, but I say to you…Hear this morning’s scripture as translated into a poem by Christopher Burkett,
You have heard it was said
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks
Your learning of life dulled by your age.
But I say to you
the tree grows until its dying day,
living is learning,
experience and the new
knocking on each other,
making discipleship true.
For if you know only yesterday’s answer,
where will you meet
the risen Christ anew?
You have heard it was said
A friend in need is a friend indeed
Your action spurred by trouble or demand.
But I say to you
an ally anticipates,
knows before the alarm
the urge to empathy,
the need to act
and intervene for the good.
For if you wait for the call — hesitant, reserved --
can the name ‘friend’
be a true title to you?
You have heard it was said
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Your imagination held tight by what is.
But I say to you
a better way there may be
sight isn’t vision,
what’s comfortable can be a sham,
how things are
excludes too much.
For if you let what is be all…
where do you see
the Kingdom’s changing call?