Love and the Law

Read Matthew 5.21-37 Sixth Sunday After Epiphany Let me start this morning by asking a question. What do you think of when you think of God? What picture comes to mind when you imagine what God is like? I suspect that most of us carry around a picture of God or, in some sense, a view of what we think God is like. It’s a view that profoundly shapes what we expect from God. It’s a view of how we feel about our faith and perhaps even how we think about each other. A typical person or, for that matter, a typical congregational member, in some part or maybe even a significant portion, would picture God as an enforcer of rules. Or God as a law-giver. Or God as the one sitting in heaven with a perpetual finger upraised in a warning and perhaps accusation.