31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

            At the city and state level we have some comical laws.  This past week I did some intense research on some around our area.  First—a couple from Brainerd.  I actually visited Brainerd yesterday and these were verified by the good citizens there.  Did you know that in Brainerd it is legally considered a riot if there are three or more people standing on a street corner?  Or, in Brainerd it is illegal for an adult male not to have a beard.  I wasn’t arrested yesterday because of my beard, but I worry for Fr. Rich if he were to visit there.  I don’t think permanent five o’clock shadows count as a beard.  Closer to home, in Duluth it is illegal to tease a skunk.  Talk about adding insult to injury.  If you choose to tease a skunk, not only will you smell rotten for a couple of weeks but also you supposedly could be fined.  And for those of you who have had a temptation to allow an animal to sleep in a bakery here in town, don’t do it.  This, too, is illegal.  I point out some of our comical laws as an example of how our human laws will never be perfect.  It is interesting to think which laws people fifty or a hundred years from now will get a chuckle out of.

            Yet throughout our history some of our societies have had egregiously wrong laws.  Consider the Mayans, who centuries ago sacrificed children.  Or the Nazis who persecuted and killed Jews by the millions in horrendous ways.  In our own country we have had slavery, nearly exterminated American Indians and didn’t allow women to vote—all of which were backed by civil law.  Even now you can kill a human baby in the womb through abortion, but if you destroy a bald eagle’s egg you will face a stiff fine and possible jail time.  While it is good for us to attempt to provide order in our society, our human laws are never perfect and they never will be.

The only perfect law is God’s law.  And we hear the heart of this law this morning in Deuteronomy: Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord alone!  Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.  Jesus affirms this as the greatest commandment and adds that the second greatest law is to love our neighbors as ourselves.

We are to follow God’s law first, and hopefully this is complemented by our societal regulations.  Yet when there is a contradiction, we must follow God’s law first.  This is exactly why we see as heroes those men and women who hid Jews during the Holocaust, or provided refuge and support for runaway slaves in our own country—both of which were illegal.

In the Gospel we also have the seemingly brown-nosing scribe who regurgitates Jesus’ teaching and says He is right.  Jesus answers this man and tells him he is not far from the kingdom of heaven.  Note that Jesus did not say he had achieved the kingdom of heaven but is on his way.  I suspect that Jesus affirmed this man’s knowledge, while encouraging the scribe to act on the two greatest laws.

We are called to live out God’s law in many different ways.  In particular, we have the chance on Tuesday to vote.  Please do.  And when you fill that ballot out, remember the laws we should abide by and which our country should strive to emulate—love God with all our heart, soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.  Prayerfully consider the candidates and their positions and how they will impact our city, state and national government.  Vote on Tuesday and vote well.