More Than Words Or Rules
23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Matthew 22:34-46 (Oct. 23, 2011)
I am going to ask you to wrestle with three questions this morning.
Firstly, if I ask you to describe a person that you love deeply to someone else, how would you do that (turn to someone else and tell them now). I am giving you 2 minutes, 1 minute for each of you to speak and then 1 minute for you to listen)
Discuss that process. How did you do that - describe one person you love to another person? Did you list their physical attributes? If so, did you describe them now, or the way they looked 5 years ago, 10 years ago, or when you first met them? Did you list their emotional attributes, their spiritual attributes? Did you talk about what they do for you and for others?
Secondly, if I ask you to describe how you show love to that person whom you love, what kinds of things would you say? (Do this in the larger group)
Thirdly, if I ask you to describe what it means FOR YOU TO LOVE GOD, what kinds of things would you say? (Do this in the larger group) (Pause)
At times we are a people who like to think that we have a handle on things – that realities in life can be reduced to formulas or ideas. Once we have THE FORMULA or THE IDEA, then we have it made.
So, some Pharisees, that group of Jewish people who at the time of Jesus devoted their lives to keeping God's law, had one of their members, one whom the text refers to as "a lawyer" approach Jesus. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Now we need to know there were 613 commandments in the law divided into 365 prohibitions, one for everyday of the year, and 248 positive commands, one for every bone in the body. So which one is the greatest?
Christ responds directly from what Christians refer to as the Old Testament. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind". Perhaps the lawyer Pharisee is nodding to himself. But Christ continues. "This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'. "
Now the Pharisee would not likely be nodding to himself. Loving God: tithing, making sure that he was ritually clean, he had been working at that. But loving his neighbor? He couldn't do that and continue to be ritually clean. How could two such seemingly diverse things fit together?
Christ's commands apply not only for some Pharisees long ago and far away but also for us. These 2 commands – to love God and to love our neighbor are like a door and hinge. They belong to together.
Love God with our minds, our very beings – and in Mark's words our might – that is our economic and reputational resources. Yes, LOVE. It's a word that is much maligned and misunderstood. We often think about love as a feeling, an internal, personal experience. So we say, "I love my dog. I love football. I love my wife, my husband, my children. What does Christ mean when He commands us to love? Can love even be commanded?
Importantly the Greek has 3 different words for the English word "love". There is eros – physical, sexual attraction. There is filia – friendly, liking, hanging out, sometimes even a mutual caring. Finally there is agapay: unselfish caring and active commitment to the other person.
Guess which one of these 3 words Christ employs in responding to the Pharisaic lawyer? That's right – agapay – unselfish caring and active commitment to the other person. Such a command taken seriously is difficult, even impossible.
For Christ is saying – one cannot separate love, unselfish and caring commitment to God, from unselfish and uncaring commitment to others. The two flow together. They are not identical – but love for God leads to, results in, is fleshed out by this unselfish care and commitment to and for others.
Where does this leave us? I suspect in at least 2 places. Firstly, Christ's command leaves us with a grand, a great vision, a dream. There is a call: ALL are worthwhile, ALL are to be loved in this way. This is a call, a demand, a dream WORTHY OF OUR ALL. It is also a call that leads us far beyond liking someone, or even having warm fuzzy feelings about them. The best illustration I can use for this is the love my parents have had for me, all my life. They have often not liked me- but they have remained committed to caring for me, sacrificing for me, caring about me. Whether I liked them or not is beside the point. Sometimes even whether they liked me or not is beside the point. This love that Christ commands transcends feelings.
Secondly, in Christ's command we are also confronted with our short comings. As one of our daughters said to me when she was only 8 or 9 years old: "Dad, you don't always love others the way Jesus does – you don't always even love me."
It was like she had taken a knife and thrust it into my heart. Why? Because she was and is absolutely right. She speaks the truth. From the midst of my pain, I had to wonder at the honesty and insight of this little girl who knew and knows me so well. Because I do not always so love even my own daughters, I need forgiveness. I need their forgiveness. I also need God's forgiveness. Not so that I can go on the way I always have but forgiveness so that I can begin again and again from God's love in my life to work at so loving each of them.
We need to be careful about formulas, ideas and certainty when it comes to God and even to others. God can never be limited to descriptions, even wonder-filled words. Our lives as followers of the Christ must not be limited to or defined by following rules and regulations, even though there are rules and commands. Nor can our living faith ever be defined merely by feelings or experiences.
In becoming human in Jesus, in sending the Holy Spirit to us and among us, God gives us glimpses of God's self, of the wonderfully real mystery we refer to as "God". God works to love us unselfishly, completely. God seeks the best for us, for all people, for creation. From God's active concern we are called to obey God, to work at loving others and therefore also ourselves. Sometimes, even when we are trying with all our might to so love, we still fail, even miserably.
But God does not stop loving us or others or creation. We see and experience this reality in Jesus' life, suffering, death and resurrection. We may even sense such love as the love of Christ is conveyed in the Sacraments and hopefully even in my thoughts and words here on Sunday mornings. In Christ we hope, dream, and attempt to love as we are being loved by Him. What a dream. What a vocation worthy of our lives. Amen.