The Great Commandment - LOVE 11-3-24
The Great Commandment – LOVE
Deut 6:1-9; Mark 12:38-34
Deut 6:1-9
Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, so that you and your children and your children’s children, may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Mark 12:28-34
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
Prayer – There are no other commandments greater than these – to love the Lord with everything we have and to love our neighbor – and still they are so very difficult to embody and live. Remind us this day that these commandments are more than guidelines for the journey; they are daily decisions to love and to act with justice, humility and gratitude. Grant us the courage to be as faithful to loving as you do – amen.
Mark was a gifted storyteller and managed his short gospel narrative craftily. From the opening reference to a scribe – during Jesus’ first public action – to the final position of this group mocking the dying Jesus, none would have predicted the story of our gospel passage this morning. The scribes, as a character group in Mark’s story, were intimately involved in the conspiracy to kill Jesus. This lasting impression fills the minds of most hearers making it difficult to hear any potentially neutral story about any member of the scribes – and yet that is what we have this morning.
Our gospel passage this morning falls within a series of conversations between Jesus and various religious and community leaders residing in Jerusalem. This was the final discussion initiated by one of these leaders, since no one ‘dared to ask him a question’ after this encounter.
The mention of a dispute in the beginning of our passage recalls the previous story in which Jesus held a theological conversation with the Sadducees over the belief in resurrection. The scribe in our passage apparently shared Jesus’ position, so he must have been a scribe associated with the Pharisees. In Matthew’s parallel passage he described this character as a lawyer from among the Pharisees.
Jesus debates the religious leaders throughout the Gospel narratives. Our first century scribe, lawyer, whatever, asked a question that wasn’t uncommon in theological debates during the first century. “Which commandment is greatest?” he asked Jesus. Jesus drew upon his Jewish roots to answer, citing the Shema, to love God with all of one’s heart, mind and strength. He drew from Leviticus as the second part of the love commandment. Jesus’ understanding of love was grounded in loving the other as an expression of loving God – and the scribe agreed. It is possible that neither Jew – Jesus nor the scribe – could imagine one kind of love without the other.
Part of the shock of this story was the agreement of the Jerusalem scribe. Throughout Mark’s gospel, the scribes were always evaluating Jesus’ words and activities. They judged Jesus theologically, charging him with blasphemy because he forgave someone’s sins; they busted Jesus’ chops for eating with sinners; they questioned his disciples lack of hand-washing; they probed the authority in which he did everything; they wanted to kill Jesus because of his popularity among the non-elite; thus, working with Judas to betray him and eventually assembling a trial and crucifixion for this man they just couldn’t control. Near the end of the story, they – the betraying neighbors of Jesus stood by and mocked him on the cross.
But this one scribe decided to engage Jesus. Further, the scribe took it one step beyond by adding that this kind of love was ‘more important than . . . sacrifices,’ a conclusion, in this setting that seemed to be an implicit temple critique. Did this scribe have an anti-Temple bias? To be clear, Jesus didn’t advocate the ceasing of ‘offerings or sacrifices.’ Rather, Jesus believed in ‘love’ for God and neighbor as a priority over physical, religious sacrifices. Indeed, no Jew, or non-Jew for that matter, could imagine religion without animal sacrifices. So, the agreement between Jesus and the scribe is another surprising twist found in Mark’s gospel.
Love God; love neighbor. Jesus’ greatest words have influenced Christian theology accordingly. But the context of this story is often forgotten. This was a story about an agreement between Jesus, Mark’s lead protagonist, and a scribe, a group member of Jesus’ leading archenemies. And this moment of harmony found in Mark’s gospel has forced me to take a pause – particularly in our cultural and religious context of 2024. Stories like this one, rare as they are within the Christian canon, must drive us to become more willing to open up to the other, including the faithful people within our own religious tradition and those who are not.
When I look at our cultural and religious context, I see a significant amount of religious diversity scattered across the lens of our world. Some of that religious diversity I respect and accept readily – progressive, Native American, Judaism, Buddhism, to name just a few. Some religious diversity I don’t like, especially any religion that is grounded in certitude – certainty that their way is the only way which leaves no place for mystery or even faith. Some of the cultural diversity I respect and accept readily while there is a rather significant part of our current cultural landscape that I don’t like – the nationalistic and hateful rhetoric that seems to be the lead story on the nightly news every day.
How do I, how do we as people of faith, embody love for God in a world that seems even more divisive and hateful than just a few years ago? How do we, how do I show love to people who espouse everything that I detest about human behavior – blaming, shaming, abusive, scapegoating, differentiating words that set us against each other that doesn’t reflect any sense of love as Christ loved? How do I, how do we stand tall in a forest of hatred, loving God and loving our neighbor? How do we, how do I live out loving God and loving my neighbor?
I will be honest with you – I have a much easier time loving God than I do far too many of my neighbors. Even in those dark nights of my soul when I wondered where God was in the murky, messy, devastating moments of my life, there has always been a spark of a reminder that God does not, will not abandon and forget me, or you, or any of God’s beloved children. Doesn’t mean that there aren’t moments when I, when we, when any of us haven’t felt alone in this world. When I look into the eyes of my grandchildren, the eyes of my dog, the eyes of my wife, the eyes of any number of you and others, I frequently see God’s reflection in those eyes and it is easy to love God.
Loving my neighbor is much, much harder. This past week I was having lunch with a good friend of mine, an attorney. She shared with he that her son who is now in his early 20’s is transgender, i.e., Ethan is now Lilly. We talked about his struggles with his identity, the challenges that have been present his entire life around his sexual identity. I asked her how she is dealing with every thing and she shared a recent experience when the two of them went to local political talk. Before the talk the two of them were looking for a restroom and she noted that he has begun choosing the ‘Family Restroom.’ As my friend was standing in line and her ‘daughter’ went into the Family restroom, a lady was standing beside her and made several homophobic comments with sheer hatred on her face and in her voice. My friend was mortified – not with her child, but the woman’s response towards her child. My friend ‘gets’ the difficulty in loving a neighbor who espouses such hate towards her now daughter. It is hard to love someone as neighbor who demonstrates such hate.
Further, I have to say that I never learned to love my neighbor in church. I learned about loving my neighbor as a hospital chaplain. I learned about loving my neighbor in the ER, in the ICU, wherever human pain and suffering took place. In those places I didn’t care if they were Republican or Democrat, Christian, Jew, Muslim or None, I didn’t care if they spoke English or some other language, I didn’t care if they were white, black, brown or purple with green polka dots. I learned that neighborly love is about sharing in the present moment with care and compassion – love and that is what matters most.
I share those things with you because Jesus’ commandment to love has to matter for those of us who say we are Christian, whether that is loving God or loving our neighbor. It is not just some pie in the sky wishful divine proclamation. There are some things I do; you do, each day that reflects our love for God. Sighing deeply at a sunrise or sunset, watching with gratitude as our pets run around and frolic, engaging and protecting our creation, speaking out against injustice and oppression, standing up for our neighbor who happens to speak a different language or has a different color of skin.
You and I both love our neighbors in some incredible ways – the Food Pantry, providing Christmas gifts for the children through Common Ground, sharing worship space with our Thai brothers and sisters as well as with a Hispanic faith community, recognizing and welcoming our neighbors regardless of any differences.
Perhaps the lesson for our gospel passage this morning is that we are commanded to love God and love our neighbors. Our challenge is to love our neighbors as God does, to love when it is hard to do so. And perhaps we can agree that there are some neighbors who despite our most divine desire, are difficult to love – and for those neighbors – maybe we can let God love them because I can imagine that at some time in my life, and maybe yours, I was that unlovable neighbor – and God loved me even then too.
Our challenge from Jesus’ commandment is to actually embody love of God and love of neighbor as well, every single day, even when it is beyond imaginable to love an unlovable neighbor – all the while trusting that God’s love can manage when we can’t. Jesus tells us clearly and unequivocally in the great commandment that our task is to love, God and neighbor. May God help us to do so – amen.