A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, October 26, 2008
Matthew 22:34-40
I think it’s human nature to seek balance – to recognize our need for push and pull, work and leisure, self and others. But balance seems to elude us.
Do you remember the claims many years ago that computers would make our work life easier; that we could work fewer hours and get more done; that there would be more time for leisure and family and simply not working? Hrumph! Over the past 25 years technology has boosted productivity by 70%, but average work weeks are getting longer for a startling number of Americans.{ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_40/b3953601.htm}
Balance eludes us. So we keep asking questions of deeper meaning; in every generation we wrestle with the questions of what the meaning of life really is, and how we can make a difference, and what kind of legacy we might leave.
As I experience our life together, both in the church, in the community, in our home and my own soul, I think we keep asking what matters most in our busy, often frenzied lives. Yes, the urgent sometimes wins, but in every age we keep seeking the important.
Today’s Gospel reminds us that Jews in general, and rabbis in particular, approach religious life as a conversation, even a debate. Certainly some of the Pharisees held Jesus in high regard. So it’s hard to tell in this section if the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus and humiliate him or whether they were just doing what rabbis do, testing each other. In any case, Jesus was used to this debating and questioning, too.
Last week we explored a previous story with the question about paying taxes to Caesar. Today the Pharisees have come back to Jesus asking him to choose which commandment in the law is the greatest. Remember: there were Ten Commandments and 613 additional laws – applications of the originals to various situations. The unspoken question was more like this: Rabbi, when the commandments conflict, (which they do) which should we honor above all others? What matters most?
And Jesus’ answer? Not a long sermon with a four main points; just a few words: Love matters most. Love God with every ounce of your being and love others as generously as you love yourself.
Both laws are there in the Torah, one from Deuteronomy and one from Leviticus. Love God, love your neighbor – everything else rests on these two. The Pharisees knew Jesus wasn’t cooking up anything radical. This wasn’t news to them and it’s not news to us.
Rabbi Harry Sky, whom many of you know at least by reputation, explains that the Hebrew verb here “ahav,” means love but also means “link.” Loving God and loving neighbor are the links connecting our lives to another.
The melt-down of the global market and the political campaign debates are stunning reminders that our well-being is profoundly linked to the well-being of others.
In our society, with such confusion about love and lust and intimacy, we need to remember that the primary expression of this biblical love isn’t affection but commitment. This love of neighbor and love of God is stubborn and tenacious, hanging on long after it would have been easier to quit.
More importantly, it seems to me Jesus was actually blending these two commandments, saying something like “you love the Lord your God by loving your neighbor as yourself.”
Again and again in scripture we hear that God doesn’t desire empty prayers or rigid ritual; God doesn’t want tired traditions or heaps of words. God doesn’t take pleasure in burnt offerings or the aroma of incense.
God delights in our acts of obedience and service and love. We love God by loving our neighbors as ourselves. In the first Letter of John, we can read:
(4:19-21) We love because [God] first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
You can’t really love God if you don’t love your brothers and sisters also. And that’s really not easy for most of us. Abraham Lincoln once said famously: “I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.” Jesus would answer him and us that how we feel about people in general isn’t the question. The question is: how will you treat the next person you encounter, and the next and the next? Loving our neighbor means caring deeply enough to see their needs and to respond with compassion and determination to ease the suffering.
You may remember how Luke tells the same story we’ve just read from Matthew. A young lawyer asked Jesus the question and Jesus gave the same answer. Then the Lawyer said: “well, good enough, but who’s my neighbor?” And Jesus answered by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Our neighbor is anyone who shares life with us – even a stranger, even an enemy. When we act with true compassion and show our link to others we’re not only showing that God is in our hearts, but that we are in God’s heart. Loving our neighbor IS loving God.
How do we show that love? One way is leaving a legacy. Certainly today we recognize the generosity of several people who helped bring a particular dream to reality. The piano, given to us from Shirley Findlay’s bequest; the chancel renovations paid for from the gifts of a dozen church households, money from the North Church Memorial Fund, and an undesignated bequest from Les Andrews – all these are gifts of love, all intended leave a legacy for future generations.
Here, in this building, on this Meeting House Hill, we’re surrounded by the silent witnesses who have loved our church across ten generations. We have inherited the legacy of those who’ve gone before. A quick read of the church history (on sale soon) reminds us how often the church persisted through times of great challenge. Yet we are here and we are strong and we are abundantly blessed to be a blessing.
Stop by the memorial book stand near the church offices and look at the pages of names of those who’ve given generously across the years – and who’ve shaped our church as they’ve left a legacy.
And we know, too, that every year income flows into our annual budget from the invested funds we’ve accumulated over many years because previous generations wanted to leave behind more than an empty pew. They planned thoughtfully and remembered our church through wills and bequests. Any one of us, no matter how much we have, can remember our church in our estate plan. Our newly active planned giving committee will be reminding us of that along the way, and these dedicated folks can help you or me live the love we profess by leaving a legacy for our church in generations to come.
Remember, too, that last Sunday was Consecration Day, when our worship included making pledge commitments to the church for 2009. None of us should be surprised that the hard costs of doing business rise here as they do in your family budgets: insurance, heating costs, office supplies, fair treatment of our church staff, and our mission support of the United Church of Christ at state, national and international levels – all of these expenses rise. I believe in our common desire to grow as stewards.
We are who we are and do what we do because of our generosity – as individuals, households, and as a whole congregation; because of this generation and the legacy that others have left us. Making a pledge and carrying it through is one concrete way to express this biblical love, this commitment to the commonwealth. And in doing that we show our enduring love for God, our desire to do what is right and pleasing.
There are many, many examples. Each small deed, by itself, may seem insignificant but each is very important for us to do. And each expression of love to our brother or sister is truly an expression of love for God.
The Pharisees asked Jesus a question, to test him. If you had been standing there with Jesus, what would you have asked?
I suspect we’d ask something about the deeper meaning and the legacies we might leave from all our labors; something like “Jesus – I can’t heal all the world’s ills, or ease all the world’s suffering. But you’ve shown me I can do something that really matters, something that can last. What would you have me do in my corner of creation to show my love for others and through that to show my gratitude to God?”
And if we’ll be patient and listen with our minds and hearts, we’ll hear the answer, the right answer, for each of us.
Love God with your whole being; and love your neighbor as yourself.