Let us pray. Come Holy Spirit, speak to us through these words. Answer our questions and show us your way of love. Amen.
Questions, questions, questions. Throughout Matthew’s Gospel and in our lectionary over the last few Sundays, we’ve heard people asking Jesus questions. Sometimes they are trying to confront his authority, other times they are trying to trick him into saying something that will get him into trouble. Jesus’s answers put the questions back on the askers and point to larger ideas about the nature of God. Today’s Gospel lesson is more of the same with an expert in the law asking Jesus which command is the most important? Which one of the 613 laws should we be really careful to follow?
Throughout the stages of our lives, we all have questions. Which choice should I make? Should I apply for this new job or to that school, or pursue this new relationship, or explore this option or the other? How should I deal with these events in my life, or in the lives of my family and friends? And the BIGGER questions about the meaning of life itself, about God and the divine. How can I find happiness? What is the purpose of my life? What will happen after I die? We too, have questions for Jesus. What Jesus? How Jesus? When Jesus? Why Jesus?
In today’s Gospel Jesus offers THE ANSWER. LOVE.
Those familiar words that we hear at the beginning of each service on Sunday morning: Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and The Prophets.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. AND…love your neighbor as yourself. This is it. This is the summary of all of the 613 laws. This is the answer to all of our of questions. LOVE. In this one answer, Jesus sums up all of the law and all the messages of prophets about how humankind should be in relation with the Divine, with one another, and with all of creation. LOVE. To love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul. To grow our relationship with love. Love for us from God. Love incarnate, tangible love in the example of Jesus showing us how to act in love as human beings.
To love God with all our heart, soul, and mind requires effort on our part. To love is to know, and to be known. To love is be in relationship. To take interest in the other, to listen, to learn, to spend time together. This, Jesus says, is THE most important thing. This is the answer to our questions about this messy human life we live. Love God. Grow in relationship with the Creator of the Universe, with Love itself. With the God who knows us intimately through the human experience of Jesus. Learn how much you are loved unconditionally by God. Work to understand and accept your ultimate value in God’s eyes. Come to know that you are loved beyond your capacity to understand or even wildly imagine.
Spend time in prayer, communicating with God, sharing your worries and needs, your thanks and praise. Come together to worship, to hear and respond to God’s word, to admit when we have fallen short, to be reminded we are forgiven and loved, and then, come together at the table to receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Gather as one body. Recall, experience in our bodies the ultimate love of the cross and the ultimate triumph of love over death in the resurrection.
That is the beauty, the mystery, and the grace-filled Good News that Jesus brings us. And from this growth in learning to love God we are called, called to love as God loves, without reservation, without limit or discrimination.
From this loving relationship flows our own stepping out in love. You shall Love your neighbor as yourself.
Last week in my homily at the 9:30 service I spoke about how we are all made in that good, holy, and loving image of God. Imprinted, stamped like a coin, bearing the image of the divine in our very being. Made in love, by and for love, to grow in relationship with our loving creator and all of creation. We BELONG to God and like Jesus’ call to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, we are called to render unto God what is God’s. That’s us, that’s everything! All that we have, all that we are, belong to God. And we work to return it to God through our loving acts of service and care.
Last week I was invited to present the Spiritual Leader award at Serenity Lane’s annual awards ceremony. In a room filled with people who were sharing God’s love through supporting those battling substance use disorder, the words of one particular young man resonated. He said something like: it’s in that place where what people need to survive and start to thrive, and where the experience and care that others have, come together, it’s there, right there where love is.
Our outreach council presentations and luncheons about people in our community who are making peoples’ lives better, has a great name: Love in Action. Love in Action. This is what Jesus means we he calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Reaching out in love to care for others. To provide for them. To make their lives better. To share God’s love through our own acts of love. To offer dignified care, and genuine presence, especially to those who are unknown and unseen in our communities. When we realize how loved we are, how good and lovely the Creator of all things seen and unseen is, then we respond. We respond to God’s love for us with our love for others. We respond in love. Love in action. Love, love is the answer. Love, love is the way. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Amen.
