The Greatest Commandment October 23. 2005
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46
We live in a society of self-comfort. Everywhere we turn we are offered any number of new gadgets to make our lives easier and more comfortable. When the speakers of our elaborate entertainment systems aren't filled with the entertainment of our generations, endless voices try and convince us of a "once in a life time sale," "a new and improved" this or that, "which we can't live without." Walk down the bath aisle of any store and you will find row upon row of chemicals to increase our comfort and we lay or stand around in a tiny room in our house. Somewhere it has entered the American psyche that self-gratification is the highest goal to be obtained and it is honorable to obtain it at whatever cost. I've heard horror stories of people simply going to Wal-Mart to "pick-up a few things" and be overcome with the urge to satisfy every desire of his or her heart at the moment and spend 30, 40, even 70 dollars every week seemingly by accident. Even I am not immune to this culture of consumption. Just this weekend I spent $50 at Walgreens on a heating pad, a bucket, a digital food thermometer, and medium sized cylindrical plastic jar. And all of it was so I could make for myself homemade yogurt. It would seem that if this society has taught us anything it is how to love our self.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
Matthew 22:34-46
We live in a society of self-comfort. Everywhere we turn we are offered any number of new gadgets to make our lives easier and more comfortable. When the speakers of our elaborate entertainment systems aren't filled with the entertainment of our generations, endless voices try and convince us of a "once in a life time sale," "a new and improved" this or that, "which we can't live without." Walk down the bath aisle of any store and you will find row upon row of chemicals to increase our comfort and we lay or stand around in a tiny room in our house. Somewhere it has entered the American psyche that self-gratification is the highest goal to be obtained and it is honorable to obtain it at whatever cost. I've heard horror stories of people simply going to Wal-Mart to "pick-up a few things" and be overcome with the urge to satisfy every desire of his or her heart at the moment and spend 30, 40, even 70 dollars every week seemingly by accident. Even I am not immune to this culture of consumption. Just this weekend I spent $50 at Walgreens on a heating pad, a bucket, a digital food thermometer, and medium sized cylindrical plastic jar. And all of it was so I could make for myself homemade yogurt. It would seem that if this society has taught us anything it is how to love our self.
In our readings for today and in particular in our gospel lesson, we hear what Christ tells us are the greatest commandments for us to center our lives by. Jesus didn't just make these commandments up on the spot. Jesus does not speak any new words to those who were questioning him but instead speaks just two from the list of 613 commandments given by God to the Hebrew people. The first commandment actually comes from the book of Deuteronomy saying, "Love the LORD your God with all of your heart and with all of your life-being and with all of your strength." Jesus actually takes the second commandment out of context from the book of Leviticus. That is to say, it is out of context for us as we don't have the 613 laws memorized but to the Pharisees whom Jesus was speaking, this passage would have been something they had memorized. The commandment says, "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against your neighbor, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD." In each of these hand picked commandments, Christ is calling us to enter into a relationship. The first is with God and then with our neighbor. It is in these relationships that all of God's law or God's will for humanity will be fulfilled. That is to say, by participating in the mutual agape love between ourselves and God as well as ourselves and the rest of humanity we take part in the creation and building up of God's kin-dom in our world.
This is why I started talking about the selfish nature of our consumer society. Imagine what could be done is we put as much time, energy, and effort into building and sustaining a loving relationship with God and humanity as we do making our own lives comfortable. The selfish consuming materialism of our society robs from us the initiative to live in right relation with God and with humanity. Loving service with and for others is how we must fulfill these commandments that Christ has given to us. This service will have different expressions in our world but all are rooted in the commandment to love. It is by giving up the comfort that our society tells us we so desperately need that we begin to see clearly the value and dignity of our entire human family. This service is most readily expressed on three interlocking circles of love. We can express our love inwardly in communion with God through things like prayer, meditation, fasting, and study. We can also express our love outwardly by acts of mercy. Things like feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, caring for the oppressed and marginalized, never excluding anyone no matter if we see them as our enemy or not, these are all great acts of outward service, but there are others. The simple act of listening to a friend, or saying, "hello" as you walk past a stranger is all part of the loving community that we are building. It is in this outward circle of loving relationship that we have the greatest freedom for imagination and improvisation as we work towards God's kin-dom. The third circle of love contains the acts which we do as an assembly or community gathered together. When we confess to one another and to God our sins we strengthen our relationship of love. When we celebrate each other and God we become one body in love with each other. And when we worship together we experience God's love flowing back upon us as a community of Christ.
So, it is through these three ways of love that we can fulfill Christ's revealing of the greatest commandments. The financial stewardship committee is starting the annual pledge drive for the church today. What this committee is doing is opening the door for us to give of ourselves and allowing us to more fully participate in a loving community. Through the money that we pledge to this church we allow for Christ's love and our own love to flow forth into our world and our local community. Through the mission of this church here in Rensselaer, Indiana, we have reached out to the world in love but to continue to reach out in love of our neighbor we need mission dollars as well as willing servants to put that money to good use. As we hear every week from the mission committee, we have an ample supply of servants in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) willing to go out into the world and share the reconciling love of God with the world and they can only do it with out continued financial support. Some of you may be thinking right now, "Oh, there they go again. The church always asks for money. That's all they ever want." All I can say in response is a quote from our epistle or second reading. "We never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed." And I would finish it, "but we did come to preach the gospel and fulfill the commandments of Christ. We came to build the kin-dom of God."
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This is why I started talking about the selfish nature of our consumer society. Imagine what could be done is we put as much time, energy, and effort into building and sustaining a loving relationship with God and humanity as we do making our own lives comfortable. The selfish consuming materialism of our society robs from us the initiative to live in right relation with God and with humanity. Loving service with and for others is how we must fulfill these commandments that Christ has given to us. This service will have different expressions in our world but all are rooted in the commandment to love. It is by giving up the comfort that our society tells us we so desperately need that we begin to see clearly the value and dignity of our entire human family. This service is most readily expressed on three interlocking circles of love. We can express our love inwardly in communion with God through things like prayer, meditation, fasting, and study. We can also express our love outwardly by acts of mercy. Things like feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, caring for the oppressed and marginalized, never excluding anyone no matter if we see them as our enemy or not, these are all great acts of outward service, but there are others. The simple act of listening to a friend, or saying, "hello" as you walk past a stranger is all part of the loving community that we are building. It is in this outward circle of loving relationship that we have the greatest freedom for imagination and improvisation as we work towards God's kin-dom. The third circle of love contains the acts which we do as an assembly or community gathered together. When we confess to one another and to God our sins we strengthen our relationship of love. When we celebrate each other and God we become one body in love with each other. And when we worship together we experience God's love flowing back upon us as a community of Christ.
So, it is through these three ways of love that we can fulfill Christ's revealing of the greatest commandments. The financial stewardship committee is starting the annual pledge drive for the church today. What this committee is doing is opening the door for us to give of ourselves and allowing us to more fully participate in a loving community. Through the money that we pledge to this church we allow for Christ's love and our own love to flow forth into our world and our local community. Through the mission of this church here in Rensselaer, Indiana, we have reached out to the world in love but to continue to reach out in love of our neighbor we need mission dollars as well as willing servants to put that money to good use. As we hear every week from the mission committee, we have an ample supply of servants in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) willing to go out into the world and share the reconciling love of God with the world and they can only do it with out continued financial support. Some of you may be thinking right now, "Oh, there they go again. The church always asks for money. That's all they ever want." All I can say in response is a quote from our epistle or second reading. "We never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed." And I would finish it, "but we did come to preach the gospel and fulfill the commandments of Christ. We came to build the kin-dom of God."
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Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
Wayne A. Meeks. The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul.
Michel Foucault. The History of Sexuality Vol. 3: The Care of the Self.
Presbyterian Church (USA). Book of Common Worship.
