Loving God, we find it so easy to bog ourselves down with all the rules, when only one thing is needful: to love.  Help us to experience the depth of your love for us as we gather together today, and empower us by your Spirit to share that same love with others; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Today’s gospel comes at the end of a series of questions that have been asked of Jesus by the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  They have been trying everything they can think of in order to get Jesus to incriminate himself, and in each case, the wisdom of Jesus amazes them.  In the part that we hear today, the Pharisees decide to ask Jesus which commandment is the most important.  In doing so, they know that Jesus actually has 613 commandments to choose from, so which one will he pick?

    As it happens, once again Jesus answers in such a way that they cannot argue with him.  In fact, Jesus takes two commandments and makes them into one – one from Deuteronomy (6:5) and one from Leviticus (19:18).  The most important commandment? – Well, that would be to love!  Love God with your whole heart and soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself.  Manage to do this, and you have obeyed all of the law and the prophets (Mt. 22:37-40).

    In order to understand why love for God would be expressed by love for neighbour, Pastor David Lose tells a story about an acquaintance of his named Frank (workingpreacher.org).  Frank was around 9 or 10 years old when this happened.  One day, Frank got into a fight with his sister.  At first there were some angry words back and forth, and then they were yelling at each other, and pretty soon the pushing and shoving began.  It wasn’t long before Frank had his sister pinned on the floor with his arm raised ready to strike.  Just then, his mother walked into the room and ordered him to stop.  Frank cried out, “She’s my sister and I can do whatever I want to her!”  Just then his mother reached him and grabbed his arm.  “She’s my daughter, and no you cannot!”

    As a parent, her first instinct is to protect her children.  On this day it was her daughter who needed protecting.  On another day, it might be Frank.  And isn’t this pretty much like God’s attitude toward all of God’s children?  We cannot simply do whatever we want, because then another one of God’s children will get hurt (or we will get hurt).  On some days it is somebody else who needs protecting.  On other days, it might be us.

    God’s love is not only for us, but for others.  Because of God’s love for all of us, the number one way for us to show our love for God is by loving our neighbours as ourselves.  While both of the commandments that Jesus mentions are there in the Old Testament, Jesus is the one who brings them together.  As the first letter of John later says, “those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen” (1 Jn. 4:20).  So how do we love our neighbours as ourselves?

    First off, we need to know that we are not talking about love as a feeling.  We are not talking about having loving feelings in our heart for God and for every person that we meet.  That is romantic love, or eros.  Instead, we are talking about agape love, which is a choice and not a feeling, and is active rather than passive.  When we show agape love to somebody, we act toward that person with loving-kindness, mercy, patience and generosity.  In fact, most of the choices that we make are opportunities to love God by loving our neighbour.

    For example, every choice that I make about what to eat or what to wear or what to buy affects other people.  If I buy cheap food from some other country, that affects Canadian farmers.  If I buy cheap clothing made in sweat shops overseas, that choice supports those poor working conditions.  On the other hand, if I buy fairly traded coffee, for example, I might pay a little bit more, but I am supporting the rights of coffee growers to make a decent living.  At the same time, if I buy locally grown food, I am not only supporting farmers here, but I’m also choosing not to support produce that travels hundreds or even thousands of miles to get here and uses up extra fuel.

    Truthfully, we are so globally inter-connected these days that you can get a headache just thinking about it.  However, we do need to be aware of the impact that our choices have on others.  At the same time, there are good organizations that help us in thinking about these things.

    One of those organizations is called Kairos, which is a Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative.  Our national church is a member of Kairos, which was actually in the news last year when the Harper government pulled the funding for Kairos’ work.  You might recall hearing about the whole hullabaloo with Bev Oda and the word “not” that had been inserted into the paperwork to renew Kairos’ funding.  This is an organization that does excellent work on our behalf in the areas of peace and justice, and a wealth of information is available through Kairos in order to help us with our choices.

    In the same way, there are many local initiatives that give us vehicles for loving God by loving our neighbour.  Trinity Place has many different programs happening that help those who need it the most – both through the Food Pantry and through the other organizations that use Trinity’s building.  Lutheran Urban Ministry (or “the Urban”) also has an increasing number of clients and programs, all serving those in the inner city who need it the most.  And then there is NEST’s work in sponsoring refugees, and Canadian Lutheran World Relief’s work in international relief and development, and Habitat for Humanity’s work in providing families with decent housing.

    While any of us as individuals have a limited amount of time and energy and resources, there are so many ways that we can join together with other Christians in order to share God’s love in our world.  And it all starts with the command to love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

    It is important to know, however, that Jesus did not point to these commandments in order to lay a burden of guilt on us.  It’s insidious and it’s hanging in the background: “Oh no.  I’m supposed to do these things, and I’m not.  I’m just not feeling the love.”  That is a common reaction to law, but Jesus brings us the gospel.

    You see, the thing is that God loves us first.  God claims us in baptism, and saves us through faith in Jesus Christ.  God covers us over with Jesus’ perfect life, because God knows that we could never do it on our own.  That’s why Jesus came in the first place – because we cannot live a holy life or save ourselves from the power of sin and death.  That was Jesus’ job.  Our job is to put our faith in Jesus and to love.  “We love because [God] first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19).

    And so, allow God’s Spirit to work in your heart.  Allow God’s love for you and for every other person to sink deep into your being.  Allow the Holy Spirit to produce gratitude and mercy and patience and generosity in your heart and in your actions.  Allow God’s love to fill you up, so that you cannot help but pass it on to others.  For God has first loved us.  Amen.

Lectionary 30 (A)                                Matthew 22:34-46
October 23, 2011
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2011 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved