Clearly we are in the midst of a great debate. Actually, we are surrounded by an army of debaters greater than we have experienced in recent times. Have you noticed the raging questions, the experts who ask us time and time again, who is the greatest, testing us and our abilities to remain civil in the grip of the frenzy. The political debates have been lengthy, the arguments intense. Who will we elect? Who will we choose to be our next President?
The election is far off yet the army of pundits have surrounded us with their questions intent upon theirs being the one question that will sway our vote. You may be like me, a bit fed up with it all, the negative campaigning, the at times ridiculous nature of the attacks. Though I must confess I have enjoyed the Saturday Night Live appearances in the past of some of the candidates. And their parodies, well, they are just too funny.
Clearly these are serious times, we are still at war, the economy is in dire straights, greater numbers of folk continue to lose their jobs, their homes and their retirement dreams. These issues do require our fullest attention and our most faithful response to the questions that matter. Who should we align ourselves with and for what reasons? What do we say in response to the serious questions that test our worry? Will we ultimately be judged by our response? You bet we will. When the dust finally settles we will wonder, what did we do, oh my, what did we do?
Now, before my sweet wife becomes even more nervous about what I might say next about world affairs and the Presidential election, let me assure you, I have no desire to suggest how anyone might solve our problems or vote. I am clearly the least qualified about such things and have nothing more to offer than many of us here this morning, an opinion, and we all know what that is worth. But I can suggest we turn to scripture, and to one who was tested repeatedly during his adult life.
In Matthew’s gospel we hear Jesus being asked to resolve a great debate. He was surrounded by the powerful army of Jewish leadership, experts filled with raging questions, testing his ability to remain civil in the midst of their grasp of sedition. The army of pundits is upon him with their questions and they are important questions. Which commandment is greatest, implying of course, is the law greater than even the hope of a messiah? And we do want to know, what did Jesus do? What did he say? How did he vote?
Jesus doesn’t hesitate, in vs. 37 – 40 he answers, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
What an amazing and unpredictable answer, the whole duty of human kind, the whole moral and spiritual law, is summed up by Jesus in one word: love. Love directed first to God and then toward one another.
Did we notice the unusual context from which love is to be directed? From our heart, from our soul, and from our mind. Amazing. Love is to be the pervasive action in our heart, our soul, and our mind. Each of us is to become a vessel for love in the world in the ways God teaches us through the life of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit that lives in each of us. We are to become life’s love centered here in our hearts, filling our soul and mind with love. And we cannot turn this love away from this time and place. We cannot ignore love any more today than we can on election day. Especially on election day.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the next time we sat in front of the evening news and just shook our heads as the candidates go at one another we could hear Jesus’ words instead? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I’ve heard few folk, be they politicians or not, make such a promise, let alone actually model their life after loving one another.
This week saw the death of another tyrant in the world. We live in a dangerous and unpredictable time and there is a time and place for firmness. Our challenges are real and they should scare us for they are deeply important. It is truly the case that in a civilized society our response to life and life’s challenges, as well as life’s hopes, just might help save the world. And those responses do speak clearly to who we are and what we believe. As Christian’s we carry a higher responsibility because we are loved and called to return that love.
How then do we love when love seems the last thing we need to do? Is love the real change the world is calling for? If so, how do we possibly understand what it means to love with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind?
Try as we might few of us feel we ever get it right. We could always do more. We could always think less of ourselves and more for those around us. Sometimes there is a sense that we are on the right track, we are loving one another, and then Jesus pushes us farther along his way than we want to go. Love our neighbor as ourselves. I wonder, do we get to choose which neighbor?
I don’t find that in scripture. Love my neighbor even if he or she is a liberal Democrat, or a conservative Republican, a Jew or a Muslim, doesn’t’ look like me, even someone with no faith at all. I don’t know.
I read recently that one of the skills of being a faithful Christian is the cultivation of the awareness that we do not, on our own, know what love is or who our neighbors are. These words await definition. Therefore, we must get up, get dressed, and come down to church together to learn just what these seemingly obvious words mean when used by Jesus, Son of David, Son of God. Christian love, we find, does not come naturally, is not universally shared, is not a common sense sort of thing.
How then could God expect us to know God’s intentions where love is concerned? Can we simply think about God and from our thoughts know God and love. I think not. I cannot believe that my own thoughts could answer such a question. The truth is, we really cannot know God. But there is something we can do, what we can do is love God. We can love God as God loved us.
We need only look at the life of Jesus Christ to know how God loved us. It is through the life of Jesus Christ that we can love God, one another, and even our neighbor. Jesus revealed in the scriptures a call aimed directly at you and at me. Come and follow me is what he said.
Jesus lived the life we are to live, a live of love. He loved God and lived the life God intended him to live here on earth. He loved the people in his life despite their sin, even when they were rascals, or strangers, or foreigners, or in power, or out of power, even those well and those sick, large and small, young and old, even those alive and those who had died. All of them he brought back to life. Even those who nailed him to the cross.
Dearest Lord, how can we imagine such love! Jesus died so that we might live. Jesus brought us with him to the cross so we would be cleansed of our sins and Jesus brings us with him through his resurrection so we too might be ascending into heaven with him.
By this love God may be touched and embraced and known and by this love we are called to touch our neighbor in love with all our heart, soul and mind. This is to be how our life is lived. It is a life of love particularly defined by Jesus. By ourselves we don’t know what love is, not until Jesus tells us and shows us do we know.
Now, many of us have head the teaching of Jesus for more than just a few years. We have sat through lots of sermons, often awake, and read lots of scripture, and we would readily admit there is very little that is simple about Jesus and his love.
His call to our life is a call to die to self and be born anew. Not so simple. His call to our life is a call to sell all that we have and be his disciple. Not so simple. His call to our life is a demanding call.
But often we forget, everything we have belongs to God. Everything we are comes from God. Everything we enjoy is God’s blessing. All the love in our life comes from God’s amazing grace given to us.
Truly, Jesus shows us the way to God’s love and that way takes us, with Jesus, through the cross. That is where God defines ultimate love for us. That is where God shows us how to love. That is where we understand God. There on the cross.
When that day for voting finally comes and someone asks us who we are voting for dare we answer it’s not so much a candidate we desire as it is a faithful way of life. That we are voting for the most radial change the world has ever seen, our desire is for love, to try to do the loving thing for all people in all circumstances and in all places.
In the context of our lives as Christians could there be a response that would be more risky than this, “I’m for love.” Could there be a response more demanding, more difficult, more complicated and more like our Lord, our Savior, our Messiah, Jesus Christ?
Try it, “I’m for love.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
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