Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

[please click on one of the items above for more information]

============================================================

Sermons

October 2002 (click here to return to "October 2002 Sermons" page)

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (October 27, 2002)

“It’s That Simple … It’s That Hard” Dr. Julie Adkins

Text: Matthew 22:34-46

SERMON

I don’t know whether to be delighted,

or disgusted with myself,

when it happens that I see something in a familiar scripture

that I never ever saw there before.

This isn’t crucial to the point of the story,

but it adds a touch of humor to it,

as Jesus was inclined to do!

We are familiar enough with the first part of this passage –

Jesus’ summing up of the greatest commandments –

and we’ll come back to those in a moment.

Usually, we remember that he concludes by saying,

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Which is to say that God would never have had to

hand down all those commandments in the first place …

would never have had to call prophets

and give them difficult and unpopular messages to proclaim,

if only God’s people would get these two simple commandments right.

Makes sense, right?

Okay, but do you remember who asked him the question in the first place?

(This is the part I never figured out before!)

It wasn’t just any Pharisee …

it was one who was a lawyer.

Someone whose very livelihood was dependent upon

people getting stuck in the minutiae of the Law;

someone who depended on the complexity and arcane-ness of the Torah

to get people coming to him for interpretation and understanding.

Someone trying to test Jesus,

because he is sure he knows the Law better than

this scruffy, wandering rabbi.

So what Jesus does is,

he doesn’t just tell him what the two greatest commandments are …

he also tells him, implicitly,

that because these are the only two commandments that matter,

that his work as a lawyer is useless.

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Anybody can remember two commandments.

Even little children.

So, who needs experts in the law?

It’s all really quite simple.

Of course, like much in life,

it’s easier to comprehend than it is to do.

Two commandments:

Beginning with the one Jesus calls “the greatest and first”:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

There’s not a whole lot we need to say about that …

you can find it in the book of Deuteronomy;

it’s been part of the Hebrew scripture

probably since before any of it was ever written down.

Although do notice the verb:

You shall love the Lord your God …

not, you shall fear the Lord your God,

or you shall serve the Lord your God,

or even, you shall worship the Lord your God.

You shall love the Lord your God.

What God desires most from us is our love.

Other things may follow from that …

but the first and greatest commandment is love.

The second commandment, Jesus says, is “like” the first.

Well, actually, he doesn’t quite say that.

A more accurate rendering would be to translate it,

the second is “the same as” the first.

That’s what the Greek word really means:

omoios, as in “homogeneous,” “homogenized,” etc.

Not “like,” as in “similar,” but same.

That notion is apparently new with Jesus.

You can find plenty of places in the Hebrew scriptures

where the people are commanded to care for their neighbors,

and even to love them …

but the notion that to do this is the same thing as loving God,

seems to be Jesus’ alone.

The way the text reads,

he isn’t even saying it’s the “same” in terms of importance,

or that it’s “equal” in rank somehow,

but that loving God and loving neighbor are the same thing.

Which makes sense in a way:

if we are all created in God’s image, as Genesis says we are,

then there is something of God within each of us

that gets loved, or not loved,

by our neighbors.

And, of course, something of God in each of them

that gets loved, or not loved, by us.

So in a sense, the life of faith is really very simple.

One theologian of long ago – and I cannot remember who –

summed it up in just one sentence:

Love God, and do as you please.

That sounds dangerous!

But the truth is, if we really do love God,

then what it pleases us to do

will be what pleases God.

The way Jesus sums it up is really just as simple:

Love the Lord your God …

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Even though those two things may look different

in the living out of our lives,

they are really one and the same thing.

On the one hand,

it really is that easy.

On the other hand,

it’s really just about impossible.

Easy to say … perhaps even easy to understand.

Almost impossible to live out

in the midst of the details of our daily living.

Love our neighbors?

Maybe if we got to choose our neighbors …!

Even if we start by thinking about our literal, next-door neighbors:

I can imagine that the folks who live next door to me

may find me very hard to love,

or at least, my four-legged children.

According to the Dog Rules of Engagement,

when they see a squirrel, they must bark at it.

Rodents must be persecuted.

Consequently, my neighbors also experience auditory persecution.

And I can imagine that, at times,

they think distinctly unlovable thoughts about me and my canine contingent.

Some of you may have neighbors who rub you the wrong way:

lawnmowers at 6:30 a.m. …

car engines without mufflers, late at night …

music played too loud …

overhanging branches that scrape your roof …

their cats digging in your garden …

oh, we could all make a list.

Love our neighbors?

Some days we wonder whether even Jesus could love those neighbors.

And then, of course,

there are neighbors in general

as opposed to specific neighbors.

That’s a challenge in Oak Cliff,

as it is in many neighborhoods

where the characteristics of our neighbors has changed over time.

We used to have neighbors who were similar to us;

that’s no longer the case.

How do we love neighbors

who sometimes don’t even speak the same language we do?

How do we find any common ground

on which to relate to each other?

This isn’t so easy after all!

Sometimes, our neighbors are difficult even to tolerate;

how can we possibly move so far as to love them?

Another way of thinking about it:

Some days, we have difficulty even seeing the image of God in one another!

How can we learn to see God in people

who are very different from us,

not only in appearance, but in culture,

in life choices, in what they think is important?

And, as if that weren’t enough,

there are “neighbors” who are far away from us as well,

who are also included in the commandment to love.

We remember from the parable of the good Samaritan

that anyone who is in need

must be considered our neighbor,

and deserving of our attention.

That’s pretty overwhelming, isn’t it?!

How much need is there around the world?

Are we prepared to love six billion neighbors?

Are we even prepared to love the million or so right here in Dallas?

This all sounded easy at first:

love God, love your neighbor.

Now it sounds just about impossible.

Remember, of course,

that Jesus was talking to the Pharisees.

People who were devout Jews, to be sure,

but for whom the Law had become an end in itself.

They had lost sight of why God gave the Law in the first place:

not to provide arbitrary and nitpicky rules

for humans to try to follow … and fail …

but to guide people in how we interact with one another.

God saw that humans weren’t acting very loving toward one another,

and so God said, maybe I can’t make you love each other,

but here is how I expect you to behave toward one another.

The Law stepped in

because our love was insufficient.

But if we can learn to love, as God loves,

then there is no need for law.

The Pharisees had forgotten that.

Certain groups within the Presbyterian Church (USA) have forgotten that.

Jesus insists that we remember.

But how do we do what seems impossible?

How do we love all those neighbors?

There are two possibilities, I think,

and we only have time to touch on them briefly this morning.

You will have to decide which of them –

if either, or both –

applies to you.

One is to note that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.

And what I see, more and more clearly the longer I live,

is that often, when we have trouble loving others,

it’s because we do not love ourselves.

I don’t mean some kind of egotistical self-promotion kind of stuff,

but a simple loving of ourselves as God loves us.

I daresay it’s impossible to love our neighbors

if deep down inside, we are unable to love who we are.

A second possibility is this:

maybe, for many of us,

we have to love God first,

before we can figure out how to love our neighbors.

We have to stop being afraid of God,

and then we can stop being afraid of our neighbors.

We have to get closer to God,

however it is that we do that,

whether it’s worship, or prayer, or Bible study, or all of the above …

and when we do get closer to God,

we start to see our neighbors as God sees them

instead of how we saw them before.

It is true that the inability to love our neighbors

means that we probably don’t love ourselves well enough,

and that we’re not yet as close to God as we need to be.

Until we get there,

the law provides us important guidance about

how we live with one another in God’s world.

So even as Christians,

we have to take it seriously.

But we look for, and long for,

the day when we no longer need rules to tell us how to act loving …

and instead, love – and therefore know how to act

without having to be told.

It’s that hard.

It’s that simple.

Amen.