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A Welcoming and Affirming Congregation

The Great Commandment

Marilyn Malone

October 26, 2008

 “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.”

When I was growing up we memorized a number of key Bible passages, the 23^rd Psalm, John 3:16, the Great Commission, and this one, the Great Commandment. Most of you can probably recite these as well. These keys to our faith are written indelibly in our minds, and probably also in our hearts. This morning let’s take a closer look at the greatest commandment, to love the Lord your God.

In the Matthew passage, we see that Jesus had just answered questions from the Sadducees, and silenced them. Now it was the Pharisees turn.

After he answers their question, which is the greatest commandment, he asks them a question. I’m guessing that he was aware of how clueless they were as to what he was really talking about. So he pushes them further and asks, “Whose son is the Messiah?” They answer, David, just as Jesus knew they would. They knew the scriptures to the letter and were devoted to the Law of Moses. So he tries to get them to think deeper. How can the Messiah be the son of David, if David calls him Lord & master? The Pharisees are stumped. They are linear thinkers and can’t possibly comprehend the global and universal dimensions of God’s thoughts. This new gospel message is beyond their understanding. The Pharisees leave scratching their heads, and vow not to ask him any more potentially embarrassing questions.

The Disciples also grapple with similar questions. When Jesus says, Love your neighbor as yourself, they ask, who is my neighbor? Or how many times do I forgive my brother? Again after his resurrection, in talking to Peter (John 21:15), Jesus stresses the importance of loving others.

Jesus asks Peter, do you love me? And when Peter says yes, of course, Jesus tells him, feed my sheep. Not sure that Peter really got the message, Jesus asks again. And a third time (Peter was known as the Rock), until Peter becomes upset, perhaps indignant, maybe thinking, I’ve been following you around these years, doing all the crazy things you say, walking on water, believing that you are the son of God, and besides, you know everything, you know that I love you. Jesus answers simply feed my sheep. It must be an important command.

Over and over again, Jesus tells us that you cannot love God if you don’t love other people. First John 4:7 & 8 is another memory verse. “Beloved, let us love one another, because everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

How many other people do I have to love?

Throughout history, we have examples and witness of the kind of love Jesus was talking about.

The scripture reading this morning from Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, talks of Paul’s deep affection for the people of Thessalonica. It is the oldest of the written records of the gospel, having been written about 20 years after the resurrection of Christ. You should read the entire letter as it is a beautiful letter of love. Paul spent a relatively short time in Thessalonica, before difficulties occurred and he and his companions, Silas & Timothy, had to leave the city. Though he longed to return, it never became possible, so he sent Timothy with this letter of encouragement. The relationship between Paul and this early church was like that of a parent and child. Paul cared deeply, loved these people, fed these sheep.

Since this is Reformation Sunday, it is fitting that we should consider the witness of Martin Luther. He felt a strong calling to make the word of God more accessible to common people. He translated the Bible so that lay people could read it, and preached that God was accessible to everyone. He risked his own safety by confronting the powers of the church. It was never his intent to divide the Church. Martin Luther loved others by standing up for those who had no voice.

The reflective reading this morning by Mother Theresa encompasses the heart of her ministry to the poorest people in Calcutta, India. The pain and the need of these people are so overwhelming that one doesn’t even know where to begin. How much difference can one person make in such dire circumstances? Mother Theresa loved them one at a time, from the depths of her soul, and the impact of her work and her love reached around the world.

So what does Christ mean when he tells us to feed his sheep, to love one another?

How many other people do we have to love?

In working at Pathfinder, there are lots of opportunities to show love toward campers, staff, and volunteers. There are also some that are not so obvious. For example, for many years we have rented space to a group called the Landmark Volunteers. It is a secular camp program that attracts high school students from across the country, whose parents pay a pretty high tuition for them to do volunteer work in the Cooperstown area. We provide them housing, meals, and kindness. They tend to be a pretty rude group of teenagers who feel entitled to better than what we have to offer. What happens when we love them anyway, when our service to them is genuinely from our hearts? We don’t know. God knows. Perhaps one of them will notice that we are Christians who treat others with love, whether they deserve it, whether they want it or not. Perhaps some day one of them will open his or her heart to God because of our encounter at Pathfinder. We will never know. That is how God’s thoughts are far greater than our thoughts.

How many other people do we have to love?

Here at Emmanuel, there are countless ways we reach out in love to others.

We work together to raise our children to know Jesus.

We tend to our financial investments and care for our building so that future generations will have a place from which to minister.

We care for each other when we are frail or hurting and we rejoice together when there are celebrations.

We serve our immediate neighbors through the breakfast program and have designated some of our most valuable space to the food pantry.

We take mission trips to learn how to better minister to the needs of God’s people around the country and the world.

We work at Pathfinder and other Baptist programs to strengthen the impact of our outreach. The list goes on and on.

And still Jesus asks, “Do you love me?”

How many other people do we have to love?

How many other people do I have to love?

Just when I think I’m doing pretty well, Jesus sticks in that piece about loving your enemies and praying for them. Well, fortunately, I don’t really have any enemies. There are people I don’t like to be with, but they aren’t really enemies. And I can’t really love everybody, can I? So who can I cross off my list? Terrorists, child abusers, murderers.

That’s my human literal thinking. Jesus still says feed my sheep. Love your neighbor.

So ok I have to pray for the terrorists, child abusers, and murderers. This is risky. God might answer that prayer. God might want me to do more. Or something different. Step outside my comfort zone. It doesn’t have to be something huge, like posting 95 theses on the church door. But it could be to give up some personal time to wash the nursery toys. Or participate in a mission trip to a place where I don’t know the language and have to sleep on the floor or the ground. Or give up eating out to increase my pledge to the church. Or work with youth when I think I am too old. When I pray that God will help me to love others & God better, I risk that God will answer that prayer with some new challenge.

How about you?

When Jesus asks ________ do you love me? And you answer yes, and he responds with “feed my sheep”, pray that your heart and mind will be open to hear where God is calling you, and that your response will be to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Amen