St. Charles Episcopal Church - Saint Charles, IL

The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 25 RCL Year A

Sunday, October 23, 2011                                                                                                                                                                              

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 – Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 – 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 – Matthew 22:34-46

Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

If you have been around the Episcopal Church for a while, this mornings Gospel had a familiar ring to it. In the 1928 prayerbook, and optionally in Rite I of our current prayerbook, the summary of the law is read just prior to Kyrie. “Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

To listen to the sermon as it was preached at the 9:00 am service, click here.
To listen to the sermon as it was preached at the 10:45 am service, click here.

Like many of the familiar words of worship, these words are carved deeply into my memory. I was fascinated to find out that this verse was a favorite of Abraham Lincoln. In seminary while writing a paper about him, I discovered that Lincoln, though he was one of the most religious presidents in his writing, is the only president that was not a member of any church. When pressed on the matter he replied that if he could find a church that would write this verse in large letters on the front of the altar he would join that church. Abraham Lincoln has always been one of my heros and so I ask myself, would he join our church? We don’t have the writing on the altar, that is clear, but it is also clear that Mr. Lincoln wasn’t talking about decorative writing. He was talking about what we believe and how we act. In other words, does our church write those words large on our hearts? Is that how we behave?

One of the exercises I took part in this past week was to spend time in reflection and prayer to tunnel down deep inside me to find what the core principles of my faith are. What is the foundation that the entire framework of my faith is built upon. This is what I found. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. In spite of the special place we give them, these words are not unique to Jesus. Things like them have been said by others. A Jewish contemporary of Jesus’, Rabbi Hillel the Elder, is credited with saying, “What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Law and all else is commentary.”

These two parts of the law, loving God and loving neighbor, are basically lifted from Hebrew scripture, Deuteronomy (6:5) and Leviticus. (19:18b) Jesus isn’t really saying anything new. Earlier in Matthew, we hear Jesus beginning his teaching by saying, “Do not suppose that I come to destroy the law and the prophets; I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” So if what Jesus is saying isn’t new, why is it so important? Where does it get the strength to stop any further questioners in their tracks? What does it really mean to love God with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind?

The Hebrew version from Deuteronomy is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These three Hebrew words for heart, soul, and might (lebab (ááìÅ), nefesh (LôÆð†), andmehod (ãàÊîÀ)) are very rich in meaning. One of the things that I love about the Hebrew language is it’s depth. Many Hebrew words have various layers of meaning, some quite different. Almost by design it is a poetic language. Lebab means your heart, but also your mind. The center of your understanding. All that is your inner immaterial nature. Nefesh is your soul and/or your breath. The life-essence that defines your self. Nefesh also includes all your appetites and emotions. Mehod is your might or strength, but it is also your wealth and capacity. In many ways it is your will and all that derives from it. In the end it is your “muchness.”

Now that we know more of the richness of what we are talking about, do we love God with all our lebab, with all our nefesh, and with all our mehod? With the center of our understanding, our appetites and emotions, our wealth and capacity? That is a tall order and I dare say we each fall short much of the time, but there are moments. By the grace of God there are moments. This love that Jesus is talking about is not mere affection or desire but a commitment of the whole self to another. Today the word love has almost lost its meaning through over use. We say we love food, or possessions, or the weather, or any of a whole host of other things. It is no wonder we are often disillusioned by love. It has lost its mystery and power.

By taking these two commandments about love and placing them next to each other, Jesus is telling us something about love. One of the central points of Jesus’ ministry to us, if indeed it is not the entire point, is love. Love of God and love of neighbor. Individually they can seem at times impossible, unreachable goals. What if combining them together was more than just an exercise in rhetoric? What if it is a way to gain access to the true reality of both? What if that is what Jesus is really telling us?

On many occasions Jesus broke the fourth commandment, keep holy the Sabbath day, to help other people in need. His understanding was that when love of God interfered with love of neighbor it ceased being love of God. In that way love of neighbor informs, corrects, and improves our love of God. In the same way, when our love of God empowers us to imitate the generosity and forgiveness of God it allows us to see the humanity of even our enemies. This radical expansion of our understanding of neighbor and consequent improvement of our love of neighbor is only made possible through our love of God. By linking these two together, Jesus gives us the key.

Sadly, it is a key that we use all too infrequently. Without it we continue to be blind to the humanity of the people around us. We see enemies or at the least competitors where we should be seeing neighbors. It has always been hard to look around and see neighbors, and harder still to love them as ourselves. It has been that way ever since we left the Garden of Eden. It takes everything we have. Our whole lebab, nefesh, and mehod. Our whole center, life-essence, and capacity. All our heart, and our soul, and our might. Not to mention a liberal dosing of God’s grace.

These few words carry in them a tremendous power – the power to remind us of the awesome responsibility of being a Christian in a hostile world. To meet evil with good. To meet hatred with love. To meet poverty with generosity. To shine a light in the darkness. To make a difference in the world. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the hope of the world. Amen.