What Does Love Look Like? Deuteronomy 6: 1-9; Mark 12: 28-34 November 11, 2012 Rev.

Deborah Dail Denbigh Presbyterian Church Scriptures: Deuteronomy 6: 1-9 Now this is the commandmentthe statutes and the ordinancesthat the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, so that you and your children and your childrens children, may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you. Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Mark 12: 28-34 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, Which commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Then the scribe said to him, You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and besides him there is no other; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love ones neighbor as oneself, this is much more important than all whole burnt
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offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. After that no one dared to ask him any question. Sermon: In the movie Chocolat, Vianne and her daughter move into a small French town. Vianne opens a chocolate shop during the season of Lent when the faithful townspeople are supposed to be giving up such pleasures as chocolate. This angers the towns mayor who maintains a very tight hold on his community. Vianne opens the doors of her chocolate shop to all who would enter and she treats each person with dignity and love. She welcomes people into her chocolate shop that are not accepted or welcomed in the church. Vianne quietly challenges the religious establishments hold on the people by not only opening the doors of her chocolate shop during Lent but also by loving and welcoming the outcasts in the community. Father Henri, the local priest, is a young man who is living under the thumb of the towns mayor. The mayor even reads and evaluates his sermons before he is allowed to preach them. But on Easter Sunday, Father Henri speaks his own mind saying, I want to talk about Christs humanity I mean how he lived his life on earth: his kindness, his tolerance. We must measure our goodness, not by what we dont do, what we deny ourselves, what we resist, or who we exclude. Instead, we should measure ourselves by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include. Jesus consistently challenged the religious establishment of his day. When we meet Jesus in our scripture from Mark, he has experienced the hostility of the religious leaders because of his teaching and his actions. He has entered the temple in Jerusalem and has overturned the tables. He has taught that the temple, the center of religious and political power in Judaea will no longer be central or powerful. He has broken the religious laws recorded in scripture by healing on the Sabbath, touching those considered unclean and embracing sinners and outcasts. Jesus has reinterpreted and reframed scriptural teachings and traditions. He has pressed people to go beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of the law of love. Jesus deems an inner disposition as more important than outward shows of religiosity. (Micah D. Kiel, workingpreacher.org)

Its in this climate that one of the religious leaders a scribe approaches Jesus and asks: Which commandment is the first of all? Jesus answers as a Jew well-trained in scripture. He quotes Deuteronomy and Leviticus, both books in our Old Testament. He quotes what Jewish families repeated every morning and every evening the Shema. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Jesus then quotes from Leviticus saying: The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus then concludes There is no other commandment greater than these. For Jesus, these commandments (often called the law of love) are the lens through which he views all other commandments in the law. Looking through this lens Jesus reinterprets and reframes tradition, and this angers the religious establishment. Jesus is firmly planted in tradition but he authoritatively engages and interprets that tradition in light of new circumstances. (Micah Kiel, workingpreacher.org) So, what does it look like for us to love God with all that we are, to love God with our lives? What does it look like for us to love our neighbors in the same way as we love ourselves? I am reading a book titled unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity . . . and Why It Matters. The authors spent three years interviewing people who are on the outside looking in at Christianity today. They focused their attention on people who are 16 to 29 years old. These outsiders most common reaction to the faith: they think Christianity no longer represents what Jesus had in mind. (p. 15) They reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christians. We are known for having an us-versus-them mentality. Outsiders believe Christians do not like them because of what they do, how they look, or what they believe. They feel minimized or worse, demonized by those who love Jesus. (p. 27) While I am most hopeful that our church does not cause 16- to 29-yearolds or people of any age to feel these things, it is important for us to look carefully at ourselves. (How many 16- to 29-years-olds are with us in worship today?) There may be many reasons for this, but some of it may well be what the

research cited above indicates. How well are we really loving and embracing all people? I go back to Father Henris sermon in the movie Chocolat. I want to talk about Christs humanity I mean how he lived his life on earth: his kindness, his tolerance. We must measure our goodness, not by what we dont do, what we deny ourselves, what we resist, or who we exclude. Instead, we should measure ourselves by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include. Jesus knew his tradition well. Someone has counted all the commandments in the Old Testament and come up with 613. Jesus knew them all. But in certain circumstances Jesus broke some of those commandments because of love. He reinterpreted and reframed them in light of love. He healed sick people even if it was the Sabbath. He touched people he wasnt supposed to touch because of love. He ate with people he wasnt supposed to eat with because of love. Edward Markquart, a pastor from Seattle, reminds us that in Matthews gospel when the scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest Jesus gives the same answer love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Then he says: On these two commandments hang (hinge) all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22: 40) Markquart builds on this metaphor of hinges hinges on a door. He comments: what good is a door without hinges? If the door represents tradition, religious knowledge and Bible knowledge, can you use it without two hinges that make the door work the hinges of love of God and love of neighbor as self? But, he also says that two hinges by themselves are not enough. He says some people just want to do away with the door altogether. In essence, they want to throw away the Bible and just keep the hinges. Still others seem to only want the door. They seem to only want a doorful of Biblical knowledge and churchy programs. They know a lot about the Bible and church and church etiquette and church manners but they seem to have forgotten to love God and love their neighbor. What good is a door without hinges? What good are hinges without a door? (Edward Markquart, Sermons from Seattle, Matthew 22: 34-36) The church has throughout its history struggle with this tension. The Presbyterian Church, like many others, has struggled to have the door and the hinges. In so doing weve changed our stances on a variety of issues through the
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years. For example, slavery was an accepted institution in the Bible. Slaves are told to obey their masters; masters are told to treat their slaves fairly. Based on these scriptures and others, many Christians (even Presbyterian Christians) supported slavery. Then, we reconsidered. We looked at the issue in light of the law of love. Despite what the Bible says concerning slavery, most of us today believe that slavery is wrong it is abhorrent. Another example is the role of women in the church. The Bible says that women are not to speak in church (and perhaps at this point you are wishing we had listened to this one!) Most churches, including the Presbyterian Church, followed this admonition from the Bible. But, we changed our mind. The Presbyterian Church began ordaining women as elders and ministers in the mid20th century. Guided by the law of love and, I would suggest, some good common sense as well as good scholarship the church changed. Some of course decried this decision as the slippery slope. In years past the church would not ordain to office a divorced person, based on the scripture that says elders and deacons must be the husband of one wife as well as other scriptures which speak of divorce as sinful. But, we changed our mind. Guided by the law of love we decided that we should not withhold leadership roles in the church for people whose marriages had fallen apart. So, today in the Presbyterian Church, those who are divorced and even those who are divorced and remarried may be ministers, elders and deacons. Of course, the church of today, is challenged to consider our inclusion of others who have been previously excluded. We have the law in front of us in the Bible. When and to what degree will we reconsider our positions based on the law of love? As a church and as individuals we face daily the challenge of how to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We struggle to know when tradition should be upheld and when it should not be for the sake of love. We struggle to know how to interpret the Bible in light of the law of love. We struggle to discover what love really looks like in every family encounter, workplace situation, political discussion, church decision and much more. What does love look like in our context in 2012? Jesus challenged the religious establishment long ago to reconsider their tradition in the light of love. It was difficult then and it is difficult now.

When Jesus was asked which commandment is the first of all? he answered: Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. The religious leader who asked the question of Jesus agreed with him and added: this is much more important than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices the religious rituals of the law-abiding faithful ones. Jesus said to him: You are not far from the kingdom of heaven. Today, as we depart from here to encounter many people in many circumstances, let us ask ourselves what love looks like. Let us ask ourselves if we are loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Let us ask ourselves if we are loving our neighbor in the same way we love ourselves.