21 Pentecost/Year A
Leviticus 19:1-2,15-18; Psalm 1; Matthew 22: 34-46
Let us pray: Almighty God, you teach us in your word that love is the fulfilment of the law: grant that we may love you with all our heart and our neighbour as ourselves; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(A New Zealand Prayer Book)
I think it’s a safe guess, for me to assume that all of us gathered here today, have heard the words spoken by Jesus, in the first few verses of our Gospel reading today….in some form or another, throughout our lives….whether in church, or Sunday school, or in a general conversation with someone outside of the church…or perhaps even noted, in a favorite book you might have read…
You know the words I’m talking about: The scripture Jesus uses to answer the lawyer’s question as to which commandment in the law is the greatest. Jesus answers, for all those gathered to listen: “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.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Sounds like Jesus summed it up quite simply and clearly for the lawyer, the Pharisees, and all those gathered….
2 simple teachings for them and us to remember, too…
1.love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
2.love your neighbor as yourself
Sounds simple enough….But, oh, how complicated we, human beings, make it all, because we try to make it fit into what we’ve always known…we try to make sense of it, on our terms…according to our own needs…we try to measure and judge, who should be first, or who we should love…or who is our neighbor…
We complicate the simple invitation to love God first…and by doing so…we struggle to see the world and all its’ people the way God sees and loves all people…we fail to imagine that a world without hatred and division, is possible, when we begin with loving God first…
The Pharisee’s, with their wealth of knowledge on all the religious rules and laws of the time, were having an especially difficult time wrapping their minds and understanding around who this Jesus was. They kept thinking for sure, there was a loop-hole, somewhere, to discount and discredit the things that they had heard that Jesus was teaching and doing.
They were putting their own understanding of the laws and the rules - first and foremost – instead of God, first and foremost…. From the very beginning, they were closing off their minds and their hearts to consider or even hear any possible explanation, or any good news of God’s love in action in the world, in any new ways which they had yet to imagine…
The Pharisees only wanted to hear what was familiar…what they already knew…They wanted Jesus to affirm what they already believed.
Sometimes we are like that, too. We know too much, we’ve experienced so much, we’ve been there, we’ve done that, tried it a hundred times – doesn’t work, never will.
And we continue to play out the events of our lives over and over in our minds. We’ve been witness to too much hatred and division and suffering in our lives, to imagine anything different…
We convince ourselves that things will never change...and that focus of doubt and disbelief, becomes the lens through which we view the world, and respond to the day to day things that happen in our lives. We put our own knowledge of the way things are or have been – FIRST.
We put our thoughts, first…and forget to turn to God first…to dream with God…and for God’s world…what wondrous things are possible…when we dare to put God first, in our lives…for the well-being of our own lives and the well-being of each other’s lives…
Jesus invites us and challenges us to look at the world in another way – and follow in a way of life that is marked by walking the way of love…A walk and a worldview that begins with us, putting God FIRST.
A way of love that says yes…it is possible to envision a world where division and hatred are no longer the norm…Yes…It is possible to imagine a world and its’ people coming together at the table, to love another, as we have been loved…to love our neighbors, as ourselves…to dream of a world, where all are loved and valued and fed and sheltered and cared for…and to work and walk in hope with one another…so that we can learn to live in peace with one another…
Jesus calls us to look through the lens of Love – God’s love – First…
When you wake up in the morning – Go to God first. Pray, sit quiet, look outside at the beauty of God’s creation. Be reminded of God’s presence as you begin your day.
When you have a tough decision to make – remember God FIRST. Ask for God’s strength and God’s guidance.
When you are feeling overwhelmed and not sure which way to go – stop, get your bearings, go to God FIRST – and trust that God will show you the way.
When you are worried, afraid, concerned for yourself, or your family or friends – go to God FIRST.
Trust in God. Have Faith in God. Put your Hope in God.
Go to God first…with all that you are, with all that you have, and in all that you do.
It really isn’t as complicated as we are often led to believe…
Go to God first.
1.love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
2.love your neighbor as yourself
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, sums it up best with these closing words from his new book… “Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times”…
This is what he says…
“When God, who is love, becomes our spiritual center of gravity, and love our moral compass, we live differently, regardless of what the world around us does. The world changes for the better, one life at a time.
So don’t give up on love.
Listen to it.
Trust it.
Give into it.
Obey it.
Love can help and heal when nothing else can.
Love can lift up and liberate when nothing else will.”
Go to God, first…with thanksgiving and gratitude… for the gifts of God and the people of God….
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska
Hymn to play after the sermon:
For the Beauty of the Earth
ST. JOSEPH'S PRIVATE SCHOOL KUCHING
FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH (John Rutter) by SJPS Chamber Choir & Christmas Concert Choir