Love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind and all of your strength....And Love your neighbour as yourself....
It is hard to know how to say something new about these most ancient of commandments, these commandments that summarize all of the Law and the Prophets, these commandments that we all aspire to meet in the fullness of the Spirit of God.
All I can do this morning is share few thoughts on these commandments and what they require and pray that you, and, I each day may come to
How do we love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength? The first thing I want to say today about this commandment concerns how it is expressed. Why, are all four things, heart, mind, soul, and strength, mentioned in it? Some would say it is for emphasis - to show how deeply we must love - but still, the four words all point to different things, to different parts or aspects of our selves - parts that we can separate, parts that we can, and often do, compartmentalize in our daily living, even though we ought not.
There are people who say and who really believe that they love God - but who never take time to express that love in word or song or prayer, there are others who worship God regularly and who do good deeds almost all the time - but do so out of duty or out of a sense of pride or fear, their thoughts are not sanctified - not holy - the different parts of their selves are not in harmony, not at peace with one another.
Still others pour out all their strength and mind power upon doing God's will, but do not feel positive, let alone affectionate towards God. They feel empty - even though they are doing the right things. The daily grind can, of course, wear all of us down, it can put stress on us and foster the divisions inside us the divisions between heart, mind, and soul.
I rather think that is what was happening when Charlie Brown says to one of his friends: - "I love mankind! Its people I can't stand" Sometimes it is easier for us to love in the abstract than it is for us to love in the concrete.
God knows this about us - and He is forgiving God when our love does not quite measure up, but still God calls us to love him totally - and out of that love, to love our neighbours as ourselves. The two commandments we see are bound into one - total love of God and total love of neighbour, so that one becomes, in a sense, the measure of the other
.There is a story about the evangelist - St. John. Among the 12 disciples, John alone is said to have lived into old age. For the celebration of other eleven, the colours in the church are red - to remind us of the colour of the blood they shed for us - but for John the colour is white.
In his old age, John lived in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor - what is now known as Turkey. In his later years not only his body, but his mind, became somewhat enfeebled. As the result of this, John's ability to think and express himself became ever more limited, until finally he could say only a few words, which he would repeat over and over again.
Apostle John was esteemed and respected as the last surviving apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. On the Lord's Day, he would be carried into the midst of the congregation that had assembled for worship. The people would fall silent to hear his words.
Then the old man would open his mouth. This is what the aged apostle would say. "My children, love one another. My children, love one another. My children, love one another." Over and over again, just that - "My children, love one another."
Jesus says that we should love God with everything we have, that our love needs to go beyond simple expressions of assent, or agreement and be seen in every part of our lives. We are to love God - and in the end - our neighbours:
There should be no division within us and division without us - no division in other words between how we love God and how we love ourselves and our neighbours. But having said these things about why the commandment is expressed the way it is expressed, I want to go on and say a little about how we love, especially about how we love when the path before us is not clear - how we love when in fact we feel divided in side.
As I said earlier - God knows that we are often divided within ourselves, that we have conflict between the different parts of ourselves, that desires seek to overwhelm us, critical thoughts seek to misguide us, evil spirits strive to whisper in our souls
.God knows this - and as I said - God is forgiving God when our love does not quite measure up, but still God calls us to love totally - So, how do I know if I am loving well? What standard can I use to tell if I am doing a good job of loving?
The very first thing I want to say about this is this: in the end the only love that counts is the love of God. Not our love - be it for God or neighbour - but God's love for us.
It is on this and this alone that we stake our salvation. We don't earn our way into heaven. God embraces us in Jesus and calls us to come to him as a gift of his love.
That is the most important thing - The rest is simply us trying to respond as faithfully as we can because we want to - because God has given us a "response-ability" and because it is such a crying shame when we fail to respond as well as we are able.
How do I know if I am loving well? What standard can I use to determine if I am on the right track, especially when other forces within and without me are calling my love into question?
Well the answer is simple. You know you are loving well if you are living up to standards of the law, and to the example of Jesus. Paul was attacked by others as he went about trying to live up to his calling as an apostle and evangelist.
Paul faced the kind of accusations, in other words, that most of us face during our lifetime - accusations that may be made by others, are simply made within us by our own self-doubts and our own awareness of our sinful nature.
I am struck by reading Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, by the fact that there are standards by which we can determine what love is like -- standards which suggest to us what kinds of actions we ought to be taking if we love God and one another.
They are the standards of the bible; the standards of morality: of morality as it used to be known in our world - the concrete and fixed morality of God - rather than the relative and ever changing morality of human kind of our cynical and corrupt time.
How do we know if we are loving as we ought to? How can we tell if we are on the right path in how we show the love that God has given us?
To me the answer is found in the fact that the greatest commandments, do not replace the law and the prophets – they summarize them.
If we are feeling that somehow we are off course, that the love we feel in one part of our lives is somehow not showing up in the other parts then we can check out our performance by standards found in this book.
We can check ourselves out - not as a way of judging or justifying ourselves - but as a way of improving ourselves - and thus of improving our world. We, as Christians, have two testaments
The first testament contains the law of God - which Jesus summarizes in today's reading - and it shows us how to apply that law - and the second testament shows us in Jesus the perfect fulfillment of that law in human living - it gives us a great example to follow and to believe in.
In other words there is a whole message - and not just a summary there is a whole message - and we need to hear it if we are to understand what is going on in us and in our world. That message reminds us that there are things like duty, responsibility, justice, accountability, punishment, prayer and power, peace and reconciliation.
Do I love as I ought? Am I on the right course?
The answer is found in the answer to questions like:
The answer is found in the answer to questions like:
There are a lot of questions we can ask ourselves to help us decide if we are loving God and one another in the way we are called to love God and one another.
And it is good to ask these questions - for they do keep us honest; and if sincerely asked - and prayerfully thought about, their answers can lead us and our world to a greater wholeness; that is - if we want them to.
And ultimately that is what our love is all about, it is about our wanting to be, and trying to be, faithful to God.
On this Reformation Sunday we are once again challenge to seek the Kingdom of God and all it righteousness. Love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind and all of our strength.... And Love our neighbour as yourselves....
Lord help me do what is right, Lord help me love as I ought to love, make me more like Jesus, who lived and died to set me free. Praise be unto his name. Amen
.Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
October 30, 2005