Deuteronomy 6:1-9
1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2 so that you and your children and your children’s 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. 3 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.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 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. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Mark 12:28-34
28 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?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 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.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 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’; 33 and ‘to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 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.
A scribe overheard Jesus arguing with the Sadducees and, impressed by his answers, asked Jesus, “which is the first commandment of all?” To which Jesus responded, “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”.
This command was first issued in the passage we read from Deuteronomy, in a sermon delivered by Moses before the people entered the Promised Land. The Israelites had been brought into the wilderness by a God they didn’t even know - a God with whom they were not always happy nor faithful - and there, on their own, they coalesced into a people, a nation. But now they were on the verge of entering inhabited lands and encountering other peoples with other gods, and the concern behind the command - a concern which proved to be warranted many times over - was that God’s people would come to worship the gods of their neighbors. At this point the Israelites were not even yet monotheists; they believed the Lord was their God, but other peoples had gods too. Moses, on God’s behalf, implores the people not to become entangled with other gods, to be diligent in teaching their children, to bind themselves to Scripture an God’s promises therein, so that it would go well with them.
History, of course, showed that, despite this command and the implicit warning that followed, the Israelites were not faithful to God. And all of the calamities that befell Israel, they learned to attribute to their unfaithfulness. If only they could be faithful, things would go well for them. If only they could keep the law properly, the nation would be restored. In Jesus’ day they found themselves living through another chastisement, Roman occupation. We often speak of the scribes and Pharisees as being cravenly self-righteous, but a more sympathetic reading is that these people were convinced - not without reason - that Israel was in it’s situation because of it’s unrighteousness, and the way out was to be more righteous, to adhere to the law scrupulously, to worship the Lord rigorously. This may also help explain why the scribes and pharisees never seemed interested in messiahs. They didn’t think that was the solution to the problem. Becoming like them was the answer.
So when the scribe asked his question of Jesus, the subtext may very well have been to ascertain if Jesus really was on the side of law observance or not. He surely had given them reason to doubt he was the kind of pedantic legalist they were. Jesus gave the right answer, but he did not stop there, instead immediately adding that the second greatest commandment is, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. He adds this not just because it’s also important, but because it’s crucial for understanding the first commandment, In fact, these two are inseparable. The scribes and Pharisees were inclined to think that loving God primarily meant obeying God’s law - and it’s worth remembering that Jesus affirmed their teaching on the law - but he consistently criticized them for placing their personal righteousness before actually helping people. This is seen most obviously in their conflicts over the Sabbath, where the authorities condemned Jesus for healing people on the day of rest. But the Sabbath is for people, not people for the Sabbath, Jesus scolded them. The law doesn’t exist to exempt you from loving your neighbor but to encourage it., whatever the day of the week. If you want to love God, you can’t just practice your own personal piety and disregard the plight of others. To love God is to love the people whom God loves, the people - as Jesus reminds them - whom the law commands you to love.
The negative of example of the scribes and Pharisees is a crucial witness of the Scriptures exactly because we are so easily tempted to be like them. One of the common criticisms of Christianity is that the Christians are self-righteous and don’t care about others. Often this criticism is not fair, but often it is fair. The temptation for me and maybe you right at this juncture is to indulge in some mocking of the self-righteous Christians and to assure ourselves that we are unlike them. I will resist, mostly, and say only that any expression of the faith which elevates following rules over helping others, which prioritizes personal righteousness over practicing justice, which acts like the kingdom of God can be achieved through legal or moral purity, is not a faith Jesus would endorse, it’s safe to say.
A further temptation for me, and maybe for you, is to tell ourselves that here in the this new church we’re going to escape false religion and practice true religion, understanding ourselves to be acting out of greater enlightenment and/or superior virtue. Which is to say that participating in this new community is potentially an invitation to self-righteousness. So rather than thinking abut who in the world needs to hear Jesus’ answer to this question, we should realize we just might be those people.
It’s easy to see Christian fundamentalists (or anyone edging that direction) as the modern manifestation of the Pharisees, but self-righteousness can be found anywhere on the theological, cultural, political spectrum, simply because it’s human nature to be concerned with your status and to invent ways of exalting yourself above others. Christianity potentially gives people a way of keeping score, but self-righteousness is hardly unique to the Christians, nor to the “right” side of the divide. Many have observed that contemporary the far left, with its enforced pieties, public condemnations, ritual excommunications, looks like a lot like the very kind of religion its adherent despise.
And so often, much like Christians who would insist on orthodoxy while failing to love their neighbors, the whole substance of progressivism often seems to be holding the right opinions about who deserves justice without actually doing anything serious or making any sacrifices to insure that justice is done. It’s merely an exercise in convincing yourself that you’re the right kind of person. And it’s very easy for us to do the same, to comfort ourselves that we think the right thoughts, we feel the right feelings, without having to do much of anything for anyone.
When people learned that I was starting a new church they often wondered what it would be like, and - aside from worship style - the only framework people have to conceptualize difference amongst churches is on a conservative-liberal spectrum. Conceived that way, the question is essentially, What opinions do you hold and how adamantly to you hold them? Either way, faith is conceived of as internal, personal beliefs rather than as outward, relational practices. But rather than trying to locate ourselves in the sweet-spot on this spectrum, my desire for this community is to embody a possibility that’s off the spectrum altogether. Although we like to imagine that Jesus is on our side and enlist him in our struggle, in his own day Jesus showed no interest in the ancient equivalent of disputes about being conversation or liberal. What Jesus resisted, in all it’s forms, was self-righteousness and pride, and what he consistently promoted was humility and self-sacrifice. Jesus rejected any form of the faith where you could claim to love God without also loving people, and, in fact, he very much practiced what he preached when he died for those he loved, for all of us.
Sometimes I worry if some people might find the church too liberal while maybe others find it too conservative. Those kinds of questions will never go away, and maybe you’re feeling like it’s a bit too one way or another. But the criteria upon which I hope this church will be evaluated is whether we are a people who love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and - more to the point - whether we love our neighbors as ourselves. Love is not just a thought or a feeling, it is a command, it is something we do. It is something we do here, for one another, and it is something we do for all our neighbors, even our enemies. We should want, even expect, this church to love those who never even enter theses doors. That is a challenge for any church in this time and place, but it is a challenge we must accept. Jesus said loving God and our neighbor is the most important thing, so if we’re going to call ourselves Christians it ought all to be the most important thing to us.
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