SERMONS

Micah 6:8; Mark 12:28-34
Bethany United Church of Christ
Angela L. Ying
January 25, 2009

Whenever I hear the words, “You shall” … I start to think, okay, Angela, get a notepad and start that check list to be sure you do everything that you are supposed to do.

And yet, a strange thing happens. The more I do. The more there is to do. The better I get at doing. The more I am given to do.

At first this is quite exciting, because I take great pride is getting a lot of things done.

But then something happens — when I begin to rely completely on my own strength, my own will, my own powers to give and to get things done — something inside and out collapses, gets overwhelmed, anxious or comes to a complete halt.

Does this ever happen to you?

Perhaps, this is not exactly what Jesus is talking about when he tells the scribe and his disciples that the first of the great commandments is: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.

Could Jesus mean something bigger than me — than you? — for to love, in the first place, it cannot be about you and me.

To love, strangely enough, I need to have God’s purpose for me in front of me.

To love, we need God to show us who and what take priority and to prayerfully discern what God is trying to do in and through us.

Why?

So, you and I are not tempted to be pulled into a thousand directions — not to mention, not paying attention and not being present when and where we need to be.

And that, mind you, is easier said than done.

Let’s go to the gospel text. If we pay attention to how the Scriptures speak and are open to what God is trying to say to us, rather than what we want to tell the text … the Word of God may start to open up – break open – and, by the grace of God, break us open.

For the text actually begins not with a checklist of “You shall,” which can leave us over-functioning, over competent, over doers with heavy burdens on our shoulders and a bad back at the end of the day — rather, the gospel text actually begins with the Jewish “Shema.”

In the gospel, Jesus quotes from the Books of Leviticus and of Deuteronomy beginning with the opening words of the Jewish Shema: Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one, which is “Hear, O People, the Lord your God is One.” Not a thousand and one — One.

Did you hear that!

If I am listening, all of a sudden, there is a shift in how I live out my faith.

For, strange as it sounds, I am called not to start with doing my own thing at my own pace. I am called first to listen and to listen hard. For God starts God’s dialogue with us by saying: “Hear, O People.”

Before God can speak, God needs to know you and I are listening.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a lot of doing that needs to happen in the church and world. We still have the homeless, the hunger, the homophobia, and the hate to end.

And yet, if we hear the gospel text, it may be saying to us: Listen Up Folks — because what God has to say to you is going to be good – for you!

Only when I take myself less seriously and God more seriously can I begin to listen to God say, “Hear, O People.” Any time I turn my anxiety and focus back on me, what I hear is no longer from God.

Think about it and imagine what is possible if you woke up each day not with “O God, I have so many things I have to accomplish and get done, so will you please help me get them done by first getting me out of bed!”

But instead, you arose in prayer as young Samuel did with “Speak, God — your servant is listening.”

I have a hunch, because I have actually tried it, that I would not only get more done in a day, I would know for whom I was doing what I do and why.

For vocation as Christian people does not mean a goal that we pursue, it means a calling that we hear and then faithfully carry out.

Knowing this, you and I might actually get the question, the wisdom, the direction and the discernment for which we need to go — all from the One – the Big Enchilada, if we would stop to listen!

Remember the two sisters Martha and Mary. It has taken me a long time to hear those words, “Mary has chosen the better part” when she dares to choose for herself in a patriarchal world to sit and listen to the word of God — instead of attempting to make everything perfect for everyone else and becoming overwhelmed in the process.

When the early church was forming, something like what is going on right here at Bethany at the corner of Beacon Avenue and Graham Street — take a guess at what Jesus told the disciples to do first as recorded in the Book of Acts of the Apostles. Jesus lovingly tells his disciples not to leave but to stay where they are, and to wait on the promises of God.

After seeing Jesus crucified in the city of Jerusalem, why on earth would they want to remain there. But that is exactly the place they must remain. Instead of running away to a safer place, instead of traveling the easier road, the disciples are instructed to be in the community they are now, so the Holy Spirit can come to them.

No checklist before the risen Jesus heads up to the heavens. No to-do list of how to grow the church upon what Jesus has already built with them. No, it is a simple, but not easy “Do not leave — wait on the Lord.”

I can just imagine Peter, James and John pulling their hair out, as I would, as they try to lead and grow a diverse, dynamic and intergenerational church. I am sure they thought out of fear: “Come on, we need to get everything out of Jesus that we can before he leaves us. What do we know?”

And strangely enough, only then, when the community listens and knows who is leading — does the Holy Spirit come and breathe upon the fearful disciples, giving them courage to listen and how to love.

Hear O People — Do Love Kindness.

In Parker Palmer’s book, “Let Your Life Speak” he shares “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what your life intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you (speak to you) what truths you embody, what values you represent.”

As I learn and grow with you as your pastor in the Christian faith, I find in believing in God, that when we love God, which means listening for a word from God and then acting upon it wholeheartedly, everything else strangely and paradoxically falls into place as we learn who and what is priority in life. It’s not about you and me. It’s about God.

Which is another good reason to have all kinds of different and diverse people in our congregation — to remind us, it is not my church or your church – it is God’s church.

For what God has in store for us here at Bethany Church is far greater than what you and I have in store for ourselves. Far greater than what we could ever imagine.

Hear O People, the Lord your God is one.
And you shall love 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.

Roberta Bondi in her book “To Love as God Loves” writes that to love as God loves in the second commandment is “to identify with the sinner, and rather than take secret pleasure in another person’s downfall, when you hear it, say, “O God, him today, me tomorrow – recognizing your kinship with the sinner.”

Two of the greatest commandments of all time: to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Take note: The second great commandment is also not something on a “to-do list.” For when it comes out of, grows out of, the roots of the first great commandment, it becomes the very means by which the first commandment can be put into every day practice.

Where from our very growing in our spiritual practices as individuals of this congregation lead us to learn the ways in which the poor are to be cared for, and the weak are to be protected against exploitation. For those who love God must love their neighbors also.

The second commandment cannot be absorbed into the first, as if when we love our neighbors we have thoroughly fulfilled the commandment to love God. The whole self is called to be engaged and embodied in the love of God.
We love because we know we are loved by God first.

Love is more than a feeling, more than a task that is done. Love finds expression in concrete acts and takes on the very character of justice.

In the late monk, Thomas Merton’s book, “Love and Living” he wrote
“Love transforms our entire life. Genuine love is a personal revolution … Love is not a deal … To love I have to climb out of the cradle, where everything is “getting,” and grow up to the maturity of giving, without concern for getting anything special in return.”

To love kindness, in the words of the prophet Micah, is no easy task.

As theologian, Frederick Buechner knows, “Of all powers, love is the most powerful and the most powerless. Love is the most powerless because it can do nothing except by consent. Love is the most powerful because it alone can conquer that final and most impregnable stronghold which is the human heart.”

Did you know that this is the one story in the gospel of Mark where the scribe is seen in a positive light, unlike the usual entrapment questions from Pharisees and Sadducees.

The scribe actually agrees with Jesus and Jesus agrees with the scribe. It is a beautiful moment. But agreeing is not enough. The scribe, we are told, is “not far from the kingdom of God.” Like the rich man earlier in the gospel, the scribe is lacking something.

For Mark, it is following Jesus. And doing this is not about agreeing on the right answers. Rather, following Jesus is living and being in the presence of God where love of God and love of neighbor is possible.

Can we take time in our all ready busy lives to be in the presence of God to learn to love God with all our heart and soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves?

When a busy person asked Thomas Keating, “Can you really say to people with whom you are traveling on faith’s journey, ‘I’m going to do my prayers and meditation now?’ ”

Keating responded: “Sure! Why not, they might be happy to have a few minutes of quiet themselves.”

The first commandment of love is not on any outward compulsion of duty and obligation, but the inner movement of love as a grateful response to God’s love for us. This is the grammar of the gospel: Grace then Response.

To love God with our whole — not truncated or carefully calculated and compartmentalized selves — our whole selves. Our whole person as broken and bruised, joyful and afraid, growing and learning, forgiving and being forgiven, outspoken and sometimes without words.

This week I received an Evite for our daughter to attend a classmate’s birthday party. In lieu of gifts and any goodie bags, the family asked that we bring a gently used book or toy to exchange. One of the mothers wrote her dilemma. “I know we are trying to love the earth, but when I ask my son to pick something from his toy chest for the birthday, he either argues with me about keeping it or picks something used that is unsuitable to give. What do I do?”
At first I read this and thought, “Woman, get a clue. Just go to the thrift store and find something nice for the birthday.” For this is exactly what I planned to do. Reduce, reuse, recycle. That’s the spirit, right?

When I shared this with my husband, he said that there was a greater lesson to teach and to be learned — one of generosity and love. So, we decided together to invite our daughter to select a gift from one of her best toys.

At first our daughter thought her parents were nuts! We probably were. “What other child is going to do this”, she argued. “Any child that wants to be invited back to a birthday, because you brought your best, not what you do not want.” Together, after a very long pause — we found one of her best gifts to give to the child. And it was good.

Jesus did not just share words of love. Jesus lived them.

And who ever said “Hear O People and Do Kindness” was easy!