Love ?
I was reading some jokes this week about cows – they’re all clean and decent don’t worry ! The question was how, if you owned 2 cows, they would be dealt with under different political systems – for example if you have 2 cows under a socialist system, you give one to your neighbour. Under a communist system you give the government both cows and they give you some milk back; in a traditional capitalist society, you sell one cow, buy a bull, and the herd begins to grow and then you sell them and retire on the profits. In
Anyway this has got very little to do with the sermon today except for the number 2, and the fact that when Jesus is asked ‘Which is the greatest commandment of all ?’ he comes up with 2 parts to his answer. The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and the second is to love your neighbour as yourself.
Jesus had managed to condense all of the Jewish laws into just two parts, and this was no mean feat. According to ancient scribal tradition, the Law contains not just 2 commandments, not just 10 but 613 separate commandments. Some teachers then divided the 613 into 365 prohibitions (one for each day of the year) and 248 positive commands (one for each bone of the body). In this way, they indicated that the Law of God should govern all our days and all our bodily movements.
And these laws would have been important to Jesus, but not as important as his fundamental command to love, and once again this morning we are challenged by Jesus to live out that command, and none of us need reminding that that is not an easy thing to do.
In our Bible study group this week we thought of how the Jewish people had their own idea of what their Saviour would be like – Jesus didn’t really fit that bill, and so he was rejected by many. But we also thought of how, even for us today, living as Christians, we like to fit Jesus into a convenient little box which suits us perfectly.
Sadly of course that is not the real Jesus, or at least not the full picture of him. Jesus was a radical who said many things which we may not like or find easy to follow, and whilst he was full of compassion and always ready to give people another chance, he was also fairly blunt about those who heard his message and chose to ignore the bits they didn’t like.
I read a passage recently which said, "I met the strangest man on the way to the church. He said he believed in the Bible, but he never reads it. He said he thought well of the church of which he is a member, but never attends it. He said a person should be honest with God in money matters, but he never gives any money to the Church or to charity.
He said the younger generation needs the Lord, but he isn't leading them in that direction. He said the church needs dedicated Christian members, but he isn't one. He said the church should do more in ministering to people, but he doesn't help. He is critical of some of the workers, but he never works. He is critical of the way the church is 'run,' but he never participates. He says the Lord is surely coming, but he lives as though the Lord will never return. He says prayer will change things, but he never prays. He was a strange man, indeed"
Maybe we have all met people who, to a degree, are a bit like this man, but we shouldn’t just laugh it off, instead we must also challenge ourselves by asking how well we are living out the commands of Jesus, not just to be a part of his Church, but to live as one of his disciples.
Perhaps loving our neighbour as we love ourselves is one of the most convenient of these commands for us to ignore – surely when he said love he didn’t really mean love, did he? Perhaps tolerate, perhaps be polite to, but not really love them ??
In fact though I think we all know that he meant really love them.
And so we have to really think what love means - loving someone requires us to be in relationship with a person – too often ‘I love God’ might seem to mean ‘I love the Church or the rituals or I believe in God’ – in the same way ‘I love my neighbour’ can also mean very little… Somebody once said, ‘It’s ok to Love your neighbour as yourself, but choose your neighbourhood first’.
The fact is that when Jesus talked of loving his neighbour, he was doing it. He was dealing with people who he probably didn’t like very much – Jesus’ view of the tax collectors at the time would have probably been not very different from the rest of the population, the same with his view of lepers, and all of the other kinds of society’s outcasts that he dealt with.
Jesus went to people who were difficult to love, and he loved them with no conditions and with no boundaries, and that must be the example we are to follow today. So where do we start ? Well the first and most obvious place must be within our own families and circle of friends, and that must include our Christian families here in the Church… How often have people noticed that some of the worst splits occur in Churches between people who daily proclaim an allegiance to Jesus who commands us to love one another ?
We must start in our Churches by building up a fellowship, a true family, committed to serving God and serving one another. I have been to Churches where there are horrible and very visible divisions – if love is genuine on all sides, then those rifts will be healed. If love is genuine we will make sure that everyone who comes to our Churches feels part of family, not so they’re suffocated by people, but in a way that makes them feel glad to be there.
I think we’re fairly good at making people feel part of a family here in both of our Churches, but just last week I spoke to someone who has been coming to Church for a number of years, and who has never even been spoken to by most of the congregation. Maybe that person should be talking more themselves, but the point shows that we must never be complacent in our welcoming of people to the Church.
Worship together on a Sunday is important, but equally important is getting to know one another so that we can share in good times and bad times the love of Jesus Christ with each other.
There’s a joke about a man who was walking through the desert and he was desperate for water and almost passing out, and then he saw a caravan ahead. He thought ‘At last… there must be water there’. And so he knocked on the door, and a man answered. The walker desperately asked for water, and was told that the caravan had no water, but said the caravan owner, ‘I have got some ties – you can have any sort of tie you want’.
The walker replied that he didn’t want a tie and left – he somehow managed to get a bit further and saw another caravan. Again he knocked on the door, but again he was told there was no water… ‘But’ the caravan owner said, ‘I have got some ties, you can have any tie you want.’
Again the walker said he didn’t want a tie, he just wanted some water, and he left.
A little further on he climbed up a bit of a hill and at the top he saw a lush green golf course – ‘At last water’. And so with his last bit of strength he went to the clubhouse and asked if they had water, and the man at the door replied, ‘we’ve got plenty of water but you can’t come in here without a tie.’
As Churches we need to communicate better with each other, and with visitors and with our communities. People need to know what we’re doing here, and why, and they need to see some evidence of why Jesus makes a difference in our lives today.
The words of Jesus are often uncomfortable because he often meant us to do very difficult things, things which we don’t always think we’re capable of. But with his strength, we’re told in the Bible, we can do anything…. and that even means love the person we find it most difficult to even like… AMEN
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