Love Isn't A Four Letter Work - Matthew 22:34-46
Washington D.C. D.C. must be a tough town in which to live and do work –– and I'm not talking about its poorest neighborhoods. D.C. is a tough town, beginning at the top.
I was flipping channels the other night as I was laying awake in bed and I stopped to listen to Bill Clinton on David Letterman. One question Letterman asked was a question that has certainly come to my mind recently. This was Letterman’s question: Why would anyone want to get elected and become president at such a difficult time in our country’s history. Well, Clinton’s answer spoke to the fact that it is always difficult being President in this country but like he said, it was better to come into power at such a difficult time because the only direction to go was UP!
Washington is a tough town to live in. We all instinctively know this. I know that knifing political opponents is the big sport in D.C. It's a Gotcha kind of town for political people. As someone once said, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there ISN'T someone out to get you."
Jerusalem was that kind of town ––powerful people jockeying for position –– opposing parties trying to outdo each other. Pharisees and Sadducees were the major players. Like Republicans and Democrats, Pharisees and Sadducees each thought they were right and the others were wrong. They didn't like each other. But Pharisees and Sadducees could work together when it suited their purposes –– for instance, when someone like Jesus came along. Both Pharisees and Sadducees had a problem with Jesus. Jesus was rocking the religious boat –– and both the Pharisees and Sadducees had a lot to lose.
So the Pharisees and Sadducees worked together to defeat Jesus –– their common enemy. They tried to trip him up –– to get him to say something that would turn the crowds against him –– to discredit him.
We heard about this last week. The Pharisees started by asking a loaded question about paying taxes to Caesar.
And then just before today’s reading, the Sadducees asked another loaded question about the resurrection. The Sadducees, by the way, didn't believe in the resurrection.
I always enjoy reading about those controversies, because in the end, the ole’ coyote ends up getting caught in his own trap. You know the trap is going to backfire on Coyote, but the fun is waiting for it to happen.
Well, this morning, both the Pharisees and Sadducees have had one "go" at Jesus, and both of them lost. Now the Pharisees try again. A Pharisee asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment.
That's the kind of question that the rabbis spent their lives arguing. No matter what Jesus answered, they would say, "What about this?" or "What about that?" Hopefully, by the time they were through with Jesus, they would have him trapped in a corner.
At least that was the plan. But Jesus answered so well that they couldn't figure out how to get at him. When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus answered:
"'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". (vv. 37-40)
How could anyone answer better than that? The Pharisees didn't even try to argue with Jesus. Love God. Love your neighbor. The Pharisees were hoping that Jesus would say something stupid. They were hoping to make him look bad. But "Love God –– love your neighbor." How could they find fault with that!
What would this world look like if people could actually “Love God & Love Your Neighbor?” Our world would be much more beautiful if people would actually love God –– if they would actually love their neighbor. Our community would be a more beautiful place.
Let me ask it another way. What would your life look like if you would actually love God?
First, let me say that I see lots of evidence that many of you do love God. You show your love for God by your very life.
When I look out at this congregation, I see people who come here to worship Sunday after Sunday.
· You come, because you know that God wants you to worship him.
· You come, because you love God and want to be closer to him.
· You come, to say to the people around you, "I love God, and I want to be a part of God's team."
· You come, because you know that you can come face to face with God here, and you want that personal contact.
· You come, because you can learn something about God here –– about being faithful to God –– and you want to do that.
· You come, because you know that God has something for you to do – and you want to be faithful and fulfill God's purpose for you today!
So the very fact that you have come to worship today is one way that you are expressing your love for God.
And, as I look out at this congregation, I see people who give time and money to make it possible for this church to do its work. I see well-to-do people who give generously from their affluence –– and I see people like the widow who put her last coins in the temple treasury. God cares less about the amount that you put in the offering tray than the fact that you have first given your heart to God. That's what God really wants –– your heart. If you have given God your heart, you will give your money and time.
And, as I look out at this congregation, I see people who serve God in a thousand different ways –– from serving on a committee ––( to singing in the choir) –– (to teaching a Sunday school class) –– to cutting the grace – to cleaning the church – to helping set up tables and chairs. Each of those is your way of showing your devotion to God.
I could probably go on all day about this, but I won't. Let me just ask you to give some thought to this question. If you love God, what are you doing to show it? What would God want you to do to show him that you love him?
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And then we come to the part about loving our neighbor. What would it look like if you would actually love your neighbor?
When I look out at this congregation, I see evidence that you do love your neighbor. I see people who take care of each other.
I see people who have a warm smile and cheerful greeting for each other. I see people who reach out to strangers in our midst and make them feel welcome.
Those are little clues –– clues that suggest that you really do love your neighbor.
I see people here who have responded to the needs of those who are less fortunate to those who have experienced disasters. We have reached out to our local schools. We have collected food for the hungry. We have ministered to the homeless, providing them with food, socks and rainwear.
Each of those things is evidence that we love our neighbor.
Bob Woodruff was co-anchoring ABC World News when he went on assignment to Iraq. He was embedded with an army unit when the enemy set off an explosion that nearly killed him. His wife, Lee, was vacationing with their children when she got word of his injury. She quickly flew home to arrange for someone to care for the children so she could fly to Germany, where her husband was being taken for medical treatment.
Later, she and Bob wrote a book about their ordeal. The title is chilling –– In an Instant. In an instant, their lives were changed. In an instant, their world was turned upside down.
In their book, Lee talked about friends who helped her through those terrible hours as she tried to get things together.
"It was friends like Karin whom I would come to rely on and be amazed by.
These were the friends who refrained from calling repeatedly,
friends who dropped off meals and slunk away.
They made Costco runs for toilet paper,
took my children for playdates,
and drove them to soccer practices, confirmation classes,
and countless other activities."
She talked about friends who came to the house and got things organized –– who brought food and flowers –– who took her children to their homes.
I was working on this sermon when I ran across that passage. It reminded me of the way the people of God Church express your love for each other. We see it time after time. A family member dies. Folks show up to clean and straighten the house so friends can come and pay their respects. Food begins to fill the house as people come to visit. By the day of the funeral, there is usually so much food that it is being shared with others. This is a gesture that means a lot. It doesn’t bring mom or dad back –– nothing could do that –– but the kindness is a healing salve on our wound.
This love your neighbor business goes on and on, because Jesus teaches us to see our neighbor as more than the person who lives next door. Our neighbor is the homeless person living on our streets. Our neighbor is the child who is struggling with school, in part, because he or she gets very little support from his or her parents. Our neighbor is the Haitian whose home was flooded by Hurricane Gustav or Hurricane Ike.
If Jesus wants you to love your neighbor –– and he does –– how would he want you to help?
Someone once wrote:
"The only hands that God has to bless the world
are our hands.
The only feet he has to go into all the world
are our feet.
The only voice he has to speak to men
is our voice."
That isn't completely true, because God hasn't rendered himself helpless. But it is true that God's human angels are his hands and feet on this earth. Christ calls us to love God and neighbor –– and a great deal of how that happens (or fails to happen) in our community and in our world depends on whether we act as His hands and feet.
This is one of those sermons that could go on and on, but I'm going to stop now. But first let me leave you with these questions. Contemplate these questions as you go through this week:
1. If you were really to love GOD, what would you do?
2. If you were really to love YOUR NEIGHBOR, what would you do?
3. If you were actually to do those things, what BLESSINGS would you GIVE?
4. If you were actually to do those things, what BLESSINGS would you RECEIVE?
Jesus calls us to love God. Jesus calls us to love our neighbor. Let us be faithful to do those two things. Amen.
