by Michelle Dean ,
Deacon
© 2005 All rights Reserved
©2005 Michelle Dean
All Rights Reserved
Modified October 31, 2005
The text we have read today in Matthew is one in a series of writings where the authority of Jesus is being questioned by the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They try to trap Jesus on the question of taxes, which he very cleverly deflects by stating that since the form of money used to pay taxes has Caesars picture on it, it belongs to Caesar. They ask him about resurrection, and Jesus again slips past them, explaining how it is not the dead that are the concern of God, but the living. Finally, they ask him what is the greatest of all of God commandments. Although the text states that this is presented as a test to Jesus, it appears to be more along the lines of a trap. To understand this, you need to know that there were some 613 laws that equally governed Jewish life in this time, and the Pharisees felt that they would be able to hold Jesus up to ridicule before his followers if he elevated any one of these laws above the others. Jesus is, of course, infinitely cleverer than the Pharisees, and tells them “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”. Now this comes from the Sheema, which is the Jewish creedal statement. You could kind of say that this is the Jewish version of a mission statement. Jesus adds to this, saying “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” In simple terms, what Jesus is saying that these two laws are the cornerstones of all of God’s commandments. If you love God, and you love your neighbor, then following the rest of the commandments will come naturally, because you can’t possibly follow the rest of the commandments if you don’t love God and your fellow man.
Now, loving “God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” is actually not as easy to do as it may sound. It is human nature to question the things that happen in our world, and when things that we can’t explain happen, we have a tendency to look toward a higher power to explain these things to us. Sometimes that higher power is a parent, a teacher, or a pastor, but in a lot of cases, people look to God for the explanations that they seek. In many cases, people tend to blame God for the bad things that they encounter, or for the things that they can’t or won’t understand. It is very easy to believe in something, to have faith in something, when it is easy… it is when things are difficult that belief and faith are somewhat scarce commodities. One of my favorite sayings, which I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard me say, is “It wouldn’t be any fun if it were easy”, but I have to tell you, most of the time I say it as a joke. No one willingly wants to take the hard road to something…even if that something is as simple as faith. Belief and faith tend to be easily shaken, especially when bad things happen, and when these things occur, it if difficult to remember that we are to love God as completely as Jesus tells us to. It is in that difficultly remembering that people are sometimes lost in a world of disbelief and cynicism.
I would like to tell you a story about a little girl who lost her faith in God. Many, many years ago, this little girl’s mother died very suddenly. Her mother was very young, and beautiful, and while the child knew that her mother wasn’t well, she didn’t know exactly how ill her mother was. This child grew up in a religious family, and she attended church regularly, as well as attending a parochial school. She had been taught that God had an answer for everything; all you had to do was pray for the answers you were seeking. Well, when this little girl’s mom died, the girl prayed for God to tell her the reason why he had taken her mommy from her and her family. Now, we all know that while God does answer prayers, he generally does not answer them in a manner that is going to satisfy a grieving child. Because this child did not receive the answers that she was seeking, she decided that she wasn’t going to believe in a God that could be so cruel as to take a beloved parent from her and her father and her brothers and sisters. While I won’t go into detail, this little girl had a pretty lousy childhood, for which she also blamed the God she claimed that she no longer believed in. For twenty-five long years, this child who refused to have faith grew into a woman who was cynical and disbelieving of anything that she couldn’t see. She always felt that something was missing in her world, but she was sure that this was something that she could find for herself…she didn’t need the help of anything or anyone. Well, to make a long story short, a few years ago, this woman had a couple of really difficult years, and started examining the things that were missing in her world…a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, faith…
Now, this woman was in college at this point, and was sort of discussing this emptiness, this sense of being lost with a friend of hers. Her friend did something that many people had tried and had failed at…she invited her to her church. Now this woman was feeling so lost that she figured that going to church for just this once couldn’t hurt, so she showed up the following Sunday. She walked through the front doors of the church and was warmly and enthusiastically greeted by members of the congregation, which, as you all know, can be a little overwhelming. She did her very best to sit in the very back pew of the church, but her friend pulled her forward into the very front pew, and after the service was over, hauled her downstairs to the fellowship luncheon. This woman was again overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people in the church. She decided that maybe she would try it out again the next Sunday…kind of like women try on a pair of shoes…just to check the fit. The people in the church welcomed her back, welcomed her family, included her…and helped her find the sense of belonging that she had been missing for so long. The pastor at the church, with his sometimes unconventional way of looking at things, helped her reclaim her faith which, it turns out, had never really been gone…it had just been hidden beneath a veil of grief, hurt and fear. She figured out that God didn’t take her mom…he just brought her home when she died. The pastor at that church, the woman’s friend from school, and the members of the congregation showed this woman what exactly Jesus meant when he said “love your neighbor as you love yourself”. That love shown by her neighbors kept her coming to church, and she is still a member of that congregation to this day.
We are coming to a point in our church where some difficult decisions have to be made. We don’t have as much money or as many people to help with all of the things that the church is involved in as we used to, so the board of Trustees will shortly be beginning a stewardship campaign, and the board of Deacons is working with Kip on beginning a marketing campaign designed to increase our membership. We are all going to need the help of our congregation to make these campaigns successful, and in turn make our church successful. This is going to take a lot of work on all of our parts, but I really believe if we put our hearts, souls and minds into this, much as we put them into our love for God, we will be successful. I know that the idea of adding anything more into our already busy schedules is intimidating, but we need to remember that the neighbors that we are to love as we love ourselves are not just the people that have suffered in wars, in tsunamis and hurricanes and disasters…they are the people that are spiritually lost that walk in through that front door looking for their faith, looking for a sense of belonging, looking for a home with God. And I want you to know that I truly believe that we are more than capable of helping these people find that home here in this church…I know this because I am that little girl who lost her mother, who lost her faith, and who lost her belief in God. Jacquelyn was the friend that invited me here, and when I walked through that front door you welcomed me, and you helped me find all of these things that I had believed were gone forever. You have given me a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, and you have reminded me that even when things are not going so well in my world that even as much like all of you are there for me and my family, God is always there for me as well. Being a member of this congregation has been a wonderful gift in my life, and it is one I thank God for every day in my prayers. So, what we need to do is look into the hearts, souls and minds that we love God so completely with, and work to make this church the home for the neighbors that we love as we love ourselves.
Amen.