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Proper 25, Year A
October 27, 2002
Christ Church, Covington
“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.’” (Matt. 22:37-39).
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus repeats the words of the Old Testament,
putting together Leviticus and Deuteronomy to answer the question, “Which
commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus quotes the law of Israel
itself, rather than fashioning a parable or some other answer. Jesus
stands in the tradition in which he was formed, in this case at least,
giving a prominence to love as central to the life of his disciples. On
love hangs all the law and the prophets.
To hear this teaching of Jesus about love, however, we must keep in mind a
number of things. Love is polyvalent, and has many meanings. Underlying
Jesus’ teaching is God’s love for us, a love which bestows value rather
than simply recognizing it. This love is agape, in the Greek. It is to
this love that the First Letter to John refers, “In this is love, not that
we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning
sacrifice for our sins” (1 Jo. 5:10).
This love may have priority, but it cannot be the love that we are to bear
toward God, for there is no value we can confer on God. That would be
absurd. The love of God that we are commanded to bear is more complex.
This love encompasses the desire for God that is evidenced in longing, and
which compels sacrifice. This love encompasses joy, in which longing is
fulfilled and securely grasped. As the Psalmist says, “O God, you are my
God, eagerly I seek you; * my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for
you…” (Ps. 63:1)
In relationship with God, we seek and are sought by the One who has made
us, and whom we are fitted for. Heart and soul and mind are involved, and
will not be content until they are satisfied. Have you longed for
something which you cannot name? Then you know the love that Jesus
commands. Have you felt the presence that lies just outside of your
experience? Then you know the thing of which he speaks. Have you willed to
offer yourself in search of this truth, this conviction, this
all-encompassing value? Then you know what it is to love God.
The love of God is not, however, the itch that can’t be satisfied, the
egocentric quest that never ends. The love which propels us forward may be
a “needy” love, but it’s not as simple as that. If we thirst for God, it
is a thirst that will be satisfied. The love that Jesus commands is
satisfied by God himself, and is secured in relationship with him. In this
security and fulfillment we find what it is to “perfectly love” God, as
the prayer says. The love of God which law and prophets teach us is love
which is completed in union with God, where no need arises but only joy.
We are made for this joy, and nothing else will do for us.
The second part of the commandment suggests a correlation between our love
of God and love of neighbor. The second is “like” the first. In some
sense, we are called to see our neighbor as God sees him; to love the
neighbor as our self in recognizing in him our fellow creature, one who is
loved as we are and who ought to be loved by us.
Yet again there is more here, a complexity than defies the single answer.
The love of neighbor calls us into genuine community with each other. “Now
that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, so that
you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart” (1
Pet. 1:22). The context of the teaching here in Peter’s First Letter is
the mystery of baptism, which creates a neighborhood of many brothers and
sisters. Never a closed-in neighborhood, a cul de sac, a gated community
of the soul, if you will, but rather a neighborhood that is meant to
include all those called by God.
Finally, the love of neighbor commands it own sacrifices. Again, in the
First Letter of John, “We know that we have passed from death to life
because we love one another… We know love by this, that he laid down his
life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 Jo.
3:14). Again, the love of neighbor calls us into community with each
other, a community characterized by a willingness to give for each other.
The “genuine mutual love”, the deep love “from the heart”, that marks our
community, is authenticated by our willingness to give for each other.
Not a bad message for this time in which, I hope, we have been praying and
thinking about the meaning of stewardship. For stewardship is about
reaching out for the One who loves us and whom we are called to love;
about our passionate and life changing response to God. It is about our
love for each other and for all those whom God will call into fellowship
with him; about our willingness to lay down our lives for others in the
name of Christ. To reach out and to desire, to stretch oneself and give,
on this depends all the law and the prophets.
The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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