But you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord

 But you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord 

All of us are familiar with Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees when asked about the first and great Commandment. (Matthew 22: 24-36)

 

One of the Pharisees, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’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.” (Matthew 22:34-46) 

However, we sometimes forget the origin of Jesus’ answer. In his answer, Jesus combines two commandments learned from the Hebrew Scriptures: The first, love God is recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4-7.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 

The Second part, “Love your neighbor is found in Leviticus 19:15-18. While both parts are important and Jesus was wise to combine them, in 2020 with all of our divisions and hate and anger and fear and lack of trust I want to focus on loving our neighbors. Leviticus was written in the sixth century B.C. when the Jews were returning from Captivity in Babylon and were rebuilding Jerusalem, the temple and their nation. As you might imagine, there was a bit of fear, distrust, anger and doubt in everyone’s minds and hearts.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor: I am the Lord.

You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

I fear that today it is far easier for many of us to love God than it is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. I fear that we find it comforting to hang out, in person and virtually, with those who believe as we do, and worse yet, to let those who do not believe as we do know exactly how ignorant, stupid and even how inhuman they are. All of this while in the United States, eighty percent of us claim to be Christian and truly believe and proclaim Jesus’ first and great commandment.

 

I believe that this is a great time to be reminded through the words of scripture that we are not the first nation to face trials and tribulations. We are not the first nation in which people of good will and love of country have different understandings of who we are and who we can be, and who God calls us to be. What better time for us to hear the words of the Lord and take them to heart.

 

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord

 

Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and love; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command. Amen. (BCP, p, 235)

 

 

Stand Firm in the Lord and do the Things you have Learned

The letters of St. Paul are written mostly to new churches made up of people who are “young” in the faith. He encourages, at times corrects, and almost always teaches. Paul not only encourages people to use the talents God has given them for the building up of the kingdom, he also encourages everyone in the community to help one another. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians we see him at his best.

“My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.”(Philippians 4:1-3)

 

Paul encourages Eudoia and Syntyche in their ministry within the community in the proclamation of the Gospel. He encourages the rest of the congregation to help the two women as the share the good news of Jesus with the community. Paul then encourages the community to be gentle with one another and not to worry, but to bring everything (the good, the bad and the ugly) to God in prayer.

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Philippians 4:4-6) He then leaves them with a blessing, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)

 

Finally, like Jesus, Paul, having blessed them sends them out with a challenge, a mission and a promise. 

“Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:1-9)

 

In our world today, in which we are sometimes not true or kind or just or honorable toward one another, I want to claim this challenge and mission and promise for those of us who have been called to share the Gospel of love shared with us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

Thanks be to God!

The Justice of God is Mercy

 “Are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15b) Why ever would we human beings be envious because anyone is generous to other human beings? What would prompt Jesus to tell a parable where the main character even has to ask this question, especially if the person’s generosity to others did not take away from the justice and rights given to us? Most of us have heard the story behind this proclamation of generosity. The parable is Jesus’ story of the “Workers in the Vineyard” found in Matthew 20:1-16. As the story is related in Matthew, the land owner goes out at 6:00 A.M., the beginning of the work day, to find the necessary laborers to carry out the work that needs to be done, promising them the usually daily wage. As the day went on the land owner apparently decided that more workers were necessary to accomplish the day’s task and went out at 9:00 A.M. to recruit more workers, promising them “whatever is right.” He did this again at noon, at 3:00 and finally at 5:00 P.M., an hour before quitting time. 

At the end of the day, the land owner told his manager to call the workers and give them their pay, beginning with the last hired. When the manager gave the last hired their days wages, the others, especially those who had put in a twelve hour day in the hot sun, just knew they would make much more for their labor. When they were paid what had been promised, they were angry and complained to the owner that they had been treated unfairly. His reply, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:13-13) 

In Jesus mind and teaching, “the last will be first and the first last” never takes away from the first, it simply gives to the last what the master deems fair. Jesus, just as the Hebrew Prophets before him, always equates justice and mercy: “God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God? 

We all come into the world, as well as the work place, at different times. It’s as if we enter a room where a conversation is going on and we enter into that conversation as it continues. When we leave the room, when we pass from life through death to life in the nearer presence of our Lord, that conversation continues without our presence but with our having added to and taken from it, hopefully making the world a better place for God’s people. 

Today, in the twenty-first century, it is important for us to again hear Jesus’ message of justice and mercy: to learn or remember that “unless all people are free, no one is free;” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), that giving the rights I already possess to those who do not does not take away my rights. The voting rights act that gave black Americans the right to vote did not take away my right to vote; the 19^th Amendment 100 years ago that gave women the right to vote did not take away my right to vote. Allowing Buddhists and Jews and Muslims and others to practice their religion does not take away from my right to practice my Christianity. 

One of my favorite prayers in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer is the “Prayer for the Whole Human Family.” I leave you with this sign of hope as we continue to “Seek and Serve God in all persons, loving or neighbor as ourselves.” 

“O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne. Amen.”

 

 

 

Jesus, Women, Foreigners, Slaves and Dogs

 After an interesting, and probably heated discussion with the Pharisees and Scribes about the importance of people over human developed doctrine Jesus moves on to the Gentile districts of Tyre and Sidon. 

As he arrived a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” When Jesus finally answered, he said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matthew 15:21-28) 

How interesting. Jesus had just reminded the Scribes and Pharisees of the importance of caring for father and mother without using God as an excuse. Now rather than caring for the poor woman’s child, loving his neighbor as himself, he calls her a dog! How can our loving Lord do that? Church Historian, Diana Butler Bass, preaching by Zoom to All Saints Episcopal Church in Atlanta made some observations that I found compelling. She stated that in Judea of Jesus’ day men often prayed, “thank God I am not a slave or a foreigner or a woman. Tradition? Jesus’ response followed the pattern of men of his time. And then, whether this was his intent all along or the woman’s faith and courage changed his mind, he healed her daughter. 

Bass suggests that Jesus’ actions on this day, setting up and then knocking down the barriers that divide one human from another, may have set the example for what became one of the first Christian Baptismal Covenants, recorded by Paul in Galatians 3:28. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all are one in Christ Jesus.” 

Where in our lives can we live into Jesus’ actions and Paul’s teachings? Who do we need to welcome or heal or shelter or teach in the name of Jesus, regardless of gender or station in life or race or religion? I am convinced that Jesus, the Canaanite Woman and St. Paul knew that God is bigger than most people believe. I am convinced that God is bigger than I believe and that God cares about the people most of us would ignore or avoid. Life is really complicated now, we are frustrated, afraid, and angry.  Most of us are doing our best just to live one day at a time, praying that Covid-19 will eventually end and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. The good news is that Jesus came that none of us will ever have to be the dogs under the table, or the ones who put another human in the place of the dog under that table. 

May we all have in our hearts the love of Jesus and the courage and faith of the Canaanite woman.

Go Ahead to the Other Side

 

Go Ahead to the Other Side

(Based on Matthew 14:13-33)

 

After the death of John the Baptist, Jesus went in a boat to a deserted place to be alone. Something he often did: to pray, to ask God for strength, wisdom and courage to carry out the mission God had sent him to do. As often happened, Jesus did not remain alone for long. The crowds heard of it and followed him on foot. Scripture tells us that “Jesus had compassion on them and cured their sick.” The healing continued late into the afternoon. We all know the story: Jesus took five loaves and two fish blessed them and feed the crowd, “five thousand men, plus women and children.”

 

“Jesus then made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. He then went up the mountain by himself to pray. By evening the disciples’ boat was being tossed and battered by the wind and they were making no progress, As Jesus came walking toward them on the sea, they were terrified, thinking they were seeing a ghost. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”(Matthew 14:22-27)

As we live today in strange and frightening times: times of pandemics and earthquakes and hurricanes; times of protests, some of which have turned violent; times when we distrust people who are different than we are: people who look different, or think differently or act differently or believe differently, I wonder if we are not just as frightened as were Jesus ‘disciples in the storm on the lake that night so long ago. I for one need to hear Jesus say, “take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

 

Just as Jesus sent the disciples on ahead to the other side, I believe he is sending us to the other side of today’s trials and tribulations: of pandemics and protests, of deaths and devastation, to meet him and continue his work, our work of curing and healing. Like the disciples, we will not get to the other side without going through this storm. I also believe that like Peter, bless his heart, we will trust Jesus enough to get out of the boat to go to him. And like Peter, we will see the strong winds and waves, the fear, anger, death and destruction around us and begin to sink, calling out to Jesus, “Lord Save me!” And as Jesus did for Peter, he will reach out his hand and catch us, restoring our faith and sharing with us his strength wisdom and courage.

 

With Jesus holding our hands, we will emerge on the other side of the Coronavirus, protests, distrust and death, confusion and fear to be not part of problem, but part of the solution, God’s solution. We will be God’s hands and feet, helping to rebuild cities, helping to rebuild relationships. We will recognize one another as children of God, learn to love and trust rather than hate and fear. As we hear, again and again, the words of Jesus, “take heart, it is I; do not be afraid,” we can pray with St. Francis:

 

“Lord, make us instruments of your peace, Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

 

 

Jesus People and Violence in America Revisited

Jesus People and Violence in America Revisited

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future,

And time future contained in the past.

                                                       --T. S. Eliot

Note: This column was first published July 13, 2016. In light of our continuing struggles for Justice and Peace in America, it seems appropriate to republish. May God guide us all to show mercy to one another.

As a Christian and a Preacher called to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel in good times and bad, the past two weeks have been a challenge. Two Black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were killed by police officers, one in Baton Rouge Louisiana and the other in a Minneapolis suburb. Then before we as a nation could come to grips with these tragedies, five police officers in Dallas, Texas, Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith and Lorne Ahrens, were killed by a sniper near the end of a peaceful demonstration by the group “Black Lives Matter.”

We also know that there were others in America who died violently last week in situations which did not make the national news and which were less politically charged. These losses of life were no less important to the loved ones of those who died.

How do we who are followers of Jesus, “the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,” respond to these actions and the divisions they either cause or point out in our nation?

I want to begin looking for an answer by looking at the Gospel which was read at Christ Episcopal Church in Albertville, Alabama, and many other churches this past Sunday.

We read in Luke 10:25-37, that a lawyer stood to test Jesus, and asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” We know the story, Jesus asks him what is written in the law, and he responds, “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your strength and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” When the lawyer tries to justify himself by asking, “Who is my neighbor,” Jesus tells him and the crowd the story of the ‘Good Samaritan.”

He then asks the man, “Who then was the neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?” To this he responds, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus then challenges him to “Go and do likewise.” So this is my beginning: as Jesus People, as Christians, we begin with scripture and we open our hearts to that scripture together. This is not always the starting place for people today. Often we begin by choosing sides. We either choose the police, or we choose “Black Lives Matter.” I believe Jesus would choose both, just like he choose Samaritans lives matter and lawyers lives matter.

As many others are doing I have been watching Dallas, Texas to see if there are lessons we can learn from them. I have seen police and civilians of all races embracing one another and supporting one another. I have read of Sergeant Ed Trevino, a part of the “Heroes, Cops and Kids Community Campaign,” work to build better relationships between police and civilians by sharing concerns and listening to one another. His advice to all of us: “communicate and make sure you have all facts before deciding who is right and who is wrong.”

Dallas has strengthened my belief that we are all in this together: police and civilians, black, white, yellow, brown, Christian, Moslem and Jew. If not, we are in deep trouble. As Sergeant Trevino says, “the vast majority of people out there are good people and we have to band together rather than divide.

Our world is not simple, there are competing philosophies and ideas and it is important to hear the words of others and try to understand where they are coming from just as it is for them to hear and try to understand us. Will this be easy? No. Can we with our human wisdom and knowledge alone solve the problems of violence and division? Probably not. But if we build our foundation on the solid rock that is our God and on the Prince of Peace, than there is truly hope that we as human beings will find the “peace that passes all understanding.”

“Which one was neighbor to the man who fell among thieves?” “The one who showed him mercy.”

“Go and do likewise!”

Truth with Boldness, Justice with Compassion

Truth with Boldness, Justice with Compassion

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion. (BCP, p.230)

Faith, Love, Truth, Boldness! The essence of what it means to be a child of God. As Psalm 100 proclaims, “God has made us and we are God’s! We are God’s people and the sheep of God’s pasture.” God has created us in love and with faith that we will boldly proclaim God’s Truth, by our words and especially through our actions, in our world today. God’s intended result of these gifts is proclaimed by Jesus in the prayer he taught his disciples: help make “God’s Kingdom come, on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

This Earth is important to God, just as all creation is important to God. If this were not so, I believe God would not have sent Jesus into the world so that “the whole world might be saved.” (John 3:16) So what does this mean to us, to you and me and the whole world, all people, today during a pandemic and at a time when the world is in dire need of bold truth and compassionate justice?

As I read through my social media feeds and read and watch the news my heart aches for the need for justice, and an even greater need for compassion in our world. It is so easy for most of us to feel our own anger, fear and hurt and so difficult for most of us to see or feel the anger, fear and hurt of the other. We find it easier to feel righteous anger at those whose experiences in life and opinions and beliefs are different than ours. We find it easier to respond with sound bites and thoughtless memes than to open our hearts to listen to their hearts. How, for example, do I, who believe that the Confederate Battle Flag should never fly on public property, hear the person who believes it is a necessary part of his or her history? How does the person who believes the Covid-19 Virus is a hoax, hear the one whose wife just died of the virus? How do we reconcile the need for racial justice with the importance of qualified, trained and compassionate law enforcement officers who truly protect and serve us all?

God’s bold truth proclaims that we are sometimes right and sometimes wrong, that you are as important as I and that in God’s sight, no person is an other. God’s bold truth also means that communication is not always easy, that we must listen as well as speak, not just wait for the other person to quit talking so we can speak again. As Bear Bryant once said to the University of Alabama football team, “Boys, if this was easy, we wouldn’t have enough uniforms.”

We have a long journey ahead of us as a Nation. It will not be an easy journey, but it is a journey we must take if our nation is to continue as “One Nation under God.” I believe it is the most important journey we will ever take, a journey that involves loving God, our neighbor and ourselves, equally. Remember the words of St. Paul, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”(1 Cor. 13:4-7) The best example of this I have seen lately was the cooperation between the Protesters and Law Enforcement two weeks ago in Albertville during the march for peace and justice for George Floyd and for racial justice. I believe this was truly an example of boldly proclaiming God’s justice with compassion.

“Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. Know this: The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise; give thanks to him and call upon his Name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age.” Psalm 100

And the People said, “Amen!”