October 26, 2014, 20th Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 22:34 – 40 (41 – 46)
Alternate first reading, Deuteronomy 6:1 – 9
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
When I hear those words I go back to a Saturday morning in Jerusalem at the Western Wall. A young man stands in the plaza, in checkered shirt and cargo pants. He’s binding his wrists and forearms with leather thongs, reaching up to run a thong around his head. Wrists and forehead bear little leather pouches. Each contains a tightly rolled slip of paper with Hebrew letters on it, representing the words Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6.
I take a picture through my long lens. I immediately repent. Would I want a stranger who doesn’t share my faith, who doesn’t know as much about it or me as he thinks he does to take my picture when I was caught up in an act of devotion? An act of intimacy?
A lover says, “I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with every thought, I love you.” The greatest and first commandment is a call to love truly, madly, deeply.
Every day, says Deuteronomy, bind these words to hand and forehead, hammer the words to the doorposts. They must be the last words you see as you go out into the world and the first words you see as you come back to where you’re loved. Day after day.
Hearkening to the greatest and first commandment set Israel apart from others when they entered Canaan. Jesus – love sets his disciples apart from and at odds with Empire, and every power that makes of power a loveless, life – denying force.
The scribe asks Jesus to sum up God’s Law. He really asks who Jesus is. What theological school did he attend? Whose teaching will he echo?
Jesus repeats the shortest summary of the rule that governs the covenant. He confesses a difficult, life – shaping, course – setting love. He goes further, taking more words from Torah: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
The words are from Leviticus 19:18. Leviticus is full of laws that define “neighbour” and set limits on love. Jesus’ friends will spend a lot of their time after him figuring out who their neighbours are. (I wish we could read from Luke this week. Jesus answers the question, “Who is my neighbour?” It’s pretty clear.)
We find the answer to that question when we remember who God is and take up the disciplined, purposeful work of loving God. As God loves beyond limits we learn by loving, to love as God loves.
You and I ask another question: “How do I love myself?” Love yourself, so many say, then you’ll be able to love your neighbour. Our first response to Jesus’ command may be to look for ways to take better care of ourselves.
We read our sense of self into the Bible, where self means nothing apart from God or community. If my love for myself, or my capacity to learn how to love myself better is the condition of my love for others, my neighbour will spend a long time waiting for me to be ready to love and get it right.
Whether or not I’ve perfected self – love, I know who I am. When I hearken to the first and greatest commandment, when I remember Yahweh, when I hear Jesus I know who I am. Then I know how to see and love my neighbour.
If I am the Lord my God’s covenant partner then I must see my neighbour as I see myself, imagining my neighbour as God’s partner, too. However or whatever my neighbour believes or doesn’t, I love my neighbour. I can do nothing else.
Love my neighbour with a passion I’ve practiced, hearkening to the greatest and first commandment.
