November 3, 2024
New parents are always so eager and anxious for their babies to learn to talk. We cajole and coo and coax them to get out those first precious words. But eventually parental prayers are answered, and the child speaks. (Kinsley and Gunnar soon thereafter Rhye) will discover the all-important “Why?” question. There are the science questions — “Why is the sky blue?” “Why does the wind blow?” “Why is water wet?” There are the personal questions — “Why do I have to go to bed?” “Why do I have to eat my vegetables?” “Why do I have to wear a coat?” There are relational questions — “Why are you crying?” “Why did Grandpa die?” Why do I have to be nice to that funny smelling person?”
Even when a long litany of “Why?” questions get tedious, good parents know they need to keep answering. Children learn from asking questions. But it isn’t so much the answer to their inquiry that they are learning. What our children are really learning with these first “Why?” questions is to turn to the ones who love them the most, who care for them as family, for an expansion of knowledge and an expression of love. Questions keep parent and child engaged in an on-going, living, growing relationship… (Sermons.com, Leonard Sweet).
Our gospel lesson is the conclusion of theological questions between religious leaders and Jesus. One of those questions Jesus answered with “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are God’s.” In today’s lesson, a curious and seeking scribe approaches Jesus. READ Mk 12:28-34
The greatest or first commandment question is in all three Synoptic gospels. Matthew has a lawyer ask which is the greatest commandment. In Luke, a lawyer asks about eternal life and then shares the same two commandments. Then to emphasize what it means to love our neighbor; Jesus tells the Good Samaritan story (Lk. 10:25-37). In Mark, the scribe agreed with Jesus’ answer. Then after the scribe elevated love of God and neighbor over burnt offerings, Jesus complimented him saying, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” This is the most support between Jesus and a religious leader in the Bible, giving new meaning to the phrase used to describe this lesson, “the double love command.” Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. Truly a double love command. Jesus is quoting the Shema, the beginning of the Ten Commandments, prioritizing God above all else. Jews recite this prayer every morning and evening. Coupling this pillar of faith with a quote from Leviticus to love your neighbor as yourself, Jesus attests to the double love command.
When my boys were young, we watched many Disney movies. I can still see Cooper singing along to Savages in Pocahontas. Not my proudest moment. But one of my favorite movies was Beauty and the Beast. I am sure I liked it more than my sons. But it was a wonderful story about love. “G. K. Chesterton once said that the really great lesson of the story of Beauty and the Beast is that a thing must be loved before it is loveable. A person must be loved before that person can be loveable. Some of the most unlovely people I have known got that way because they thought that nobody loved them. The fact of the matter is that unless and until we feel ourselves loved, we cannot love. That’s not only a principle of theology but of psychology and sociology as well. Just as abused children grow up to abuse their children, loved children grow up to love their children. Loved persons are able to love. Unloved persons are not. Christianity says something startling. It says that God loves and accepts us ‘just as we are.’ Therefore, we can love and accept ourselves and in so doing, love and accept others” (Sermons.com, Donald B. Strobe). As Christians we start with loving God, who loved us first, so that we can love our neighbors as ourselves.
I had never heard of the double love command before. But I like it! It also got me thinking about the two things we are doing in today’s worship service: baptizing Rhye and sharing in the Lord’s Supper. These are the sacramental double love commands. As Presbyterians we only have two sacraments, baptism and communion. We believe that marriage and confirmation are important, but not sacramental. We believe in two sacraments, baptism and communion because these are the only two things Jesus did. John baptized Jesus in the Jordan and Jesus shared the last meal with his disciples. Baptism and communion: sacramental double love commands.
We baptize infants like Rhye, because we believe that God has already claimed him, that God loved him first and we are simply placing a sign and seal on what God has already done. There is no magic in baptism, it simply honors God’s prevenient grace. This means God’s love comes first. Baptism is the way we express and know God’s love for us. Then as believes, we return that love placing God above all others by loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. That is the Shema. That is the first commandment.
The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus coupled these two commands together, saying, “There is no other commandment greater than these” (31). One without the other is not enough. We know God loved us first. We love God with all our being in return. Then we are to share that love with others, with our neighbors.
Communion is the relational sacrament, the one that sets us right after we get in a fight with our partner or yell at a child. Sharing the bread of life and the cup of salvation means we are drawn into God’s perfect, forgiving love as we share the meal with our neighbors. You see we practice here, with people we know, so that we can share God’s love with others we might not know. Communion is the united table of God’s people, with this community of faith gathering to share a sacred meal. Just like the toddler learned of love through Why questions, we learn to love as we experience God’s grace, love and forgiveness in this sacred meal. But sometimes that is hard to do.
“I think it was Charlie Brown who said, “I love humanity! It is people I can’t stand!” Yet the costly love that Jesus embodies involves an intimate encounter with God’s fierce and holy love. It involves pouring out self for real people, sinners all, with all their real-life quirks, faults, smells, and flesh-and-blood sins.
That harried young mother in the doctor’s waiting room (or maybe the next pew): perhaps loving her as yourself means offering to watch the toddler while she feeds the baby. That person in line at the bank who’s stumbling over the English language and struggling to understand deposits and withdrawals: could loving him mean stepping out of line and helping him get it straight? That next-door neighbor struggling to keep his marriage together, that daughter who pushes your buttons every ten minutes, that husband scared of being laid off — these are the ones who desperately need the strong saving love, the compassion and mercy, the challenge and holiness and presence of Jesus. In those moments, dare to risk being rebuffed or inconvenienced. Dare to look foolish and make mistakes. Dare to love God and that person, even if it wrings your heart with pain to do so. It’s what we’ve been created, redeemed, and commanded to do. Hang your whole life on love, for the truth is, it’s God’s love, active in you. And (God’s) love will never fail” (Sermons.com, Cathy A. Ammlung, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost). Amen.
