Matthew 22:34-40, 1 Corinthians 13, Romans 8:38-39
Preached at Asbury Grove; Hamilton, Massachusetts
July 14, 2024
It is lovely to be back here in the Grove. Last year, after the cottage owner’s association meeting, I fell at home and broke my ankle. I needed surgery, and then there were complications, and then recovery, rehab, physical therapy, and all the rest. I spent most of last summer in the recliner in the living room. So, it is nice to be walking and pleasant to be back here.
It is always interesting to preach in a place where one does not usually preach. I have been in my present assignment for three years. My people know me, and I know them. I know what they want to hear and what they need to hear. But when one preaches in a strange place and to a diverse audience, it becomes more of a challenge.
It is my belief that the preacher’s job is to challenge those listening, move people out of their comfort zones, and make people think. I further believe it is the preacher’s job to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.
When I say challenge and when I say afflict, I don’t mean insult or unnecessarily agitate, but sometimes, it happens.
It would also be malpractice for me, not to mention the events of the last 24 hours. I think we can all agree that violence is never the answer, and I am holding all of those involved, including the former president, in my prayers. My prayers are also with the family of Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old firefighter who shielded his daughters from the gunfire and was killed. I also hold in my prayers all those injured whose names we do not know.
We may be on opposite sides on many issues, but this evil must stop.
So, it seems appropriate that my topic for this afternoon is love. Love is the only answer to many questions, and love is the way of Jesus.
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And 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 great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
The Ten Commandments, as revealed to us by God and recorded in Scripture, are divided into two groups. The first group instructs us how to relate to God, and the second group instructs us how to relate to one another. Jesus taught that by loving our neighbor, we love God, and by loving God, we have no choice but to love our neighbor.
I recently saw a post about this passage on Facebook, and it went something like this: Jesus was pretty clear about who we were supposed to love, everybody including, although it does not specify so here, our enemies.
There was a response that said Jesus might have been clear, but Jesus did not say how we were supposed to love and to what degree. Now, this is tricky because, in Greek, there are no less than five words for love, all having a different degree. There is brotherly love, friendly love, and erotic love. In English, we have one word: love. The same word I use to say I love hamburgers is the one I use to say I love my spouse.
But you see, Jesus was very clear about how we are to love others and treat others. He says so right there in the passage I read: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We are to love people as we want people to love us and treat people the way we want to be treated.
What does Paul have to say about this? Last week, I had a funeral, and the passage the family selected was from Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. This is usually a wedding passage because it mentions love, but the family thought this summarized their brother.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
We can say all the right things and do all the right things, but if we don’t do it with and from a position of love, it is not being done for the right reasons. We do not serve those on the margins; we do not speak up for those who have no voice; we do not feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit those in prison out of duty but out of love. Everything Jesus did, every step he took and every word he spoke from out of love. If we want to call ourselves followers of Jesus and say we love God, then we have no choice but to love.
The story of creation is recorded in the Book of Genesis. It is a story of love, but there is something interesting to look at. During the first portion of creation, God speaks, and something happens. God speaks and separates light from darkness, water from land, every plant, and every animal.
But when it comes to humanity, God does not speak; God does. Scriptures tell us that with God’s own hands, God formed humanity from the dust of creation. God formed humanity in God’s own image and likeness but did not stop there; God breathed his breath, his ruah, into the nostrils of this new creation. God’s breath, which the ancients believed was the soul, was breathed into humanity and animated humanity. No other part of creation has this intimate relationship with the creator.
In the end, God sat back, looked at all of creation, and exclaimed, it is Good! All of it, every part of it, was and is good.
We love others because they, like us, have been created in the image and likeness of God and given the divine spark when we drew our first breath. God’s spirit lives in each of us. We are not only the hands and feet of Christ; we are the face of Christ, and we are the image of God. We have to be able to look at the other and see Christ in them
Who do we love? Try this experiment. Close your eyes and think of the worst imaginable person you can think of. It can be someone you know personally or someone from history. Picture that person in your mind. That is the person you are to love. It’s not easy, but it’s not supposed to be.
So, the other part of this is that we love because God loves us. Again, hear St. Paul.
“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What separates us from God’s love, nothing!
For me, it comes down to love. Is what I am preaching pushing forward this idea of love? Are my actions showing God’s love toward everyone? Do the things I say and the things I support show love or something else? Our job is to love, break down barriers, and build larger tables.
I am fond of Bishop Michael Curry, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Bishop Curry is on a mission to show people God’s love and to show the benefits to our lives when we love.
My favorite quote, which I used to end my sermon today, is this. The way of Jesus is the way of love. And the way of love will change the world.
Let us go forth from this place, determined to change the world by loving more.
Amen.
