"And a Second is Like it"

Homily for Sunday, October 29, 2017.   

The lessons:

Leviticus 19: 1-2, 15-18

Psalm 1

1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8

Matthew 22: 34-46

            Laws, rules, commandments…if we try to be law-abiding citizens and faithful Christians, we may begin with the underlying sense that we just have to follow the rules, and then all shall be well. After all, there are only Ten Commandments, and they appear to cover every way humans tend to break the law. Sometimes it seems simple to tell ourselves we are good people because we do not steal or lie or covet our neighbor’s donkey. In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus tells us there is more to it than following the rules if we wish to be faithful Christians.

            In this episode, a Pharisee, a lawyer, asks Jesus this question, “to test him” we are told. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus’s answer includes the two connected commandments that he says cover all other laws and rules. When we follow these two, we need not worry about breaking any other rule or commandment given us by God: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest 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.”

            In teaching us that we should love the Lord our God, Jesus directly asks us to love him, the incarnate God. Only by being fully present to God—in heart, soul, and mind, as the commandment says--can we truly demonstrate our love for the Lord. The prophet Isaiah explains how we may be able to meet this challenge: “Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

            Jesus tells us that in his person the kingdom of heaven has come near; in other words, the human notion of heaven as the faraway place where God dwells was upended when God appeared on earth and lived among humans. Jesus also repeatedly told his disciples, including those of us who wish to follow him in the 21st Century, that He is in us, as He is in God, and we are invited to dwell with him there. Is that not what the prophet Isaiah meant when he quoted God as saying, “I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit”?

            As God promised, when our heart is in the right place, we make room for the Lord to dwell within us. Contrition and humility have to come from our hearts, and those things that rise from our hearts cannot be feigned. Our friends and acquaintances know when we are insincere with either apologies or modesty, so we should assume God will not be fooled. Maybe this is why Jesus’s expression of the Great Commandment includes the instruction to love God with, “all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Theheart, the home of love and the place within us where we are most honest with ourselves, comes first in this hierarchy of importance. Thus, we join the Lord in God’s kingdom whenever our heart is in the right place.

            And when our heart is in the right place, when we love our Lord with all the humility we can muster, then following the second great commandment should be less difficult: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The other lessons for today offer beautiful illustrations of what it requires of us to love our neighbors. In Leviticus, the first of the Old Testament books of law that God, through Moses, established for his people, we are told,

 “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.”

Loving our neighbors as ourselves will inspire us to seek justice and fairness for all; we certainly know from the parable of the Good Samaritan that we cannot choose to love only those who believe like us or behave like us. Our neighbors in need of our love are all of our fellow humans, especially those who are poor or sick or unjustly treated.

In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul describes neighborly love in this way: “We were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.”  In the aftermath of the recent hurricanes, we saw evidence of many neighbors reaching out in self-sacrificing ways to assist other victims of the storms, even those who were strangers to them, like nurses tenderly caring for their own children. We humans indeed have been blessed with a great capacity to love one another. God plants within each of us the “contrite and humble spirit” required so that we can know God dwells within us and empowers us to love our neighbors as ourselves. When we accept and share the gift of God’s merciful love, our heart is in the right place.

In Matthew 25, Jesus very clearly illustrates in a parable some of the things we must do to fulfill the second great commandment: “…for I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” In this story, when the righteous ones ask the Lord how and when they did these generous and loving things for him, he answers, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.”           

            So, we return our meditation on love to the first of the great commandments. Jesus answered the Pharisee’s question by stating the two great commandments, the first one being “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  As God incarnate, Jesus simply asked us to love him. With dedication, humility, and contrition, we can tune our hearts fully to the Lord who dwells within us and loves us in return. 

            “And a second is like unto it.”  Jesus leaves it to the Pharisee and to us to discover the connection between that first great commandment and the second one: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” With a contrite and humble heart, we are assured that God is present within us. When we fully believe that our love for God, our connection with God, empowers us to carry God’s love to those who need it, we will fulfill the second great commandment. The two great commandments do not involve either/or thinking. Instead, they call for both at once! In caring unselfishly for “the least of these,” we have recognized God’s presence in “the other,” and have shown our love for God by loving our neighbor.  We love God best when we love our neighbor.

Today’s collect reminds us of the beautiful words St. Paul wrote in his first letter to the church at Corinth, describing the proper nature of our love for God and our neighbor: “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. Love never ends…And now faith hope and love abide, these three: and the greatest of these is love.”

We love God best when we love each other well.

AMEN.

On Blindness

The Graves Chapel blog page contains recent homilies by our lay preacher, Susan Bagby. For a complete set of Susan's homilies, dating to 2009, visit her blog athttp://graveschapelva.blogspot.com/

Homily for Sunday, March 26, 2017   Good Shepherd and Graves Chapel

4th Sunday in Lent

On Blindness

Lessons:

1 Samuel 16: 1-13

Psalm 23

Ephesians 5: 8-14

John 9: 1-41

            “Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely WE are not blind, are we?”  Ah, those good old Pharisees!  I may certainly be wrong, but somehow I imagine those words were spoken to Jesus with a bit of haughty indignation.  “Me, blind?”  Then, I am brought up short, because I know there are many times when I am equally “blind,” when I think or say something unfair or simply wrong out of my own ignorance or my lack of understanding. As in the case of the conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus, conflicts can arise from a misunderstanding of each other’s religious beliefs.

         In the early years of human history, on the various continents, people awoke to the gifts of human life. They began to use their comparatively enormous brains as instruments of reflection and not merely tools for survival. In doing so, they pondered the beauty and grandeur of nature. They recognized the blessing and fragility of life. From their different and far-removed corners of the world, each group of advanced primates realized that some sublime power must have been at work in the act and art of creation.  Having reached this state of awe, they desired to give thanks to this Higher Power, their creator.  As sacrifice, they returned some of their gifts to the God of their understanding, giving thanks for grain, fruit, flowers, trees; for animals that provided food, hides, feathers and fur; animals that assisted them with their work; animals that became their companions. They gave thanks for sunlight, air, earth, and water. Out of a desire to express gratitude to the creator, religion was born.

         If you have ever studied Greek and Roman mythology, you may have noticed a few peculiar things about the early Greeks and Romans. The most obvious is that the Romans simply copied the Greeks, worshiping the same Gods and Goddesses, only changing their names and minor details about them. In their literature about their gods and goddesses, the Greeks invested them with human qualities and human frailties—wisdom, courage, and mercy, yes, but also anger, lust, jealousy, cowardice, and treachery. In other words, the proud Greeks (and then their Roman conquerors) created Gods in the image of humans. No wonder the worship of gods with human flaws did not endure!  As Christians, we are told in Genesis I that God created humans in God’s image, and our belief in a God who is all-wise and all-powerful has made the difference in the staying power of our faith.

In the text that is the foundation of our faith, the Holy Bible, Christians acknowledge that our understanding of God came to us through the faith and teachings of the Hebrew people, contained in the Old Testament. Jesus himself was a Jew. All the major world religions that have survived the test of time, that have endured for centuries now (unlike the mythology of the Romans and Greeks) share a belief in one Supreme Being. Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, in fact, share a set of core principles that are basic teachings of each faith. Here is a short list of other shared beliefs that may surprise you:

--To “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” also known as the Law of Reciprocity, is a key teaching of all.  So is to honor and respect one’s parents…To speak the truth and to value sincerity and honesty…To recognize giving as being more blessed than receiving…To understand that heaven is within us…To love your neighbor…To acknowledge the wisdom and blessing of peacemakers…To recognize that we reap what we sow…To understand that we do not live by bread alone. 

Lists of our Christian beliefs shared with the other major religions usually have 25 or more statements, but I will stop at these ten. I think you get the idea!  Episcopal priest and theological writer Matthew Fox expressed how the belief in one supreme being (GOD) and shared tenets among all the major religions could be seen as One River, Many Wells. In fact, that is the name of one of his books. Another shared belief, one that I’m sure Jesus wished the Pharisees adhered to, is “To refrain from judging others, since we all spring from a common source and we are all one family.” 

         You probably know that the Quran, the holy book of Islam, mentions Jesus more often than any prophet other than Muhammad. In fact, to Muslims, Jesus is considered to be a great prophet and messenger of Allah. Muslims also revere Mary and believe, as Christians do, the birth of Jesus to have been a Virgin birth. Muslims also believe, as Christians do, that Jesus was sent to be a guide to the children of Israel.  With Christians and Jews, Muslims trace their religious history back to Abraham.

         You may wonder why I speak today of these significant common beliefs and principles shared by all the world’s great religions. What does this striking truth have to do with today’s lessons from the Christian bible? Blindness. Or, I guess I should more gently say, since I am as guilty as anyone, a failure to see.

         Just as a thread of the theme of blindness runs through all of today’s lessons, adherents of the great world religions often overlook (sadly) their shared principles. For that matter, consider how many denominations there are within Christianity itself. How often do Christians condemn other Christians because of their differing interpretations of scripture?  What is it in human beings that makes us look for what is different (and hence unacceptable) about others rather than cherish what we share with them? Surely today’s story of the man born blind illustrates the position of Jesus on this issue.

         In this story, the key revelation may be how Jesus responds to the question, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”  Jesus states clearly that the disabilities and weaknesses humans suffer are NOT punishment for sins. He adds (and this can be as hard for us to understand as it was for the Pharisees) that such frailties and difficulties provide an opportunity for God to demonstrate God’s power and love. God’s work is revealed through the ways God heals and blesses all those who suffer, just as Jesus healed the man born blind, to the astonishment and disbelief of those around him.

         Jesus adds, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, tells us that our mission as followers of Jesus Christ is to continue to bring his light to the world. As Paul puts it, “Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”  How do you define “all that is good and right and true”?  That may very well be the basic challenge for us during this season of Lent, as we ponder how we are called to serve the Lord as his light in the world.

         In the Old Testament lesson today, the Lord takes the prophet Samuel to task for grieving over the failure of King Saul. Since Samuel is not ready to let go of the dream of having Saul as king of Israel, he cannot comprehend what the future may hold. When he is told to anoint one of the sons of Jesse as the new king of Israel, Samuel, though he is a prophet, cannot discern which of the sons is the right one. For him, any of Jesse’s sons is as good as another because Samuel judges them through his own eyes and not God’s.  For Samuel, not one of them could possibly be as great as Saul. Then David appears.

         Psalm 23 is a lovely parable, in the form of a prayer of gratitude, for the way God showers us with the blessings of light even when we find ourselves in a world of darkness: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for you are         with me…you spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me…surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” 

         Psalm 23 assures us that in the moments of our greatest fear, even when we feel ourselves to be surrounded by enemies, the Lord continues to bless us and keep us, spreading an abundant table before us and anointing our heads with oil. We are guests at the Lord’s table, and just as Samuel anointed the young David to become the next king of Israel, the Lord anoints us with his loving presence. Simple gratitude would be our most appropriate response. Out of that gratitude, we demonstrate “all that is good, and right, and true.”

The Lord is ever with us, and we have no reason to fear what we do not understand. God’s kingdom of heaven is within us. Instead of giving into fear, we are called to love our neighbors, to be peacemakers, to give more than we receive. We are empowered by the Lord to shed his light of love on those around us, and that light is the light of love and understanding.  AMEN.

Mountaintop Experiences

The Graves Chapel blog page contains recent homilies by our lay preacher, Susan Bagby. For a complete set of Susan's homilies, dating to 2009, visit her blog at http://graveschapelva.blogspot.com/

Homily for Sunday, February 26th, 2017    Good Shepherd and Graves Chapel

The lessons:

Exodus 24:12-18

2 Peter 1:16-21

Matthew 17:1-9

Psalm 2

or Psalm 99

The Collect: O God, who before the passion of your only­ begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The lessons for today focus on two mountaintop experiences set forth in scripture: Moses called to meet God on Mt. Sinai, where he receives the Ten Commandments, and Jesus transfigured on the mountain, as witnessed by three of his disciples.  So that his authority will be clear to the disciples with him, and those of us who are called to be disciples of Jesus today, two preeminent Old Testament prophets (Moses and Elijah) join Jesus for his mountaintop experience, where Peter, James, and John hear the voice of God, from out of the clouds, saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

The prophet Elijah had his own mountaintop experience, you may recall, when he was hidden in a cave, afraid of the enemies that pursued him, and he heard the reassuring still small voice of God speak to him.  The final mountaintop experience of Moses occurred when he made his farewell to the people upon Mt. Nebo. Before he died, God took Moses there to see the Promised Land the people would enter without him.

Whenever I hear mention of a mountaintop experience, I cannot help but think of the speech Martin Luther King, Jr., made in Memphis, Tennessee, the very night before he was assassinated there on April 4th, 1968.  A Baptist preacher and son of a Baptist preacher, King, although only 39 at the time of his death, had been steeped in scripture throughout his life.  King’s voice was a prophetic voice, and that is uniquely obvious in his last speech when he says, “Like anybody, I would like to have a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you…”  Of course, we know how this story ended, the very next day.  Like Moses, King would not live to see his people enter the Promised Land.

Abraham also had a profound mountaintop experience: Just as he was about to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mt. Moriah, a dreadful deed Abraham undertook at God’s command, the voice of God spoke to him, ordering him to stop. Abraham’s obedience to God passed God’s ultimate and most difficult test.  When it comes to his own beloved Son, the Lord God will make that most difficult sacrifice and allow Jesus to be crucified on the hilltop of Calvary. Before that terrible end, both Jesus and his principal disciples experienced the overwhelming assurance of the Transfiguration, and Peter tells us in his letter, “For we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty” when “…he received honor and glory from God the Father.”  No wonder the expression “mountaintop experience” has come to mean something dramatically life-changing!

After taking time to examine these mountaintop experiences, I wonder if they are really meant for ordinary people like us.  A mountaintop experience, though incredibly impressive, sounds scary, if not downright dangerous. When Peter witnessed the transfiguration of the Lord, he was so terrified he babbled something about building dwellings and then fell to the ground along with James and John. Jesus touched them and said, “Get up and do not be afraid.”

“Get up and do not be afraid.” God speaks those words to us as well.  As we affirm in our Baptismal covenant, we are called to “Seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves.” Our Christian faith is lived in community, and the work God calls us to do usually involves service we offer to our community and to the larger world—all persons, all God’s creation. Sometimes the tasks before us may appear to challenge us beyond the extent of our abilities. The cross we are given may seem to be more than we can bear.  How are we enabled to answer the call to service? We are transfigured.

Our faith in Jesus Christ transfigures us.  Our collect for today includes a petition in which we pray to be granted that very transfiguration: “Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory.” How do we dare pray to be changed into the likeness of Jesus? It is in John 14 where Jesus tells the disciples, on the night of the Last Supper, that he will be with them always, empowering them and supporting them to carry on his mission. He says, “The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do…I will not leave you orphaned…In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you…Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.”

Like the cowering disciples, we may wish to hide our eyes. Or, we may try to do the wrong thing—like Peter’s offer to build three booths. But walking in love as Christ loved us changes us over time. Gently and subtly, we become the ones others seek when they need help and friendship. Gently, and without our knowing exactly how it happens, we begin to wear Christ’s face for everyone we encounter.

When Moses went up on Mt. Sinai to meet with God and receive the Ten Commandments, “a devouring fire” surrounded the mountaintop, and the people waiting below were terrified by thunder and lightning.  When Jesus undergoes his transfiguration, “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.” As 21st century disciples of the Lord, bolts of lightning most likely will not be our calling cards. Nor will our faces shine like the sun in a way that strikes terror into the hearts of those around us. No, our transfiguration does not have to be so impressive, even though we are called to be lights of love in a troubled world. As Peter suggests in today’s epistle, we would do well to be attentive to the Lord’s transfiguration and our own “as a lamp shining in a dark place.” Perhaps we will illuminate things more in the manner of a small candle. But even a small candle, thrust into deep darkness, becomes a bright and very welcome light.

AMEN.