Someone asked me once why it is that I don’t begin each sermon with a prayer The short answer is – I trust that if the sermon is not very well prepared Or not very good By the time the preacher gets to the pulpit Then it’s not going to get much better Even with a prayer; But I also heard this little story about the little girl who asked her parents “Why does Father always pray before he starts to preach in Church?” to which the parents answered “He’s asking God to help him preach a good sermon” the little girl then asked “Why doesn’t God help him?” We have before us, in the Gospel reading this morning a reading in two parts really the first part is that very well known and widely quoted teaching of Jesus regarding the two greatest commandment we know it very well in the Anglican Church for it is part of our liturgy on most Sunday’s but the passage is well known outside of the Anglican Church even outside of the Church in the form of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” the brief instruction about the two great commandments is then followed in Matthew’s Gospel by this very complex and difficult question about whose son the Messiah is and the quotation by Jesus of the Psalms about David saying “the lord saying to my lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for my feet” this apparently confirms that Jesus is the Messiah but I am not surprised at all that no one could give an answer to the question Jesus poses “If David calls him lord how can he be his son” they were all – like I was during the week – probably wondering what on earth this all meant so you will not be surprised I think to learn that I will concentrate this morning on the first part of the reading and the two great commandments The Rabbi’s and scribes at the time of Jesus had made the Law a very complex thing In order to keep them from breaking the law and offending God They had devised a list of some 613 commandments 613 things to do or not do all of which was remembered and told by word of mouth forming a vast body of oral body of teaching That was much later written down and exists today as the Mishnah – one of the sacred texts in Judaism alongside the Torah The question put to Jesus in this passage is a shrewd one Which of these 613 commandments is the greatest? Or the most important? Jesus answers by quoting directly a part of the Old Testament that was well known to every Jewish person “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your mind and all your strength The words are from Deuteronomy 6:4 They are known as the shema because the passage begins “Hear O Israel” The Hebrew word for “hear” being shema Pious Jews recited these words twice daily And still do In very literal obedience to the subsequent directions of Deuteronomy that immediately follows the shema Fragments of scrolls containing these words were worn in special boxes called phylacteries on the forehead and wrist A custom still followed by some Jews Everyone knew the shema – Deuteronomy 6:4 It’s meaning is clear and unambiguous Christians also adopted it in accordance with the teaching of Jesus As the Westminster Confession of Faith sums it up – “the chief end of man [humanity] is to glorify God and worship him for ever” But is that all? Jesus goes on to combine the shema with a further, less well known, statement “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” these words come also directly from the Torah, the Law of Moses, Leviticus 19:18 Yes, Leviticus – a book not as obscure and irrelevant as it sometimes appears with its many passages about what to do if your ox falls into a hole or if wake up with mildew over your tent walls Jesus did not invent or make up the two great commandments All he is doing is quoting what is already present in the Old Testament On these two commandments, Jesus says, hang all of the law and the prophets They are like the hook On which all the rest of the Bible hangs One Rabbi, Hillel, who died when Jesus would have been a child Famously answered a similar question put to him by a Gentile Who asked him to summarise the Torah By saying “Do to others as you would like them to do to you… the rest is commentary” Love God Love others – your neighbour – as yourself The two belong together For it is impossible to love God – Without loving others For we always live in the context of relationships And it is in the way we relate to and interact with others around us that our love, or devotion, or commitment, to God will ultimately be seen and demonstrated It is of course abundantly possible to claim to love God To be devoted to God To be a person of faith And to fail to love one’s neighbour To even hate others No one needs to be reminded of the litany of atrocities carried out in the world in the name of God Often by those who claim an allegiance to God And often throughout history it has been Christians at fault Claiming to love God but committing acts of war and violence against their neighbours I was greatly moved and I think affected emotionally by an article written by The Age columnist Andrew Rule Who was among the first of many Australians to reach Bali in the hours after the terrible events of two weeks ago He wrote of a young girl Whom hospital staff called “Miss X” Who remained unknown in the hospital on life support And eventually died Her body remaining in Bali unknown and unclaimed as he wrote about a week later The hospital staff had scrawled a notice on a whiteboard about Miss X “Unknown teenage girl in intensive care” it said “she is about 5 foot 6 inches brown hair and green eyes she has a purplish belly button ring” Andrew Rule finished the article by saying “Although Miss X remains unknown and unclaimed she is not anonymous she is someone’s sister, someone’s daughter” Evil doesn’t care who it touches Once you have separated God from others then all victims are anonymous They are all “other” They are only foreigners or unbelievers They are just casualties of war Collateral damage [what an awful term] Those who carried out the attacks in Bali didn’t care whom they killed and maimed They are all Miss X to them Anonymous But not so to those who claim to follow the teaching – the command - of Jesus For one thing we can never do is separate the love of God form the love of others As James puts it in his letter “How can you day you love God but despise other people” ? No If we claim to follow Jesus and his teaching Then everyone is someone’s sister or brother Someone’s son or daughter Everyone is created in the very image and likeness of God And loved by God The two great commandments sound very simple And they are Love God and love others as yourself It sounds good It sounds easy But we all know it is not It is incredibly hard sometimes to love your neighbour A few years ago we lived next door to neighbours who came direct from hell And it was hard… I sometimes watch The Simpson’s which has some very astute and informed comments about society and religion In one recent episode Homer (Mr Simpson for the uninitiated) Is being “targeted” to put it crudely by those “selling” religion And as he walks past each group they sum up their faith “the pursuit of Nirvana” say the Buddhists and so on… when he comes to Christianity its proponents say “love God and love others as yourself” too which he responds immediately “Nah, that’ll never work” [pause] it was GK Chesterton who wrote last century “It is not that Christianity has failed It has just not yet really been tried” That may be true But let us do our best To demonstrate our commitment to God Among those whom we live and work and spend day to day lives In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen It is quite simple really |