Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost 25th October 2020

1 Thessalonians 2: 1–13                   

You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us. You remember our labour and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was towards you believers. As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children,  urging and encouraging you and pleading that you should lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers. 

Matthew 22: 34–46

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 
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 greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ 
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question:  ‘What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’ 
He said to them, ‘How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, 
 “The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand,
     until I put your enemies under your feet’ ”? 
 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?’  No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Reflection:

Growing up in the church I thought I had to work hard to love God and Jesus. Doing all the right things and following the rules! 

It’s easy to think about “the law” as simply a bunch of rules. Or a moral code. Or a list of dos and don’ts. Sometimes we can experience the law as something that is rather negative and even fairly threatening. That goes along, I suggest with a common depiction of God as a rule-enforcer, the judge who sits up in heaven watching, wanting total obedience and waiting to judge. Some people then have a sense that with God as the supreme arbitrator there is no room for fun in life! OR they may think that they will never be good enough or that God will not forgive all they have done or even still do in their life and it’s too hard to change. I think this type of teaching was very prevalent 50 years ago- the fire and brimstone type of preaching that had people in fear rather than in awe of God. This type of preaching unfortunately evokes images of God’s wrath rather than God’s love. And when you read the Old Testament and the lists of laws – be it the Ten Commandments or one of the numerous tables of laws in Leviticus or some other place – that rather negative impression may well be reinforced.

And though yes God is a God of justice, the God that I trust is also a God of grace and love. It’s important to note: when Jesus is asked which of the more than 600 hundred laws in the Bible is the most important, he boils them all down to two – and each of these is not about behaviour but about relationship. In particular, Jesus promotes our relationships with God and each other. Essentially, by connecting them, I think Jesus says you can’t really be in right relationship with God without being in right relationship with your neighbour. Therefore, you can’t love God unless you love your neighbour. Remembering that in Biblical Greek, there are 6 or 8 different words for love. From romantic love, love for a friend or neighbour, love of an activity and so on. Added to this, it seems that it is significant to love yourself otherwise it also sounds like you can’t fully love your neighbour. 

In other words, when you have a healthy sense of your own worth and dignity, you can then more easily treat others as deserving of dignity and respect as well. And when you do so, you love God. I’ve often wondered what it truly means to love God as Jesus suggests, with all-

all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” But it seems it is summed up in a nut shell, in Jesus response to the Pharisees Jesus defines what it is to live according to the law!

Peter and I are blessed to have our grandchildren living quite close to us and so we see them every week or two. Our youngest, has just turned four and I often find that it is through the eyes of a four-year-old that I learn quite a lot. Life is easy, free and uncomplicated as a child. Louie is not worried about the things that we adults worry about. All his needs are provided and he is quite proud in a lovely way of who he is and what he can do. He had his 4th birthday party a few months ago and it is a joy to watch him love, play with and care for those around him. We pray that our grandson will one day learn to love God also, but for now for him the rules are simple, he is to be loving and kind to those around him. If he does this then life is good. 

Knowing God and loving God and others is part of who we are. As God’s children we have a heavenly Father, God in whom we live and move and have our very being. Loving God becomes as natural as simply breathing, God is part of us and we are part of him. And our brothers and our sisters are part of him and by his spirit connected to us it is a natural response that we will love them. And since we are part of God and he part of us, it is a natural response that we will also be pleased with who God has created us to be. Paul in the Epistle letter says that they are like a father with his children, urging and encouraging the Thessalonians and pleading that they should lead a life worthy of God, and this includes all of us as God calls us into his own kingdom and glory. How blessed are we that God, the Lord of all creation, should call each one of us to have an inheritance that is beyond any that this world can offer. And it’s not something to be had in the future this inheritance begins here and now when we accept Jesus as Lord.

Last week, we talked about how all we are and all we have and all we can do belongs to God, Therefore, in response to his goodness to us, we give to God our all. We love God, one another and ourselves- Everything comes back to this.

Often in our Sunday liturgy we hear these rules of life read at the beginning of our service but sometimes I wonder if because we hear them so often, they are like water off a duck’s back. Perhaps they have become so familiar that we hear but we do not listen? 

A lawyer, asked Jesus a question. 
‘Teacher’, he said, ‘which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 
 and Jesus replied ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. 
 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. 
 On these commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’ 

Catholic priest, author and theologian, Henri Nouwen says ‘knowing the heart of Jesus is loving him and so placing ourselves within the love of God. So perhaps, Love is conscious work, conscious choice-making, driven by and undergirded by the unconscious reflex of living in the Oneness of God who is Love’.

Eugene Peterson in the Message translation paraphrases Jesus reply like this,…… ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ 

By the very way in which he shapes these concepts of love, Jesus indicates that loving ourselves is very much a part of the foundation upon which all these other presumably higher loves are built. In other words, those who love themselves, not in a narcistic way, but with a balanced humble understanding of our value as a child of God, are those who are most able to love others and love God. And those who loathe themselves are most likely to hurt others and despise God. Studies of criminal behaviour prove that the kind of people who become violent criminals - murderers etc, are nearly always people who have been treated so badly by life that at some deep level they have learned they are not worthy of love. That is probably why programs such as Kairos, the prison ministry is so effective. It brings a message of unconditional love, forgiveness and a value and worthiness to those who have never known it.

The people who are most capable of genuinely loving people are those who know themselves to be loved and see themselves as love-able. And as we love ourselves and others, we are to be pleased with who God has created us to be. I wonder- if we despise ourselves- How does God feel? If you need to talk to someone more about this please see myself or a trusted Christian friend who can help you to work through anything that is holding you back from fully being the person that God wants you to be.

God cares for us, and we are called to show God’s love by caring for one another! That message comes through clearly in each scripture reading today. Even in the touching story of Moses’ death, we are reminded that it is God who sent Moses to rescue the Hebrews; it is God who delivered them to the Promised Land, and it is God who continues to provide after Moses is gone. Indeed, God’s love has been at work in the world since the beginning of time—

 So how do we respond? Well, Paul was inspiring mutual support and nurture because this had the power to change lives within the community of faith. And Jesus shows us, the requirements are very simple: – Love God fully, love one another and love ourselves. God’s parental love is expressed for us by giving us rules to empower us, to enhance our life, to enrich our world. Like our grandchild realises I pray that we will realise that when we do this – life is good.

And in so doing, to love God becomes as natural as simply breathing, and we become one in relationship with God, in whom we live and move and have our very being. 

Let us pray: Dear God, stir up within us the fire of your Holy Spirit,

and pour into our hearts your greatest gift of love,

so that we may love you with our whole being,

and our neighbours as ourselves. Remind us of your love for us, 

empower us to love each other, and draw us into a community of love and respect.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.