Jesus Gives Everything He Has
Lent 4 – March 22, 2020
“The Great Commandment”
To watch a video of this sermon, click here
“... when the crisis comes, what
remains solid in your life and in the life of your community? Wholehearted love
of God and neighbor? Or the mad scramble of everyone trying to save their own
skins?"
-
NT Wright, Mark for Everyone, p.172
Jesus
has an interesting conversation with a scribe in the gospel today. The scene
finds us still in Holy Week (though we haven’t gotten there yet in our
calendar!). He’s had multiple conflicts with the religious leaders, so we might
expect this encounter to be more of the same. Instead, the scribe seems to be
genuinely interested in Jesus’ answer to his question: “Which commandment is
the first of all?”
Jesus
responds with words from scripture: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is
one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ (Deut.
6:4) 31 The second is this,
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment
greater than these.” (Leviticus 19:18b) And the scribe agrees that these two
ideas, love God and love your neighbor are at the heart of the commandments.
Then Jesus continues to teach,
warning his audience to beware of the scribes – because they want to be
society’s elite. On the outside they look holy and righteous, and they love the
attention this gets them, the fancy religious garb, the greetings in the
marketplace, the best seats at the best galas. And yet, Jesus says they are
devouring widows’ houses, praying long prayers for the sake of appearances.
They may love God, but they are surely not living out the love of their
neighbor. There is a disconnect when you take privilege and prestige for
yourself and neglect or even cause harm to another, especially one who is
vulnerable – the widows in Jesus’s time.
“…when the crisis comes, what
remains solid in your life and in the life of your community? Wholehearted love
of God and neighbor? Or the mad scramble of everyone trying to save their own
skins?"
In these strange, unprecedented times,
it certainly feels like a crisis. What are we seeing as we look around? What
motivates our own actions?
We don’t have to look too far to see
examples of behavior that looks like the
scribes. We read stories of political officials who, it appears, took advantage
of the advance knowledge they had of what might be coming with this pandemic,
and instead of warning their constituents and our nation, instead went and sold
off stock at a huge profit for themselves. I keep seeing stories of pastors who
brazenly flout the government and health official recommendations against gathering in groups of more than
10 and instead continue to hold church services, hinting that perhaps those who
don’t lack faith that God will protect them from infection – putting the
vulnerable at risk in doing so. There are captions of televangelists who are
compelling their viewers to continue sending in their offering, even if they
have lost jobs in this topsy-turvy world we are living in when the economy is
in a tailspin. [1]
And these types of things aren’t new
with this pandemic. There are always those who want acclaim and respect and yet
refuse to look out for the vulnerable among us.
In the gospel, Jesus then goes and
sits down by the Temple treasury and watches people giving their gifts. Many
wealthy people give large sums. And then comes a widow, who puts in two small
copper coins, worth about a penny. Jesus points her out to his disciples as one
who has given more than all the others, because she gave all that she had to
give. This may or may not be something Jesus is calling them to emulate. It seems
just as likely that Jesus I pointing out an unjust system in which those who
already have much do not give their fair share, to the point that those with
much less are called on to give proportionally much more.
And yet it calls to mind the life and
death of Jesus, who like the widow gives all that he has to give, not out of
poverty, but out of the great abundance of love that he has for us, for all
people, and for all of creation! He puts himself in the place of the vulnerable
and the outcast and the downtrodden. He sets aside the glories of heaven and
comes down to earth to live among us, taking on human flesh as a newborn baby.
In these next days in the Biblical timeline, he puts himself in harm’s way,
knowing that the road he is on leads to death on a cross. He willingly gives
all that he has, even his life, that we may know the depth of God’s love for
us, that God’s kingdom may come more fully here on earth among us as it is in
heaven.
This is the God who loves us and who
calls us to love God in return. And while we walk through this life, one of the
best ways we can reveal our love of God is through the ways we love our
neighbor. We have always been about that work at CTV – through serving and
giving through our congregation and in the wider community: gathering food for
the food pantry and winter wear and underwear for the Hope Center to
distribute, serving meals here and in community centers, giving money that
supports ministries and mission in our synod and in our neighborhoods, and
watching out for and taking care of one another!
In these days when we are called upon
to maintain our distance, we can love our neighbors in some of the same ways –
donating to charities that help medically and with food, donating blood if we
are able, and oddly enough by NOT going to worship, NOT gathering in groups,
keeping our distance when we must go out. We show our love of neighbor by
sacrificing some of the things that we want
and are accustomed to having so that others may have what they need.
This Lent we are called to give up
much more than any of us ever imagined we would, for the love of our neighbors.
But make no mistake, love of neighbor is always evidence of your love of God.
Knowing how much Jesus loves us and
has given up for us, may we be strengthened in the midst of this health and
economic turmoil to show our love for God by how well we love our neighbors.
Amen.
[1]
To be fair, I’ve certainly encouraged our own people to continue giving their
offerings as they are able, because the church will continue to have bills to
pay even if we aren’t meeting in-person. But if this current crisis has found
you out of work and unable to give, by no means does the church expect you to
continue to do so!! Instead, please let us know so we can give assistance as we
are able!
No comments:
Post a Comment