October 26, 2008
The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 25 – Year A)
Deuteronomy 34:1-12; Psalm 90:1-6,13-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8;
Matthew 22:34-46
While neither of the two issues presented in the gospel we’ve just heard are hotly debated in today’s church circles, they have been put before us this morning to grapple with. And maybe it’s not so much the stories as the simplicity they define, especially the first one, that we should be concentrating on. Our legal systems which do indeed define our lives like those of the Jews of old have become so complicated, too complicated. Our answers to almost every problem that arises is make a law or redefine one that is already on the books and, of course, make sure you don’t mix church and state.
I’m now going to deliberately stray into the world of Political Science, not Politics however tempting that might be given that the election is just over a week away! No, Political Science! Or American History, if you prefer. But just briefly. How many of you here know how many Articles there are in the United States Constitution? How many sections within those Articles? And how about the Amendments? The Bill of Rights? Would anyone like to respond or hazard a guess?
Okay, first off there is the Preamble, one sentence, fifty-two words. It is followed by seven Articles and twenty-seven Amendments, the first ten of which constitute the Bill of Rights. And the first four Articles are divided into Sections of ten, four, three, and four respectively. It is only fifteen to twenty pages depending on the type face. And now, of course, there are volumes and volumes of explanations and interpretations and court decisions and opinions based on this really rather slim document, not to mention all the State laws. You might say it’s got a little out of hand!
And speaking of getting out of hand let’s go back two thousand years to when the lawyer came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" Contrary to public opinion, according to one of my commentaries, he was not testing Jesus as we think of testing as in “what did he know about the commandments and the law i.e. the Torah, the religious law,” and how can we catch him out. No, it might well have been a legitimate question. In fact I think we could look at this whole conversation as an exchange of ideas between people of faith. The Pharisees as a group were interested in education, and organization becomes indispensable to that end. Recalling our Constitution and its history of a mere two hundred and twenty years and the way it has “grown,” consider and compare what the Jews were working with after approximately 2 thirteen hundred years. In Jesus’ day there were six hundred and thirteen commandments, three hundred and sixty-five negative, two hundred and forty-eight positive! And remember, it all started with ten! Would you not think that there was, dare I say is, indeed a need to reduce, to simplify?
So what does the gospel say?
“[T]he Pharisees . . . gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him [Jesus] a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’”
Now Matthew usually uses the word “scribe.” But this one time he wrote “lawyer.” For us hearing this gospel today does that make a difference? We make a lot of unkind jokes about lawyers. People in our society often tend to have a poor opinion of them. Is it justified? Probably in some cases, as in any profession unfortunately, but overall lawyers, like all of us, have a job to do and I’m sure most of them do it honorably and well. Furthermore, we have learnt to react with suspicion and discomfort, the red flag usually goes up upon hearing those titles, “scribes and Pharisees,” and maybe figuratively we “boo” them as in the old movies when the “bad guy” with the black cape wrapped around his face appeared on stage. Could this be why Matthew wrote, “a lawyer asked him, [Jesus], a question” so that we would concentrate more on the question than on the questioner?
So standing among them, the Pharisees have seen an “expert,” someone who seems to be able to make sense of the law, e.g., last week the question of paying taxes. And, in response to the lawyer, Jesus cites, without any hesitation, a line from Deuteronomy: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” And he continues, “This is the greatest and first commandment.” The question was right up Jesus’ alley! And he came right at them. And isn’t that what he’s is so good at doing? Peeling away all the extraneous matter to get to the nub? Addressing them he said this is all you need to remember and to do: love God with your whole being, and in so doing you are acknowledging God as all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, everlasting. But then Jesus in typical fashion – he rarely passes up an opportunity to make another, often more important point, and here he keeps this point in the realm they cannot question, scripture, as he cites another verse, this time from Leviticus, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, keep it simple! You don’t need all the rest of those laws.
Jesus has just consolidated the whole Jewish law, all six hundred and thirteen commandments, into two brief sentences. Love God and love your neighbor. And that is all we need to remember, all of us, to guide us through the big trials and tribulations of our lives as well as the mundane irritations and frustrations that upset us daily. I believe even those who have trouble with the idea of a God being in charge who at the same time loves them unconditionally, or who want to make sure that God stays out of the political arena, I believe they can hang their hats on “loving their neighbors as themselves,” repeat, as themselves, that’s the key part of that commandment. And don’t forget your neighbor is everyone, not just the person next door, everyone regardless of ethnic origin, color, creed, nationality, sexual orientation, health, wealth or lack thereof, not only the person sitting next to you in the pew but the child in far off Africa, the mother in Baghdad, even the politician you didn’t vote for! What a concept, such a simple idea, and what a difference it could, would make in our relationships with each other, and in and for our world if we just put into practice what Jesus said! Then think about what that means: talking, helping, serving, confronting when necessary, forgiving always. I know that’s not easy, but if we walk hand in hand with Jesus, he can guide us as God did Moses through the
Jesus simplified the law for the Jews, consolidated might be a better way of expressing it because he didn’t make the law any less difficult to obey just easier to understand and, I believe, therefore to implement. And that is the law he passed on to us to be the guiding principle for our lives.
We can reasonably assume, I think, that the lawyer and the other Pharisees were satisfied by Jesus’ summary of the law. And one senses a lull in the conversation between the two parts of this morning’s gospel. Then Jesus asks them, "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." This is a very different question from that which he has asked of his disciples earlier, “Whom do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “You are the Messiah!" This question is more theological, but it is a real one. Jesus probably isn’t testing them this time any more than they were testing him earlier. Messianic speculation was apparently not unified at that time in
But the more I read (past tense) this particular passage, the more I saw in it an inspiring example of how people can dialog, can learn from each other if they would only listen as well as talk. I know it’s not complete. There’s no follow through discussion after each answer but note, there’s no condemnation either. Jesus’ identity has been established. The law has been put into simple terms: love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Keep it simple.
Most of this week the words of the old Shaker hymn, “Tis the gift to be simple” have been going through my mind. So yes, let’s keep it simple in the clear, uncluttered, sure, and certain hope of God’s love and grace that will make us a better people, more loving, more understanding, more compassionate, and more forgiving.
Amen.
Sonia F. G. Stevenson, M. Div.
Church of the Good Shepherd