Matthew 22:34-46
Jesus raises some tough questions. "Do you love
God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind?
Uh...no. Do you love your neighbor that way? No. And what about yourself? That
would also be a no.
As bad as that sounds, though, I know I’m not alone in
this epic fail. Loving to that degree with all of one’s heart and soul and mind
is a mighty high bar to reach. Sometimes we might get there, but certainly not
all the time. That’s the truth that we confess every week that as we pray, We
have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as
ourselves. And, thank God, every time we humble ourselves and confess that, we
are forgiven. Forgiven by God with the very love that we, all too often, fail
to employ in our own lives. For we are forgiven by a love that actively works
for our good so that we might have abundant life.
Because that’s what God wants for all of God’s people
- Abundant Life. And that is why we are commanded to love. But this love isn’t
about stirring up some kind of positive emotions towards other people. Jesus
isn’t commanding us to sit in our homes and have good feelings about others.
That’s nice and all, but that’s not what this love command is about. It’s not
about our feelings but about our behavior. Loving behavior that actively works
for the good of the other. Because when we love in this way we are always, at
the same time, loving God.
It’s easy to think that the command to love our
neighbor is only about caring for individuals, and it is. We are called to seek
the good for the people that God has placed in our lives. The other day in a
Zoom staff meeting, Scot Jonte, our Administrative Assistant, mentioned that
her mother always said, “Your manners are reserved for your family first.” And
that stuck with me because it’s all too easy to let simple acts of kindness and
respect slip with those you see day in and day out - especially in these times
when we are seeing the same people all the time. I know my kids could tell
stories of times when I had been grousing at them for one (good) reason or
another only to be interrupted by a phone call. And then, upon picking up the
phone, my voice would change into the most pleasant tone as I said, “Hello?”
And their eyes would roll! How we treat the daily people in our lives matters.
It matters so much that it’s part of the greatest commandment of all.
But it’s not all of it. The command to love goes way
beyond our personal interactions. To actively work for the good of others
applies not only to individuals but to communities as well. There’s no denying
that we live in an interconnected world. What we do or don’t do has the
potential to impact countless others that we will never personally meet and yet
who are just as loved by God as we. And one opportunity for us to love our
neighbor on this kind of macro level is by voting. If, that is, we do more than
vote with our own interests in mind but consider what is in the best interest
of our neighbors that are not in our same circumstances. Our vote can be a
concrete way that we live out our baptismal vows, that is, to strive for
justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human
being.
Of course, loving a community of neighbors doesn’t
stop with casting one vote. We are always called, commanded even, to care about
things that people need to thrive. Things that for most of us we take for
granted, but for many of our neighbors is not the norm. Things like access to
healthy food, to quality education, to fair treatment under the law, to
affordable medical care. Jesus’ command to love means that these, among others,
are areas where we are to actively work for the good of all people, all of our
neighbors, so that they too might have abundant life.
But like I said, it’s a high bar. I mean, how can we
really love this way? Only imperfectly, for sure. But that shouldn’t stop us.
Especially since we are connected with the One who does love perfectly. The
source from which all love flows. And as we turn more and more towards that
source, towards our God, we experience that perfect love. Perfect love that is
always being poured into our lives so that we become more able, more empowered,
to fulfill the greatest command of all. You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. [And] You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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