- There is a touching little Irish story about a woman who was in great distress of mind because she had lost the sense of God. She said, "Why doesn't he make me feel that he is there? If I could only feel him, know that he had touched me!" And an old woman who was sitting with her said, "Pray to him. Ask him to touch you. He will put his hand on you." She began to pray in agony, and suddenly felt the hand of God touching her. She cried out, "He has touched me!" and went into an ecstasy of joy. Then she said, "But do you know, it felt just like your hand?" And the old woman said, "Why, it was my hand." "It was your hand?" "Sure, what did you think God would be doing? Did you think he would make a long arm out of heaven to touch you? He just took the hand that was nearest and used that." [1]
The scribes and Pharisees were always trying to reduce the 613 rules and regulations of the Law, that is, the Torah, down to one or two. That's what the scribe in today's gospel was asking Jesus to do. Of course, everybody knew that the "Shema" was the greatest commandment, because it came from God himself. In the Shema God is saying that we must love him above all things, with all our personhood.
Jesus, however, not only added a second familiar commandment to this first and greatest commandment. Jesus equated the second commandment to the first in saying: "And you shall your neighbor as yourself." Jesus was saying that our love for God is shown in how much we love our neighbor, and that our love of our neighbor is the yardstick for our love for God.
No one had ever put it this way before. The scribe immediately saw the connection Jesus was getting at and praised Jesus by repeating what Jesus said. Jesus gave him a compliment by saying "You are not far from the kingdom of God."
Why didn't Jesus say, "You are right plunk down in middle of the kingdom of God?" Jesus knew that it was not enough to know answers, as the scribe did; it was necessary, moreover, to put the answers into action. We don't know this scribe or how well he lived all the theology he seemed to know so well. Jesus knew him, though, and Jesus may very well have known that this scribe had some ways to go in actually loving his neighbor before Jesus could assure him of his salvation.
- "To Abraham Lincoln the two great commandments of Christ stood for the principles and practices of the perfect life. When Carpenter, the artist who painted his portrait in the White House, asked him about his religion, Lincoln replied: I have never joined any church, but when any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualifications for membership, the words of the Savior, "Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; and thy neighbor as thyself," that church will I join with all my heart and all my soul." [2]
Jesus' genius was in being able to sum up all the 613 rules and regulations of the Torah in one great commandment. Simplicity is the essence of art. Before Jesus other rabbis had tried to do this.
- One wag asked rabbi Shammai, "Can you sum up for me the whole law and the prophets while I stand on one foot?" That rabbi scolded the wag and put him out of his house. The wag went to rabbi Hillel and said the same thing: "Can you sum up for me the whole law and the prophets while I stand on one foot?" Hillel said simply: "What thou hatest for thyself, do not to thy neighbor. This is the whole law, the rest is commentary. Go and learn." [3]
- "Inspirational writer Dick Innes tells about a beautiful expression used by our Native American friends. He notes that North American Indians had no written language before they met the white man. Their language, however, was far from primitive. Many of the Indians had as many words in their vocabulary as their English and French exploiters. Some of their words were much more picturesque, too. For example, "friend" to the Indians was "one-who-carries-my-sorrows-on-his-back." [4]
- Horror gripped the heart of the World War I soldier as he saw his lifelong
friend fall in battle. Caught in a trench with continuous gunfire whizzing
over his head, the soldier asked his lieutenant if he might go out into the
"No Man's Land" between the trenches to bring his fallen comrade back.
"You can go," said the Lieutenant, "but I don't think it will be worth it. Your friend is probably dead and you may throw your own life away." The Lieutenant's words didn't matter, and the soldier went anyway. Miraculously he managed to reach his friend, hoist him onto his shoulder, and drag him back to their company's trench. As the two of them tumbled in together to the bottom of the trench, the officer checked the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend. "I told you it wouldn't be worth it," he said. "Your friend is dead, and you are mortally wounded."
"It was worth it, though, sir," the soldier said.
"How do you mean, 'worth it'?" responded the Lieutenant. "Your friend is dead!"
"Yes, sir," the private answered. "But it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive, and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say, 'Jim, I knew you'd come.'" [5]
- At age 23, a woman's daughter was murdered one Christmas Eve. Her attacker stabbed her repeatedly, raped her, then threw her dead naked body into a field where police found her Christmas morning. Many relatives, friends and others from the community offered her mother their love and support. While this helped immensely, it was not until she became a victims' advocate, helping others who had lost loved ones to violent crime, that the mother began to get her life back.
Doing for others suggests a second truth about loving. It must become an activity. The command to love God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves is a command to act. What is it, though, that changes love from an emotion into an action? According to Rollo May, care is the answer. May says that without care, love is nothing more than sentiment. Sentiment focuses on the fact that one has love. Care however, compels one to do something about a situation. [6]
- David Wilkerson, a Pentecostal minister, tells of his ministry to gang members in the ghettos of New York City. While standing on a wooden soapbox with hands waving and voice shouting, he preached on the love of Jesus and the need to repent. After one such sermon a gang member angrily told Rev. Wilkerson that his lofty words meant little. With few clothes, no shoes and little to eat, the thug was not the least bit concerned with heaven. Noticing the young man's bare feet, Rev. Wilkerson sat down the soapbox, took off his socks and shoes, and gave them to the gang member. He spent the rest of that day preaching barefooted. That day David Wilkerson evolved from preaching about love to caring about a person. [7]
- Actress Julie Andrews has someone she can call friend. According to Glenn
Plashin in his book, Turning Point, Julie Andrews did not have an easy time
of it growing up. Her enormous success on Broadway in My Fair Lady and in
movies like The Sound of Music did not change the fact there was a real void
in Andrews' life.
Although she was blessed with a sublime soprano voice and toured England singing operatic arias at age twelve, there was a darker side that kept her apart from others.
"My parents were both alcoholics," Julie Andrews remembers, "and I was a child freak with an adult voice at age eight, forced to grow up much too fast." The result left a gaping hole in her life: "I always had wished I'd had more family feeling," she confides, "and I needed a good friend."
She found that friend in comic actress, Carol Burnett.
"We both started performing as kids," says Andrews. "We both came from alcoholic families, and we both had been caretakers, which is a tremendous burden for a kid. Being raised in a chaotic household, we were also both super-neat and super-square."
Over the years, the duo has appeared in several Julie and Carol TV specials. "Throughout all those years," Andrews says, "the things I first liked about Carol haven't changed a bit: She's ingenuous, she's straight, and she's real. When I was divorced years ago, Carol helped me; when she was divorced, I helped her. Kid problems and romance problems were always easier because we've had each other.
"Also, we regress and both become big kids when we're together - she's the lady and I'm the comedienne. But what comforts me the most in this dizzying world is that I know I can trust Carol completely. She's a sister to me and I love her a lot. I don't think anything could harm that relationship.
"And," Julie says, taking from her wrist an enamel-bangled bracelet lined with gold, "I treasure this, the most beautiful bracelet I've ever seen. Carol hand-engraved the inside herself - 'With Love.'" [8]
[1] A. Maude Royden, The Friendship of God, pg. 1 23, as quoted in The Speaker's Bible (Ann Arbor, MI, Maloy Lithographing, Inc.: 1978), pg. 84.
[2] Ibid. pg. 79.
[3] William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press: 1975), pg. 293. [Please be aware that all of William Barclay's commentaries on the 17 books of the New Testament from the Daily Study Bible are available for $139.95 (list price is $289), while individual books are also available to complete your set for $11.95 each (list price is $16.95). Although I am an RC deacon, I find Barclay's commentaries to be a good down-to-earth beginning for my reflections (our differences in theology notwithstanding!!) and often use it to explain the text to my congregation.You can order them, and many other resources at a discount, by visiting the Homiletic Resource Center.]
[4] Daily Encounter, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.htm as quoted in Dynamic Preaching, 15 (4): 44 (Seven Worlds Corporation, 310 Simmons Road, Knoxville TN 37922), pg. , October, November, December 2000. [Dynamic Preaching is modestly-priced subscription service ($39 annually by e-mail or $45 by disk or in print) may be purchased through the [5] "This little light of mine," A Cup of Chicken Soup for the Soul, Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Barry Spilchuk. (This resource, as well as many others including a specially-priced package of the Chicken SoupHomiletic Resource Centere at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)
[6] Rollo May, Love and Will, (New York: Day Publishing, 1969) pg. 29.
[7] Joe Baroody, "Pastoral implications, Lectionary Homiletics, 11 (12): 3 (Lectionary Homiletics, Inc., 13540 East Boundary Road, Building 2, Suite 105, Midlothian, VA 23112), November 2000.
[8] (New York, Carol Publishing Group, 1992) as quoted in Dynamic Preaching, ppg. 42-3.