Here's the key bit from the passage we'll hear at the beginning. The full text is Mathew 22: 15-40.
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:36-40 NIV).
Assume here I'll throw in some short cheery preamble. Hello, it's lovely to be here, my name's Rob, I lead a small group at St Georges' church Leeds etc
It's a real privilege to be here this morning, especially because I so very nearly wasn't. Let me tell you the story of how I came to know Jesus, lost him and finally rediscovered him at the centre of a very simple faith. I’d like to show you today what I believe is the heart of the Christian faith, and is certainly at the centre of how I live my life with and for Jesus Christ.
I was not bought up as a Christian; I 1st gave my life to God as a teenager. My faith grew from regular church attendance and great fellowship with other young people at church, but I always struggled with the big questions within Christianity: does everyone who doesn't believe really go to Hell, how does that display God's love? Why is there so much suffering in the world? I believe in science and all the claims it makes about evolution and the beginning of the universe; how do I make that fit alongside my deep trust in the bible and the very different version of creation I see there, which I also believe?
There were just so many questions. In the end, that was a large part of what drove me away from my faith, from the God who made and loves me. Aged 19, unable to maintain a belief in a God that confused me, I abandoned any attempt to follow him. I deliberately went the other way, and decided that if God didn't make sense, then I didn't want to know Him or know about Him. I was going to live my life for me and follow my own rules.
As you can imagine, that didn’t go very well. I spent about 10 years looking for happiness everywhere but with God, and there are scores of stories I could tell you about that. It’s enough to say that they didn’t work, and they left me looking again at the faith I had abandoned. Sadly, all the questions that had driven me from it were still there. I discussed them with friends who had a great in-depth knowledge of this very weighty book (hold up bible) and who had studied the writings of many theological scholars. They were wise men and women who gave me the best answers they had, but somehow they were not good enough for me.
Then I met Sarah, a good friend of my wife, who had the most simple faith of anyone I had ever met. She said she knew God loved her and that Jesus had died for her, and that her job now was to love God and everyone else in the world. That incredible view shook my world, I had no idea that following Jesus could be reduced to such basic terms, so easy to wrap your head around! What I didn’t know at that time is that this message is exactly echoed by Jesus. That simple statement opened my eyes, and it was at her funeral, just a few short days after I first heard this radically simple gospel, that I finally opened my heart and let my saviour in. I just asked Him, if He was really there, to come and and show himself to me, and He did. He blew me away! I felt the love and grace and mercy of Jesus and I knew I had to say yes to Him. I gave my life back to Him right there. What's funny is, I still had all the questions I had always had, I just suddenly looked at them from the other side. As important as they were, I wasn't going to let them get in the way of this. To this day, I trust God that there are answers to all of those big questions, I try to work some of them out as best I can and I don't worry too much about them. One day, all will be revealed.
Let us look again at the passage. What’s going on here? It’s one of those parts of the gospels where the Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus, to trick him into saying something they can use against him. The gospels are full of people asking Jesus questions, and I can't think of many occasions where he gives a direct answer. He often tells parables, stories to help people think their own way around it. He must have thought this question was too important to leave people to get wrong. He even makes the statement, "all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." He could not have stated more clearly that these 2 principles were at the heart of what He believed. Think of all those people I spoke to who gave me answers to the many complex questions in this big book. They could have reduced it to just those two points, those four clear sentences. Love God. Love everyone.
I suppose the next question that occurs to me is ‘How?’ How does Jesus want me to love God, how does he want me to love my neighbour? Who is my neighbour? Let’s look at those three questions in turn.
How should I love God? That’s a really hard question. Does that just mean think nice thoughts about Him? ‘Oh, how lovely is God, I really like Him?’ I don’t think so. When I’m trying to answer this question, I like to compare loving God with loving my wife. After all, she’s there, she’s tangible, she lets me know on a regular basis if I am loving her well, or not so well. It’s no use to her me just thinking nice thoughts about her in my head. I do do this of course, all the time. She is often on my mind, but if that were all I did, well, I don’t think my wife would be very happy with me. She wouldn't feel very loved. So, what DO I do? For a start, I TELL her I love her. Everyday, at least once a day. I tell her WHY I love her, what is it today that makes me especially fond of her. How proud I am of how well she does at work, how I appreciate how carefully and usefully she manages our finances, how beautiful she is, how kind and considerate she is to others, how grateful I am that she made my favorite sandwiches for my lunch. I have found that such really specific praise is highly valued, and when she's happy, I'm happy.
I must go further than that in loving my wife. Talk is all well and good, but we all know that you have to back up your words with actions. It’s no good to just ‘talk-the-talk’, you have to ‘walk-the-walk.’ Another way I can show my wife I love her is to do things which I know please her, things which she has told me she appreciates. When my alarm goes off in the morning I turn it off at the first ring and sneak out of the room, so that I don’t disturb her. I am responsible for taking care of our car, so I do that to the best of my ability so that she doesn't have to worry about it. I try to cook wonderful food for us, choosing recipes and ingredients that I know she is fond of. It changes over time as well. This month I am trying to remember to hang my coat up and not leave it on the back of a kitchen chair when I come home from work. There must be hundreds of things, small and large, that I know bring her joy, so I do as many as I can. By choosing to do things that she likes, not always what I want to do, I know she knows that when I say I love her, it’s not just words; she can trust that I really mean it. That store of memories of all the little acts of love really helps on the very rare occasion that I get it wrong and upset her.
Finally, our relationship is at the strongest when we spend a lot of time together. You can imagine how hard it is for us to be apart while I’m over here. Every week we find several times to be together, some ‘marriage time.’ Time to eat together and talk over our days, to do something fun together, maybe go running or for a walk, to watch a movie. Doing that, every week, for nearly nine years, has helped us to really get to know each other. And, because we really know each other, it makes it easier to show each other that love; to know the right words to say, the right things to do.
I would suggest that there are key lessons here for us to work out how to love God. In fact, I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think one of the reasons God gave us the wonderful gift of marriage was to get a feel for how to love in a genuine intimate way. At it's best, marriage is a wonderful glimpse of the tender and close relationship we can find with the One who made us. These ways to love a husband or wife are ways we can love God. Let's a have a look at how we can apply these lessons to our spiritual life.
One; tell Him you love Him, just like I do with Victoria. Talk to him, sing to him. In prayer, praise and worship let him know all the wonderful things about him that you love. Sing of his might in creating and sustaining the universe. Rejoice out loud at the wonder in your heart that the Son of God came and died for you. Not because he needs it, but because He deserves it, because real love does not hide itself. I know I always feel so much more connected to God when I can open up in heartfelt praise.
Two; spend time with Him. Chat to him. As St Paul says, pray without ceasing. Pray as you go about your daily life. Not only that, find some ‘marriage time’ for God. Time to tell Him what’s really on your heart, and listen to what He might have to say to you. Read his word, look for the meaning He brings to you from within it. Sit quietly in His presence and just be with Him. I have found that the times I have really devoted to sitting with God have been so productive, and I strive to have the discipline to do it more often. If you're going to have a relationship worth having, you just have to invest time in it, to cultivate it. I would suggest that no relationship you are ever going to have is more important than the one you share with your creator.
Three; do the things you know He loves. Here at least, he’s made it very easy. There are so many commandments. Tithe your money, keep the Sabbath and so on. So many of His commandments can be summed up in one though. ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Honour you parents? If you are loving everyone, surely your parents will be high on the list of people you love! Do not kill? How can you kill someone you love? Give to the poor? Do not judge others? So many of the ways we are asked to behave towards each other do not need further explanation than this; simply ‘love.’
Finally, let's be clear about who we are to love. Jesus referred to that famous commandment from Leviticus, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There's clearly another whole sermon in there, isn't there. I'm sure you've heard it before. In the book of Luke, just after we read Jesus giving these two as the most important commandment, someone with a bit of sense speaks up. 'Who is my neighbour?' they ask. Jesus tells the famous story of the Good Samaritan. Who is our neighbour? Not just people of the same faith as us, from the same place as us, but anyone in need. I'll leave you today with that thought; 'Who do I need to be a better neighbour to?' Let God prompt you.
One final thought. What Jesus didn’t say was “These are the only two commandments.” No, he said that the others 'hang' on these two. All those other instructions in the bible still apply, and we all need to work out what that means to us. All I'm suggesting to you today, is that you shouldn't let your questions get in the way of the best thing that ever happened to you, and you shouldn't let them stop you doing the best you can with those simple instructions. Love God, love everyone. I'm not saying they are easy instructions; I know i get both of them wrong in some way most days. Thankfully, we have a God of mercy, who readily forgives us when we ask. So get out there, love more, love God, love everyone, get it wrong and have another go. Just keep loving!
God bless you all.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think. It's definitely a first draft, so I'd gladly receive any comments. I'll try and post more blogs throughout the mission, let you know what it's like out there and what we're up to, and I promise they'll be way shorter than this!
Cheers,
Rob
