The Lesson of the Last Debate

22nd Sunday after Pentecost Matthew 22:34-46 The Lesson of the Last Debate Year A Prelude Greetings Call to Worship We are invited to share in Christ's ministry of compassion. We will widen our hearts so we might cradle the lost. We are challenged to learn more about God each day. We will open our minds so we might discern God's dreams for us. We are summoned to let the Spirit be planted within us. We will deepen our souls so we might grow in love. (LectionaryLiturgies.com, Thom Shuman) Opening Prayer Generous God, we gather before you in this church that you have entrusted to us. Thank you for The United Methodist Church that spreads joy and hope around the world. We are grateful for each person who is part of this community. As we multiply our voices to praise you, pour out your Spirit on us. Move us to recognize the abundance among us. Challenge us to use our gifts wisely. Encourage us to share boldly and to trust that what we have is enough to build up your Beloved Community. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen. (UnitedMethodist.com, Generosity Kit) Song Jesu Jesu UMH 432 A Sermon for all Ages A Litany for the Beginning of Time of Stewardship Leader: From the Giver of every good and perfect gift comes the breath of life, the beauty of creation, and the grace that sustains us. People: We praise and thank you, O God, for your abundant provision. Leader: You have called us to be caretakers of your world and builders of your kingdom. You entrust us with time to serve, talents to share, and resources to bless. People: Open our hearts to recognize that all we have belongs to you. Leader: As we embark on this new stewardship journey, we confess that we sometimes cling tightly to our comforts and let fear or self-reliance cloud our generosity. People: Free us from complacency, O Lord, and spark a spirit of joyful giving. Leader: Grant us the vision to see the needs around us—in our neighborhoods, our community, and our congregation—and the courage to respond with open hands. People: May our gifts bring hope, healing, and light to a world in need. Leader: Bless the ministries that take root here, the hands that labor, and the pledges we offer. Align our priorities with your divine purpose. People: Use our lives and our resources to accomplish far more than we can ask or imagine. Amen. (Google Gemini Scripture Matthew 22:34-46 Sermon The Lesson of the Last Debate If you could talk with any historical figure - who would it be? Even though there is no documented study on this question, this is a very popular question to ask. And the popular answer to that question – is Jesus. Along with Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci. Even though we read the bible, go to church, participate in service projects – most Christians would still give anything to have a personal conversation with Jesus. We know what it means to love our neighbor. But wouldn’t it be priceless to have all of our questions answered personally by Jesus? Our lesson today is all about some personal time with Jesus. In his ministry Jesus’ first audience is the disciples. Next, he travels and talks to just regular people. By the time he reaches Jerusalem, he has the attention of the religious authorities. They too want to talk with Jesus and ask questions. Now you have to know that in the Hebrew tradition to talk with someone and to ask them questions is the greatest honor that you could give to a teacher. These leaders questioning Jesus were specially trained in seminaries, they studies scripture all day, they were professional religiousworkers. These learned teachers were asking question of this self taugh, self proclaimed peasant. And the thing is, Jesus – this ordinary son of man- was winning the debate. Jesus has already challenged the Sadducees notion of eternal life. If you married several times on earth – who are you married to in heaven? Jesus told them that in heaven the slate is clean – you are not married to anyone. Now Jesus is challenging the Pharisee’s notion of the messiah. If the messiah is a descendent of David and the scripture says to honor your mother and father, does David still worship the messiah. Jesus pointed out that scripture says that David does still honor the messiah. The most controversial question that they ask Jesus, should be common sense for even the youngest among us – what is the greatest commandment of them all. You may have never heard the name, but Karl Barth is one of the most famous theologians in the world. Every pastor who has ever been to seminary has at some point had to write a paper are Karl Barth. Barth was a German theologian who not only taught but also challenged the popular beliefs of his day. According to the best accounts of the incident I have heard (many have taken on weird additions), Karl Barth was at Rockefeller Chapel (really a Gothic cathedral!) on the campus of the University of Chicago during his lecture tour of the U.S. in 1962. After his lecture, during the Q & A time, a student asked Barth if he could summarize his whole life’s work in theology in a sentence. Barth allegedly said something like “Yes, I can. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” When we think of all of the problems of the world, we think that surely life cant be that simple. Books on the teachings of Jesus could fill this whole room, as a matter of fact this whole church. Karl Barth wrote over 600 books himself on the teachings of Jesus. The Complexity of the Situation The Constitution of the United States started off with only 7 articles and 21 sections that took up only four handwritten pages including signatures! 4 pages! But to that we added 27 amendments. Today, the United States Code, which is all of the laws in this country, fills up around 80 volumes of books, nearly 800,000 pages, and this doesn’t even include the Federal Regulations. In 1942, the Virginia Code was a single book that had 2800 pages. Today, the Virginia Code is a 25-volume set of books with 15,000 pages, nearly 20,000 separate laws! And that is just Virginia! But, let’s not think for a moment that we are the only ones to take something simple and make it complex. God gave the Israelites something simple to follow, the Ten Commandments. Just ten simple rules to follow. Nothing complex about it. But were the Israelites content with just ten commandments? Oh, no. They ended up making 613 separate commandments, 365 negative and 248 positive. Sounds like a lot doesn’t it? Try following all those laws in order to be considered faithful and righteous, and you probably thought the original ten was hard enough. For the lawyer and the Pharisees there was certainly a complex issue at stake. The Israelites were under assault from a man who claimed to be God, and who did God-like things. But this man was a Jew; he should have known better, no one is God, but God. Yet, he was a man who knew and quoted the Hebrew scripture, who knew the laws and commandments better than any religious leader. The Pharisees had to put a stop to it, the situation was getting out of control, it was becoming too complex to let it go on much longer. This man must be stopped and the only why to stop him was to discredit him. And what better way to discredit Jesus, the Jew, than to ask him such a question, on a complex issue about the greatest commandment, that any answer he gave would spell defeat. Author Unknown Shema In Jewish circles the single most famous verse from the Torah is the so-called Shema from Deuteronomy 6. "Shema" is the Hebrew word for "hear" or "listen" and it comes from that verse, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." The Shema was traditionally recited by every Jewish child and adult at the start of each day and at the conclusion of each day. In other words, there was no single verse from the entire Torah that the average Jew knew better than this one. So when Jesus responded to the Pharisees' tricky question by quoting a portion of the Shema, he was throwing back in their faces something they took to be exceedingly basic, something that was second-nature to even the youngest Jewish child. It reminds you of the time Karl Barth is said to have been asked what he thought was the most profound of all theological truths. But instead of giving some jargon-laden, academic answer that used words like perichoresis, kenosis, or the insuperable transcendence of God's prevenient grace as it comes through the vicarious supererogation of the Son, Barth simply said, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." That answer was charming and disarming. Barth said, "The greatest truth is the one you already know, the one all Christians know, the one a three-year old can sing about." In Jesus' case, he was slyly insulting the Pharisees, demonstrating to everyone there that the Pharisees were not really interested in seeing if Jesus could answer their question since even the youngest person there knew that answer already. This was not a difficult question. It was like asking Albert Einstein, "Do you know what 2+2 is?" This was basic, elementary stuff. Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations Rabbi Hillel (Died 6 years before Jesus was born) said,(when challenged by a Gentile to repeat the entire Torah on one foot) "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn" Jesus turned a negative into a positive – love God and treat others the way you want to be treated. The golden rule was so central to Jesus message – that he talks about it in all four gospels – even the book of John. Each gospel gives a little different version of the most important commandment – but the love triangle is a part of them all – love God, love your neighbor, love yourself. The religious workers of the day made a living out of making what was simple complicated. Based on the 10 commandments – they created 600 different laws for people to life by in their daily lives. Some of the laws were considered heavy and important, some were light and unknown – but you were held accountable for not breaking them, if you knew them all or not. For instance, you are not supposed to wear new shoes to church. New shoes are considered doing work, because they have not been broken in yet. Jesus simplified all those 600 laws into one - One way to cope with the abundance of laws is to just use your common sense and to work by rules of thumb. For example, for driving: go the speed limit, yield to the right, stay to the right unless passing, etc. When you are filling out your income tax: don't cheat or lie! What about your daily life? Well, maybe the so-called golden rule: treat others the way you would want to be treated by them. L. Gregory Bloomquist, Remembering to Do the Right Thing If we wanted to sum up the bible and keep a cheat sheet of what the bible teaches us to do in every situation – let us remember the words of a song that all of us learned a long time ago – Jesus Loves me this I know – for the bible tells me so. Amen. When you remember to love Jesus – everything else falls into place – God, neighbor, self. 3218 Love Makes Obedience Love makes obedience a thing of joy! To do the will of one we like to please Is never hardship, though it tax our strength; Each privilege of service love will seize! Love makes us loyal, glad to do or go, And eager to defend a name or cause; Love takes the drudgery from common work, And asks no rich reward or great applause. Love gives us satisfaction in our task, And wealth in learning lessons of the heart; Love sheds a light of glory on our toil And makes us humbly glad to have a part. Love makes us choose to do the will of God, To run His errands and proclaim His truth; It gives our hearts an eager, lilting song; Our feet are shod with tireless wings of youth! —Hazel Hartwell Simon If you could talk to Jesus today – he would tell us stories of how to love. As a said before, we all read to bible, we go to church, we serve others, we try to do the right thing. And yet we would give anything to hear those love stories from Jesus mouth personally. And yet in this scripture, the people who got that chance to speak with Jesus and ask anything – became so upset with Jesus simple answers – they just stopped talking. He was making so much sense – they stop talking with him and starting plotting against him. This is the last conversation that they ever had with Jesus. This is the last lesson that we can learn from his teachings. This conversation got the wheels turning to leading him to the cross. The good news for us – Jesus is still teaching us how to love to this very day. He reminds us to bring love into every situation and to use everything that we have to spread that love to the world. what is the greatest commandment – love the lord your God with all of your heart, mind and soul. What is the second – love your neighbor as you love yourself. What does it mean to love the lord? Spread the gospel with all that you all – show kindess, integrity, acceptance and courage. Let us pray….. They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love At age 17 Jennie Todd found fault with everything about the church--from the teaching methods to the time worship was held. She resented her parents forcing her to go to church and Sunday School every week. She would sit in her class with her arms folded across her chest, slumped in a folding chair in the back of the class. She refused to make friends or to participate in class discussions. It was clear to everyone Jennie did not want to be there. One night, though, Jennie came home to find her parents huddled in the driveway in their bathrobes. Their house was engulfed in flames. They watched all their worldly possessions consumed in blazes as the fire department desperately worked in vain. It was a tragedy she would never forget. Then shortly after the fire, something happened that took Jennie by surprise. Some of the girls from her Sunday School class came to visit her. One of the girls handed her an envelope. Jennie opened the envelope with trembling hands to discover it was filled with money. “It’s from everyone in the class,” one of the girls told her. “We took a collection.” Jennie was overwhelmed by the love and affection she was shown that day. She never really wanted to be part of the class, but the class showed her how much they cared for her. “I received a lot more than money that day,” she reflected, “I received unconditional love and a fresh realization of what it means to belong to the church.” Our society bombards us almost daily with the message that we should care only about ourselves. “You owe it to yourself,” we hear in advertisements for vacation trips. “You deserve the best,” we hear from people selling expensive products. Jesus’ teachings run exactly counter to this prevalent attitude. The mark of a Christian is the love we show for one another. The popular hymn says it best, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.” King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.eSermons.com Song Lord I Want to be a Christian UMH 402 Pastoral Prayer Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Time I recently learned that the Hawaiian word for wealth is waiwai, which comes from wai, the word for water. Imagine with me: Water is not meant to be hoarded. It is powerful—even devastating. Too much of it or too little…both bring suffering. Life flourishes when water flows where it is needed. Waiwai invites us to think of wealth not in terms of how much we accumulate, but how and where it flows. In a church in Pennsylvania, the congregation was invited to bring items they had and were willing (and sometimes even EAGER!) to share. Loads of summer tomatoes that just kept coming, outgrown children’s clothes, toys, books, handcrafts, art…so many things people had held onto but no longer needed or wanted. A sermon on the joy of keeping our “stuff” moving, like water that flows and gives life, included this thought: Wealth, in a gift economy, is understood as having enough to share. The practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away. And so children, teens, and adults came forward, bringing what they had to offer. In a prayer of thanksgiving, the minister blessed what had been offered and invited the whole congregation to come find treasures they could use. Much to the delight of the congregation, every offered gift was chosen by another! What will you offer today? How will you help our waiwai flow? (Adapted from the Lake Institute’s A Day of Abundance.) Prayer of Thanksgiving Thank you, God, for the ways you challenge us to generosity. We voice our praise and our petition that we might grow in our willingness to share what we have. We sing a song of harvest, of thanks for daily food! To offer God the first-fruits is old as gratitude. And lest the world go hungry while we ourselves are fed, make each of us more ready to share our daily bread. (Chalice Hymnal #719) Announcements Closing Prayer for YouTube Go forth into the world with hearts full of courage, knowing that you do not serve a God of scarcity, but a God of wild, overflowing abundance. May you live this week with your hands open—ready to receive God's countless blessings, and ready to share them just as freely. Do not be afraid to live, love, and give generously, for the source of your grace will never run dry. May the blessing of God the Creator, Christ the Giver, and the Holy Spirit our Sustainer, be with you now and always. Amen. (Google Gemini) Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benediction Go from here with the divine gifts you have received. As you share what you have, following in Jesus’ footsteps, allow the Spirit to guide you in investing in kingdom building. Join your gifts with others’, trusting that in God’s economy they will be more than the sum of their parts. Good and faithful servants, go in peace, to love and serve the Lord. (UnitedMethodist.com, Generosity Kit) Additional Illustrations Give It to Me in a Nutshell "Give it to me in a nutshell" –– an old saying –– it means, Tell me what I need to know, but keep it short. Don't bother me with unnecessary detail. Don't bore me with a long, technical explanation. Just get to the bottom line. We like things short and sweet. Network television news has time only to hit the high spots and to show us a few pictures, but it gives us the big picture in a few minutes. We like that. I used to have to sit through weekly staff meetings. Sometimes they would go on for two hours, because everyone wanted to have their say. Then we got a new boss who limited each of us to one overhead slide. Each slide had about ten lines, so each person could show us the status of ten programs –– max. We had to code each program green, yellow, or red.Green meant that everything was o.k. Yellow meant that there was a problem. Red meant, "The sky is falling!" Furthermore, we weren't to ramble. Stand up! Speak up! Shut up! Sit down! I loved it, because we got through the meetings quickly, and I could get back to work. Give it to me in a nutshell! That's what the lawyer said to Jesus –– Give it to me in a nutshell. At least, we think that's what he meant. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? Do you know, or should I call Pew Research?" Richard Niell Donovan, In a Nutshell Love Is More than We Can See A man once observed a young boy out in a field flying a kite. He noticed that there was something odd about the way the boy was standing and holding on to the string. He walked up to the boy and then learned that the boy was blind. He said, "Do you like flying kites?" The boy said, "I sure do." This piqued the man's curiosity and he asked, "How is that when you cannot see it?" The boy answered, "I may not be able to see it but I can feel it tugging'!" We may not always be able to identify the love of God in this world. Like the little boy, we may not be able to see love but it has a tug that lets us know it is there. Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com Chip It Away! There is a story about a man who had a huge boulder in his front yard. He grew weary of this big, unattractive stone in the center of his lawn, so he decided to take advantage of it and turn it into an object of art. He went to work on it with hammer and chisel, and chipped away at the huge boulder until it became a beautiful stone elephant. When he finished, it was gorgeous, breath-taking. A neighbor asked, "How did you ever carve such a marvelous likeness of an elephant?" The man answered, "I just chipped away everything that didn't look like an elephant!" If you have anything in your life right now that doesn't look like love, then, with the help of God, chip it away! If you have anything in your life that doesn't look like compassion or mercy or empathy, then, with the help of God, chip it away! If you have hatred or prejudice or vengeance or envy in your heart, for God's sake, and the for the other person's sake, and for your sake, get rid of it! Let God chip everything out of your life that doesn't look like tenderheartedness. James W. Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not To Be True, Nashville: Dimensions, 1994, p. 32. Practice, Preparation, and Perspiration In a wonderful little book, "Dudley's Dog Days: Joining Faith to Life," by Harley G. Rusch, the family has just bought a cocker spaniel puppy named Dudley. On their way to grandma's house to show off the newest member of the family, they stop at an ice cream store. It was a hot summer day -- and, of course, Dudley was given an ice cream cone, too. Next they stopped at a hamburger stand for some food, which, of course, Dudley had to eat, too. Dudley had hardly gotten the hamburger down, when it came right back up -- along with the remains of the ice cream and cone. They get to grandma's house, who quickly gave her grown son a tongue-lashing: "How could you give a puppy an ice-cream? Don't you know anything about taking care of a puppy?" The author writes about his experience: We were inexperienced at showing love to a dog. Although we loved him at first sight, the technique by which we showed that love needed a lot of improvement. It would not be the last time either. The first walk, the first trip to the vet, the first night, all proved that some expertise was needed in the art of loving a puppy. Society has told us by means of movies and television that love is something that just happens. Caring for another is something you just do. How wrong can they be? To love takes the desire but also a lot of practice, preparation, and perspiration. We discovered with Dudley that there are proper and correct ways to show love. There are also acts that can be motivated by love, but can in effect be unloving -- like ice-cream cones for puppies. The love Jesus calls for is more than just warm feelings. It can often involve "practice, preparation, and perspiration." In some cases loving others means giving a dose of "tough love.” Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes The Complexity of the Situation The Constitution of the United States started off with only 7 articles and 21 sections that took up only four handwritten pages including signatures! 4 pages! But to that we added 27 amendments. Today, the United States Code, which is all of the laws in this country, fills up around 80 volumes of books, nearly 800,000 pages, and this doesn’t even include the Federal Regulations. In 1942, the Virginia Code was a single book that had 2800 pages. Today, the Virginia Code is a 25-volume set of books with 15,000 pages, nearly 20,000 separate laws! And that is just Virginia! But, let’s not think for a moment that we are the only ones to take something simple and make it complex. God gave the Israelites something simple to follow, the Ten Commandments. Just ten simple rules to follow. Nothing complex about it. But were the Israelites content with just ten commandments? Oh, no. They ended up making 613 separate commandments, 365 negative and 248 positive. Sounds like a lot doesn’t it? Try following all those laws in order to be considered faithful and righteous, and you probably thought the original ten was hard enough. For the lawyer and the Pharisees there was certainly a complex issue at stake. The Israelites were under assault from a man who claimed to be God, and who did God-like things. But this man was a Jew; he should have known better, no one is God, but God. Yet, he was a man who knew and quoted the Hebrew scripture, who knew the laws and commandments better than any religious leader. The Pharisees had to put a stop to it, the situation was getting out of control, it was becoming too complex to let it go on much longer. This man must be stopped and the only why to stop him was to discredit him. And what better way to discredit Jesus, the Jew, than to ask him such a question, on a complex issue about the greatest commandment, that any answer he gave would spell defeat. Author Unknown Being Compassionate Is More than Kindness Being compassionate involves more than kindness. It is the passion to develop strategies and structure to lift up those who are down. If our political and economic systems allow the marginalized to fall between society's cracks, then we who have been loved into action by a compassionate God are encouraged to challenge the existing order or to find ways to alter their predicament. To fail to do this is to lose God in the chaos of society. The great Norwegian novelist, Johan Bojer, makes that point powerfully in his story, The Great Hunger. It happened that an anti-social newcomer moved into the village and put a fence around his property with a sign saying, “Keep Out.” He also put a vicious dog in the fence to keep anyone from climbing it. One day, the neighbor’s little girl reached inside the fence to pet the dog and the dog grabbed her by the arm and savagely bit and killed her. The townspeople were enraged and refused to speak to the recluse. They wouldn’t sell him groceries at the store. When it came time for planting, they wouldn’t sell him seed. The man became destitute and didn’t know what to do. One day he saw another man sowing seed on his field. He ran out and discovered it was the father of the little girl. “Why are you doing this?” he asked.” The father replied, “I am doing this to keep God alive in me.” David Zersen, Searching for Better Questions Shema In Jewish circles the single most famous verse from the Torah is the so-called Shema from Deuteronomy 6. "Shema" is the Hebrew word for "hear" or "listen" and it comes from that verse, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." The Shema was traditionally recited by every Jewish child and adult at the start of each day and at the conclusion of each day. In other words, there was no single verse from the entire Torah that the average Jew knew better than this one. So when Jesus responded to the Pharisees' tricky question by quoting a portion of the Shema, he was throwing back in their faces something they took to be exceedingly basic, something that was second-nature to even the youngest Jewish child. It reminds you of the time Karl Barth is said to have been asked what he thought was the most profound of all theological truths. But instead of giving some jargon-laden, academic answer that used words like perichoresis, kenosis, or the insuperable transcendence of God's prevenient grace as it comes through the vicarious supererogation of the Son, Barth simply said, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." That answer was charming and disarming. Barth said, "The greatest truth is the one you already know, the one all Christians know, the one a three-year old can sing about." In Jesus' case, he was slyly insulting the Pharisees, demonstrating to everyone there that the Pharisees were not really interested in seeing if Jesus could answer their question since even the youngest person there knew that answer already. This was not a difficult question. It was like asking Albert Einstein, "Do you know what 2+2 is?" This was basic, elementary stuff. Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations You Can Read All Day The story is told of a little boy whose father taught mechanical engineering at a prestigious university. One day he came in the back door and asked his mother, “What time is it?” She wasn’t wearing a watch; plus, she was busy, so she said, “Your father's in the living room, go ask him.” The little boy shrugged his shoulders and said, “Never mind. I don’t want to know how to make a watch; I just want to know what time it is!” When it comes to religion and our understanding of the Christian faith, I suspect there are times when we all feel like this little boy. For example, there are sixty-six books of the Bible. Many of them are long and complex. For each book of the Bible there are commentaries explaining every nuance of every verse. If that weren’t enough, there are books on just about every conceivable topic of the Bible. There are books on church doctrine, Christian ethics and the history of Christianity. There are books on worship, mission, education, stewardship and prayer. Christian writers are all too happy to tell you how to improve your prayer life, your sex life, your golf score and your investment portfolio. O.K., maybe I’m exaggerating just a little bit. The point is you could read all day, every day, for the rest of your life and still not make a dent in the mountain of information available on understanding the Christian faith and what it means to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Philip W. McLarty, The Christian Shema Remembering to Do the Right Thing How's your memory? Do you have difficulty remembering to do certain things? How about names? What about when it comes to laws? Do you always remember all the laws that apply when you are driving? How about when you are filling out your income tax? What about your daily life: do you always remember what is involved in doing the right thing? Do you always remember to do the right thing? That presupposes that you even know all the laws that are out there. But I find that I have difficulty not only REMEMBERING everything that I'm supposed to remember, but even KNOWING everything that I'm supposed to KNOW! For example, I didn't know for a long time that in Ottawa you could turn left from a one-way street on to a one-way street. I saw people doing it and I thought they were just taking a short-cut. Someone going to North Carolina might not know that of the 100 counties in North Carolina you cannot swear in public in 98 of them, but that you can in 2 of them, nor might they know which 2 they are! Or what about situations that arise that are not covered by any law? What about when you go out for a meal? What about at work? What about when you are getting on an airplane? One way to cope with the abundance of laws is to just use your common sense and to work by rules of thumb. For example, for driving: go the speed limit, yield to the right, stay to the right unless passing, etc. When you are filling out your income tax: don't cheat or lie! What about your daily life? Well, maybe the so-called golden rule: treat others the way you would want to be treated by them. L. Gregory Bloomquist, Remembering to Do the Right Thing ________________________________________ All the Little Things Sermon Questioning Authority Benjamin Franklin had 13 virtues that he felt necessary for every person to have in order to live a productive life – Temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity and humility. Franklin did not consider himself a particularly religious person, but he did occasionally go to church, and even though he probably could not name the verse, they are all included in the bible. I think sometimes we would all like to have a short summary of what the bible is all about – it would be nice to have a little chart that tells us what the bible is all about. Well if you look at psalm 15 – it gives you the bible in 11 easy points, in Isaiah 35 – it gives you 6 easy points. In Micah 6:8 there are three points – what does the lord require of you – act justly, love faithfulness and to walk humbly with God. Amos says that there is only one thing – seek God and live. Jesus gets it down to 2 principles – love God with everything and love your neighbor. John Wesley and Martin Luther get it to one – grace. Rabbi Hillel (Died 6 years before Jesus was born) said,(when challenged by a Gentile to repeat the entire Torah on one foot) "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn" As we come to the last days of the Christian Year (December 1st is the new year), we come to the end of Matthew and the end of Jesus’ earthly life. Matthew has been following Jesus’ life, but mostly his earthly journey – when we realized that he was a prophet, all he has wanted to do was to go to Jerusalem – to question the powers that be and to teach the people. His dream has come true- he is teaching and people are listening. He has gotten the attention of the religious authorities – and now they are questioning him. Questioning is a great honor – it means that his teaching is worthy of debate. Matthew 22 is the chapter about that debate. Two weeks ago he talks about the kingdom of heaven – being a great party where everyone is invited and no one wants to come. In the middle of the chapter – he challenges the sadducees on resurrection and explains that in life after death that we are all equals – we stand before God. The saducees are mad because they don’t believe in life after death. The pharisees are impressed because they do – they want to hear more from this Jesus. Who seems to know the torah law, even though he never studied with him. He does well in talking about the shema – love the lord with all of your heart and soul. He even does well when he talks about loving your neighbor – that is in Leviticus how the treat the migrants amongst you. But does he really understand the 10 commandments – Jesus even says that they are testing him now. Who is the messiah? After all – the ten commandments says to honor your mother and father. If David says that the messiah is his lord in psalm 110, how could anyone today be the messiah. The messiah can’t be alive today – because we are all sons of David, thus less then him if we respect him as an elder. Jesus reminds him again that in the resurrection, all people are equal – we all have to stand before God on our own. He had just had this conversation with the saducess. In god’s world, there are no elders. The messiah could be anyone – and still respect his elders. Scripture says that at this point they stopped asking questions. This man was way too smart for his own good. Jesus does not say anything that is not already in the bible – he just presents it in a whole new way for a whole new generation. We are the generation the loves jesus and remembers his words to live by. Jesus reminds us that all of the bible be summed up in one word – used in two sentences. Love – which comes from God – receive it from God and give it to your neighbor. Yes, that is two sentences – but Jesus actually tells us about three loves. Love God, Love your neighbor and to love yourself. That is important – because I really think that a lot of time – we forget about the third one. As Christians we tend to think that love is selfless, and not selfish. We neglect our own self care. We think that if we show love to others, then we should not include ourselves. We think that is we are focused on God that we are not focused on ourselves. Loving Ourselves She was a beautiful Scandinavian girl. She had come to the hotel room of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Trobisch for counseling, just one day after they had given a lecture at one of the universities of northern Europe. As they talked about her problems, one basic issue kept coming up – one that seemed to be at the root at all her problems. She could not love herself! In fact, she hated herself so much that she was only a step away from ending her own life. She had been raised in a very religious home. Her parents were sincere, no doubt, but they had given her a terribly distorted understanding of the Christian life. Because of what her parents and pastors had taught her, she was afraid of affirming any good thing about herself. She was afraid that self- appreciation would lead to pride, and pride would lead to alienation from God. So, for her, the life of faith required self-depreciation – putting herself down! She believed that rejection of the self was the only way to God! That’s why her religious convictions led her to the brink of suicide. During the counseling session there in the hotel room, Dr. Trobisch led her to a mirror where he asked her to look carefully at her image. She turned away, unable to look at herself. He held her head gently but firmly and made her look into her own eyes. Obviously the experience was painful for her emotionally. Dr. Trobisch asked her to repeat after him: “I am a beautiful girl – I am a beautiful girl.” But she couldn’t do it. She just couldn’t do it - because in her eyes that was sinful. Where did we ever get the idea that to affirm ourselves, to appreciate ourselves is wrong? Certainly we didn’t get that from Jesus. When we read the gospels carefully, we discover that Jesus went around day after day looking for the good in people, pointing it out to them, and asking them to celebrate it. And, in the scripture from the 22nd chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells us to love our neighbors. How? As we love ourselves. Notice that Jesus does not say we are to love our neighbors instead of ourselves. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It is inarguable: Jesus wants us to love ourselves! James McCormick, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Being Compassionate Is More than Kindness Being compassionate involves more than kindness. It is the passion to develop strategies and structure to lift up those who are down. If our political and economic systems allow the marginalized to fall between society's cracks, then we who have been loved into action by a compassionate God are encouraged to challenge the existing order or to find ways to alter their predicament. To fail to do this is to lose God in the chaos of society. The great Norwegian novelist, Johan Bojer, makes that point powerfully in his story, The Great Hunger. It happened that an anti-social newcomer moved into the village and put a fence around his property with a sign saying, “Keep Out.” He also put a vicious dog in the fence to keep anyone from climbing it. One day, the neighbor’s little girl reached inside the fence to pet the dog and the dog grabbed her by the arm and savagely bit and killed her. The townspeople were enraged and refused to speak to the recluse. They wouldn’t sell him groceries at the store. When it came time for planting, they wouldn’t sell him seed. The man became destitute and didn’t know what to do. One day he saw another man sowing seed on his field. He ran out and discovered it was the father of the little girl. “Why are you doing this?” he asked.” The father replied, “I am doing this to keep God alive in me.” David Zersen, Searching for Better Questions Keeping God alive inside of us takes practice, preparation and perspiration – act justly, love faithfully, walk humbly. I want to give you some scenarios – and in each one I want you to think about what you would do. But the challenge is to be as selfish as possible. You are having lunch with two friends. And when it comes to dessert there are only two cakes – and you love cream cakes. What do you do? You family has had a dinner party – and now that the guest have left, there are tons of dishes in the sink and there are five people in the family. What do you do? Remember to be selfish. Whatever you thought of to do for yourself – Jesus challenge to us – do it for others. When Jesus says that we should love God and Love our neighbor – he is not just talking about 2 loves, or three loves, but 4 loves. Love God, Love neighbor, love ourselves – and love Jesus. When we think of those 4 loves – everything else falls into place. In Love with Christ Legend has it that a wealthy merchant traveling through the Mediterranean world looking for the distinguished Pharisee, Paul, encountered Timothy, who arranged a visit. Paul was, at the time, a prisoner in Rome. Stepping inside the cell, the merchant was surprised to find a rather old man, physically frail, but whose serenity and magnetism challenged the visitor. They talked for hours. Finally the merchant left with Paul's blessing. Outside the prison, the concerned man inquired, "What is the secret of this man's power? I have never seen anything like it before." Did you not guess?" replied Timothy. "Paul is in love." The merchant looked bewildered. "In Love?" "Yes," the missionary answered, "Paul is in love with Jesus Christ." The merchant looked even more bewildered. "Is that all?" Smiling, Timothy replied, "Sir, that is everything." G. Curtis Jones, Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching, Nashville: Broadman, 1986, p. 225. One way to cope with the abundance of laws is to just use your common sense and to work by rules of thumb. For example, for driving: go the speed limit, yield to the right, stay to the right unless passing, etc. When you are filling out your income tax: don't cheat or lie! What about your daily life? Well, maybe the so-called golden rule: treat others the way you would want to be treated by them. L. Gregory Bloomquist, Remembering to Do the Right Thing If we wanted to sum up the bible and keep a cheat sheet of what the bible teaches us to do in every situation – let us remember the words of a song that all of us learned a long time ago – Jesus Loves me this I know – for the bible tells me so. Amen. Sermon Life is just that simple You may have never heard the name, but Karl Barth is one of the most famous theologians in the world. Every pastor who has ever been to seminary has at some point had to write a paper are Karl Barth. Barth was a German theologian who not only taught but also challenged the popular beliefs of his day. According to the best accounts of the incident I have heard (many have taken on weird additions), Karl Barth was at Rockefeller Chapel (really a Gothic cathedral!) on the campus of the University of Chicago during his lecture tour of the U.S. in 1962. After his lecture, during the Q & A time, a student asked Barth if he could summarize his whole life’s work in theology in a sentence. Barth allegedly said something like “Yes, I can. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” When we think of all of the problems of the world, we think that surely life cant be that simple. Books on the teachings of Jesus could fill this whole room, as a matter of fact this whole church. Karl Barth wrote over 600 books himself on the teachings of Jesus. In Jesus' day there was a group of people who pored over the ancient writings of Moses to look for every law in the book. They were called Pharisees and they were very scrupulous about the observance of all the religious laws. They counted up all the commandments of Moses and found that there were 613 of them; 248 of these were positive, and 365 of them were negative (one for every day of the year, they said). Instead of condensing and simplifying the commandments, they expanded and complicated them, so that what had started as a sincere desire to please God had become a terrible burden of ever-increasing requirements. They needed someone who could cut through all the burdensome requirements of the law and focus on its essence. Pastors spent a lot of time trying to simplify these rules into something that the average person could remember. When Jesus whittles the 10 commandments down to two, he may have been thinking of the words of another Rabbi - Hillel. One famous account in the Talmud (Shabbat 31a) tells about a gentile who wanted to convert to Judaism. This happened not infrequently, and this individual stated that he would accept Judaism only if a rabbi would teach him the entire Torah while he, the prospective convert, stood on one foot. First he went to Shammai, who, insulted by this ridiculous request, threw him out of the house. The man did not give up and went to Hillel. This gentle sage accepted the challenge, and said: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation of this—go and study it!" Every morning and every night every faithful person was supposed to recite the Shema – to themselves and to their Children. Hear on Isreal, the Lord your God is one. Love the lord with all of your mind, your heart, your soul. This is the most important rule. Everyone knew these two rules, but Jesus loved to challenge popular thinking. As a matter of fact, that is the whole point of this scripture. In those days it was popular to challenge people by asking questions. The questions were not always confrontational. Questions were a way that you got to know who people really were. Questions bought out your differences. So as Jesus is teaching, the leaders of the day can’t help but to ask questions. Before this scripture for today, the Sadducees start to ask Jesus questions – which Jesus uses as a chance to teach about resurrection. Now the pharisees, whose job it is to know all 600 rules for life, are asking their own set of questions. Jesus knows his stuff, so he is prepared. Unfortunately, this is the last time that Jesus is questioned. Once the questions stop, the plot to get rid of him starts. They don’t want to change, so they set out to act upon their own misunderstandings of the law of grace. Jesus made a point to challenge the status quo and to redefine their and our understandings of the simple things in life. For instance Jesus repeats the greatest commandment – love the lord with all of your mind, heart and soul. But he challenges also. The second commandment love your neighbor is not just the second commandment, but also the third commandment – love your neighbor – as you love yourself. In order for you to love anyone else, including God – first you have to love yourself. Selfishness is not self love. When you love yourself, it is easy for you to love others. Loving Ourselves She was a beautiful Scandinavian girl. She had come to the hotel room of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Trobisch for counseling, just one day after they had given a lecture at one of the universities of northern Europe. As they talked about her problems, one basic issue kept coming up – one that seemed to be at the root at all her problems. She could not love herself! In fact, she hated herself so much that she was only a step away from ending her own life. She had been raised in a very religious home. Her parents were sincere, no doubt, but they had given her a terribly distorted understanding of the Christian life. Because of what her parents and pastors had taught her, she was afraid of affirming any good thing about herself. She was afraid that self- appreciation would lead to pride, and pride would lead to alienation from God. So, for her, the life of faith required self-depreciation – putting herself down! She believed that rejection of the self was the only way to God! That’s why her religious convictions led her to the brink of suicide. During the counseling session there in the hotel room, Dr. Trobisch led her to a mirror where he asked her to look carefully at her image. She turned away, unable to look at herself. He held her head gently but firmly and made her look into her own eyes. Obviously the experience was painful for her emotionally. Dr. Trobisch asked her to repeat after him: “I am a beautiful girl – I am a beautiful girl.” But she couldn’t do it. She just couldn’t do it - because in her eyes that was sinful. Where did we ever get the idea that to affirm ourselves, to appreciate ourselves is wrong? Certainly we didn’t get that from Jesus. When we read the gospels carefully, we discover that Jesus went around day after day looking for the good in people, pointing it out to them, and asking them to celebrate it. And, in the scripture from the 22nd chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells us to love our neighbors. How? As we love ourselves. Notice that Jesus does not say we are to love our neighbors instead of ourselves. We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It is inarguable: Jesus wants us to love ourselves! James McCormick, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com Love is a way of life. Love is a place inside of us that determines our actions. One day a certain man hurriedly headed out the door for work. In his path was the 3 year old son playing with blocks. The man patted the boy on the head, stepped over him, opened the door and went outside. Halfway down the walk a guilt bomb exploded within him. What am I doing, he thought to himself. I am ignoring my son. I never play with him. He’ll be old before I know it. In the background of his thoughts he heard to pounding of Cat’s in the Cradle – Harry Chapin’s balld to lost fatherhood. He returned to the house and sat down with his son and began to build blocks. After two minutes, the boy asked – Daddy, why are you mad at me? He was acting out of duty, not love and it was obvious to the 3 year old. A daughter took her other into her home after surgery. Things were okay until one day they got into an argument over a dirty plate. During the argument, the mother asked why are you doing all of this for me anyway. The daughter thought about it and came up with a million reasons - I don’t want anything to happen to you, I want to keep you safe, I worry about you, I wanted to prove that I was an adult, I wanted to show that I was strong. Finally the mother stopped her and said all of her reasons were a bunch of junk. They didn’t mean anything – the only reason that mattered was that they loved each other. When we act out of love it makes all of the difference in the world. One of the last questions that the pharisees asks is who is the messiah? Is the messiah really the son of David? Jesus points out that even though he is son of David, David still calls upon the messiah. David’s weapon of power was war. Jesus’ weapon of power was love. Love is stronger than war, that ‘s why David called upon a messiah. Jesus is the messiah because he reminds us of the power of love. Life is just that simple – love ourselves, love others love God. One is not more important than the others, they are all expressions of the same love. Let us pray… The world series is going on now. I have paid attention to the world series in a while. But the church of the resurrection in Kansas City is excited that the Kansas City Royals are in the world series, and they talk about it on face book quite a bit. And then they made a big deal about the song Royal – San Francisco refuses to play the song as long as the world series is FIRST THINGS FIRST When Coach Bobby Bowden played baseball in college, he never hit a home run. His senior year at Howard College, he was the only player not to hit a home run. One day, he hit a line drive against Auburn. As he approached third, the coach was waving him on. As he made his turn, he heard his third base coach say, "But hurry!" When he touched home, the team was ecstatic, slapping his back and shaking his hand back in the day before "high fives." The first baseman yelled for the catcher to throw him the ball. The umpire yelled, "out." When he ran the bases, Bobby Bowden never touched first. Maybe that's why he became a football coach. Anyway, you can probably imagine he told his players, "If you don't take care of first base, it doesn't matter what you do." Our sermon for today is about first things first. All of the scholars of the time have been questioning Jesus, testing him. In today’s lesson, Jesus is being questioned by the pharisee’s. Jesus if you were to summarize the most important thing in the bible what would it be. Jesus says – First – you must love the lord you god with all of your heart, your mind and your soul. And then you must love your neighbor as you love yourself. The first thing about being a Christian is love. And if you don’t get that right, you can be the best person in the world, your can sing the most beautiful song, you can give the most wonderful gifts – but if it is not done in love, it means nothing. So the first question we may have is what does love mean? Why do we love? How do you love someone? ________________________ What Is the Will of God? "What, positively, is the will of God? The demand for love. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself!" as the second greatest commandment belongs together with the first: "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" (Mk. 12:28-34) There is no obedience to God which does not have to prove itself in the concrete situation of meeting one's neighbor, as in Luke (10:29-37), probably unhistorical but with the right of correct understanding of the subject matter, makes clear by combining the illustrative narrative of the Good Samaritan with Jesus' discussion of the greatest commandment. The demand for love surpasses every legal demand; it knows no boundary of limit; it holds even in regard to one's enemy (Mt. 5:43-48). Rudolf Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, p. 18. Whatever the will of God is, that is also the will of Jesus. I think that it is interesting, that as the concept of love goes beyond our cultural understandings of love. I think that it interesting to note that the middle eastern culture of Jesus would have heard this commandment much different than we do. In the middle eastern culture – love means loyalty. It is not about how you feel inside, it is not even about your actions. When Jesus says love God – he is saying make sure that you are loyal to god in all that you do. To love someone, is to be loyal to them, and to hate them meant to be disloyal to them. To have no relationship with them, to not care about them, to not listen to them. But when you are loyal to someone, you take them into account in everything you think, do or say. So when Jesus asks Peter, do you love me – will you take my commandments into account in everything. Do you plan to be loyal to me. Jesus says if you do, them you will feed my sheep. Jesus made that challenge to Peter and Jesus makes that challenge to each of us. Do you love me? Where are your loyalties in life? What will you forsake, and what will you stick to no matter what. I think that it is important part of our faith to be clear about our loyalties. What is most important, and what do I need to let go of. When I come to church, when I am in service – why am I doing that and what does it mean. What does it really mean to love to the lord with all of my mind, my heart, my soul? And what does it mean to love my neighbor as I love myself? How do you love God with everything, when you are at church, at work, in your family, out in the world. What activities do you do because you love God? Do you sing in the choir? Or work with the kids? Or help to cook meals. Do you learn to forgive others? Do you depend on God for your strength? Do you feed Jesus Sheep? What does it mean to love God, and at the end of the day where are your loyalties – with God or with something else? In talking with Pastor Forbes, she pointed out that there was not just two commandments, but three. Love God, Love your neighbor, but to love yourself. You can only treat others the way you treat yourself. If you don’t love yourself, then you cant love somebody else, not even God. It has been said that a lot of suffer from poor I sight. Not eyesight with our eyes, but I sight with our heart. Text Illustration: POOR I-SIGHT We suffer from poor I-sight. Not eyesight, a matter of distorted vision that lenses can correct, but I-sight. Poor I-sight blurs your view, not of the world, but of yourself. Some see self too highly. Maybe it's the PhD or pedigree. A tattoo can do it; so can a new truck or the Nobel Peace Prize. Whatever the cause, the result is the same. "I have so many gifts. I can do anything." Brazenly self-assured and utterly self-sufficient, the I-focused have long strutted beyond the city limits of self-confidence and entered the state of cockiness. You wonder who puts the "air" in arrogance and the "vain" in vainglory? Those who say, "I can do anything." You've said those words. For a short time, at least. A lifetime, perhaps. We all plead guilty to some level of superiority. And don't we also know the other extreme: "I can't do anything"? Forget the thin air of pomposity; these folks breathe the thick, swampy air of self-defeat. Roaches have higher self-esteem. Earthworms stand taller. "I'm a bum. I am scum. The world would be better off without me." Divorce stirs such crud. So do diseases and job dismissals. Where the first group is arrogant, this group is diffident. Blame them for every mishap; they won't object. They'll just agree and say, "I can't do anything." Two extremes of poor I-sight. Self-loving and self-loathing. We swing from one side to the other. y bump us back and forth. One day too high on self, the next too hard on self. Neither is correct. Self-elevation and self-deprecation are equally inaccurate. Where is the truth? Smack-dab in the middle. Dead center between "I can do anything" and "I can't do anything" lies "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). Neither omnipotent nor impotent, neither God's MVP nor God's mistake. Not self-secure or insecure, but God-secure -- a self-worth based in our identity as children of God. The proper view of self is in the middle. [Lucado, M. (2012). Life to the full: 3-in-1 featuring. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.] What are the things that I do to love myself, those things help me to love God. The things that I do to love God help me to love others, in spite of their unlovability. But I have to put first things first. Love – myself, God and others. If my I sight is right –it all falls into place. People say that you cant make someone love you. And Yet Jesus commands us to love. How can he force us to o something that we may not want to do? How can he command us to love? 3218 Love Makes Obedience Love makes obedience a thing of joy! To do the will of one we like to please Is never hardship, though it tax our strength; Each privilege of service love will seize! Love makes us loyal, glad to do or go, And eager to defend a name or cause; Love takes the drudgery from common work, And asks no rich reward or great applause. Love gives us satisfaction in our task, And wealth in learning lessons of the heart; Love sheds a light of glory on our toil And makes us humbly glad to have a part. Love makes us choose to do the will of God, To run His errands and proclaim His truth; It gives our hearts an eager, lilting song; Our feet are shod with tireless wings of youth! —Hazel Hartwell Simon 3219 He Chooses To Be Seraphim It is said that the young son of Bishop Berkeley once asked him the question, “Papa, what do the words, “Cherubim and seraphim” mean?” The bishop took time to tell the little questioner that cherubim was a Hebrew word meaning knowledge, and the word seraphim stood for flame, explaining that it is commonly supposed the cherubim are angels that excel in knowledge and the seraphim are those who excel in love for God. “Then I hope,” the boy said, “that when I die I will be a seraphim. I’d a lot rather love God than to know everything.” —Evangelistic Illustration Finally, I have one more illustration. Perceptions of Church: There for the Right Reasons In her book, Memories of War, Promises of Peace, Sister Mary Jo Leddy writes about her parents' World War II experiences. Her father, Jack, was a surgeon in the Allied army. Jack, stationed in a French town, often went to a nearby church for rest, refuge, sanctuary and prayer. For him it was a special and holy place. Forty years later, he returned to the village with his wife and daughters, insisting that they all visit the precious chapel. When they reached the church, Leddy was delighted and wanted to go inside right away. But the family was horrified by the homeliness of the building. Ugly was the word. The walls were beige stones, stained and covered with fungus. On the roof was something that looked more like a chimney than a bell tower. In any case, there was no bell to ring. Not a single flower or blade of grass grew in the grim clay ground around. Mother and daughters criticized the church's appearance. They remarked that it was like a scene from a Gothic horror movie. Leddy's Dad looked at them rather blankly. In 1944, he had never really noticed what the church looked like. "It looked pretty good at the time," he said. "It was a place to go and pray." Leddy eventually came around to her father's viewpoint. Speaking of the church she writes: "This was where he was at home in the world, where he knew who he was with God." It is amazing how much better a church looks when you are there for the right reasons. Some people use putdowns, and criticism to keep from confronting their own spiritual poverty. When we are in the church for the right reason, and when know where our loyalties lie, when we put love before all other acts, then God promises that we will be happy and live a good life. God’s commandments are always for our own best interest and I sight. King Duncan, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com Jesus lesson on love is part of a much bigger story. As I said at the beginning of the sermon – the Pharisees were intentionally testing Jesus. They were asking questions in order for him to slip up. After he gave them the most important lesson on love – scripture says the they could not argue with him and they did ask him any more questions. The stopped talking to him and started plotting against him. Obviously they did not get the message. We can be grateful that we did. Let us pray…. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, ...........

So begins one of the most well know love poems in the entire English
language. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote this poem, and many others,
to her husband Robert while they were secretly courting. She could
hardly believe that the handsome Browning truly loved her, for she was
an invalid. She only showed the poems to him after their

marriage and he encouraged their publication because he considered them
the finest sonnets written since William Shakespeare’s penned his.
“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 neighbour as yourself.

These are probably some of the most well known words of scripture. They
are not unique to Christianity though as words like them are to be found
in many different religious traditions.

How do I love thee, let me count the ways. Someone asked that question of us, way before Elizabeth Barrett Browning or Shakespeare. God asks that question of us each and every day. God does everything that God can to show us that he loves us. He courts our hearts and souls in many ways. How do we acknowledge the love letters that God sends us. The beauty of fall, a love letter from God. The nudge to get up in the morning, a love letter from God, a friend that you haven’t heard from in awhile, a love letter from God.
God sent an even more sentimental love letter to the world, when God sent God’s son to the world, and allowed him to die on the cross, for us – we were saved even before we were sinners. Because God loves us.
What does the word Love mean today? How do we define it? In answer to my question, Sherry, my son's wife, sent me the results of a question-and-answer session held by a group of professional people with an bunch of 4 to 8-year olds, where they asked them, "What does love mean?" Some of the answers I selected will both amuse and startle you.

Karl, age 5, says: "Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving lotion and they go out and smell each other."
Elaine, age 5, says: "Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer then Robert Redford."
Mary Ann, age 4, says: "Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."
Tommy, age 6, says: "Love is like a little old man and a little old woman who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
Bobby, age 5, says: "Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."
Jenny, age 7, says: "There are two kinds of love. God's love. Our love. But God makes both kinds."
That last answer is worthy of a philosopher. Maybe we should listen to children more than we do. They see the world around them with clear, fresh eyes, and interpret it with clear, fresh minds.
Many of us as adults couldn’t come up with a better definition of love – sometimes adults just don’t know what love is. And we express our ignorance in the midst of what we call our wisdom.

The Pharisees thought they were being wise in their questioning of Jesus. We have been going through this for a few weeks now. Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he started teaching the masses. There would have been nothing wrong with that – but they started listening, they started having hope, they were moving beyond the despair that had held them hostage. Life was going on, and as religious leaders of the community- they had nothing to do with it. And they needed to know more about this man. Was he really a jew? More importantly, was he teaching orthodox teachings? Or was he just misleading all of these people? So the questions started. Remember – by what authority are you speaking these things? Is it okay to give God money that is given to man? – and in this text we get the most important question of them all. What is the greatest commandment? - do you all know? Love - love the lord your God with all of your heart, your soul, your mind. With everything that you are. Jesus adds the second commandment to it – you must love your neighbor as you love yourself. In other words, if you don’t love he people around you, then you really don’t love God. Two different loves – that cant be separated. They have to come hand in hand.
But I want to stick to my point for a minute. We have moved from love to questions. A nobel peace prize winning scientist was asked about his success. He said that it all came down to questions. When he would come home from school, his mother would not ask how was school, she was not interested in hearing about what he learned that day. The one question that she would ask – what question did you ask today. His interest in his learning came down to his questions. As an adult he said that his entire career came down to learning how to ask good questions.
By what authority do you speak, who is more important God or man, even what is the greatest commandment – are all good questions. And the truth is they may not have been trying to hurt Jesus by asking him these questions. To ask someone a question of faith is the greatest honor that you could bestow on them. They would ask these questions of anyone. Their relationship with God was determined by their ability to question God. Do you really want to destroy your people? God why have you forsaken me? My favorite one – God how long before you vindicate me? God loved his people enough to answer their questions. I just got a bit of jewish wisdom the other day – the power of our prayer in in our belief that God hears us our prayers, and will answer them. We question god each time that we pray. God is always obliged to answer – now that is love.
The good news is that Jesus is able to answer all of those questions. He gives the right answers. He has read the scriptures, he has talked with the rabbis, he has prayed to God – so he is able to give the “right” answer. Yes he is a jew, yes his understanding of life is orthodox, yes he does love God. Jesus even has a question of his own – The messiah – whose son is he? Is he the son of God or the son of David? He references psalm 110 – when he asks why David calls his own son My Lord? Matthew has already proven that Jesus is the son of David – he comes from his lineage. Matthew does better, not only is Jesus a son of David – Matthew shows that he is the son of Abraham, he is the son of adam – he is the son of God. He gets his jewishness directly from the source. The creater of the questions. Questions designed to bring us all closer to God.

There is nothing wrong with asking questions. You don’t have to be afraid of an enemy who is willing to ask you questions – if they are willing to ask you questions that means that they are willing to be engaged. They are willing to have some type of relationship with you. The problem begins when they stop asking questions. When they stop asking questions, you cant read them.you don’t know what is going on. You don’t know what they are planning next. Unfortunately for Jesus – these were the last questions that they would ask. The conversation ends. Scripture says that when Jesus asked them about eh messiah – no one had an answer. “No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.” Jesus continues to teach and to give parables – but the Pharisees have stopped listening…..what does that mean? What are they plotting against him?

But let me ask you another question - what does it mean to be an apostle? Do you know the difference between an apostle and a disciple? I have been told that a disciple is a follower of Jesus. An apostle is someone who has seen Jesus for with their own eyes. Someone who received their call directly from Jesus.

So if Paul never met Jesus face to face – how can he be an apostle? Good question. It was a question that many asked Paul – and it seems that Paul spent his ministry answering that question. He didn’t see Jesus in the Flesh, but he knew Christ in the spirit. In 1 thessalonians Paul says that he comes as an apostle of Christ. I hope that I will have more time to talk about Pauls ministry to Thessalonica. Salonica as it is called, is a really cool large urban city, with a unique ministry. But our theme for today is the love of God. What does it mean to love God? How do we show the love of God? For Paul to love God is to live God, and if we live God we are an apostle – a witness to Christ in any age.
Not everyone who hears Paul likes him or welcomes him. Sometimes the gospel can challenge us in ways that we don’t want to deal with. But the gospel is not about us – it is aboutGod. Spreading it is not our message – it is God’s message.
In the face of resistance – Paul gives us this example of being an apostle. In every other epistles Paul will verbally defind his apostleship. Today he gives us an example. To be a witness to God. To be an authentic follower of Christ – we have to show kindness, integrity, acceptance and courage. In the midst of people who didn’t want him, Paul gave himself and all that he was. He was an authentic Christian, because he knew what it meant to love others – show kindness, integrity, acceptance and courage.

what is the greatest commandment – love the lord your God with all of your heart, mind and soul. What is the second – love your neighbor as you love yourself.

What does it mean to love the lord? Spread the gospel with all that you all – show kindess, integrity, acceptance and courage. Let us pray…..

Love God and Do Whatever You Please

October 4, 2026 World Communion Sunday Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Love God and do whatever you please 19th Sunday after Pentecost Year A Prelude Greeting Call to Worship (Japan) One: In a world that remains divided and in conflict, God is inviting us, to make us one. Many: Today we gather around one table, in answer to God’s will. One: What do we find at today’s table? Many: God's love, which endures all things and connects all things. One: What is not at today’s table? Many: The many powers of the world, which seek to stand over others. One: Let us repent, and give thanks to God’s power to bring salvation to all who believe. Many: Thanks be to God! Make us witnesses of Your love. All: Let us worship together the true God, who makes us one. (Global Ministries) Opening Prayer (Australia) We gather today as the people of God, as a community of Christ’s followers. We gather to share Word and sacrament, to discern the ways of faithful service. We serve our God in this community and throughout every land. Let us serve by working toward justice where there is oppression, by offering comfort where there is pain, by sharing love where there is hatred. The Spirit beckons us, because Jesus calls us to enact our faith. Let us now worship the one who calls us! (Global Ministries) Song Let us Break Bread Together UMH 618 A Sermon for All Ages – get in groups and list all of the ten commandments Side-by-Chart Comparison # Jewish (Aseret HaDibrot) Catholic / Augustinian Protestant (Reformed) 1 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me. You shall have no other gods before me. 2 You shall have no other gods before me / No graven images. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. You shall not make for yourself a graven image. 3 You shall not take God's name in vain. Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 4 Observe the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 5 Honor your father and your mother. You shall not kill. Honor your father and your mother. 6 You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. 7 You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. 8 You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not steal. 9 You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not bear false witness. 10 You shall not covet. You shall not covet your neighbor's goods. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, or possessions. A Statement of Faith UMH 883 Passing of the Peace Scripture Exodus 20: 1-4, 7-9, 12-20 Sermon “Love God and Do as you please” Lloyd Douglas told how he loved, occasionally, to visit a little old man who gave violin lessons. He had a studio, if it could be called that, a small room set in a long row of rooms where other music teachers taught. "I liked to drop in on him," Douglas said, "for he had a kind of homely wisdom that refreshed me. One morning I walked in and by way of greeting, said, ‘Well, what’s the good news for today?’ " Putting down his violin, stepping over to his tuning fork suspended from a silk thread, he struck it a sharp blow with a padded mallet, and said, "There is the good news for today. That, my friend, is ‘A.’ It was ‘A’ all day yesterday ... it will be ‘A’ all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years ... the soprano upstairs warbles off-key ... the tenor next door flats his high ones ... the piano across the hall is out of tune ... noise all around me, noise ... noise ... noise; but that, my friend, is ‘A.’ " I believe it will steady your soul to remember that. Some things remain constant in the midst of noise and change ... some things are not transient ... some things are not at the mercy of popular vote . Some things in life never change, God’s love for us, human nature, the need for guidance in life, relationships and purpose. No matter how life changes there are somethings that stay the same. Into this world of upheaval and change, the Ten Commandments still ring true. Close to 3,000 years have come and gone since Moses came down from Mount Sinai. He carried with him Ten Commandments for living, not Ten Suggestions. These Ten Commandments have not budged one inch in calling men and women to the same ethical standards of life. Times may have changed, but the principles of these Ten Commandments are eternally the same. There is not a sole in this room that has not heard of the ten commandments. It is estimated that over 4 billion people in the world are familiar with the 10 commandments. But how many actually know them? And of those who know them, how many people actually live them. Acouple of years ago, I was asked to serve on a panel to discuss the problems facing teenagers in our society. The panel included a school counselor, a Juvenile Judge, a drug counselor, a couple of other experts on teenage problems, and, I guess, I was the representative of the religious community. There were a variety of people in the audience, including the parents of several teenagers. During the question and answer period, there was one woman who acknowledged that she was at the symposium because her adolescent daughter had become a handful and she could no longer control her. Then, looking at me, she began to blame the church for the problems that her daughter faced and the problems that teenagers were encountering in our society. She stated that the problems of teenagers could be traced directly to the church which was no longer teaching "the basics." She talked about the failure of the church to give proper instruction and moral guidance to the younger generation. Her strongest and most self-evident point was that children were no longer required to memorize the Ten Commandments. Finally, when she had finished listing her complaints, I asked her, "Madam, do you know the Ten Commandments?" "Of course," she responded, somewhat insulted by the question. Looking directly at this woman in the audience, I challenged her by saying, "Name them!" She coughed and sputtered and looked embarrassed. Finally, she was able to name three or four of the commandments and a couple of quotes from Shakespeare before giving up and sitting down. While I can sympathize with that woman and her worry about her daughter, I think it is a mistake to attribute magical qualities to the Ten Commandments. Instead, I think it is more appropriate to look at them as rules for living. A pompous gentleman once announced to a group which included Mark Twain: "Before I die I will go to the Holy Land, climb Mount Sinai, and read the Ten Commandments aloud at the top." "I have a better idea," said Twain, "you could stay home and keep them." The good news is that most of us have mastered the big ones – thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, honor they mother and father, we even try not to lie unless it is absolutely necessary. And that is just it, we have no problem obeying the laws. As a matter of fact, many of the 10 commandments are in fact actual laws of the land. We are good at keeping these laws, until we have some need that is beyond our resources, and we feel like we need to get ahead. We get ahead, by interfering with someone else’s pursuit of happiness. When Moses brought down the tablets from God, he had two tablets of commandments. The first were guidelines in our relationship with God, the second were guidelines in relationship with family, neighbors and others. Moses went to God to help the Israelites come together into a new community. They had lived 400 years in a society that dehumanized them, took advantage of them, that took possession of them mind, body and spirit, just to get rich. God’s first words to them in Exodus 20 – I brought you out of the land of slavery – here are some instructions on how to live free – first and foremost – put God first in everything in life. There is a Jewish legend that a certain leaf wanted to be free to fly like a bird. It struggled to separate itself from the tree and floated to the ground. But without the life-giving power of the tree, the leaf slowly withered and died. As it died, it cried to the other leaves, “Don’t do as I have done. It is death instead of freedom.” True freedom is living in connection to God and to one another. The 10 commandments teaches us to do both. There was an ancient expression in Judaism that stated: Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. Jesus took these words out of the negative and put them in the positive: Do unto others what you would have them do unto you, the golden rule. In other words, love requires us to take action. It is not enough simply to refrain from coveting what our neighbor has. If we want to be please God we must act well; if we want others to be kind and respectful to us, then we must act so to them. In other words, much of the Ten Commandments call upon us to refrain from doing bad. But the call of the Christian life is to do good. Jesus took those 10 commandments and turned it into2, no actually 3 rules – love God, Love neighbor, love yourself. He said Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. There are three commandments that I want to focus on in the love yourself category – Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy – take time to rest, Thou shalt not Covet- don’t judge your life based on what others have, and keep no graven idols. There is an old legend that Abraham, as a young boy worked in his father’s shop where the old man made idols according to customer specifications. Since various religions abounded, and gods were believed to have kingdoms which were geographically limited, many people believed an idol depicting their god would bring good luck. Or that at least they could thereby appease their gid if he became angry. Abraham, however, didn’t believe in all of this and questioned his dad, who explained that the boy was wrong, each god had certain powers. Then one day the old man went out of town. When he returned, every idol in the shop was destroyed by a hammer except for one, against which the hammer was leaning. Furious, the old man called his son, Abraham, and charged him with the damage. But the boy said, no, it was that one idol which you told me had great powers. He was greater than the others and destroyed them. The old man had no answer. We all have idols. An idol is anything that we are so obsessed with, that we put before God. How much time do we spend working to death seeking some type of idol, because we are trying to keep up with someone else’s standards of living. We take pride in our freedom to do what we want, but modern life can be just as suffocating as the Israelites living in Egypt, unless we remember the guidelines to love God, love ourselves and love ourselves. Sometimes God needs to bring us out of the land of modernism, into the wilderness of reflection. Learning, remembering, living the 10 commandments – can remind us of our freedom in Christ. St. Augustine once said that in Christ, we are free to love God and to do whatever you please. Someone once said, “Nobody is perfect until you fall in love with them.” I want to tell you that God is in love with you. No, you’re not perfect, but God sees you through the eyes of love, the same eyes through which God hopes you look at others. And even though you are not perfect, God has prepared a place for you among His saints. When we live in God’s love – we are free to show that love to others as a rule. Augustine’s full quote says Love God and do what you please, for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved”. So keep God first. .. some things, like the Ten Commandments, are timeless and permanent! You can come back to them and confidently follow them with your life. They are rules or guidelines for living that come to us from God. Are you following his guidelines for living? CSS Publishing Co., Inc., Greatest Passages Of The Bible, The, by Robert Allen Receive the gift of rest, and help others receive it too. Practice gratitude. Open your hands in generosity. Love God, and love your neighbor in the choices you make each day. The God who brought the people out of Egypt is still teaching us how to live as free people. May we listen with reverence, respond with trust, and walk in love. Amen. Song You Satisfy the Hungry Heart UMH 629 Prayers of the People One: We pray for the people of Africa. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of Asia. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of the Pacific. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of Latin America and the Caribbean. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of Europe Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of the Middle East. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of North America. Many: May they be strengthened in faith, justice, and hope. One: We pray for the people of every place whose names we know—and those we do not. All: May we be strengthened together as one body of Christ. (Global Ministries) Pastoral Prayer Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment Offertory Prayer Generous God, You have set a table that stretches from Charlotte to Kinshasa, from Bogotá to Seoul. You have fed us with grace and invited us into your holy community of justice and joy. So now, we offer back to you a portion of what we have received. May our gifts, of money, time, and lives, be used to extend your welcome, to build tables in places long denied a feast, and to nourish hope in hearts still waiting for home. Bless and multiply these gifts for your glory and your people. Amen. (United Methodist Board of Discipleship) Call to Communion One: From every corner of the earth, Christ calls us to the table. Many: We come from many peoples, many places, many traditions. One: We come with the songs of our ancestors and the prayers of those who came before us. Many: We come carrying stories of faith, struggle, hope, and joy. One: From the villages of Africa and the islands of the Pacific, from the mountains of Asia and the cities of the Americas, from the churches of Europe and the Middle East— Many: We come as one people, gathered in Christ. One: Some come to this table with abundance. Some come longing for daily bread. Many: Christ welcomes us all. One: Some come singing. Some come grieving. Some come with questions. Some come with gratitude. Many: Christ welcomes us all. One: Today, the walls that divide us do not have the final word. Language does not divide us. Geography does not divide us. Culture does not divide us. Many: At Christ’s table, there is room for all. One: Come, people of God. Come with open hands and open hearts. All: We come to receive. We come to remember. We come to share. We come to be made one. (Global Ministries) World Communion THE GREAT THANKSGIVING FOR WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY (Do not Print) The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. The pastor may lift hands and keep them raised. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right to give our thanks and praise. It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty (almighty God), creator of heaven and earth. You have made from one every nation and people to live on all the face of the earth. And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn: The pastor may lower hands. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. The pastor may raise hands. Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. He commissioned us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth and to make disciples of all nations, and today his family in all the world is joining at his holy table. The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread, or touch the bread, or lift the bread. On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the cup, or touch the cup, or lift the cup. When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." The pastor may raise hands. And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith. Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread and cup. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood. The pastor may raise hands. Renew our communion with your Church throughout the world, and strengthen it in every nation and among every people to witness faithfully in your name. By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet. Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God ), now and for ever. Amen. Copyright: “The Great Thanksgiving for World Communion Sunday,” Copyright © 1972 The Methodist Publishing House; Copyright © 1980, 1985, 1989, 1992 UMPH. Used by permission.” Announcements Closing Prayer for YouTube Go now as those who have been fed, not only with bread and cup, but with remembrance, mercy, and the wild welcome of Christ. Let your faith, even if only a mustard seed, uproot indifference, plant compassion, and prepare a place for someone else to be seen, to be heard, to be healed. Wherever you go, Babylon or Jerusalem, downtown or dirt road, may you carry the table with you. And may the Spirit of God go before you to stir courage, walk beside you to offer peace, and dwell within you to keep setting the table of grace. Go in love, go in justice, go in belonging. Amen. (United Methodist Board of Discipleship) Community Time – Joys and Concerns Benediction (Cuba) May God prosper you. May your days be long and your nights serene. May your friendships honor you, and your family love you. May you eat at your table, and may you be gathered into God’s embrace with a smile. (Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ Global Ministries) Additional Illustrations when was the last time you got lost? Was this the result of human error or technological error? Or both? Last year, a news station in Indonesia broadcast a story about an Indonesian groom who went to the wrong wedding and almost married the wrong woman because of an error by Google Maps. It appears that this was an arranged marriage, so the prospective bride and groom did not realize the mistake. Family members from the two families discovered the mistake as they chatted before the wedding. Fortunately, the wedding never took place and both families handled the situation gracefully. (1) GPS technology gets a bad rap sometimes, but there are some of us who can’t do without it. A few years ago, a man in Australia accidentally drove 400 miles away from his intended destination because wouldn’t stop and ask for directions. Eric Steward set out to pick up a morning newspaper, but he took a wrong turn and ended up driving for hours on a major highway until he finally stopped and asked the police for directions back home. He told the police officer who gave him directions that he didn’t need a GPS because he had only been lost once before in his life. (2) Some people have to get really lost before they’ll admit they are lost. There is a Jewish legend that a certain leaf wanted to be free to fly like a bird. It struggled to separate itself from the tree and floated to the ground. But without the life-giving power of the tree, the leaf slowly withered and died. As it died, it cried to the other leaves, “Don’t do as I have done. It is death instead of freedom.” The oldest candle company in the world is based in Dublin, Ireland. Rathbornes, which first sold candles made from tallow, or animal fat, was established in 1488 and is still in business today. The Irish government once considered candles to be absolutely essential to the safe functioning of society. In fact, in 1616 the municipal government in Dublin passed the “Candlelight Law,” which required that every fifth house keep a lit candle in the window during certain hours to guide passersby safely through the streets. (7) The Ten Commandments serve as a “Candlelight Law” for the Israelites and all the nations around them. They were intended to make the Israelites into a living embodiment of God’s character and purposes in the world. Someone has said that there was a reason why the Ten were written on stone instead of parchment. They were written in stone so that people could only keep them or break them -- they cannot bend them. When I first entered seminary I, along with several other first year students, had spent several years in "the real world" before deciding to become a clergyman. So, too, had a new classmate. Toward the end of our first quarter, our class in church history gathered for our final exam. Those of us who had been away from the classroom for several years were quite apprehensive about the threat of final exams. Soon, the exam books were opened and we all began to write. Suddenly, we were appalled to see the professor walk over to the desk where my classmate was seated and roughly yank the exam booklet away from the poor fellow. For a moment he sat there, his face flaming red. Then quietly, he gathered his books and a briefcase and left the room. I never saw him again. He had cheated, and the professor had caught him. I have often wondered about that man in the years since. What explanation did he give his wife and children for suddenly leaving seminary? Did he lie and make matters worse? Did he tell them what happened and forever lose their respect? What explanation did he give the members of the church which had proudly sent this second career member off to be a Methodist minister? How has he lived with himself? Where is he now? What is he doing? He never became a minister. What a tragedy, all because a man failed to think what his actions could cost. There it is, then. A practical, down-to-earth formula against which to measure the daily choices of our lives. Does it make good sense? Is it faithful to the rules in which I believe? Is it true to the person I want to be? Would I mind if other people knew? Could I be pleased if the people I admire did the same? Will the consequences really be what I want? If the answers to all of these are "yes," then it's probably the right thing to do. CSS Publishing Company, TIMES OF REFRESHING, by E. Carver McGriff Recently, I read a little fable about a young girl who was walking through a meadow. She saw that a beautiful butterfly had one wing impaled by a thorn. Very carefully, so as not to further damage the wing, she released the butterfly from the thorn and it began to fly away. Then, the butterfly came back and changed into a beautiful fairy princess right before the little girl. "For your kindness," the fairy told the little girl, "I will grant you your fondest wish." The little girl thought for a moment and replied, "I want to be happy." The fairy princess smiled and leaned over and whispered something into the girl’s ear. Then, the fairy princess vanished into thin air. But, as the girl grew older, there was no one in the kingdom who was happier than she. Whenever anyone asked her for the secret of her happiness, she would only smile and say, "I listened to a beautiful fairy princess." As she reached the last years of her life, her friends and neighbors were afraid that her fabulous secret of happiness would die with her. "Tell us, please," they asked. "Tell us what the fairy said!" The little girl, who was now a lovely old lady, smiled and said, "The beautiful fairy princess told me that the secret to happiness is to realize that everyone, no matter how secure they seem, has need of me." One of the great secrets of life is to realize that everyone has need of us. And the willingness to give ourselves to others ... the willingness to develop a relationship with others the willingness to love others, is one of the rules of living ... which leads to a happy life. That does present a problem. Think about this: It is possible to keep negative commandments by simply doing nothing. A person might truthfully be able to say that he had not stolen, committed adultery, or murdered, but that does not mean that that individual is loving and caring. There was an ancient expression in Judaism that stated: Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you. Jesus took these words out of the negative and put them in the positive: Do unto others what you would have them do unto you, the golden rule. In other words, love requires us to take action. It is not enough simply to refrain from coveting what our neighbor has. If we want to be please God we must act well; if we want others to be kind and respectful to us, then we must act so to them. In other words, much of the Ten Commandments call upon us to refrain from doing bad. But the call of the Christian life is to do good. So let's just get it out on the table at the outset of this sermon, the Ten Commandments are not meant to be an end in themselves. Still, having said that, we must also concede that the Commandments are so basic to life that if we disregard them, we court disaster. Look at it this way. Jesus called upon us to go the second mile. But to go the second mile you must first go the first. The Ten Commandments represent the first mile. Love represents the second mile. Both are needed; both are necessary. One is law, the other is grace. One is duty, the other is joy. Both go hand in hand. Let us now look at the first mile--the Ten Commandments. In, James Mitchener’s novel The Source, he describes an ancient family. The father of the family sacrifices his son to Malek, an ancient God. The mother grieves while the father then goes and visits the temple prostitutes. She is deeply grieved at what her husband is doing in the name of religion. She laments: “With a different god, he would have been a different man.” We are shaped by our god or gods. Martin Luther once wrote: “whatever you confide in, that is your god.’ Whatever we count on to give us meaning and value in life, that is our god. We are sometimes mistaken. We believe that the great conflict is between religion and atheists. Interestingly, Jesus never once, as far as we know, addressed the issue of atheism. Maybe he never met an atheist. Or perhaps Jesus realized that everyone has some god that they worship. They address the two major issues of our time: Our relationship with God and our relationship to one another. Is it any wonder that when Jesus was asked which is the greatest commandment, he answered in this way: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all of your soul, and with al of your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Amen. ChristianGlobe Network, eSermons.com Sermons, by Brett Blair I have thought of this experience many times while observing worshipers enter other places of worship, continuing conversations which had begun outside. The organ prelude, I fear, is frequently taken to be a pleasant background for the chatter of pre-worship. Certainly, the attitude of reverence is not the same. There is more truth than poetry in Robert Louis Stevenson’s remark, "I never weary of great churches. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral." Again, if the first four* (*As Lutherans count them, three.) Commandments contain one’s service to God as being performed out of a sense of reverence, we can but wonder to what extent reverence is still a part of the modern experience. The first table relates:** (**Lutherans: (1) You shall have no other gods ... (2) ... the name of God ... (3) ... the Sabbath ...) (1) you shall have no other gods before me; (2) do not worship idols; (3) do not take the name of God in vain; (4) remember the sabbath. The elaborations here are limitless, but the hinge word which encompasses the whole is reverence. The second table is no less demanding. As the first four* (*As Lutherans count them, three.) Commandments prescribe one’s reasonable service to God, the remaining six* (*Lutherans: Seven, the last two of which deal with coveting.) prescribe one’s service toward others: (5) honor your father and mother; (6) do not kill; (7) do not commit adultry; (8) do not steal; (9) do not bear false witness; (10) do not covet. Perhaps the hinge word here is respect. Without respect for parents, human life, neighbor, property, truth, and achievement, the second table is unintelligible. Lack of respect may be the result of, among other things, ignorance, arrogance, crudeness, or stupidity. "But," you may say, "the Ten Commandments were prescribed for an ancient time and are not relevant for the twentieth century; and besides, has not Christ fulfilled the Law already?" Antiquated? Consider the morning newspaper, the ten o’clock news, and the testimony of human experience. Christ has fulfilled the Law for us already? It is nowhere implied in the scriptures that we are personally exempt from idolatry, swearing, stealing, coveting; in short, reverence and morality have not been rescinded. Now when all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled; and they stood afar off, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will hear; but let not God speak to us, lest we die." And Moses said to the people, "Do not fear; for God has come to prove you, and that the fear of him may be before your eyes, that you may not sin." (20:18-20) CSS Publishing Co., Inc., On His Way, by Larry Powell During the days of the Gold Rush, a young man and his bride set out across the country to make their fortune. Some where along the way they drank some contaminated water, and the young bride died before they could reach Fort Kearney. Heartbroken the young man took her body to the highest hill and buried it, using the wagon bed to make a coffin. He drove down some wooden stakes to mark the grave, thinking that he would go on west and later come back. But as he thought about it, he said to himself, “I’ll forget where this is. I will never remember it.” So he retraced his steps all the way to St. Joseph, Missouri. He found a stone cutter, and had him prepare a tombstone with the name “Susan Hail” on it, along with the date of her death. He tried vainly to get someone to haul it back for him, but all the wagons going west were already over loaded, and they wouldn’t help him. Finally, he bought a wheel barrow, put the stone in it, and walked those weary miles back to Fort Kearney and set the stone up on her grave. That is a tender story. The man knew that there was something he must never forget. Here was a sacred spot on earth and he must always remember where it was. “So it is with the Ten Commandments. They have been set up for us so that we will never forget the importance of some things. We keep coming back to them for they speak to us of eternal truths and values.” (T. Cecil Myers, Thunder on the Mountain Abingdon Press;. 1965, pp. 94-95) It's not that the behaviors ordered by God to the Israelites in the wilderness aren't commendable. It's not that The Decalogue isn't an excellent guide for human justice. It's just that the Ten Commandments aren't heaven's standards. McManus notes: "They are not the standards by which the angels live. They are not God's attempt to pull us up beyond the human into the spiritual. The Ten Commandments are the lowest possible standard of humane living. Stop and consider what they demand of us. Maybe it would help if we rephrased them in everyday language. Here goes: 'Hey, could you stop killing each other? Oh, yeah, by the way, could you not steal each other's stuff? And it would be really helpful if you wouldn't lie to each other, either. And here's a thought, could you not take other people's husbands and wives and just, sort of, like keep your own?" (Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force [Group Publishing, 2000]). The Ten Commandments have traditionally been difficult to translate into the language of children. A third grade Sunday school teacher was particularly uneasy about the lesson, “Thou shalt not com¬mit adultery.” She asked, “Would someone please explain what adultery means?” A young fellow answered matter of factly, “Adultery is when a kid lies about his age.” One Sunday school teacher asked her class if they knew what the last commandment was. One little girl proudly stood and said, “Thou shall not take the covers off thy neighbor’s wife.” And, of course, there is that central commandment to all boys and girls, the fifth commandment: “Humor thy father and thy mother.” How do you think our society interprets the fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy”? I think it means, “unless there’s a football game or a soccer practice.” Still, these commandments are important to Jews and to Christians. They give us guidance in dealing with issues we face every day. We need to know them and we need to live by them. There is a silly little story about Moses. It seems that Moses wasn’t feeling well and was very upset. He decided he would go up on the mountain and see God. “You know my life has not been easy. First my mother put me in a basket and floated me down a river,” Moses said. “Then I left Egypt for 40 years. You remember the burning bush, the plagues, and then the Passover.” God allowed that, yes, He remembered. “There’s a lot more,” Moses continued. “You remember everything, so I don’t have to tell you the rest. But I really can’t handle much more, and I have this splitting headache.” God looked at Moses and said, “Here, take these two tablets. That should help.” (3) 3. Kirk Kirkpatric, “Tested Humor and How to Use It,” “The Speaker’s Digest,” Quote, Vol. 54, No. 10, October 1994. ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Dynamic Preaching First Quarter Sermons 2009, by King Duncan