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…..