Love God. Love Neighbour

October 29, 2017

Helen Jacobi

Ordinary 30     Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18     Psalm 1     1 Thessalonians 2:1-8     Matthew 22:34-46

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

Everyone has a mission statement these days – from schools to government departments to companies to businesses. I looked up a few examples:

Facebook: Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together

Coca Cola: To refresh the world in mind, body and spirit. To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions.

Closer to home:

Lifewise: Connected, just, and inclusive communities

Ministry of Education: Our mission is to lift aspiration and raise educational achievement for all New Zealanders.

Our City Mission next door had the most down to earth statement I came across: Helping people in desperate need by providing excellent integrated services and effective advocacy.

Sounds less like a religion and more like a place that gets things done.

The bigger the company – like Facebook or Coca Cola – the more they sound like a religion.

In today’s gospel we get to hear Jesus’ version of a mission statement.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbour as yourself”

The commandments or laws that were laid down in the Hebrew scripture covered all aspect of life – food, clothing, economics, welcoming the stranger, caring for family and the widow and the orphan, worship. You name it there was a rule or a guideline. And some argued that all rules were equal. So making sure you didn’t mix wool and linen (Dt 22:11) in your clothing was as important as the commandment not to steal or murder. Hence the question from a lawyer to test Jesus. Remember, we are still in the Temple, and various groups are still trying to trip Jesus up. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”

Love God.

Love neighbour.

Everything else recorded in the law and the prophets hangs on these two.

Love God.

Love neighbour.

As Christians and as church communities we don’t need to look any further – our calling, our mission, our reason for existing is to love God and to love neighbour. When Jesus quotes the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus he is not talking about emotional love, or the feelings of love or being in love.  He is talking about action, ways of being, ways of being in relationship and in community. To love God, means to honour God, to worship God; and to want to live out the ways of God. To follow God in co creating a world where life flourishes – from the physical world of our land and our oceans – to the flourishing of humanity. If we love God we love and protect God’s creation. If we love God we love and protect our neighbour. We live connected to the earth and connected to each other.

We gather as a church community to express our love of God in our worship and in each other. Faith communities are interesting places – there is nowhere else in our society where an otherwise disparate group of people come together for a common purpose. School communities come close; a Rotary club comes close; an environmental action group maybe – there are many groups and communities where people gather. But faith communities of any religion bring together people from all walks of life, all backgrounds, ages and stages – all seeking … to do what? To find a way to respond to the call to love God and to love neighbour. Look at the people around you – they are a mixed bunch! Some you know the names of – some are complete strangers – and yet we are all here for worship, which we do together, in community.

At St Matthew’s we have the added strength of not being from one suburb or one part of town but drawing people from across our city. While that is a strength it also brings the challenge of figuring out how we are a faith community outside of the 90 minutes we are together on a Sunday. And are there things we want to do together or is it enough to be strengthened in our worship for our lives of ministry across our city? How much do we want to take action together; and if we do want to act as a community how do we discern what that might be?

These are questions that our Vestry have been grappling with on our behalf for a while now. Each generation of church leaders has to do this work again and then again, building on the work of our ancestors in the faith. Our current work dates back to the parish day we had at Vaughan Park back in 2015 and since then we have been discerning together how we might be called to love God and love neighbour. And rather than coming up with a 20 page strategic plan with 100 goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) we have instead affirmed our vision of wanting to be “a spirited place where people stand, connect and seek common ground”. And then we have created a structure within which we might work together and discern pathways and actions. You will be hearing more about that in our Forum after the service.

An important piece of this work has been the establishment of the new role which Cate has been commissioned for this morning. Three years ago we struggled to even afford a second position half time; Vestry are moving forward now with confidence – but have taken nonetheless a leap of faith that your giving will increase to support our budget. They did this knowing that your ministry needs support and facilitation. We clergy are not here to do ministry on your behalf but to facilitate and support your ministry. If we want to follow God’s call to serve our city as a faith community then that needs support and facilitation. So having 2 clergy means you all get to work harder, as we encourage you, rather than us doing all the work!  The call is for all of us – love God; love neighbour. We will talk more about this after the service. I want to finish with words of Jan Richardson – this is called a Blessing for those who have far to travel:

If you could see

the journey whole,

you might never

undertake it,

might never dare

the first step

that propels you

from the place

you have known

toward the place

you know not.

Call it

one of the mercies

of the road:

that we see it

only by stages

as it opens

before us,

as it comes into

our keeping,

step by

single step.

There is nothing

for it

but to go,

and by our going

take the vows

the pilgrim takes:

to be faithful to

the next step;

to rely on more

than the map;

to heed the signposts

of intuition and dream;

to follow the star

that only you

will recognize;

to keep an open eye

for the wonders that

attend the path;

to press on

beyond distractions,

beyond fatigue,

beyond what would

tempt you

from the way.

There are vows

that only you

will know:

the secret promises

for your particular path

and the new ones

you will need to make

when the road

is revealed

by turns

you could not

have foreseen.

Keep them, break them,

make them again;

each promise becomes

part of the path,

each choice creates

the road

that will take you

to the place

where at last

you will kneel

to offer the gift

most needed —

the gift that only you

can give —

before turning to go

home by

another way.

http://paintedprayerbook.com/2016/01/02/epiphany-for-those-who-have-far-to-travel/