Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
The Two Most
Important Aspects that Define Christianity
11/4/18 Pentecost 24 B Ruth
1:1-18 & Mark 12:28-34
This past week I received a bunch of weird Facebook posts
that claim their version of Biblical and Christian as the only right
understanding of Christianity. Well, I
receive many posts about people claiming Christianity demands this or that, but
these stood out. The weirdest was about
a guy who’s a state rep in Washington state, who issued what he called a
biblical manifesto, in which (according to him) the Bible demands that any man
who supports LGBT or feminist issues needs to be put to death. Of course, he’s
also a guy who wants the northwestern states to be prepared to come out as a
new nation if this one falls through…. The second weirdest was about Fox News
proclaiming President Trump fulfilling Biblical prophecy as the Messiah, and
claiming those who doubt this are serving the Devil. Pat Robertson claims to have seen a vision of
heaven with President Trump seated at God’s right hand.
Then there are dueling posts on whether building the wall at
our border is Christian; or whether it is Christian to accept immigrants
seeking asylum; which candidates at this mid-term election are biblical
Christians; and more. There seen to be
multiple Christianity's out there. To
say, “I am a Christian” means so many different moralities and beliefs in our
era. It can mean racism or anti-racism;
it can mean a belief that women impregnated in a rape didn’t fight hard enough,
and that they should not be eligible for abortions - or that listening to women
with respect is what is Christian. It
can mean that I don‘t have to make
wedding cakes or sell flowers or rent apartments to people whose sexuality I
deem wrong - or it can mean I believe that people who do these things are
bigots. Christians do not speak with one
voice on much of anything; and we, the body of Christ, will disagree and therefor
refuse to worship with others over almost anything.
So how do we discern what the will of God is for ourselves
and for our church? Is there a way to
think about the various positions posited as Biblical and Christian that can
help us see some light? Everybody seems to quote verses for their side and to
demean those who disagree. Doesn’t the
Bible speak a word to guide us?
Our text from Mark this morning is
such a guide, a plumb line, a bottom line to judge by. And in this text Jesus
is not saying a new word, but repeating and endorsing the wisdom of the Hebrew
Testament. The gospel of Mark is the
only one that has Jesus commend the scribe who asked Jesus pointedly, “Which
commandment is the first of all?” And I
believe this is about the only time Jesus says such a positive thing to a
scribe, too. The scribe agrees with
Jesus! That doesn’t happen often in the
gospels - usually their relationship with Jesus is pictured as more
antagonistic and testing.
I’ve always thought that when asked
which is the first of all, he meant “which one is the most important?” I think the passage works for this
interpretation - that Jesus’ answer about loving God with all the parts of
ourselves, and our neighbor as ourselves, tells us the most important qualities
of faith among all the qualities named anywhere else.
I was challenged to read the
ponderings of a Christian Testament prof at Christian Theological Seminary
(Evangelical Lutheran) who offered that “first” in this case means more
“foundational,” than most important. It’s
an interesting distinction - it’s like, these are the cornerstones of all the
other commandments or values or behaviors.
Everything else (which is also important) is built on this encompassing
love for God and neighbor. It goes along
with what the apostle Paul says in 1 Cor 13 -- that even the most extreme acts
of devotion are worthless, unless there is this undergirding and supporting
love of God and neighbor. They are just
so much show, without growing out of this love.
And the word Jesus speaks which we
translate as “love,” is the word ‘agape’ - not a physical or romantic love like
in TV dramas, not a friendship kind of love that expects reciprocity. Rather it is a self-giving love, a ‘putting
the other’s good on at least an even par with my own good’ kind of love, if not
the ‘willingness to sacrifice my own good so that the other may have good’ kind
of love. When Jesus says that the good
shepherd lays down his life for his friends, when Jesus tells the story of the
outcast half-caste man who helps out a wounded guy on the road, these are examples
of agape love. It’s that kind of love
that sees Christ in the face of any and every human; the kind of love that can
love its enemies and do good to those who despise us. It’s the kind of love that asks, “But Jesus,
when did we you naked or hungry or sink, and help you?” because they saw all as
worthy and thought their acts were just what any well-minded person would
do. And Jesus says, “When you did it for
one of the least of these you did it for me.”
The scribe talking to Jesus agrees (!)
and adds that this love of God and neighbor is even greater than all the
sacrifices and offerings. To which Jesus
says, “Ahhhh, you are not far from the realm of God,” and we can see him
smiling and nodding because this scribe gets it. Even offerings and sacrifices, if they are
not built on love, are meaningless.
That’s a deep insight that this scribe has about his religious practice.
It doesn’t matter if you work 60 hrs
a week at a church, or make huge donations, or attend every service when the
church doors are open, or vote a certain way, or follow a list of rules - well,
these practices are important, but if love for God and neighbor isn’t the soil
out of which those actions emerge, then they are nothing. It’s like doing a complicated cello solo
without tuning your strings beforehand. It’s
like coming in on your trombone part and screeching. It’s like not playing in the same key as
everybody else. Something basic is
totally off when love for God and others is absent – they are intricately and
inherently linked, you can’t have one without the other. True love for God always opens the heart to
the rest of creation that God loves. We
simply do not find true love for God with one’s heart, mind, soul and strength
- without that corresponding love of others.
To claim love for God and then mistreat others for whom Christ came is a
clear sign that love of God is NOT present in a true form.
The
letters of 1,2, & 3 John, from which we read earlier this year, state this
with clarity - the one who loves God without loving sisters and brothers is a
liar, and the truth is not in them.
The opening chapter of the book
about Ruth reminds us that in the Middle East, families often moved across the
borders of other countries due to things like famine, wars, or loss. While there is certainly more to the story
than this family’s migrant or refugee status, we realize that for many peoples,
this is a normal occurrence in stressful times.
Certainly, Mary and Joseph moved within Israel for that census at the
time of Jesus’ birth; they also left for Egypt when the life of young sons was
threatened by Herod Agrippa, and returned later. Even earlier in Israel’s story, the family of Israel himself moved to Egypt
in the time of famine, and stayed for generations before the leaving known as
the Exodus. Nations have always dealt
with refugees and immigrants seeking better lives, or even existence itself in
bad times. This that is happening in our
world today is no different. The people
of Israel were given specific instructions about the aliens sojourning (the
Bible word for living) in their midst - they are to be treated well. The reason is that the Israelites themselves
knew what it was like to sojourn in Egypt, both when they were in favor of the
Pharaoh, and especially when they were NOT in favor of the current Pharaohs,
and mistreated.
This is, then, at least one current
issue where we can judge whether claims of love for God by those claiming the
name Christian is actually genuine.
Whatever political party’s primaries we vote in as American citizens, we
who believe in Jesus Christ and love God, are first of all, citizens of
heaven. We belong, above all else, to
the kindom of God and the pursuit of this style of this agape love. Our true land is the abode of God, and our primary
allegiance is to that true home. True Christianity will show both of these
foundational and formative loves, i.e. the encompassing love of God that shows
in love of neighbors - - and that is the litmus test for all else.
Leaders who want to claim
Christianity, and groups that want to claim to follow biblical standards, will
show evidence of a care for the powerless, the poor, the suffering, the sick
and the marginal persons in a society.
They will respond to others in the world as to Christ, considering all
to be God’s own worthy children, and opening their hearts and arms to alleviate
suffering in any other, as they would their own life and the lives of their DNA
and racial tribes.
Yes, working this out politically is not simple - yet it can
be obvious to us if groups and leaders are working from a foundational care for
others as they look for solutions, or if their hearts are closed towards those
others. We can discern those who seek
solutions to their own benefit and enrichment from those with genuine love, by
not just their claim of love for God, but the evidence of their love for God in
their concern and care for what the Bible calls ‘the least of these.’ We will
know they are Christians by their love.
As those letters of John stated, those who say they love
God, but abuse, coerce, and oppress their sister and brother humans, lie - and
the truth is not in them. Make no
mistake - no regard for the truth is a bad sign. Yes, politicians do try and spin things, and
choose to emphasize things that support their positions. But making up “facts” and calling them
“truth,” calling outright lies ‘truth’, is a sign of a person so confused by
evil that they no longer care what the truth is.
As difficult as it may be to discern between all the voices
claiming God, our Scripture today is a basic and foundational tenet of what
constitutes a person following God. We
saw a clear example of both evil and foundational caring this this past week,
as a man who called evil ‘good’, broke into a Jewish synagogue during worship
and opened fire, killing 11, and wounding many more including armed
police. The antithesis was provided by
three Jewish medical personnel, who were among those who treated the shooter
even as he continued to scream about killing Jews. One of those doctors was actually a member of
that Tree of Life synagogue. “My job isn’t to judge him,” the doctor said, “my
job is to treat him. He is some mother’s
son. The problem we need to consider is
how he got this way.” That, friend, is
love for God being shown by compassion for even those seeking to do us
harm. That is true devotion to God. AMEN.
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