June 26, 2011

" ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your

Leviticus 19:18)

A sermon preached by Rev. David Handley

at the First Presbyterian Church of Kilgore

June 26, 2011

As I leave this wonderful church after two and a half years with you, what I want for you more than anything else is that your heart’s deepest desire would be to grow in your love for God…with all of your heart, soul, and mind. There is no joy greater; no ambition more worthy; no moral compass more certain than this. So let us give ourselves for my last few minutes with you to this great aspiration that is the essence of Jesus’ invitation, "Come, follow me." Years ago, as we were raising our children, I was given a prayer for them. When I say "given" a prayer, I am referring to an experience I hope you will be looking for in your own life. Perhaps there have been times when you have thought about someone you wanted to pray for; and almost immediately words came to mind. This does not happen very often to me, but when it does, it usually comes in a short phrase, and usually in a mode of speech I would not normally use. I hope that is the Holy Spirit "helping me in my weakness; for I do not know what to pray or how to pray…" (Romans 8:26) What makes it believable to me is that there is an inner confirmation that yes, this is the right prayer, though I would never have thought of it in quite that way. In this case the prayer came to me as I was walking my dog around the block and thinking of our kids. The words: "Lord, help our kids to love you more than I do."

It is a rather odd prayer, I admit; odd because "loving God" is my life’s ambition. I do love God; though I have to admit sometimes that love is lukewarm and insufficient to motivate me to the best. Nevertheless, loving God more and more is my life quest. So why this prayer, "Lord, help our kids to love you more than I do"? I do not really know why, but that is how it came to me, and that is what keeps coming back to me, and so this is what I keep praying. But this at least I know: I pray that prayer because I know that loving God will transform their lives; it will change everything.

If you are in a time of discouragement about your children, be not dismayed. It is never too late to pray for your children and know that God has ways of reaching a heart, at every season of one’s life. In the vast mystery of God’s grace, I believe this prayer extends right into heaven itself, for those who have lost children at an early age or before they have come to a full knowledge of the wonder of Christ. "For nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38)

First of all, where did this Great Commandment come from? Jesus did not invent it; He simply gave it specific application. "What is the greatest of all commandments," the Master was asked. "The greatest of all is that you shall love the Lord Your God with all of your heart, and all of your soul, and all of your mind…" This is what was called "the Great Shema." Shema, in Hebrew, means "Listen up!" It is found in Deuteronomy 6:5, Moses’ last words to his people as they stood on the banks of the Jordan River about to go in and possess the Promised Land. Every Jewish worship service in synagogue and Temple began with these words of Moses. Every Jewish Shabbat service today begins with these words. It is like the Jewish "Apostle’s Creed": Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, all of your strength, and all of your might."

It is interesting how Jesus did His own translation here, to say "love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind." Presbyterians like Jesus’ translation of the Great Shema because, above all else, we love to love God with our minds. The Lutheran Reformation was built upon the earthy, emotional conversion of Martin Luther. Methodism was founded upon the born again conversion of John Wesley as he joined a Bible Study with Moravian Christians on Aldersgate Street in London, just down the street from St. Paul’s Cathedral. The Presbyterian heritage is founded upon the comprehensive Biblical teaching of John Calvin and his Institutes of the Christian Religion.

In America, while the Methodists and Baptists were moving West with their evangelistic tent meetings and planting churches with born again lay preachers, Presbyterians were saying to those called to preach, "Get thee to a seminary!...You’ve got to go to school first; get your theology right." Ours is a great tradition in its own right, but definitely has its limits. We can end up knowing a lot about God, but not knowing God….from the heart. And so comes this greatest of all commandments: to love all of God with all of ourselves: heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Now, what I mean by "loving all of God" is the fullness of God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Or, if we want to avoid the error that God is male in gender (see Genesis 1:26-27), we say "Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer" of our lives.¹ The Trinity is not just another Presbyterian formula to titillate the mind; it is the Biblical revelation of God as God has revealed Himself. The majesty and glory of God cannot be captured in any one-dimensional, flat kind of definition. John Stott, for years rector of All Souls Church in London, taught that "we pray to the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit." We worship the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. That is, we could not dare to approach a holy God, sinful creatures that we are, without the atoning work of Christ on the cross. We are bold to come directly to God through Jesus. Then, having come to God, we could not understand with the mind, nor could we rejoice in the heart when we hear the Gospel proclaimed in worship unless the Holy Spirit gave us enlightenment. We are able to worship truly only by the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said, "True worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth." (John 4:24) Every time I step into the pulpit, I do so with a vision of a flame over each one of your heads. That is my Pentecost prayer for you each Sunday—that you would have the illumination of the Holy Spirit as the scriptures are opened. The fullness of God is here among us in worship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And so we come to love the Father. We stand beneath the starry sky and look across the vast stretches of the ocean. Something rises up in us that cries out, "O God! You are so amazing; O God! You are so wonderful!" As the hymn writer says, we are "lost in wonder, love, and praise!" David, the Shepherd King, spent much time out in the fields beneath the stars. His psalms lift up our heads on high, lift up our spirits into glory as we sing along with our forefathers and mothers, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Thy name in all the earth, who hast set Thy glory above the heavens. When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy hands, the moon and the stars which Thou hast established, what is Man that Thou art mindful of him?" (Psalm 8)²

To worship and come to love God the Son is to gaze continually on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Do not say, "But I know the story; I’ve heard it a thousand times." The heart is not filled by the distant memory of a story you have heard. The heart is filled, as the stomach is nourished, by the regular feeding from God’s word. It is not for information that you read a portion of the Gospels each day; it is for revelation and for transformation that you gaze upon this remarkable life. As I pore over His teaching, I gaze at it as a gardener gazes at the rose and the wonder of it. I ask myself, "What is the Master speaking to my heart today about the Father? What is Jesus teaching me about God that I have not known, or perhaps I have taken for granted? How is Jesus helping me to love God and praise Him from the heart through this teaching?"

As I gaze at Jesus touching lepers, healing the lame, giving sight to the blind, stopping in the middle of an important mission to feel the tug of one woman at the hem of His robe…my heart is filled with the discovery all over again that THIS IS WHAT GOD IS LIKE! Can it be?! Yes, amazing grace.

And as I gaze at God the Son carrying His cross up Calvary, being nailed hands and feet, lifted up, and praying "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do…", I find my heart softening to love a God who would go to such lengths to reach me! So am I helped to love all of God with all of myself! Jesus did not just command this greatest of all mandates; He helps us to obey it with heartfelt joy.

To love God the Holy Spirit is to believe that Jesus’ presence is with us, beside us, in us today if we only open the door and welcome Him in. The "good news" is that Jesus did not say, "Follow me, and good luck with all that." Jesus did not say, "Love God, and good luck with all that." Jesus said, "Follow me,…and I will be WITH YOU always." The Holy Spirit is the very presence of the risen Christ, counseling us "Go here!...Go there!" And whenever we have the courage to obey, and the faith to believe that the Holy Spirit really does arrange the circumstances of our lives, brings people to cross our paths, just as happened continually to Jesus, then to "love God" is to live life as the Apostle Paul put it, "Now we see no one from a human point of view." (II Corinthians 5:16)

This brings us to Jesus’ shocking edit of the Great Shema. New Testament scholar Scott McKnight in his book from which I stole the title for today’s sermon The Jesus Creed³, makes the point that for anyone to add to this holy teaching so central to Jewish faith was risky business. But this is exactly what Jesus did. He took an obscure scripture from Leviticus 19:18 and elevated it to be equal with the Great Shema of Deuteronomy 6:5: "The second commandment is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the Law and the Prophets." Not one but two, equal and inseparable.

Now, this truly changed everything. No longer, Jesus was saying, was faithfulness to God about hairsplitting applications from the Levitical Law about what one could or could not do on the Sabbath. Rather it was about how well you have LOVED; how you treat your NEIGHBOR; and whom you consider to be your "neighbor." In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus teaches His "Jesus Creed," and a lawyer wants to exlore a possible loophole. "But Master, who is my neighbor?" Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. To the Jews of Jesus’ day, as you know, "good Samaritan" was an oxymoron. "The only good Samaritan was a dead Samaritan" may have been the mantra of redneck Jews of Jesus’ day, and the quiet bias of the more cultured. But Jesus said, "The Samaritan—that’s your neighbor." The person right in front of you who is beaten up by life’s road—that’s your neighbor. The one who has hurt you and should apologize but never does—that’s your neighbor. The woman who interrupts your day’s crowded plans by tugging at the hem of your robe—that’s your neighbor.

So this re-working of the Great Shema really "took" in the imagination and hearts of Jesus’ disciples. John, the hothead whom Jesus had tenderly called "a son of thunder" because he had wanted to rain down fire on the Samaritans who would not welcome Jesus into their town…John writes in his first letter at the end of the New Testament: "Those who say they love God, but then hate their brother or sister, are liars. For whose who do not love brother or sister whom they can see, cannot possibly love God whom they cannot see." (I John 4)

James, the brother of the Lord who at first mocked Jesus for what he thought were his grandiose delusions (John 7), wrote in his letter, "If a brother or sister lacks daily food, and clothing, and you say, ‘Go in peace; be warmed and filled,’ yet you do not provide their bodily needs, what kind of faith is that? So faith by itself, without works, is dead."

So, as a Church, you have really caught onto this in a big way. In fact, I think this is a signature of this church: that you "welcome the homeless poor into your House." (Isaiah 58) In Ethiopia, the Presbyterian Church is called "Mekane Yesus," the house where Jesus lives. This is the House wehre Jesus lives; may you always be known that way. Not long ago, I was visiting a friend up in Longview who introduced me to a friend of his. His friend was a member of one of the big megachurches in Longview. He learned that I was the pastor of First Presbyterian Kilgore, where he had family. He said, "Oh, you’re the little church with the big impact." Homeless families are welcomed to make this church their home for 5 weeks out of every year; families going through seasons of unemployment or difficult transitions are helped by our Presbyterian Children and Home Services that offices right here in our building; Immigrant families come here to be welcomed and learn English; some 140 families around town look forward each and every week to a visit from a Saturday Bread visitor from our church who comes with a nutritious meal, a smile, and a blessing. It would seem that this church takes seriously the teaching of Jesus in this greatest of all commandments: the way to grow in your love for God is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Now, what is expressed so wonderfully by your church, can you believe in the Holy Spirit enough to take that into your daily life as well?

If you can believe that the Holy Spirit arranges the circumstances of your life so that you can be a witness for Jesus Christ, not only will your heart grow larger for God, but life will become a whole lot more interesting. If you can believe what the Psalmist says, that "The steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in their way" (Psalm 34); if you can believe that "The Lord is your Shepherd, and He leads you in paths of righteousness" (Psalm 23); if you can have that Resurrection vision of the Apostle Paul "From now on we see no one from a human point of view" (II Corinthians 5:16); if you can believe that to enter into life "ready to give a reason for the hope that is within you" (I Peter 3)…then you will discover your heart growing to love God with all of your heart, and all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength. And like the priming of a pump, your life will pulse with the living waters of The Jesus Creed that will refresh all around you. Alleluia! Amen.