This sermon was delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on November 5, 2006. It was based on
Mark 12: 28-34
The notable theologian, Mark Twain as once asked, “Mr. Twain, do you have trouble with the parts of the Bible you don’t understand?” Twain answered, “No…I have trouble with the parts of the Bible I do understand!”
Today’s Gospel is an example of something I understand, but have a hard time applying. It’s really very simple, isn’t it? Love God and Love your neighbor. But when we start trying to apply these ideas in our daily lives, somehow things get difficult.
The early Christians proclaimed “Kurios Ieosus”, Jesus is Lord. To them it was a direct contradiction of “Kurios Caesar”, “Caesar is Lord”, or master of my life. It was a life-altering identification with Jesus as Ruler of my life. The consequence for making this proclamation was frequently death. You didn’t say “Jesus is Lord” unless you were prepared to die. That’s a pretty clear picture of putting God first in your life. But what about today, when there are few if any real serious consequences of trying to make God first in your life?
If I love God, shall I read the Bible to the exclusion of every other book- as some have actually done? If I can read some books, which ones, and for how much time during the day? Does this include magazines?
How about movies and TV? Is it OK to watch sports on TV – or even to go to sporting events?
If I love God, should I go to church to the exclusion of all else?
Should I keep a rigid set of rules that will demonstrate to everyone who much I do indeed love God?
And when it comes to loving my neighbor, that means the people who live beside me, right? Even the ones who bother me so much? The ones I can’t stand, or the ones I never see often enough to know who they actually are? Does “neighbor” include the people down the street, across town, in the next town or city, state, country, etc.?
Also, when I think about loving my neighbor as myself, what does that mean? Should I give away everything I own for the benefit of those around me? How much stuff shall I own? How much can I get along without? Should I jump into my neighbor’s business and try to help them fix their problems – or is that beyond the prescription of what Jesus commands?
These are just some of the questions about how to apply the two greatest commands.
In the Old Testament God told the people what to do. First, he gave them Ten Commandments that summarized the entire intent of the Law. That is to say the Ten Commandments have to do with one’s relationship with God and then with those around me.
The detailed instructions about worship and sacrifice, including how to construct the temple, how to conduct sacrifices, how to dress the priests, what to do on the Sabbath, etc are all about how to show one’s devotion to God. But the instructions are a trap – one that the Jewish nation fell into, and one that many people today also fall into. It’s the trap of fulfilling the letter of the Law without observing the Sprit.
You see, the Levitical Law was actually meant to cause people to fail. The Law was meant to show people how difficult it would be to try to live a perfect life, pleasing to God. At the same time, built into the ceremonial law was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who would fulfill all the ceremonial aspects of temple worship and sacrifice while at the same time fulfilling all the Levitical commands completely.
Jesus did live a perfect life under the Judaic Law, but He was the only one who ever did it. The rest of us Christians are now under a system of grace in which we trust Jesus to be our righteousness before God, the righteous and holy judge. We no longer have to fear the wrath of God as Christians, but we are still tasked with becoming like Christ in all we do. (Romans 8:28,29). Even though we rely on Grace, we still need to apply effort to our faith. So I would suggest to you that there is wisdom in an ancient practice called living according to a Rule of Life.
Loving God through a Rule of Life
For thousands of years now people such as Benedict and Francis have lived according to a Rule of Life. The word Rule come from the Latin “Regula” – straightedge or guide. By contrast, the Latin word for Law is “Lex” as in Lexus, meaning a car that Lawyers drive… But seriously – the Levitcal code was Lex, while a Rule of Life is Regula. There is a fundamental difference.
St. Benedict and St. Frances are two spiritual fathers who wrote down Rules of Life, not because they were trying to accomplish their own righteousness through the Law, but because they understood that it was important to have guidelines that would help them fulfill their quest for personal holiness. A Rule of Life can be flexible. Especially in Benedict, we can see an attitude that says,“ This is the way we always do it, except when we find a need to do it differently…and by the way, if you can figure out a better way to do it, go right ahead.”
Francis took Jesus as his literal model for godliness and simply did everything that Jesus did, including giving other people the shirt off his back and receiving the Stigmata. He initially said that his Rule of Life was nothing more than the Gospel itself. Later on, he was compelled by his followers to write down rules for those wishing to follow him in his radical lifestyle ( First and Second Order monks and nuns), and for those who wished to stay in their secular lives and follow a so-called Third Order Rule.
A Rule of Life addresses all the things that are important to help us live the way Jesus lived and become the kind of person that Jesus was. Thus it includes such things as what kind of prayer we practice, and how often we will pray. How often I will worship. How much exercise and food I will consume. How much money I will spend on myself and give to others. In short, it becomes a blueprint for how I will live my life. But it’s important to note that a Rule of Life is something that an individual develops themselves on a voluntary basis, according to their own life circumstances.
For instance, I drive about 45 minutes to work each day. What will I do with that time? For me it has become a time when I can sing the daily offices and memorize Psalms. Sometimes I just keep silence and sometimes I listen to a program of particular interest to me. However, I almost never listen to the news as I drive along. I find it all very negative and biased anyway. So my drive time becomes something I actually accept and even look forward to at times.
When we complete our time and talent sheets, this is a sort of exercise in writing a limited Rule of Life. What will I do specifically for All Saints Anglican Church to help it fulfill the ministry that God has called it to? And so it goes. We develop guidelines for ourselves that will assist us to live out what we think is important, and those things that will help us to become more Christ-like
In our church life we are going to try to encourage both love of God and ones’s neighbor. We would like for every person in our church to love God with a deeply personal devotion that puts Him and His will first in our lives. We would like to be a “peculiar’ people who live differently from those of the world, who are merely selfish. To do this, we will encourage you to read your Bible and talk to God daily. We will ask you to learn to listen to God, and to become skilled at discerning His will – both through His written word and through the circumstances and people he brings into our lives.
We will ask you to refrain from Sin – those things that directly displease God and which humans are not really designed to do anyway. During Lent and Advent, we take on specific disciplines such as increased Bible reading, prayer or fasting in order to help us grow in our Love of God and our Neighbor. All these are aspects of one’s Rule of Life.
On to our Neighbors:
The first thing we need to do is to acknowledge the Painfully Obvious: My Neighbor is my neighbor. This includes those who live in close proximity to me, those who live in my town and state. In fact, every other person is really my neighbor, but especially those who lives are closely linked with ours, as the BCP puts it. How can we actively love these folks as our own selves?
How about Sharing the Good News with them or inviting them to come to church? Consider the following Stats:
Nationally 17.5% of the population goes to church
WV: 16.4% go to Church
Cabell County 20.7% go to church
Population of Cabell County: 94,031. 29,464 go to church. 74,943 stay home! Source: Dave Olson, 2005 study.’
We’ve got a potential population of 75,000 who could become Christians and start coming to church in one county alone!
How People Come to Christ:
Special Needs: 1-2%
Walk-in 2-3%
Pastor : 5-6%
Visitation 1-2%
Mass Evangelism 4-5%
Church Program 2-3%
Friend/Relative 75-90%
Source: The Master Plan for Making Disciples by Win Arn And Charles Arn.
The majority of people who make professions of faith in Christ do so because of the influence of a friend or family member. People who come to church do so because someone invited them personally. The greatest thing you can do for a friend is to help them come into a saving relationship with Christ.
Application: Write down on a sheet of paper: Oikos ( my circle of acquaintances or household). Who do you know? It would be really cool if so and so became a Christian. Pray for them. Invite them to church or to small groups
Small Groups can be the vehicle of inviting people to church and to Christ. Begin meeting in mid November : Friday the 10 or 17. Need a home to meet in.
Kids in the Kingdom
There are 75,000 people in Cabell County that aren’t going to church right now. Consider the following:
Probability of embracing Christ as savior:
32% for those between ages 5 and 12
4% for those between 13-18
6% for those 19 or older. Source: George Barna, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions: Why Children should be your Church’s #1 Priority.
The clear message is that Children are where it’s at for the Church. Tie in to 1410 Charleston Avenue and the HOPE mentoring project. Go where the children are and be part of influencing them towards Christ!
Other Opportunities to Love and serve our Neighbors:
The Barboursville Veteran’s Home Thanksgiving/Christmas project.
Thanksgiving Sunday take gifts and do music after church?
What can you come up with? There are a thousand ways to serve God and love your neighbor. The above illustrations are only meant to be illustrative, and by no means exhaustive. As we go along, we will discover together what the Lord has for us to do. We’ll spend more time thinking about how to Love our God day by day, and how to love those around us who desperately need him as well.
So, here’s to understanding a few difficult things and then doing them.
AMEN.
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