Oct 294 min read

Love of God is Love of Neighbor

The two great commandments teach us that love of God is inseparable from love of neighbour and self. There are no neat divisions between divine and human and creation. There are no neat divisions between those who are precious to God and those who we do not perceive to be of value to God. (Mark 12:13-17, 28-34. Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. Proper 26 [OT 31])

You may be celebrating All Saints. Please consider what I have written.

I have often thought that I could spend a whole life time meditating on the two great commandments and never come to the end of the wisdom and challenge of this instruction. Love of God and neighbour and self leaves nothing out and everything in – under the umbrella of God’s sheltering and all-consuming love. No one, nothing, nowhere that is not precious, included, redeemable! That is the good news and surely the overwhelming nature of the challenge.

The two great commandments as many of us know them liturgically is an amalgam of the variety of ways they are reported in the synodical gospels but more so as Matthew reports it. This week we are considering Mark’s account. So, we turn to the story as Mark recounts it and look to the context within the text.

Jesus and the disciples have arrived in Jerusalem (we have skipped a few chapters) and Jesus has been engaged with a series of encounters with different key groups among the religious leaders contributing to a sense of showdown and escalating conflict! (Doesn’t that read like our newsfeed?!) Jesus has visited the Temple and overturned the tables. The chief priests and elders have asked by what authority is Jesus doing and saying what he is saying. The Pharisees have asked about paying taxes to Ceasar and where our allegiances lie. And the Sadducees have asked a convoluted question about the resurrection and who will be married to whom in the afterlife. Then this legal expert asks a question that is both serious and respectful and leads to an encounter. Variations of this question – what is the greatest or first commandment – has been asked of rabbis for hundreds of years. Jesus is recognised as answering well and the scribe fleshes out what Jesus has said. Now Jesus was not the first to link Deuteronomy 6:4-5 with Leviticus 19:18 but he claims this link between love of God and love of neighbour and self as central, as the very core, of life, faith, and love.

And Jesus proclaims the all-consuming love of God, neighbour and self in the context of the final showdown of his life! When Jerusalem is boiling over with tension and Jesus is on a collision path with the authorities religious and imperial and the cross looms large Jesus does not call down power and might to protect himself or threaten retribution or even make promises to the faithful few but he proclaims the immensity and immediacy of the love of God and his commitment to live out of that love without limit. All consuming love with no holds barred!

And in the context of when the gospel of Mark was written down Jerusalem was in an even more desperate and divided state than when Jesus had lived and died. As best we know the gospel is recorded around the time of the razing of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple and then the dispersal of the people of faith. So, both within the text and behind the text Jesus is proclaiming, in the most devastating of circumstances, that love of God and neighbour and self is our calling no matter what our circumstances.

So how does that speak into our world, our context? Our world which is groaning with grief and fear and distrust as we hear of war and threat of war, political intrigue and subterfuge, and the impact of climate change fuelled natural disasters, is a world facing devastation and destruction in ways that our first century forebears in faith would recognise and have great empathy for. And we, like they were, are being told that love of God and neighbour and self are the only way through and forward.

Sometimes being told that love is the answer feels like being given a dandelion to hold in a hurricane, or being given candyfloss when one is starving for real sustenance, but we are not being sold a romance novel (delightful though romance can be). We are being given a commandment - the most grown up demanding all encompassing commandment - to open our hearts, souls, minds, our might, to the love that is the source of everything. This love is the life force of everything: that moves the direction of creation, that connects opposites, that contains entire universes, and yet is so subtle and tender that it binds wounded souls and prompts wearied spirits to limp in the direction of healing and hope. And we, troubled and tired, doubting and damaged souls that we are, are commanded to open ourselves to this great connection and play our part. We are not the creators of love so much as its conduit.

I know that many of us are world wearied, anxious or avoidant, holding our breath to see what happens before we dare to plan or hope too much, but we are commanded to love our God and neighbour – now! Right now while we are still in the time of not knowing. Right now while tired. Right now while not yet good enough or ready. Now is the time to love God. Now is the time to love neighbour. And now is the time to love ourselves. These are not separate loves but the one love. The one force that binds and sets free. The one hope that encompasses all possibilities. The one love that has already proved itself in Jesus as stronger than death, hatred, and despair. Love won then. Love will win again. Love will win because we are children of love and it is our calling.

Even so, come Lord Jesus the Christ, come teach us how to love with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.