God is No Excuse
Matthew 22:34-46
If you ever stop by and look in my office here in the church, and if you can see past my piles of clutter and organized chaos on the desk, you will notice that I have a few collections. There is my collection of books, usually called a library. Within that collection are smaller collections -- hymnals, old Methodist works, Books of Discipline, conference journals, books on spiritual direction -- all books you might expect to find in a Methodist preacher’s library.
I also have a collection of churches. Some of them are music boxes that play hymns. A few of them could be ornaments on a Christmas tree. Some are based on actual church buildings.
And I have a collection of coffee mugs. Most of them have a church or pastoral theme on them, but a couple of them have caricatures of people on the side, complete with protruding noses and eyebrows.
I knew one pastor who collected turtles, as he was fond of reminding people that you have to stick your neck out if you want to move forward. Other pastors have collected church plates, church postcards, and -- because Methodists are always good cooks -- church cookbooks. But you won’t find any church cookbooks in my office– Iprefer to keep them handy in the parsonage kitchen!
Most people don’t know this, but John Wesley had a collection. For those of you who know that John was obsessive about living simply and giving away all that he could, it may surprise you that he would collect anything for himself. But what he collected didn’t cost him any money. He, like many others of his generation, collected “last words.” The last words spoken by someone on their death bed were considered to be a reflection of what was most important in that person’s life to share with others. “Last words” were a way to sum up a person’s values, beliefs, and wisdom.
I don’t know which “last words”John had in his collection, but I think we can guess at some of them. Certainly, Wesley would have known the last words of Jesus: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
When he was a student at Oxford, he likely would have come across the last words of Thomas Becket, who died in 1179: “I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.”
I think Wesley would have appreciated the modesty in the last words of Leonardo da Vinci, who died in 1519: “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.” Likewise, there was humility and spiritual insight of the last words of François Rabelais, who died in 1553: “I owe much; I have nothing; the rest I leave to the poor.”
As a writer, I think Wesley would have been amused by the last words of Dominique Bouhours, a French grammarian, who died in 1702: “I am about to – orI am going to – die: either expression is correct.” He would have been less than amused with the last words of Voltaire, who died just 3 years before Wesley. When he was asked by the priest if he was ready to forswear Satan, Voltaire replied: “This is no time to make new enemies.”
John Wesley, wanting to get it just right, practiced his last words. From the time he first thought he was going to die from an illness, when he was only in his 40s, John was prepared to say the final words that seemed right for his relationship with God, and his understanding of what is truly good and desirable. During the last week of his life, when he was 88 years old, he was fairly certain that his time had come. So he took to saying his “last words” whenever he felt weak.
And being a Methodist, it wasn’t enough to just have “last words”– healso wanted a hymn to be sung before he said them. He would sing: “I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath, and when my voice is lost in death, praise shall engage my nobler powers. My days of praise shall ne’er be past while life and thought and being last, or immortality endures.”
This hymn choice surprised his closest friends. John had chosen a hymn written by Isaac Watts, who died in 1748, rather than one of the many hymns written by his brother Charles. But I understand his choice. This hymn may be my “last words,” and I certainly want this hymn sung at my funeral.
After singing, John would say, “The best of all is, God is with us!” He then would close his eyes and expect to wake up in heaven. As the week went on, he began to show signs of disappointment each time he woke up. Throughout his last night on earth, he only had enough strength to say, “I’ll praise.” Over and over again, he tried to sing, but could only manage, “I’ll praise.”
For John, and for many people, heaven will be a place for praising God. But that isn’t the image of heaven for everyone, and maybe it isn’t even the image for most people. For some people, it just won’t be heaven unless there is golf, or softball, or fishing, or an endless buffet, or whatever it is that defines for them their pleasure in this life. Some people even go so far as to say that they don’t want to go to heaven unless heaven meets their pleasure standards.
There is, of course, a fatal flaw in that thinking. Their image of heaven reveals their belief that life is ultimately all about them and what they want. God in heaven is at best a benefactor who provides for our every desire, but otherwise stays out of our way. Yet John knew that one of the signs of perfect love is desiring nothing but God. There is nothing wrong with finding pleasure in golf or softball, but it should not replace God as the source of our ultimate pleasure and desire.
So what should be our final priority, in life and in faith? What is our witness to the world about ultimate significance and meaning? What will our “last words” to the world be?
Our reading for today deals directly with these questions. The Pharisees open it up by asking Jesus, “What is the great commandment?” What law or principle has God given us that defines what is of ultimate importance?
The rabbis then were in general agreement about how to answer that question. The great commandment was “love God.” Every rabbi knew this to be the great commandment. Indeed, every Jew knew that this was the great commandment, as they recited every morning and every evening the Shema: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” The reciting of the Shema was followed by the scripture: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”
In addition to reciting the Shema twice each day, the people were instructed to think about this commandment when they sitting at home and when they were traveling on the road. They were to think about this commandment when they taught their children. They were to bind this commandment into their clothing, and to post it on their door frames. It was very clear to all that the great commandment was to love God.
In their teachings and debates, most rabbis then went on to the next step and listed “love our neighbors” as the second most important law. Jesus knows this about the rabbis. Jesus knows that this is the answer they expect, as well they should.
But then Jesus does what good rabbis do when asked a question. He introduced something for them to struggle with in order to find the truth. Jesus says that the second commandment is like the first, that it is essentially the same commandment.This is what Jesus has modeled throughout his ministry, that our love for God is revealed in loving our neighbors.
That was different from what the rabbis taught. If Jesus had stopped at that point, there could have been a lively debate about what it means for a law to be like another law. But that isn’t where Jesus stops. Instead, to us, it seems that Jesus changes the subject. He asks the rabbis, “What do you think about the messiah?”
The rabbis answer Jesus as if he has changed the subject, and they were in general agreement here, too. The messiah would be a spiritual and military leader who would re-establish Israel as a sovereign nation, and then elevate it to a position of power in the world. The rabbis answered this question as if it had nothing at all to do with how loving their neighbor reveals their love of God.
But like a good rabbi, Jesus is opening up the discussion by looking at the question from a new angle – in this case, shouldn’t the life of the one chosen by God reveal the answer to the first question about loving God?
What is the great commandment? In rabbinic debates, “great” always takes precedence over “pretty close to great” or “a lot like great.” In practice, this meant that anything that had to do with God was more important than anything that had to do with our neighbors. This applied even if yourneighborsunder consideration were your mother and father. This applied even though honoring your father and mother was one of the Ten Commandments.
An example of this preference of God over neighbors was the corban. This was the money set aside for a gift to the Temple, a gift above and beyond the tithe and other required sin offerings. If your parents were in need, and you had already paid your taxes and your tithe, and you had the money to help them, you didn’t have to help them if you designated that money as corban, as a gift that God might need.
The rabbis separated the questions of “what is the great commandment” and “what do you think about the messiah.” They didn’t see the connection that Jesus was asking them to make. This separation is further revealed in how they think the messiah will act in the world. They knew that the messiah, as the chosen of God, would establish God’s kingdom on earth. It was only after the kingdom was established that the problems of our neighbors could be addressed. Until God had been served, the people had to wait. And there is always something, some way, that we have yet to serve God. In other words, God was the official religious excuse for not helping people who were in need.
Jesus wanted the rabbis, and us, to know that God is not the excuse to avoid our neighbors, but the reason we are to love our neighbors. And that, as Jesus lived and taught, is how God’s kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
We are still asked: What is the great commandment? What do you think about the messiah? If we can’t make the connection between these questions, then we get answers that would have us spend our time loving God so that we can get to heaven, where it is all about us and what pleases us. If we separate loving God and loving our neighbors from the work of the messiah, then Jesus becomes little more than Mr. Rourke from FantasyIsland. The only job Jesus would have as that kind of messiah is to make our every fantasyand desire come true when we get to heaven – even if our desire has nothing to do with loving God.
Put these two questions together – what is the great commandment? What do you think about the messiah? Putting these together, the messiah must be someone who fulfills the great commandment by bringing the kingdom to the people. And Jesus, ourmessiah, has shown us that the truest, purest, holiest way to love God is to love our neighbors in such a way that they will love God, too.
God is no excuse for not helping those who are in need. If you want to fulfill the great commandment to love God, then when God calls you to love your neighbor, you will answer, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.” And in your loving service to others, the love of God is shared and revealed and honored.