November 2, 1997
Text: Mark 12:28-34
Rev. James R. Gorman
There is such a thing as a simple faith. I believe that faith does
not need to be complicated or overly sophisticated. I believe that there
must be some simple bottom line and that bottom line is met in what is
called the "Great dual commandment" to love God and your neighbor
as yourself.
All the laws and commandments are summed up in this way. Love God and Love
your neighbor in the same way as you love yourself. Simple.
In those days there were many laws to follow in order to be judged
right with God. There were many things you ought to do. Jesus was asked
to name the most important of all the laws and commandments.
A contemporary of Jesus by the name of Hillel, a rabbi who was responsible
for the Talmud, was asked a similar question. He was asked to summarize
all the laws and commandments while standing on one foot. He did so in
the following way, "That which is hateful to you do not do to your
neighbor. All the rest is commentary thereof. Go and learn it."
In a similar vein, Jesus said in his sermon on the mount, "Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you."
All our great teachers have summarized all the laws and commandments by
using the law of Love. Martin Luther, once said, "Love God and do
as you please." If we were to fulfill the commandment to love, all
other things would fall into place.
SIMPLE.
It is at this point that our faith is a simple faith. Love God. Love your
neighbor as you love yourself. Do unto others in the same way you would
have them do unto you. That which is hateful to you, do not do to your
neighbor. SIMPLE.
All the rest is commentary.
We live in a world of laws and commandments, of oughts and shoulds.
We should brush our teeth, we shouldn't watch too much TV. We should do
our homework. We shouldn't sleep to late in the morning, nor stay up too
late at night. We ought to vote. We ought to be on time for work. We should
clean up our room. We should complete all tasks assigned to us. We ought
not eat too much cake, donuts, drink too much coffee, eat too many eggs
or bacon. We should exercise. We should work hard.
We live in a world of oughts and shoulds. And yet the great religions all
teach us that life really isn't that complicated nor that rule oriented.
There is a simplicity to the center of our faith. That simplicity is LOVE.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not LOVE,
I am as a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Though I have faith enough
to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." (I Corinthians
13)
"God is love and they who abide in love abide in God." (I Jn
4:16b)
All else is commentary. But the commentary is important. The simplicity
of the commandment to love raises all kinds of other questions, such as,
"What does it mean to love God?" "Who is my neighbor?"
"What if my neighbor means me harm?" "What if my neighbor
is also my enemy?" "What is a loving act?" "Does it
mean always being generous; forgiving before repentance; giving a child
everything she asks for?" "What if love means being tough to
the one we love." Lots of tough questions.
It is because of these questions and thousands more like them, that we
have so many pages in our Holy Scriptures. If the command to love were
as simple as it seems at first glance, our scriptures would only have to
be two sentences long. "Love God. Love your neighbor as your self."
Furthermore, we would have no need for Jesus Christ at all. If the command
to love is so self-evident and simple, we would not need the example of
Jesus Christ to help make it clear what exactly we mean by love of God
and love of neighbor and love of self. We also would have no need for the
cross. For it is in the cross that love is made most manifest.
On the cross, God says, "I love you this much."
It goes without saying of course, that we also would have no need
for sermons or gathering for worship, or Bible study. If the command to
love were so simple and so self-evident, we surely could do without all
the other stuff that we have accumulated over the centuries.
So, since this commandment doesn't make life as simple as it sounds, let's
look more closely at it.
Jesus begins his summing of all the laws and commandments by using the
great passage from Deuteronomy (6:4) that every Jewish child must learn
at about age 13, "Shema Israel, Adonai elohenu melek ha'olam."
Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one God. And you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your
mind and with all your strength." (Note that Jesus adds "with
all your mind" to the other three from Deuteronomy.)
Love begins, therefore, with the love of God, with the Love of the creator,
the foundation of all the earth, the center of all of live, the source
of love itself." And the love of this God should be total, heart,
mind, soul, and strength.
But Love cannot stop there. How tempting it is to just love God and not
have to translate that into something a bit more concrete. How tempting
it is to escape into the worship of God without struggling to discover
what such worship implies in our relationships with neighbors, family,
friends and enemies.
Thus, Jesus, knowing us better than we know ourselves, does not leave that
to the imagination. "The second," he says, "is like unto
it [not greater than the first, but like it], You should love your neighbor
as yourself." The commandment is often referred to as the great dual
commandment, that is, we should love God and neighbor in the same way as
we love our self. But it is still one commandment, the commandment to love,
the Love commandment.
What if my neighbor is not of my religious background?
Love your neighbor anyway.
What if my neighbor is not originally from my country?
Love your neighbor anyway.
What if my neighbor is a reprobate, a drunkard who beats his wife.
Love him all the more.
What if my neighbor is my enemy?
Jesus is most explicit about this, "Love your enemies," He says
without equivocation.
The "as yourself" is an interesting addition that Jesus makes.
It doesn't mean really, "Love yourself first, then love God and neighbor
as you love yourself." Love of self is presumed. You should love God
and neighbor in the same way as you love yourself. Thus, if you are prone
to be tolerant of yourself, be tolerant of your neighbor. If you are prone
to make excuses for your own behavior at times, do so with your neighbor.
If you are interested in or deeply desire your own welfare, be interested
in and desire the welfare of your neighbor.
Though this simple ethical presupposition begins with Jesus, it has found
its expression in many forms. I have always been intrigued that as complicated
a philosopher as Immanuel Kant, the great philosopher of the 18th
century, would have as his second Categorical Imperative his own version
of the Golden Rule. He wrote that if you wanted a foolproof test of whether
a particular action is moral or ethical or not, all you need to do is to
be willing to "generalize the principle of action." In other
words, I must be willing to allow everyone who is in my situation to do
the same thing that I am about to do.
Kant uses the example of borrowing money. Let's say that you want to borrow
money. You need the money, but you have no real way to pay it back. So
you lie. You promise to pay back the money even though you have no intention
to do so. The question is, are you willing to allow everyone in your situation
to do the same thing? A better way of putting it is, if you have money,
would you be ready to permit a borrower to lie to you when he borrows money
from you? Of course not. Kant's second categorical imperative therefore
is, if you are willing to let everyone else to do what you are about to
do, then what you are about to do is ethical.
To put it the way Jesus does, would you be willing to allow someone else
to treat you the way you treat others?
While I am on the subject of Immanuel Kant, that great German Philosopher
of the 18th Century, I want to close with a last comment of his. Kant felt
that the goal of all human life is the union of virtue and happiness. We
have all known people who are virtuous, who do all the right things, who
jog, and eat right and never lie or cheat or steal, but are not happy.
And we know lots of people who are momentarily happy, but are not virtuous.
Kant felt that the consummation of the good life, was the union of virtue
and happiness, which was only possible with God.
That is, to do what is right and to do what makes you happy at the same
time, is only possible in the God who is Love.