Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

On Being a Neighbor

Matthew 22: 34-40

October 23, 2005

On Being a Neighbor

Four-letter words are not universally received with approval in polite circles. In fact, we all know that there are certain four-letter words that, if spoken in church, would cause significant embarrassment. And I am afraid that I might have inadvertently said one of those words this morning and I think I need to make amends. What I intend to do is to re-read the gospel text for this morning bleeping out the offending word:

"When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" And he said to him, 'You shall ' (bleep) the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall (bleep) your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.'"

That's right. That embarrassing word, that offensive word, that four-letter word that should leave us discomfited, is the word - I can barely bring myself to say it - the word "love".

It might be surprising to you that I find that word so embarrassing, so offensive, and so hard to say. After all, Jesus said it twice this morning, and claimed that all the law and prophets depend on it. But, you see, I believe that we have so cheapened and so sentimentalized this word that today's love bears little semblance to the love of that Jesus spoke.

We've cheapened the word love by our indiscriminate use of it. We love everything from baseball to pizza, from designer jeans to Porsche automobiles, from hard rock to classical music. We have suffered through such television programs as "Love, American Style" where love was equated with the bedroom, "the Love Boat" where love was equated with bikini clad women, and "the Love Connection" in which love supposedly resulted from one contestant asking three hidden contestants of the opposite sex the most inane and insipid questions ever asked. There are innumerable websites that promise to find you love if you only fill out their questionnaire and send them check. Can this be the same word that Jesus used when he said that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love neighbor?

We have devalued the word "love" also by our sentimentalizing of it. Love is a winsome smile. Love is the soft light filtered through blonde hair. Love is a look that you can pour over a waffle. Love is a warm puppy. It's that sentimental pap that has come to be called love that makes it so hard to speak the same word in church without embarrassment. Don't get me wrong. I like sentimental pap. I like winsome smiles. I like sweet looks that you can pour over a waffle. I like warm puppies. I'm a sensitive guy. I cry at movies. I just don't want us to confuse those feelings with what Jesus called for when he said the two greatest commandments were to love God and love neighbor.

The word love is offensive in church today because we have cheapened it. It is an embarrassment in church because we have over-sentimentalized it. But, truth be told, the word "love" affronts us most in church when we really understand it. Ironically, love is its most offensive, not when we understand it wrongly, but when we understand it rightly. The love that Jesus teaches is not primarily here (heart), nor even mainly here (head), but first and foremost here (hands). The love that Jesus teaches is founded not on what we feel or what we think, but what we do. Love drew Jesus to the cross. The love we are called to give God and neighbor needs to have that same quality of self-sacrifice and active service. I know it's a paradox, but a faith that costs us nothing, at the same time, calls us to give everything. And that kind of faith is not for the light-hearted.

In the last of Tolstoy's Twenty-Three Tales, he tells the story of a king who is searching for the answers to three questions: How can I do the right thing at the right time? How do I know whose advice to trust? And what things are most important and require my first attention?

His search took him to the hut of a wise old hermit. Dressed in pauper's clothes, the king visited the hermit who lived deep in the forest. As he approached the hermit, he saw that he was on the verge of collapse. The king took the spade the hermit had been working with and finished the job of digging the garden. At sundown, a bearded man with a terrible stomach wound staggered to the hermit's yard. Unknown to the king, the man's wound had been dealt by the king's own guards who were keeping watch in the forest. Gently, the king cleaned the wound, bandaged it, and stopped the bleeding. Night fell and the king slept on the threshold of the hut.

When he awoke, he tended to the bearded man's wound and checked on the hermit. The wounded man, overcome by guilt, made a confession to the king. He had been lying in wait for the king to return from the hermit's hut so he could kill him. He was seeking revenge for a judgment the king had made against him some time in the past. The king listened intently and then promised to send his own doctor to tend the man's wound. Then he prepared to take his leave.

Remembering his own mission, the king again asked the hermit the answers to the three questions.

The hermit patiently explained that the king had received his answers on the previous day. When the king had come upon the sickly hermit, he had finished digging his garden for him. This was both the right thing at the right time and the most important matter at hand. Had the king chosen instead to leave, he would have been killed by his enemy in the forest. Secondly, he helped the wounded man. That was again, the right thing at the right time. The hermit continued, "Remember then, there is only one time that is important. Now!" And then he added, "The most necessary man is he with whom you are, and the most important thing is to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!"

Think on that for a moment. There is only one time. That is now. And there is only one reason for life and that is to do good. And the object of that good is anyone with whom you or I happen to have contact.

Can this be why Jesus linked so closely love of God and love of neighbor? Is it not our love of neighbor that proves our love of God? (Read I John 4:7-11)

Please note: God did not love with his heart. He did not love with his mind. God loved by giving us his most precious possession: his Son. Can any example be clearer that Christ love is not bound up in how we feel or what we think but what we do?

Our faith does not only have a vertical dimension, our relationship with God through Christ, but also a horizontal dimension, our relationship with others for whom Jesus also died. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and Levite who first came across the injured man evidently asked themselves, "Is this my neighbor?" and concluded not. The Samaritan came asking not "Is this my neighbor?" but rather, "How might I be a neighbor?" We might best be guided by that same question. Ours is not to question "Is this my neighbor?" before we determine to do good. Ours is to decide what good I must do to prove I am a neighbor.

There is only one time. That is now. And there is only one reason for life and that is to do good. And the object of that good is anyone with whom you or I happen to have contact. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.