Last week I asked in the sermon “How do we affect the world in the name of Jesus Christ? How do we call people to a deeper faith? How do we nurture that faith and broaden people’s sense of a personal relationship with God? If we don’t do that for ourselves, how will we ever offer Christ’s love to our own community?
We say God is love, but how do we live out that love? Today, I wonder how we love in our own faith community.
It is clear in the Mark scripture that love for God and love for one another is connected. In today’s story, a scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest of all. The question is the scribe’s way of gaining a deeper understanding of life and faith. How did Jesus respond?
Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
So, what does it mean to love God with everything? And what is the connection with loving your neighbour as yourself? Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might” and Leviticus 19:18b, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself, I am the Lord.” Jesus is saying that the two scriptures are not mutually exclusive. You can’t pick one. I once heard someone say, “I love God quite effectively, but it is the people part I hate.” Jesus is saying that isn’t possible.
So, what does it mean to love God with everything? And what is the connection with loving your neighbour as yourself? Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might” and Leviticus 19:18b, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself, I am the Lord.” Jesus is saying that the two scriptures are not mutually exclusive. You can’t pick one. I once heard someone say, “I love God quite effectively, but it is the people part I hate.” Jesus is saying that isn’t possible.
Neighbour in this context doesn’t mean a physical address. The good samaritan story explained that a neighbour is whoever is in need, no matter where or who they may be. Asking “who is our neighbour" requires that we move toward a larger vision. You can never love God without loving the neighbour, and you never love your neighbour without loving God. Both commandments require us to move beyond ourselves.
On Tuesday, I read a devotional from “Presbycan”. The devotional reminded me how love is expressed even in our thoughts. The author, Jeanie Nihiser, describes her experience:
“Have you ever composed a letter or email while you were supposed to be sleeping? I go to bed tired.., only to have … my mind kick into high gear.
I often rehearse speeches that I need to give someone, or… an email that I think needs to be sent to straighten someone out. I can say anything in my mental email. I can tell someone how they hurt me or disappointed me, or how I think that they should handle a situation. I do this a lot when I have talked with someone and thought afterward, I should have said this or said that…
There are many other times when I know that I should have said something wonderful to someone… [those conversations] usually bring me peace instead of tossing and turning, because my mind is thinking good thoughts.
I love this Bible verse:
Philippians 4:8 – Finally…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.” (NIV)
When we love our neighbours, we participate with God in mending relationships. That is how love is enacted in our world.
In the Old Testament story, Ruth turned sorrow into another kind of love story. I believe in part; this is a story about community. After her husband’s death, Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi decided to journey home to Bethlehem after spending 10 years in Moab. During those 10 years Naomi’s two sons who had each married Moabite wives and both her sons died as well. This left Naomi alone with her two daughters in law with no way to support themselves. Ruth and her sister-in-law Orpah, started to follow Naomi back to Judah, but Naomi tried to talk them into returning home to Moab. Orpah did go back but Ruth refused to leave Naomi.
Ruth made an unusual vow of love to her mother-in-law.
” Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die-- there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you.”
Ruth’s vow of love was the culmination of what Jesus was talking about. Ruth is committing her life, her future and her religion to this relationship with Naomi. Her decision reflects her sacrifice and love of God.
Our reading stopped at verse 18 but something interesting happens in verse 19 and following.
"So the two of them [Naomi and Ruth] went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’ She said to them, call me no longer Naomi, call me, Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has dealt harshly with me. The Almighty has brought calamity upon me. So Naomi returned together with Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter in law, who came back with her from the country of Moab.”
Naomi and her husband had been well known in this community and the whole town was stirred when she returned. Clearly, the 10 years in Moab had been very hard on Naomi because the women of the town could not recognize her. And apparently, Naomi didn’t even recognize herself because she tells the women, “Don't keep calling me Naomi because it means pleasant. From now on, call me Mara, which means bitter.” Naomi recognized the bitterness of these last 10 years had consumed her, and it became her new identity.
Notice why Naomi is so bitter. It's not just because her husband and her sons have died or that she is without resources. Naomi tells us exactly why she's so bitter. “The Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty…The Lord has dealt harshly with me …and has brought calamity on me.”
Former President of Princeton Seminary, Craig Barnes offers a new understanding of Naomi’s crisis. It is not just her grief or her poverty.
“She… believes that it is the Lord … who has dealt bitterly with her and that's why she has slipped from an identity of pleasant to one of bitterness…We are all made in the image of God, whether we realize it or not. Which means that if you have a false image of God, you're going to have a false image of yourself. People who are judgmental, believe that God is never satisfied. People who are angry believe that God is always torqued off. People who live easily with injustice, think that God doesn't really care that much about the just ordering of our lives. People who struggle with loving relationships have never heard heaven call them the beloved with whom God is so pleased. And those who are bitter, are going to blame the Almighty.”
Notice that the community of women don't agree with her, but they don't correct her either. As far as we can tell from the text they say nothing. They never call her Mara, or bitterness. They just insist on calling her Naomi, pleasant, even when she is not. They just welcome her back into the community.
When Abram and Sarai had their names changed to Abraham and Sarah, that's what they're called from then on. When Saul becomes Paul, he is never called Saul again. That's because God changed their names. But when Naomi tries to change her own name to bitterness, her community will insist on calling her pleasant.
Craig Barnes continues,
“This is one of the redemptive functions of a community. It holds our holy identity when we no longer can. It holds our faith in God when that is too heavy of a burden for us to hold on our own. Before it is your faith or my faith, it is always our faith. And like Naomi, sooner or later, we will all give thanks for the grace of being able to lean into our faith.”
Love is best lived out in community, for it is the only way that we can truly embrace what it means to recognize God’s identity in each of us and in turn in each other.