Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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I am delighted to be with you today, and to see what you are doing here. All across our District you are seen as a witness to God in how you are growing and building as a church in this community. And we thank you for it. It's also a pleasure for me to team up with Paul and Marie again. And I like being here, so Bill can be with his family to celebrate the baptism of a grandchild. I see All Saints Day as a kind of family day in the church. All Saints Day is the churches Memorial Day. It's a time to remember those who have died in the faith of Jesus Christ. But, we are not just remembering the names of people that were read this morning. We also remember others who have died and now live with God. It may be a parent, spouse, child, family member, friend, and coworker. Along with the people whose names were read, we also remember these other because they have touched our lives in unforgettable and personal ways.

II. IN OUR GOSPEL LESSON FROM MARK, WE MEET SOMEONE I WOULD I WOULD LIKE TO CALL A STAINT. He is a saint, not because he's a perfect person, but because he asks the one question that gets to the basic meaning and purpose of life. It's a question not just for his time, but also for all time. This person may seem an unlikely saint, because he's actually a Scribe. All through the gospels the Scribes and Pharisees are challenging Jesus. They always seemed to be asking questions in hopes that they could trip him up, and find some inconsistencies in his thinking and teaching. By the time we get to the 12th chapter of Mark, the chief priest, scribes and elders, along with crowds of people, have been brutally grilling Jesus. They ask him all sorts of questions dealing with things like divorce, his authority for what he does, to whom do pay taxes, and what he means by resurrection. There are some parables and other stories mixed in there as well. And now a nameless scribe, who may have been hanging out on the fringe of the crowd, moves in for the kill. He gets right in Jesus' face, and asks the question that will make or break Jesus' credibility. And so he asks Jesus, "Out of all the hundreds of laws in Judaism, which commandment is the first?" According to ancient scribal tradition, the Law contained not just 10 commandments, but 613. Some were in the form of prohibitions, and others positive commands. These Laws were supposed to govern the people's daily life, and all their bodily movements. "Jesus, which one of these commandments is the greatest?" the scribe asked. The answer, Jesus said, can be found in words of truth as old as the law itself. It comes from the time of Moses, and it's already written on your heart, and even on your doorposts your house, to remind you when you leave your house (Deuteronomy 6, the shema). The first commandment is, "Hear, O Israel,: The Lord is 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 scribe asked for only one basic, under girding, principle. But, Jesus gave him two. The second is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these" So, I call this scribe a saint. He's a saint because he asked the question of all time. It's your question and mine, and well as his. It's the question that asks, what's most important? What is the one guiding principle that will make you feel satisfied in this life? Now, this is not just a question about values, or how to live the good life. It's a question that points you to an orientation in life. It's an answer that helps you to solve the greater question about the purpose of your life.

III. FIRST LOVE GOD. Sounds like a simple answer, doesn't it? But it's not. Suppose you agree that you should love God. How are you going to do that? How can you possibly love God? And how much should you love God? Jesus said, "you are love God with all your heart…" Which means you are to love God emotionally, to love God with the whole range of emotions that God has given you. And you are to "love God with all your soul?… That is, to love God spiritually, giving God your worship and praise and thanksgiving, and by being open to God's leading in your life. You are to love God "with all your might…" that is to love God physically, with the very work of your hands and the sweat of your brow, and the stewardship and sharing of all your human efforts you've done and accomplished. "And with your mind…" that is, mentally, with all your rational thought, and with all the wisdom you are capable of with the large brain God has developed in you Yes, to love God means that there is not a single way in which you and I can be alive in the world, and not hold up our life before God as a love offering. Mind, body, soul, it's all a gift from that creative love which is beyond ourselves, and for which we are thankful. First love God. No, this will not be easy to do. The word faith is a popular word today, and so is the word "Spirituality." Everyone uses these words. But so often when people use the word faith, or spirituality, God is left out. For many, faith has come to be seen as a human virtue, an activity like breathing. Faith is good for you. But for many, having faith is more important than the object of faith. And so in our culture, faith has become just another human experience like falling in love, or being afraid, or having good intentions. It's your experience that's important. Which means, there doesn't need to be any external reference beyond your experience. Jesus' answer to the scribe brings us back to the fact that Jews and Christians have always believed that faith has an object, and that object is God. When you forget that God is the object of faith, all you have left is your own experience and resources. And as good as that may be, you are left believing only in yourself. Lots of people claim to have faith, but their not sure about the object of that faith. When we stop loving God with our whole being, heart, mind, body and soul, our faith become an oblong blur, and all we can see is ourselves as the object of faith. This only goes to show that you can't love God on your own. It may sound strange to say this, but we need God's help to love God. The most important thing to know about loving God is that God does not stop loving us simply because we've stopped loving God. That's the most important thing to know about God. God always loves us. More than that, God is always trying to reach us, even when we are trying to shut God out of our life. That's what the Cross is all about. In the cross, where Jesus is totally rejected, we see the forgiveness of God's love. It's a love that works just the opposite of the way we love. We make people earn our love. The better they are to us, the better we love them in return. Some of us even use love to manipulate others into giving us what we want. But with God it's the other way around. God loves us before we deserve it, or seek it, or know we need it. Yes, we are to love God with all heart, soul, mind and strength. But this is not easy to do. We fail at this. And we continue to fail at this until we joyfully remember that we are able to love only because God first loved us.

IV. BUT GOD'S LOVE IS ALSO TIED TO OUR NEIGHBOR. There's a little Irish story about a woman who was very distressed because she had lost the sense of God in her life. She asked an older woman sitting with her why God doesn't make her feel his presence. "If only I could feel God, and know that he touched me," she said. The older woman said, "Pray to God. Ask God to touch you. He will put his hand on you." The woman began to pray in agony. Suddenly she felt the hand of God touching her. She cried out joyfully, "He has touched me!" But then she said to the older woman, " You know, it felt just like your hand?" To which the old woman said, "Why it was my hand. What did you think God would be doing? Did you think he would make a long arm out of heaven to touch you? He just took the hand that was nearest and used that." This little story sums up what Jesus is saying in his Great Commandment of Love, which is: God works through our neighbor, and in our neighbor we see God. Does Jesus give us the choice to love God and neighbor? No, we are not asked to make a choice; we are asked to accept this as our orientation to life, as our basic principle in life, and as a call to discipleship. Thanks be to God that there have been faithful followers of Jesus who have taken his words seriously. Knowing that love is not a choice compelled Mother Teresa to step into the filthy streets of Calcutta's slums to care for those whom no one else would touch. Knowing that love is not choice caused Millar and Linda Fuller to pick up hammers to build homes for the homeless, and start Habitat for Humanity. Knowing love is not a choice gave Martin Luther King Jr., the courage to speak out for racial justice in the U.S., and to Desmond Tutu who helped bring down the evil system of apartheid in South Africa. Knowing that love is not a choice has fostered reconciling ministries in the Northern Ireland, and in the Middle East to help bring understanding and peace. Knowing that love is not a choice gives strength to those in our community who lovingly care for dying spouses and handicapped children, who never abandon a prodigal son or daughter, who never miss a week volunteering at a nursing home or with the scouts, who give their money for helping causes, and who do all kinds of things because they take seriously the command to love their neighbor and become channels of God's love (1). Love of God, love of neighbor, there's a little poem that puts it this way, "I sought my soul, and the soul I could not see. I sought my god and god eluded me - I sought my neighbor and found all three." Oh yes, Jesus knew how difficult it was to love God on our own power. And so he put together love of God and love of neighbor, because when these two work together, they produce something that is great and profound, and life giving. Be a neighbor. Love a neighbor, and become a channel of God's love. And then, the world will look a little more like the kingdom of God that Jesus came to reveal.

Notes 1. Lectionary Homiletics, "Love is Not a Choice," by Beverly Zink-Sawyer. p. 6, November 2000.