The Greatest Commandment | Psalm 40:1-8; Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Matthew 22:34-40

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The Greatest Commandment

Samuel Johnson, an 18^th century writer writes:

"We are more often required to be reminded than informed."

- Samuel Johnson

Today we get reminded – not informed – what is the greatest commandment?  And hopefully most of us will answer quite easily:

'Love God and love your neighbour', or as Jesus replies to a question from a Pharisee who is an expert in the law:

"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

- Jesus

*  *  *

The beauty of Christianity is its absolute simplicity – we need to be reminded of that. 

According to Jesus this whole big book can be summed up in two commands. 

Love God,
and love your neighbour.

To be a Christian – all you need do is believe in Jesus, and when you believe in Jesus you make his priorities your priorities.

His priorities are:

"Love God,
Love your neighbour."

And his life's actions illustrate this truth. He loves enough to reach out to those who are usually excluded.

He loves enough to take the form of a servant even though he is God. 

He loves even to the point of his own death on the cross.

All of these actions are a physical, a visual illustration of Jesus' love for God and the people that God created.

He simply does the will of the one who sent him – and to do the will of the one who sent him is to love.

*  *  *

One of my favourite books is Mr God this is Anna, (its been a while since I read it).  In it Fynn, who finds Anna, a 5 and a half year old runaway has this conversation with Anna:

'Do you believe in God?'
'Yes.'
'Do you know what God is?'
'Yes.'
'What is God then?'
'He's God.'
'Do you go to church?'
'No.'
'Why not?'
'Because I know it all.'
'What do you know?'

'I know to love Mister God and to love people and cats and dogs and spiders and flowers and trees,' and the catalogue went on, '- with all of me.'

*  *  *

I agree with Anna.

*  *  *

Once you have learnt to love God and people, and perhaps all of God's creation with all of you – you needn't go to church anymore.

Learning to love…

We're here because loving God, ourselves and others is not something we're very good at doing.

We're here because like alcoholics or drug addicts we desperately need each other's and God's help in order to overcome our addictions to selfishness, prejudice, anger and hatred – all those things that keep us from loving.

God is quite easy to love – God is perfect – but people, real people, are obviously not easy to love, nor are they perfect… 

Loving is learning to accept ourselves 'warts and all' and those around us with their 'warts' and love them as we should.

Real People

In my first year of ministry I came home one afternoon – sat down on the couch and began weeping.  Sobbing. 

Ministry brought me in touch with the reality of some of the evil of which people are capable.  I had been visiting people in their homes and asking them to tell me their stories…

I listened to long and difficult stories.  Some were amazingly positive, but many were sad and dark.  Women beaten and abused by their husbands, neglected by their children, forgotten by the church. 

In squatter camps I walked into hot stinking shelters where people were dying of AIDS – rooms that smelled like death – and no one offering meaningful care.

I heard stories of parents who sexually and physically abused their children.

I listened to stories of rape.

I visited a mental asylum where people lived on cement floors – their teeth pulled out to keep them from biting themselves and others, their food some kind of slop.

It was as if someone was peeling away the skin of humanity and showing me that we are not made of sugar and spice and all things snice… but rather slugs and snails and puppy dog's tails – as the rhyme goes.

*  *  *

To love, to really love – we have to learn to love beyond what we like – into the dark places of ourselves and other people that we would rather not visit.

The Command

When we take a closer look at Jesus two most important commandments we realise what Jesus has done with the scriptures of the Old Testament.

The first commandment is part of the Shema, words from Deuteronomy 6 which Jews would recite every morning and evening:

"Hear, O Israel: the LORD (Yahweh) is our God, the LORD alone.  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."

- Deuteronomy 6:4-5

People were instructed to keep these words in their hearts, recite them to their children, speak about them at home and when away from home, when going to sleep and when waking up.  A sign on your hand, your forehead, on the doorposts of your house and your gates…

These words should be the centre of your life.

*  *  *

In Jesus interpretation of the law and the commandments he takes Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and adds to it Leviticus 19:18 –

"…you shall love your neighbour as yourself."

- Leviticus 19:18

Not only that, but he tells us that the command to love our neighbour is the same as the command to love God.

When you love the people that I love – you love me too.

When you harm, hate and mistreat the people that I love – you do the same to me.

*  *  *

Loving God is difficult – because loving God means loving his creation, and part of his creation is the messiness of our humanity.

The messiness of who you are and who I am.

Perfect Love

Methodists emphasise the fact that it is not impossible to love perfectly.  Jesus wouldn't command it if he didn't think it was so: 

Speaking about how God loves without prejudice, Jesus instructs us:

"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

- Matthew 5:48

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 13:10

"Love is the fulfilling of the law."

- Romans 13:10

Christian perfection is to love.  John Wesley would ask in C18 English:

"Do your bowels yearn over them?"

Sounds funny now – but for him – evidence of our relationship with God was the fact that we were learning to love people.  And he asked whether in the pit of our stomachs we felt a hungry kind of love for all those around us.  A love that sometimes moves us to compassion – always moves us to mercy but never to judgment.

Originally the Methodists formed themselves as a group, not a church – Methodists went to their own churches on Sundays.  But they met during the week in class meetings to to speak about how God was transforming them and about doing new things:  They visited prisons, tried to help the poor, set up free dispensaries to give medicine and aid to the sick, they founded schools.  They put their love into action.

They had three simple rulest to guide them, they are part of our rules today too:

*  *  *

Do no harm.

Do all possible good.

Attend to the ordinances of God.

*  *  *

Do no harm…

This meant that Methodists should avoid evil wherever possible.  Especially evil that harms other people.

They insisted that in business Methodists did not make gains to the injury of others by trading on their ignorance, weakness or necessity.

They took a strong stance against corruption and avoided malicious talk.

It is up to each of us to evaluate our lives – asking what harm we do.

We need to ask whether the way we earn our money is honest or harmful, we need to ask if we harm the environment at the expense of future generations.  And if we need to we need to change our ways.

Not because a law requires it – but because love requires it.

Do good of every possible sort…

The Methodists saw this as doing good to people's souls as well as their bodies.  They wanted to tell people about God who created them, loved them and wanted them to live in love.  They wanted to care pastorally and practically for those in prison or hospital – for those trapped in poverty.

How can we find opportunities to do good – as a community, as individuals?

Attend to the ordinances of God

Finally, Wesley called these 'means of grace'.  Ways in which we are transformed into Christlikeness.

Worshipping with other Christians, taking communion, praying, reading the scriptures, fasting and practicing self discipline.

*  *  *

And so the early Methodists grew in obedience to that simple – yet difficult command – to love God with all our heart, mind and soul.

And the second which is just like it:

To love our neighbours as ourselves.

*  *  *

These simple commandments are the foundation on which the Kingdom of God is being built in us, in this community and in this land.

We might – as Anna did – know it all – but to do it all we need each other.

Amen