A Kingly Question: Sermon John 18:33-38 Christ the King Sunday

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Today is Christ the King Sunday, which means a couple of things. First, it means that this is the last Sunday of the Christian calendar year. Each calendar year begins with Advent which begins next Sunday. Christ the King Sunday focuses on the kingship or the reign of Christ in the past, in the present, and in the future. We remember that our Savior is not just a teacher or a prophet, but is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But what does it mean for Christ to be King? We don’t often think about Jesus being a king, but instead focus on Christ being a healer, a teacher, a preacher, and a humble servant. Our pictures of Christ depict a humble Christ, a Christ who lowered himself to become not only the Son of God but the Son of Man, the Savior of the world. Humility and servanthood are not usually characteristics we think of as kingly. Pilate didn’t think so either.

This brings us to our story for today. This story might seem out of place at this time of year, it might seem more suited for Lent than the week before Advent, but if we investigate within the text and look at the context in which the story is taking place we can see the kingly characteristics of Christ. We are all familiar with this story, Jesus is standing before Pilate. The Jewish authorities have brought Jesus there for one reason. The Jewish authorities had already tried and convicted Jesus in a kangaroo court, but because the Jews had not capital authority, only religious authority they could not execute someone and they wanted Jesus dead. So they sent him to Pilate and told Pilate that Jesus was going around proclaiming himself King of the Jews. So Pilate questions Jesus and asks Jesus two questions and these two questions will be the focus of my sermon this morning. This first is one we have all heard, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

This question might seem a little trite at first. I mean Jesus had just been handed over by the Jews, so how could he really be the king of the Jews? Jesus responds by asking another question, he always liked to do that. “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate responds is if he was insulted, “Am I a Jew?” In other words he is saying do I know or even care about your little squabble of people. I am a representative of Rome. Here in lies the deeper issue. Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea which included Jerusalem. He had been picked by the Emperor Tiberius. This was not an appointment that Pilate would have liked. It was hot and dusty; it was far from Rome with all its splendor and beauty. The province of Judea or Palestine was notorious for outbreaks of revolt and rebellion against Rome. So here Pilate was trying to hold together this Roman province on the outskirts of the Empire by quelling any hint of rebellion by nipping it in the bud so to speak. And here comes this Jesus guy who has been accused of claiming that he is the King of the Jews. This was a political issue to be sure.

Let us for a moment go into the mind of Pilate when he asks this question. What does it mean for Jesus to be the King of the Jews? For Pilate it meant a threat to Roman power which in turn meant a threat to his power and even his life. To claim to be the king of the Jews in that area was an act of treason towards the Emperor and this was an act punishable by death.

Pilate and Jesus are talking about kings and kingship. What is Pilate’s idea of a king or kingship? How does one, in the mind of Pilate, become a king? We can get a glimpse into that answer by looking at the culture and society that Pilate belonged to. The Roman Empire spread by violence. They conquered the lands that they took over and used the threat of violence to maintain that control, so military conquest was something that Pilate would equate with kingship. Then there was deceit and shrewdness of the Roman politicians. The Senators and Emperor of Rome are not unlike the politicians we have today. They made backroom deals and coalitions. They would stab one another in the back sometimes, in the case of Julius Caser, literally. This also was done by the oppression of the poor and the downtrodden. You had to push others down in order to lift yourself up to power. This is how one attained power in the mind of Romans and so we can see how Pilate would be threatened by someone claiming to be the King of the Jews. This was not just a threat to the Roman power generally, but it was also a threat to Pilate’s power specifically. We can see Pilate’s concern.

What does Jesus tell Pilate? “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” You can imagine Pilate’s reaction to this statement “what does he mean that his kingdom is not from this world? This guy really is off his rocker.” This statement shows that Jesus’ idea of kingship is vastly different from that of Pilate.

What does Jesus mean? We have spent a lot of time in the last few months talking about the kingdom of God or the reign of God. We have discussed many aspects of this kingdom over the last few months and each characteristic of the kingdom of God comes to play in this answer from Jesus. First, we have said that the kingdom of God is a gift. We talked about how it can only be accepted as a gift of God. Jesus, just like us, was dependent on God for is authority and for his power. This is totally opposite of the Roman idea of conquest and self-reliance. Christ the King is also Christ the Son who is connection and dependent on the Father. Because it is a gift we must receive it like a child, humbly and with humility. This is again shows that Jesus’ idea of kingship differs from that of Pilate. The Roman idea of a king was one of arrogance of power, someone who flaunted what they had and wielded their power like a sword.

How does Jesus attain this power, through conquest or through violence? No, Jesus becomes the king not only of the Jews but of the Universe by a sacrifice. He is crowned not because he conquered all but because he gave his life for all. Could Christ have come as a conqueror with all the power of God and with legions of angels at his command? Yes. However, Christ’s kingship would then be no different than a Roman emperor. Instead, Christ emptied himself and became humble and obedient even to a horrid death on a cross and because of his obedience and dependence on God; God raised him up and crowned him King over all, not as a conquering tyrant, but a humble Savior who gave his life so we can live. This is the Jesus’ idea of kingship and this is the example we are left with. How better would the world be if all the leaders of the world had the same mindset as Jesus? This is what we remember and what we celebrate on Christ the King Sunday. We remember that Christ will return and will reign over all and we celebrate because Christ will not become a tyrant ruling with an iron fist, but will be a humble savior who will liberate and reconcile all of God’s people and we will all live in peace and in justice.

This leads to Pilate’s second question. The question is not necessarily direct at Jesus but as a response to what Jesus was saying. Jesus had said “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” Pilate’s response was “What is truth?” What is truth? Pilate is asking this almost rhetorically and the very fact that Pilate asks this question shows that he does not understand the truth of Jesus and the truth of God. But what is the truth of God? We said it last week but it bears repeating, “For God so LOVED the [WHOLE] world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the [WHOLE] world might be saved through him.” This is the truth of God and this is the truth of the kingdom of God and the reign of Christ the King. This is the truth that is the foundation of our faith.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Extreme Makeover: Temple Edition: Sermon Mark 13:1-8

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

This is one of the toughest Scriptures to preach on. I mean it is really kind of depressing isn’t it. Many preachers have used this Scripture to scare people into conversion or in someway make the “Good” news, “Bad” news. So, this is my challenge this morning, to take something that on the surface is kind of scary and still show that this is Good News.

Mark 13 is known as the apocalyptic discourse of Jesus. Even the word “apocalyptic” is scary. What kind of images does it conjure up? We think of the Apocalypse, the end of the world, but that is not the original meaning of the word apocalypse or apocalyptic. Apocalypse comes from the Greek and means, to reveal or to uncover. So its context within the Bible is about uncovering a hidden aspect of God’s plan, not necessarily one of the destruction of the world.

Mark 13 begins with Jesus and the disciples walking and looking around Jerusalem only a few days before Jesus was to be crucified. They were walking around and they stopped to look at the magnificence of the Temple. Now this Temple was the second one built, the first was destroyed by Persians and this new one was rebuilt by King Herod the Great the father of the Herod Antipas, who was the Herod who spoke to Jesus before Jesus was crucified. Herod the Great is the Herod from the massacre of the innocents in Matthew 2. Herod the Great had rebuilt the Temple, more for political gain than for religious piety. The Temple for the Jewish faith was vitally important. It was the place where they went to worship God, it was the central focal point of their faith, and the Temple is where God interacted with the people. Everyone made pilgrimages to this place. It was something that every Jew was familiar with and more than likely had visited personally.

The Temple was huge. The Temple stood on a hill, the Mount Moriah from the Old Testament and it was 15 stories high. So it must have been an awesome sight. So the Disciples were commenting of the size of the Temple and were commenting to Jesus, “what large buildings and what large stones.” The stones from which the Temple was made weighed several hundred tons. What is Jesus’ response? “Do you see these great big buildings? Do you see these big stones? None will be standing on top of one another, they will all be destroyed.”

Place yourself as a Disciple, the person you have been following for the last 3 years has just told you that the focal point of your faith, this gigantic, beautiful place will be destroyed. It would be like someone saying, that the Capitol Building will be destroyed or the White House. I am sure they must have thought Jesus was a little nuts, a little off his rocker. However, about 40 years down the road, the prediction came true, the Temple was destroyed by the Roman Emperor Titus in 70 AD. The only thing that remains from Herod’s Temple is the Western outside wall, known today as the Wailing Wall. It is called this because Jews come there to mourn the loss of the Temple, the effects of the destruction of the Temple are felt even today. The reconstruction of the Temple is an important part of Jewish prayer; they long to rebuild what is lost.

Now so far this is pretty depressing and you might be thinking, Brad I thought this was supposes to be Good News. So, why does Jesus tell them this? Why does Jesus bring this up now? Jesus was trying to teach them something, as always. Jesus was saying that the Temple is nice but it is not vital. The Temple is big and beautiful, but it is just a building with rocks, and wood, and gold, and just like any other building it can be destroyed. But even at its destruction God still reigns and God is still in control. We do not have to go to a Temple to interact with God, because God lives within us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” We are the Temple of God Spirit and through Christ we have a personal relationship with God. Jesus was preparing the Disciples for what was to come and was beginning to show them that the Temple was not vital to faith, because the Spirit would dwell within them.

The second part of the Scripture lesson today is Jesus’ warning against the false prophets. Jesus says, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.” So, how are we supposed to know the false prophets from the true proclaimers of the Gospel? Is there something we should look for in the proclamation of the gospel? The answer is yes, the key is love. 1 John 4:8 states it simply, “God is love.” Not God is of love, or God is like love, but God is love. So, logically if we are proclaiming God’s message it should be a message of hope and love not one of fear and hatred. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 “¹If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” This shows that love is the key, if you proclaim a gospel without love then it is a false gospel, it is a false teaching. Love is the key, those who proclaim a gospel of hate, or a gospel without love are not proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I saw a preview for a story on Channel 2 News about an attack on Christianity. Recently singer Elton John called for a ban of all religion because all it does is spread hate against people who are different, specifically gays and lesbians. Rosie O’Donnell one to the hosts of The View, made a similar comment about a so called radical Christianity. Now our first reaction to these kinds of comments is to simply dismiss them. They are made by whacked out celebrities and they have no relevance on us here in Tennessee. However, indulge me for a moment because I want to look a little deeper at the underlying issues. These celebrities are reacting to what they perceive as a threat. But what threat do they feel?

How many people use the Bible and the teachings of Christ to spread hate and judgment? Jerry Falwell after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina blamed so called gay and lesbian sinners and said these events are God’s way of punishing America. Fred Phelps, who is the leader of Westboro Baptist Church, is the man whose followers go around protesting at the funerals of soldiers who have died in Iraq, claiming that God is punishing American soldiers because our the country’s tolerance of the homosexuality. This is not a gospel of love but one of hate. So you have all of these so called Christians getting press on television because the loudest, most obnoxious people get the attention, and they proclaim that God hates you because you are gay or because you act or think differently. So can we really blame a person who wants to ban religion if the only religion they have been exposed to is one of hate? The kind of Christianity that these people proclaim, I believe, is a false gospel and they are leading many astray.

But we know that this is not the true gospel? We know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of love. John 3:16-17 state it clearly, “For God so LOVED the [WHOLE] world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the [WHOLE] world might be saved through him.” If God is love then God cannot hate. If God sent his Son to die not to condemn for our sakes then how can we then condemn other people? The true Gospel is one of love. It is one where God wishes a true relationship with us, a relationship of trust, of hope, of faith, and of love.

What about the last part of the lesson today? “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. ⁸For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.” Many people have used these verses to claim that the end is near. Whenever there is a major conflict there are those who say this is it. This is the end and they are always wrong. Jesus states “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matt. 24:36) If Jesus does not know when the end will come then how can any of us really know. Instead of worrying about when the end will come I want to focus on the joy that will happen after. Micah 4:3-4 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken. This is what we have to look forward to. When there is no more war, in fact the tools of war have become tools of agriculture; the tools of death have become tools of life.

This is the gospel that we must proclaim a gospel of peace, a gospel of grace, and a gospel of love. This is the true gospel. Even as the Temples are destroyed and even as false prophets corrupt the gospel of love into one of hate. Even as nation continues to rise against nation, we have hope. Hope grounded in the love of God shown through the teaching, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. I would say to Elton John and to Rosie, before you give up on Christianity come on down to Rehoboth/Liberty UMC and we will show you the true gospel of love.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Heart of the Matter: Sermon Mark 12:38-44

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

A man came to the local Methodist Church and asked to see the pastor. “Pastor,” he said, “My dog died and I would like a Christian burial for him.”
The Pastor said, “I’m sorry to hear about your dog, but we Methodists don’t do funerals for dogs. You might try the Baptist church down the street. Baptists will do most anything.”
The man turned sadly and said, “I’m sorry you won’t do my dog’s funeral, but I understand. I’ll try the Baptist church. But would you mind telling me how much is appropriate to leave for a memorial to the church? I was thinking of giving a $10,000 memorial in honor of my dog.”
“Wait a minute,” the pastor said. “You didn’t tell me that your dog was Methodist…”

Money talks and… well you probably know the rest. We’ve talked about money a few times in the last month or two. Money is an important topic, Jesus talks about money and finances as much as any other topic in the gospels. Our story today is not different. This story is actually two stories that are almost always put together, the warning against the scribes and the widow’s offering. This reading as been used a lot to try and encourage better offerings and stewardship for the church and I am sure you have heard them before. I am sure you have heard about how the widow was so good because she gave all her money to God and we should follow suit, and the scribes, in all their wealth, act pious and holy on the outside but on the inside they are greedy and stingy towards God and what they do give they want everyone to see them give and that makes them evil. Well yes the widow is good and we should follow her example and the scribes in this story are evil and we should avoid such behavior, but I want to contend that the goodness or evil within them has nothing to do with the amount in the offering plate nor the fact they make any monetary gift to God, but there is something deeper in the heart of the matter. The two stories today combine to teach us a lesson by comparison, we see how to act and how not to act, and we see the selfish heart and the selfless heart.

Last week we talked about loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. I said that to love God with all our heart is not about the source of the love, the originating place the love comes from, but instead it is about what condition are hearts are in when it engages in love, selfishness or selflessness.

Jesus warns us against the scribes. He says that they like to walk around in their fancy robes and outfits, they like to be greeted in the marketplace, and they like to be treated like they think they are, holy and pious. On the outside they are holy and pious. They know and follow the laws of Moses front and back, down, literally, to the letter. They do everything that makes them seem good on the surface, but Jesus says to look a little deeper and you would see something altogether different. They devour widow’s houses. This is an interesting visual. This could mean that the scribes were in cahoots with the bankers at the time and were foreclosing on the widows or it could mean that the scribes were unfairly taking advantage of the widow’s hospitality. In whatever the situation they would, Jesus says, receive the greater condemnation. They were loving God with a selfish heart.

There are signs of a selfish heart. The selfish heart seeks continual praise for its actions. They might do something for the good of someone else, but believe me they are going to know about it. They might donate 20 million dollars for a school or library or hospital, but you better believe their name is going to be on the outside and their big portrait will be on the inside. They always tell you about all the good they do and expect us to fall over backwards in awe. Now, I am not saying that receiving praise is wrong, but if receiving praise is our main motivation for doing good then we must reevaluate our priorities. The scribes gave out of their abundance and did it for show. They wanted to show everyone how much they loved God by placing a big sack full of money on the table and then smile as they walk away, but their true love is only for themselves.

The selfish heart acts individually and not communally. The selfish heart looks out for number one firstly and primarily. The first concern in any decision is how that decision is going to affect itself. The selfish heart is willing to step on anyone at anytime if it is for its own benefit. The selfish heart asks God only for things that will be of benefit for itself. God is almost like Santa Claus of a genie in a bottle to the selfish heart. Their trust is not in God, but in its own abilities and treasures. We remember the story of the rich, young man who was almost a disciple but could not place his trust in God, but relied on his own treasures that he had built up. Their freedom is made by their own actions and activities instead of in God’s will, in independence from God and dependence in God. This is the worst aspect of the selfish heart. The true relationship with God cannot occur because the trust has not been established. This is the greater condemnation. The relationship that the selfish heart desires is not with God but only with itself.

Now let us turn to the selfless heart. The primary objective of the selfless heart is the obedience of the will of God and the furthering of God’s kingdom. The selfless heart does not because of any reward but simply because the need is there. The selfless heart will get up at 4 in the morning to help a neighbor fix a fence, the selfless heart will help a neighbor even at their own expense and never expect compensation. The selfless heart knows that the true reward is with God were thieves cannot steal and the moth cannot destroy. The widow did not put her two coins in the box because she wanted someone to take pity on her or praise her. She didn’t to it because Jesus was watching, but instead the deed was done because she knew that someone else out there was worse than she was and also long as someone else had it worse then she was going to help them. The need was there and she responded.

The selfless heart thinks and acts communally. The selfless heart understands the godly truth that we are not a collection of individuals living on a rock in space, but we are a community, a human family. The selfless heart understands that humans are relational beings, because we were made in the image of a relational God, a God not just of love, but who is love. We are all connected, we have talked about this as well, and when one person suffers we all suffer. We really los sight of that in America. We don’t think we are connected to the poor down the road or to the homeless man we pass on the street, but we are all linked not only with God but with one another. In Africa there is this notion of unbuntu or botho, the words do not translate into English well because their meanings are so foreign to our way of thinking. The idea is that if one person is oppressed then we are all oppressed. In fact Africans often speak in the third person, because they feel their connection with other humans. When you ask an African, “How are you doing today?” They might respond “We are doing fine, or we are not so well today.” The idea was formulated by Martin Luther King Jr, in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, he said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Darfur, Sudan is a long way from Prospect, Tennessee, but the selfless heart knows that as those people suffer, we suffer. The selfless heart knows that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not individual pursuits, but can only be truly achieved by a community, the entire community.

The selfless heart also understands trust. The selfless heart places its entire dependence and trust on God, not to provide whatever is desired, but to trust that God’s will is best and that God will not lead us astray. The widow placed her last two coins in the box, not in an act of hopeless desperation, but in hopeful trust in God that God would provide. We see all the time on TV these televangelists who tell us to make a donation of faith, send me $1,000 and God will reward you tenfold, but this misses the point. The widow did not place her coins in order to receive a reward from God that would be selfish. Instead, she placed them because she knew that this was for the common good and she place her dependence and her trust in God. The dependence in God is not down in the hopes of reward, but in the trust that God’s will and God’s love will provide all that is needed.

These two hearts are not completely separate from one another. We have a tendency to shift between the two hearts from the selfish to the selfless and back again. We want to be independent and dependent at the same time. We want to say God you take care of the whole spiritual/heaven/soul thing, and I will take care of things down here, but I’ll call you if I need you. It doesn’t work that way. We have to realize that all we are and all we hope to be comes from God and we are all connected as God’s beloved creation and because we are all connected if one suffers we all suffer and if one rejoices we all rejoice.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Kingdom of Love: Sermon Mark 12:28-34

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

Well it is that time of year again. The leaves have turned, the frost is beginning to cover our windshields every morning, college football is heating up, and every time you turn on your TV there is somebody running for some kind of office badmouthing some other person running for the same office. My opponent does this and doesn’t do that, he/she did something twenty years ago that had no relevance for today but I am going to tell you about it anyway and it’s just going to get worse until Tuesday. By the way, my name is Brad Smith and I approve this message.

If you think that this type of mudslinging is something new let me tell you something it is not. You could probably go back to the cave people and see a drawing on a cave slandering some guy who wants to be head of the tribe or something. Jesus was not immune to mudslinging. The past few weeks we have followed Jesus on the road to Jerusalem and now he has arrived, for the last time. He does not arrive quietly, but instead goes right to work over-turning the money changing tables at the Temple. Since his arrival those who are in power at the Temple have been trying everything and anything they could to discredit him or to even catch him in committing a crime against God. So those in power, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the priests and the scribes, have been questioning Jesus at every turn trying to get him to make a mistake but at every question Jesus gives the perfect answer. Our story this morning is no different. The scribes, who were experts in the Jewish law, tried to question Jesus’ knowledge of the law. They asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Now this was a trick question and Jesus had to be very careful in answering it, but Jesus never even broke a sweat, he said “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; ³⁰you 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.’ ³¹The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” This is a quotation from Deuteronomy, so it was not something that the scribes had not heard before and so he once again perfectly answered their question and no juicy dirt could be found to sling on Jesus.

However, we are left we some questions of our own. How are we to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength? We can’t buy God flowers or take God to dinner and a movie; we can’t buy God a diamond ring, or a new car, so how can we express our love to God? The answers are there in the response that Jesus gave, but we have to dig a little deeper in order to understand their significance today.

First, Jesus says to love God with all our soul and with all our heart. The word soul would lead us to believe that Jesus is referring to loving God in spirit. How do we do this? We do it through worship. As we are sitting here this morning in God’s sanctuary singing songs, offering prayers, listening to a sermon, we are in the act of loving God with all our souls. There are also the Sacraments. We are going to be receiving Holy Communion in a little bit. Through the Holy Spirit present with us and through the elements of the table and through the community gathered here we are in the act of loving God when we take Communion. Also, through baptism we are in an act of love when a new person professes their faith and joins our community. Through all these things we love God with our souls.
Next, Jesus says to love God with all our hearts. Now, we could say that all of these things are originating through the love that is in our hearts. Loving with all our hearts is not so much about our source of love, but where hearts lie is when we love God. Do we love God because we truly want to love God and be in a relationship with him or do we love God because we are afraid of the consequences of not loving God? We will talk more in depth about loving God with our hearts next week.

Jesus says then to love God with all our minds. This is something that a lot of us neglect. We love God but we don’t think about God, we don’t wonder about God. We want the preacher to tell us what to think and so we don’t have to worry about it for ourselves. However, personal Bible study is of vital importance. Spending time daily with Scripture and spending time thinking about what God means within the Scriptures. We must form our own opinions about God and defend our beliefs and opinions when they are challenged. When we do this then we are worshiping God with all our minds.

This brings in the final part of the first commandment which is loving God with all our strength. The word strength is very interesting in this context, it seems to denote action. If we have strength then we use it, right? In order to become strong we must work out, lift weights, lift hay bales, we must do something. So if we are to love God with all our strength then we must do something. But, what is it that we must do?

I believe that loving God with our strength is bringing in the second part of the first commandment and that is to love our neighbors as ourselves. We know that when Jesus said to love your neighbor he meant everyone around us not just those who we live next door to. So if we connect the two then we see that to love God we must also love our neighbor.

Matthew 25:31-46 speaks of the judgment of nations, where Jesus separates the good from the bad. The standards of judgment are the treatment of the poor, the sick, the prisoner, the naked, the hungry and thirsty. If those are taken care of then the people are rewarded and if those are ignored the people are punished, and they ask why this judgment is so and Jesus replies, as you do to these least in society you do also to me. So loving one another and providing for the least members of the community is an act of loving God. We also can see I John 4:20-21 ^“Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” So even before we can begin to love God we must first love one another and continuing to love each other we continually love God.

We must use our strength to lift up the weak. We must use our wealth to help the poor. We must use our abundance to help their scarcity and do it not because we are commanded to or because we are afraid of hell and punishment, but because we genuinely love them and by that act of love we also love God.

God is all about relationships and community. This is where my theology is based. I do not see God as a king or a tyrant but as a loving parent who only wants what’s best for his creation. God desires community and he sent his son to die on a cross so that we might once again be in community with God. God wants all of us to be in community with one another as well, not as United Methodists, not as Tennesseans, or even as Christians, but as humans. When we do this and we are truly in community, then we can truly love God.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.