Mark 12:28-32

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

This evening’s Bible passage is Mark 12:28-32:

²⁸ And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And 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.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus spent most of the last week of his life teaching in public in Jerusalem. Some of the things he said are still hard to understand. This exchange is one of the easiest to understand and hardest to put into practice.

To “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” may seem at first to leave no room for loving anyone or anything else. But Jesus adds a second great commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Loving God doesn’t mean that we are free to focus all our attention on God to the exclusion of others. Loving God fully includes loving our neighbors, who are made in the image of the God and for whom God gave his life in Christ.

Oddly enough, we may be seeing more love for neighbors in this time of staying safe at home than we do when we’re all allowed to go about our business unchecked. Simply to stay safe at home is to love not just ourselves but also our neighbors. That way we don’t risk infecting them. The more carefully people observe social distancing, the sooner the crisis is likely to pass. Staying safe at home is a wise way of loving our neighbors.

Some in our congregation have chosen to love others from home by putting their technical skills at the service of those who are baffled by the new communication technologies, by sending a musical treat to the entire congregation every evening, by posting children’s church online, by phoning, texting, or emailing not only friends and family but others in the congregation whom they may not know so well. These too are ways of loving our neighbors. Others have left their homes to take the housebound to essential medical appointments, to buy groceries for those who, because of age or underlying medical conditions, are at greater risk, or to engage in other acts of kindness and care.

Yet others are finding that the neighbors they are called to love at this time are the family members or friends with whom they are now home more than usual. Parents with young children are being called to love the Lord their God with all their being by remaining loving, patient, and caring to one another and to their children. It’s not always easy. Perhaps it requires a focus first on loving God and being loved by God. From that love comes the strength truly to love the others in your home.

There are those, too, in our church and in the community at large who are loving their neighbors in ways that put themselves at great personal risk. Doctors, nurses, and other health professionals are on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19. So, in their own way, are bus drivers, grocery store staff, police officers, and any number of others in essential public service professions. Whether they see this as an expression of love for God or simply as a dutiful love for neighbor, we owe them all our gratitude.

In four days’ time, we’ll observe Good Friday. We’ll be reminded of the most powerful motivation to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength. The God who created all things and against whom we have all rebelled in our own small or large ways has treated us not as enemies but as neighbors. He has loved us so much that he became human, like us, and gave his life for us. The love of God flows not just within the Trinity but pours out onto us, whom he owns as his beloved neighbors.

God’s neighbor and yours,

Max