Today in church Greg talked about circles and ellipses, and how so much of what we center our faith around stems from one focus on God, but can be separated into two foci to create instead of a circle, ellipses. My favorite example of this two foci center is of the greatest commandments in Mathew 22:36-40:
Matthew 22:36-40 (New International Version)
36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[a] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
The complicated truth behind this commandment is that it asks for our faith to be two fold: we have the personal aspect where we give our entire inner being to God, and we have the external aspect where through our relationship with God we are able to love our imperfect neighbors as we would ourselves. Why is this complicated? The first of the greatest commandments is the one that seems easier, as it appears to be something we control, something we decide. I can choose to love God right? Well here comes the second part: human beings. God is perfect, human beings are not. I can choose to love something perfect, but now I also have to love his creation which has fallen from any initial perfection? Tough stuff.
I have neighbors that leave beer cans in my yard. I have neighbors that play rap songs with curse words loudly from their car as they sit on the porch. I have a neighbor who really only talks to me about 1) mowing, 2) painting my house and 3) the property value of the neighborhood. I am supposed to love them as myself? It’s hard enough for me not be selfish just when considering my husband!
In last week’s writing (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=152227440814) I wrote that after my brother’s death I struggled in high school because:
“I was stuck in high school where people get stoned, drunk, get into fist fights, drop out to work at McDonalds, have babies at 15, lie, cheat, and curse their creator. I saw people that didn’t have a blessing like my brother, saw how lost our society can be, watched as wandering souls hurt each other. And I began to struggle with my faith.”
And yet for my profession I have chosen to go back into high school as a teacher, and love it. My neighbors don’t always make the choices I would make, and neither do my students, and I don’t always make the choices I want to in regard to my students either unfortunately. But I know from the greatest commandment that it matters that I try. I know that community matters, that people who aren’t like me matter, that it isn’t my job to be an isolated island and listen to the bell tolling it’s doom for others. As John Donne expresses, that bell that tolls for one of us tolls for all of us:
“No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”
We are connected. We are Humanity.
So fact 1) human beings are not always easy to like. Yet – fact 2) we are connected in our common human destiny as God’s creation. Jesus commanded us not only to like our neighbor, but to love them, and not just to love them, but to love them as ourselves… whoa, every single one of them? Just who is my neighbor? The difficult concept wrapped up in the word ‘neighbor’ is we all know that when Jesus says ‘neighbor’ he means even our enemies, even the down trodden, the kid that gets stoned when he skips class, the 20 year old who has three kids and no high school degree, the person who stole the food out of my freezer in the garage (maybe to feed his family), the people that would and have hurt us the most, those that wouldn’t consider us when breaking our world – those are who we are asked to love as ourselves.
So that means I practice tolerance right? Make sure I don’t cause trouble and get along with everyone, but I don’t have to actually engage or interact do I? And there Jesus borders on asking too much.
And yet – he practiced it. Luke 23 shows us the story:
23:33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
The people ask for his death, mock his supposed powers, and cast lots to see who gets to take greatest advantage of his death. And he loves them, even in their ignorance. Humanity is flawed, and so often ignorant, and yet the model of goodness forgives those that would do him the most harm. He commands us to do the same. What a weighty request… all the pain I’ve felt from another’s malice, or even ignorance, I am to forgive? More than to forgive I am to love? As myself? Jesus has made me uncomfortable.
That is where he wins his glory. He has made me uncomfortable; I’ve come to realize that my introspective faith is good, but he asks more of me – he wants me to engage with humanity and build community by loving my neighbors as myself, giving of myself. Can’t I keep my own moral standards high (because that is hard enough…) and win the nod of the Kingdom? No. I must love God and his creation. Wow, I have some work to do.
So back to the facts – 1) humans aren’t always easy to like, yet we are connected. 2) In God’s wisdom in knowing our connection, Jesus commanded us to love one another. 3) I’m not there yet. Isn’t that the most beautiful part? In church God spoke to me today and asked me to grow. The words of Christ made me uncomfortable, helped remove some apathy, and if I pursue his commandments… I will grow. Questions are worth asking, and the Good Book is worth reading. Thank God for making faith complicated, difficult, deep, beautiful, and above all fulfilling even when I don’t know the answers.
****Where do I get my inspiration to write? Here in Salina, KS at First Christian Church on 2727 E Crawford pastored by Kim and Greg Rea. http://salinadisciples.org/Come join us some Sunday!
Add me on facebook to see my note collection: Darcy Leech
Matthew 22:36-40 (New International Version)
36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[a] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[b] 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
The complicated truth behind this commandment is that it asks for our faith to be two fold: we have the personal aspect where we give our entire inner being to God, and we have the external aspect where through our relationship with God we are able to love our imperfect neighbors as we would ourselves. Why is this complicated? The first of the greatest commandments is the one that seems easier, as it appears to be something we control, something we decide. I can choose to love God right? Well here comes the second part: human beings. God is perfect, human beings are not. I can choose to love something perfect, but now I also have to love his creation which has fallen from any initial perfection? Tough stuff.
I have neighbors that leave beer cans in my yard. I have neighbors that play rap songs with curse words loudly from their car as they sit on the porch. I have a neighbor who really only talks to me about 1) mowing, 2) painting my house and 3) the property value of the neighborhood. I am supposed to love them as myself? It’s hard enough for me not be selfish just when considering my husband!
In last week’s writing (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=152227440814) I wrote that after my brother’s death I struggled in high school because:
“I was stuck in high school where people get stoned, drunk, get into fist fights, drop out to work at McDonalds, have babies at 15, lie, cheat, and curse their creator. I saw people that didn’t have a blessing like my brother, saw how lost our society can be, watched as wandering souls hurt each other. And I began to struggle with my faith.”
And yet for my profession I have chosen to go back into high school as a teacher, and love it. My neighbors don’t always make the choices I would make, and neither do my students, and I don’t always make the choices I want to in regard to my students either unfortunately. But I know from the greatest commandment that it matters that I try. I know that community matters, that people who aren’t like me matter, that it isn’t my job to be an isolated island and listen to the bell tolling it’s doom for others. As John Donne expresses, that bell that tolls for one of us tolls for all of us:
“No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”
We are connected. We are Humanity.
So fact 1) human beings are not always easy to like. Yet – fact 2) we are connected in our common human destiny as God’s creation. Jesus commanded us not only to like our neighbor, but to love them, and not just to love them, but to love them as ourselves… whoa, every single one of them? Just who is my neighbor? The difficult concept wrapped up in the word ‘neighbor’ is we all know that when Jesus says ‘neighbor’ he means even our enemies, even the down trodden, the kid that gets stoned when he skips class, the 20 year old who has three kids and no high school degree, the person who stole the food out of my freezer in the garage (maybe to feed his family), the people that would and have hurt us the most, those that wouldn’t consider us when breaking our world – those are who we are asked to love as ourselves.
So that means I practice tolerance right? Make sure I don’t cause trouble and get along with everyone, but I don’t have to actually engage or interact do I? And there Jesus borders on asking too much.
And yet – he practiced it. Luke 23 shows us the story:
23:33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
The people ask for his death, mock his supposed powers, and cast lots to see who gets to take greatest advantage of his death. And he loves them, even in their ignorance. Humanity is flawed, and so often ignorant, and yet the model of goodness forgives those that would do him the most harm. He commands us to do the same. What a weighty request… all the pain I’ve felt from another’s malice, or even ignorance, I am to forgive? More than to forgive I am to love? As myself? Jesus has made me uncomfortable.
That is where he wins his glory. He has made me uncomfortable; I’ve come to realize that my introspective faith is good, but he asks more of me – he wants me to engage with humanity and build community by loving my neighbors as myself, giving of myself. Can’t I keep my own moral standards high (because that is hard enough…) and win the nod of the Kingdom? No. I must love God and his creation. Wow, I have some work to do.
So back to the facts – 1) humans aren’t always easy to like, yet we are connected. 2) In God’s wisdom in knowing our connection, Jesus commanded us to love one another. 3) I’m not there yet. Isn’t that the most beautiful part? In church God spoke to me today and asked me to grow. The words of Christ made me uncomfortable, helped remove some apathy, and if I pursue his commandments… I will grow. Questions are worth asking, and the Good Book is worth reading. Thank God for making faith complicated, difficult, deep, beautiful, and above all fulfilling even when I don’t know the answers.
****Where do I get my inspiration to write? Here in Salina, KS at First Christian Church on 2727 E Crawford pastored by Kim and Greg Rea. http://salinadisciples.org/Come join us some Sunday!
Add me on facebook to see my note collection: Darcy Leech
1 comment:
just had to say... sr yr comm skills we had to do a speech of someone else's (or was it English?) I did one by Elie Wiesel.... unfortunately my classmates thought it was too long.
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