October 25, 2020: Give ‘Em Somethin’ to Do!

Matthew 22:34-40
Rev. Rhonda Blevins

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘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 neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

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How long can you stand on one foot? How many of you think you could stand on one foot for one minute? Two minutes? Five minutes? Does anyone here think you could stand, unassisted, on one foot for the duration of my sermon?

The ancient Talmud tells the story about a Gentile fellow in the first century AD who was considering converting to Judaism, but he had one request. He would convert only if a rabbi could teach him the entire Jewish law while he, the prospective convert, stood on one foot. So the man went to a well-known rabbi Shammai, who was known for a strict interpretation of the Torah (Jewish law). Rabbi Shammai was insulted by this ridiculous request and threw the man out.

Could you blame the rabbi? Teach the entire Torah while the man stood on one foot? Impossible. Why, there are 613 laws in the Torah—how in the world could all of that be taught in the time an average guy could stand on one foot? Most of you admitted you couldn’t even stand on one foot throughout the duration my sermon, let alone through the instruction of 613 laws. So I get Rabbi Shammai’s frustration. I understand why he sent the ridiculous seeker packing.

Religions are known for, well, complicating matters. Take our neighbors down the street, for instance, in the Church of Scientology. Would the Church of Scientology teach you all of their lessons in the span of time you could stand on one foot? No! In order to progress in Scientology, you have to take courses—lots of them. They are required, and they are not cheap. As far as a business model goes, it’s genius. As far as religion goes, well you be the judge.

But don’t judge too harshly, because Christianity has had our own issues throughout our 2,000-year history. In fact, this Saturday marks the 503rd anniversary of the storied (if fabled) moment when Martin Luther tacked his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenburg Church. Part of what Luther was protesting was the church’s practice of selling “indulgences” to absolve people of their sin. Who wants to end up in purgatory or worse? Anybody have a little too much to eat this week? Gluttony! That will be $50! How about envy? $75! Hate? $100! Lust? (You know the church gets squirmy around sex.) $5,000! As far as a business model goes, genius. As far as religion goes, well you be the judge.

The revolution we now know as the Protestant Reformation happened 500 years ago. The preeminent principle, the “battle cry” if you will of the Reformation was (in Latin) “Sola Scriptura!” Only scripture. It was a rebellion against the Pope. Against the church. Martin Luther said, “a simple layman armed with Scripture is greater than the mightiest pope without it.”[1] Luther said this in 1519. But think about this: the printing press had been around less than 80 years when he said that. Only about 5% of the population of Germany was even literate in 1519.[2] “Sola Scriptura/Scripture Only!” The Reformation, with its propaganda in the form of 10,000 pamphlets, contributed to a tremendous rise in literacy, and everybody wanted their own Bible. These days not only is the Bible the best-selling book of all time, but the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year. 91% of American households have at least one Bible; the average American household has four Bibles. How many Bibles are in your household? “The amount spent annually on Bibles has been put at more than half a billion dollars.”[3] The Bible publishing industry, as far as business models go, genius. As far as religion goes, well you be the judge.

Three years ago, at the celebration of 500 years of the Protestant Reformation, church historian Diana Butler Bass asked her Twitter followers, “Protestant friends: 500 years behind us. What's your dream for the next 500?” How would you answer that question? What would be your dream for this Christ-movement for the next 500 years?

As we consider that question, I think it’s prescient to look at what was most important to Jesus. Kind of makes sense, right? Of all the things Jesus taught, what stands out as the core, central teaching? Of all the things Jesus taught, how might we simplify it in a way so that we could explain it to some smart-aleck seeker who demanded to hear the entirety of the gospel while standing on one foot?

That’s kind of what was happening in the Gospel lesson we read a moment ago. A smart-aleck lawyer from among the Pharisees confronted Jesus trying to trap him into saying something that would get him in trouble. “Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?” he pressed. Let’s hear Jesus’ reply once again, but before we hear it, I want to see if it can be given while someone stands on one foot. Ready? 

“‘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 neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Folks, that’s it. That’s the Gospel in a nutshell. All the law, all the prophets, all the popes, all the reformers, all the preachers, pastors and pundits—everything Jesus lived and stood for can be summed up in these two preeminent commandments. Love God. Love neighbor. Period. And what’s the verb—the action word—in both of these preeminent commandments? Love. Some of you tease me about preaching love all the time. Now you know why!

Some churches place their emphasis on what people believe. Believe all the right things, and that’s the ticket to salvation. They create complicated systems of beliefs—systematic theologies—and there’s little room for difference of opinion. If you don’t believe the right things (the right things being the way I think, of course) then you’re doomed. Sorry ‘bout your luck.

Some churches place their emphasis on how people feel. They do a good job at helping people feel ecstatic in worship, the way a well-done movie can help you feel joy or sorrow or excitement or fear. If you don’t “feel” the Spirit, then oh my, you’re doomed. Close your eyes a little harder. Raise your hands a little higher. Still can’t feel it? God must have given you a hard heart.

But my question is this: what good are feelings and beliefs if they don’t translate into action? Jesus never said, “Here’s a systematic theology for living the Christian life.” He never said, “You must feel this way or that.” He did, however, say, that the greatest commandment is this action: love. In the Greek: agape. This thing called Christianity is first and foremost about what we do. A black preacher friend of mine would coach young preachers saying, “Preacher, you gotta give em’ somethin’ to DO!”

And that thing we are to do, always, is love. God first. Neighbor second.

But here’s the catch. How do we best love God? By believing certain things? By feeling a certain way? No. We love God by loving that which God loves. And what does God love? “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son.”

Here’s the strange thing about love: love may be the only thing in the world that we get more of by giving it away. What a contradiction! And don’t we all want more love? Really, if we’re being honest, if we’re keeping it real, we all want more love. Listen to how author Glennon Doyle says this about the desire for love and the human condition:

We hurt people, and we are hurt by people. We feel left out, envious, not good enough, sick and tired. We have unrealized dreams and deep regrets. We are certain that we were meant for more and that we don’t even deserve what we have. We feel ecstatic and then numb. We wish our parents had done better by us. We wish we could do better by our children. We betray and we are betrayed. We lie and we are lied to. We say good-bye to animals, to places, to people we cannot live without. We are so afraid of dying. Also: of living. We have fallen in love and out of love, and people have fallen in love and out of love with us . . . we live with rage bubbling. We are sweaty, bloated, gassy, oily. We love our children, we long for children, we do not want children. We are at war with our bodies, our minds, our souls. We are at war with one another. We wish we’d said all those things while they were still here. They’re still here, and we’re still not saying those things. We know we won’t. We don’t understand ourselves. We don’t understand why we hurt those we love. We want to be forgiven. We cannot forgive. We don’t understand God. We believe. We absolutely do not believe. We are lonely. We want to be left alone. We want to belong. We want to be loved. We want to be loved. We want to be loved.[4]

Remember the fellow at the beginning of the sermon who was thinking about converting to Judaism, but wanted someone to explain the entirety of the law to him while he stood on one foot? And Rabbi Shammai, known for his strict interpretation of the law, sent him packing? The fellow didn’t give up. He made his way to Rabbi Hillel. Rabbi Hillel was known as a humble man, and a bit more lenient in his interpretation of the law than his contemporary, Shammai. So the man found Rabbi Hillel, who accepted his request, inviting the man to stand on one foot. Here’s what Rabbi Hillel said: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation of this—go and study it!”

Remember the question posed by Diana Bass, Diana Butler Bass asked her Twitter followers, “Protestant friends: 500 years behind us. What's your dream for the next 500?” You want to know my response? “Sola Caritas!” Only Love.

Let’s close with a little self-reflection. On a scale from 1-10, with 1 being “not so much” and 10 being “very much,” are you growing in “caritas”? Are you growing in love? And let’s take inventory of how we’re doing as a church with the same scale. As a result of participating in this church, are you becoming a more loving version of yourself?

If you feel like there’s room to improve as an individual and as a church (spoiler alert: there’s always room to improve), I’ve got a pro tip: do love. Enact love. Because here’s the truest thing I know: we grow in love by giving it away.

[1]Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), p. 165.

[2] Mark U. Edwards, Jr., Printing, Propaganda, and Martin Luther (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), p. 38.

[3] Daniel Radosh, “The Good Book Business: Why Publishers Love the Bible,” The New Yorker, Dec. 11, 2006, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/12/18/the-good-book-business.

[4] Glennon Doyle, Untamed, (New York: The Dial Press, 2020), p. 92-93.