There are verses often well placed at the beginning of the communion service, verses that were undoubtedly daily upon the lips of Jesus: “Hear Israel, the Lord your God is one, and with all your heart, soul, mind and might, you shall love the Lord your God.” Jesus completes this thus: “This is the first and great commandment. The second is like unto it. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the word of God.” The injunction to use heart and soul, mind and might in the worship and service of God is a figurative way of saying with all of one’s capacities.
God gives us a mind to use. Too many people overlook that. They forego knowing in the blunt belief that God somehow wishes them to ignore the obvious because it is some trick meant to test them. The Bible becomes history, science and religion all in one, unfailing in its every word. That it is filled with obvious imagery, poetics, and literal contradictions page after page matters not. God who made poets, God who made the imagination, God who made the inquiring mind, that same God is literal in his every word. It is a mindset all too prevalent, and I find it demeaning. It demeans God. It demeans man.
Once, a young man of considerable intelligence and professional accomplishment approached me to criticize a sermon about the humanity of Jesus. The text had been taken from Luke. He argued that according to John’s Gospel, Jesus was God and patently knew himself such. When I countered that that was not the consistent picture given in Mark, Matthew, or Luke, he screamed, literally screamed, there were no inconsistencies in the Bible. Into the dustbins went the countless scholarly investigations on scripture. We are told to open our minds, to open them wide.
There are too many who fear any challenge, any change. But scripture testifies to a God who is always one step before us, to a God who delights in making things new: new hearts, new heavens, new earth, a new Jerusalem, a new commandment, a new testament. And scripture gives us the anthem for our response: “Sing unto the Lord a new song.” (Ps. 96)
God gives us a spirit to use. He blesses us with a love of life, with zest and gusto, with vitality–gifts meant to foster health and joy. He becomes one with us for us. The God who immerses himself in humanity does not do such out of self-interest or judgmentalism, but genuine empathy and care. We are told to be loving, your God is; be care-ful, your God is. God accepts us, forgives us, embraces us. We need to accept that, to accept, forgive and embrace with love ourselves and others.
God gives us a body to use. Too many in the church seem to fear the body, at least bits and pieces of it. Too many get distraught about sex, but have no problem preening themselves, feeding themselves, insuring themselves a comfortable life and living, as if these things were not about the body. Too many ignore the blatant bane of popular culture’s debasement of life, and patter along as if we have no mission to live out our lives as witness against it, no power to exemplify a different vision, to be the more vibrant and valid culture.
God gives us resources to use. Too many forget the injunction about placing anything before the service of God, and act as if unbridled capitalism, consumerism, commercialism are just a matter of quotidian economic transactions, as if the welfare and well-being of others are not a concern of religion, of spirituality, of the service of God, of the worship of God. If we believe we cannot worship God and money, why do we make so much effort, as individuals and as institution, to accumulate it? What does that say to the world we are trying to enrich with a richer vision? Do we need to focus more on our interpersonal skills than on programs and operations? Do we need to simply be more loving and careful of self and neighbour? One personal touch can have as much impact as all the efforts of a lumbering institution.
Our patrimony, our inheritance, our opulence of provisions is the vocation and the grace to be robed in charity, in compassion and care, that we may be free to accept, embrace, and treasure each person as child of God. This is the handsel of our life together which creates peace and justice and allows truth and reconciliation to thrive. God did not manifest himself in time to beat us over the head with a book of rules, but rather to hang himself on a bloodied tree wherefrom he reigns with arms nailed open and heart ever pierced. In this is given the icon and the ambit we need carry into every encounter.
How can one be defensive in argument when the mind is being held open? How can one be aloof when the arms are opened wide? How can one feel antagonism when the heart is filled with the embrace of the other. Being a Christian cannot be spoken of as either complicated or simple. Such terms denote a task. Loving God and the world are not tasks to carry out. Love is not a task; it is a way of living, of accepting oneself with gratitude and love, and embracing the world around oneself in that same graciousness. God came into the world to take away sin; that is his work. His decree to us in Christ is that we are accepted and loved as we are; his command to us is that we live in accepting love and openness one to another.
People of God, hear this: your Lord is one God. With all you are, with all you have, be at-one with the Lord, be at-one with each other. In these two commands resides all the word of God. (translation of Matt 22 my own)