Proper 25 -- Exodus 22: 21-27; Psalm
1; I
Thessalonians 2: 1-8; Matthew 22:
34-46
A homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at The
Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois on October 26, 2014.
“A COMMAND TO LOVE?”
(Homily text: Matthew
22: 34-46)
Many of you
will know that, in my life before I was ordained, I was a singer. While I was in music school, some of our
voice students used to sing a song which was entitled, “Love in the
Dictionary”.[1] Its lyrics were those of the definition of
the word “love” as it was found in the old Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary. Here they are:
Love:
A strong, complex emotion or feeling of personal attachment,
causing
one to appreciate, delight in, or crave the presence
or
possession of the object, and to please and promote the welfare
of
that object;
devoted
affection or attachment;
specifically,
the feeling between husband and wife;
brother
and sister;
or
lover and sweetheart;
One
who is beloved;
a
sweetheart;
animal
passion;
the
personification of the love-passion;
Cupid;
in
some games, as tennis, nothing.
Perhaps it’s true that most
people think about love quite a lot. We
know that loving and being loved is beneficial to one’s health and well-being.
But just what is love? And more importantly to our gospel text this
morning, why does God command us to love?
Let’s explore both of these
questions.
First of all, when many people
think of love, they think it is an emotion.
“Love is how you feel about someone,” they might say.
But the truth is that love is far
more than an emotion or a feeling. Love
has power and force. Notice how the definition of the song I mentioned earlier
takes account of the power of love, as it says that love is “a strong, complex feeling….” Love can
cause things to happen, to change. Take,
for example, the famous love story of Antony and Cleopatra….I’ll grant you that
this love story isn’t a particularly positive example, but consider what
happened when these two people thought they loved one another: Things happened, and the world was changed as
a result.
Or consider the power of love
that causes a spouse to care for another spouse whose health is failing, caring
for them over a period of many years.
Love has power, love is a force.
We could go on to cite examples of a parents’ love for a child, a love
that is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to ensure the child’s welfare.
Now, let’s consider the
requirement, the commandment, to love.
In today’s gospel, Jesus is asked
the question, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?” In response, Jesus quotes what is known as
the Sh’ma, which is found in
Deuteronomy 6: 5, and which is repeated by faithful Jews twice a day. The Sh’ma
says this: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Then, Jesus adds a second commandment, a
quote from Leviticus 19: 18, which commands us to love our neighbors as we love
ourselves.[2]
One might expect that Jesus would
have cited one of the more well-known “Thou shalt nots” in the commandments,
perhaps one from the Ten Commandments, in forming His answer. But He doesn’t do that at all….He cites the
requirement to love God, and to love others as we love ourselves.
Putting the two words “love”
together with the word “commandment” seems a bit odd, doesn’t it? Can we order someone to love us? Shouldn’t love arise naturally and freely out
of our very inner self?
Of course it should. Love should arise from our very nature, the
truest part of who we are. Love ought to
be so much a part of who we are that we can’t keep from loving.
And maybe that’s exactly the
point Jesus is driving home. After all,
God’s people in ancient times had known of God’s love by the many ways that God
had saved them. God had rescued them
from slavery in Egypt, God had led them through the waters of the Red Sea on
dry land. God had made a covenant
agreement with them in the desert, telling them that they were His special and
unique people. God had given them the
land of Canaan as their own possession.
God had brought them out of bondage in Babylon so that they could return
to the land that God had promised them.
These generous, saving and loving
acts of God are just a short summary of a long list of things that we could
cite which demonstrate God’s love for the people He has claimed for Himself.
Loving, caring and saving seem to
be a very important part of God’s nature.
God can’t help loving, caring and saving.
And as God loves, cares and
saves, these essential parts of who God is flow outward from God to us. God doesn’t hoard His loving, caring and
saving, keeping it to Himself. Instead,
God’s nature is to shower us with His love, His care and His salvation.
Which brings us to the supreme
expression of God’s love, care and salvation:
Jesus Christ.
In Jesus Christ, God’s love is
most clearly and most powerfully seen and experienced. In Jesus Christ, we see the nature of God to
reach out to us, showering us with God’s love, God’s care and God’s salvation.
But why does God command us to
love?
Perhaps the answer is that,
because loving is so central to God’s nature, God wants us to know how
important loving is to our health and well-being. Having the capacity and the disposition to
love must become a part of the very core of who we are as human beings.
For loving God and loving others
as we love ourselves draws out of our own self-centeredness. Loving God connects us to God. Loving others connects us to others.
And when we get connected to God,
things change, things happen, things get better. When we love others, the same things begin to
happen, as well.
May the Holy Spirit of God enable
us to love God genuinely and with all that we are and all that we have. May the Holy Spirit of God enable us to love
others with all that we are and all that we have, as well.
AMEN.
