October 23, 2011
Picking and Choosing
- Matthew 22:34-46
Since several of you suggested it, I saw the movie Higher Ground last week. It is the story of a woman and her faith. There is a scene when teenage parents Corinne and Ethan almost lose their infant child in a terrible accident. They are desperately trying to understand God’s message to them in the experience.
The father takes a bible, shuts his eyes, opens it and randomly points to a verse. And he reads from Psalm 137-9Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
“That can’t be right,” he exclaims, closes the book and tries again.
We often look at Christians with whom we disagree and accuse them of “picking and choosing” Bible verses for their own convenience. The people I disagree with do it all the time. So do the people with whom I am in full agreement.
We all do, because in reality we must. We all have to decide how we will read scripture and how we will make sense out the sections that confuse us, the passages that contradict other passages or the stories the support attitudes or behaviors we find unacceptable. The same Bible has been used throughout history to affirm both slavery and emancipation, sexism and equality, war and nonviolence. The same Bible is used to condemn homosexuality and to affirm the rights of homosexuals. The scripture can teach that Jesus is the only way to God and scripture can prove that people of many faiths will be saved.
If we pay attention to everything the Bible has to say about, anger, wealth, disobedient wives and children, marriage, and divorce we find that the Scripture is not only very demanding, and very confusing, it is also often contradictory. The Bible was written by different people at different times and for different reasons. Not all the authors were trying to make the same points. Not all the writers present the same teachings.
The question, then, becomes what criteria should we use to pick and choose between various parts of scripture? This week’s Gospel lesson invites us to consider Jesus’ own way of reading scripture as a potential model for picking and choosing.
When the lawyer asks Jesus, Out of those 613 rules and regulations- all of which are important to our faith, which one is the most important?
Jesus immediately turns to an ancient Jewish blessing- the Shema- Deuteronomy 6:5
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
Then Jesus goes on to the question the lawyer did not ask- If that is number 1, what is number 2? And he jumps to Leviticus 19:18- You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus is picking and choosing. And he picks and chooses love. By selecting love as his interpretive lens, Jesus echoed the theme of compassion which is at the heart and center of each of the world’s major wisdom traditions.
Author, historian Karen Armstrong has written- (Charter for Compassion)
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
Love, then, is not only our goal, but also our means of getting there. We love God by loving our neighbor. We love our neighbor through acts of love. Love- in scripture is not an emotion. It is an action. It has nothing to do with how you feel. It has everything to do with how you behave.
We think of love as a good thing, and it is. But it also has its risks. When we love we risk being called foolish or sentimental. When we love we risk becoming involved. When we love we risk hurt, loss or failure. But the greatest risk in life is not loving. Only the person who loves is totally faithful.
If I love you___________ as much as I love myself, I would ______________.
fill in the first blank with:
your partner/spouse/dearest friend
your child/ parent
a colleague/friend
someone who just drives you nuts
someone who hurt you
the hungry guy at the exit ramp
the homeless family living in the park downtown
the AIDS orphan in Kenya
the person in the pew behind you this morning
the refugee
It is about picking and choosing. Picking who we will love. Choosing how we will love them. It is about loving who Jesus loves- and that would be everyone. Loving how Jesus loves- and that would be indiscriminately, freely, constantly, generously, and abundantly.
Love God with everything you’ve got. And love everyone else the same way.
Thanks be to God.
Amen