In many fields of study, one of the ways to begin to understand a piece of work – a play, a novel, a symphony, an ideological system, a school of philosophical thought — is to identify the key concept around which the work is structured.
What is the fundamental idea, or the essential thesis or the organizing principle that must be understood for everything else to make sense?
There can be debates about what this essential, key concept is.
Is the key idea in Hamlet reflected in the question, “to be or not to be?” or is it based on the observation that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”?
Was the key concept at the heart of the political philosophy of Marxism the goal of a just and equal sharing of the world’s resources, or was it a desire to restrain individual liberty through the amassing of totalitarian collective power in the hands of a few?
Is capitalism’s real goal the safeguarding of individual liberty or is it the pursuit of greed and the amassing of personal wealth?
Even in entertainment, our perspective on the intended focus of the narrative affects the way that we understand the entire story. When I was a kid, we all thought that the Star Wars saga was focused on the struggle of the Rebel Alliance against the destructive power of the Empire. But, many years later, the subsequent films revealed that the real story was the fall and eventual redemption of Anakin Skywalker (which made one ponder whether Darth Vader was the evil villain or the ultimately redeemed hero of the whole story!)?
In these, and in so many other parts of life, to come to a place of clarity about organizing idea, the key concept at the heart of a piece of art, or a political movement or a great story helps everything else to come into focus.
So what then, we might ask, should be the key concept at the heart of the Christian faith? What would we want people to think of – first and foremost – when they hear reference to the Church or to the Christian religion? If you had to come up with a soundbite slogan for what following Jesus was supposed to be all about, what would we say?
There are different answers to this question – some suggest that the key is “God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son”; some suggest that the key is “repent and believe”; some suggest that it is “you must be born again” – and there is legitimacy in each of these summations of the Gospel call.
It is interesting for us to realize that the question that rests at the heart of today’s suggested Gospel reading was, in many ways, a question about Jesus’ understanding of the key concept of what life was supposed to be about.
“Which commandment is the first of all?”
Even as we read these words, we are all aware that the question “which commandment is the first of all?” was not a question of order or chronology. The scribe was not asking for number 1 in a list of rules, as he would have known, perfectly well, the order that the great commandments of his tradition would have been arranged.
Rather, his question about the first commandment was a question about priority, and emphasis and importance.
Young teacher, the scribe asked Jesus, what do you think is the most important thing to remember? What is the essential idea, the organizing principle, the key concept around which everything else in the Law is supposed to revolve – and without which one might know the whole of the Law but miss the entire point?
“Which commandment is the first of all?”
It is a question that every one of us is wise to ponder as we seek to live by faith, to understand the whole point of our religion, and to walk in obedience to the call of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ answer was clear and to the point. “The first is, “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 mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
There it was. And just for added emphasis on how important, how essential, how key that two-fold call to love was, Jesus then stated, “There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment, no rule, no form of obedience greater than these. That is what life, and faith, and obedience, according to Jesus, was supposed to be all about. Get those two things right, and everything else will fall into place.
But this is where things get complicated.
Earlier this year, the elders of the congregation commissioned a study which is trying to help us to come to a better understanding of the perspective that those “outside” of the church – and particularly those in the younger generations – have on the church. What would a person in their twenties who has little or no background in the church experience if they were to come through those doors on a Sunday morning? There were many good insights that emerged from those investigations, as well as some troubling realities.
The troubling realities were not entirely surprising, but reflect a degree of skepticism and cynicism about the way that the church operates. We were reminded that the church, in general, is often perceived by those on the outside (and sometimes by those on the inside!) as being overly controlling, too dogmatic, irrelevant to the realities of life, prejudiced, sexist, sometimes misogynistic, homophobic and complicit in the abuse of children, narrow-minded, opposed to the insights of science, hypocritical…well, the list goes on.
Those of us who are committed to the church need to accept that there is legitimacy to some of those labels and critiques, even if many of them are unfair and rooted in stereotypes and caricatures rather than in reality. Our typical response, when we hear such criticisms, is to become defensive, which is understandable but we should not try too hard to defend ourselves against such criticisms – but rather listen to them to see when and why they might actually reflect truths that we would prefer not to face.
But in spite of the criticisms, what is perhaps most troubling is that very few people who look on the church from the outside, if asked what the followers of Jesus are known for, would state that the followers of Jesus are known, first and foremost, for loving God and loving their neighbours as they love themselves.
Which, according to Jesus, is what we are supposed to be all about – and which is what stood at the very heart of Jesus’ understanding of what obedience and faithfulness were supposed to look like when he was asked what was the first and greatest commandment, what was the most important thing to keep in mind.
We will never get it completely right – there is forgiveness and grace. But in spite of our failures and mistakes in living up to this noble ideal, it can be good for us to ponder how that key concept – loving God and loving our neighbours – is meant to inform and infuse everything else that we do, from the rituals and sacraments within the gathered community, right through to our engagement with the world around us.
We worship, out of love for God, and we worship together out of love for the community of those with whom we share the journey of faith. We celebrate communion, out of loving response to the One who gave himself, out of love, for us on the cross, but also to remind ourselves that in the kingdom of God’s love, there is space at the Table for all, there is enough for all to be fed, there is a new community, a place where we all come, together, to this table, as loving companions, as neighbours who are called to love one another as we love ourselves.
And then we go from this Table to serve the world – to feed the hungry because they are the neighbours that we are called to love as we love ourselves; to welcome the immigrant and the newcomer, because they are the neighbours that we are called to love as we love ourselves; to visit the sick and the lonely, because they are the neighbours that we are called to love as we love ourselves; to pray for, and forgive, and do good to those who wrong us because they are the neighbours that we are called to love as we love ourselves; to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, because both those who weep and those who rejoice are the neighbours that we are called to love as we love ourselves.
Everything that the church does is meant to be rooted and grounded in this overarching, essential, foundational mandate, this key concept – to love God and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
And anything that the church does that does not align with that key concept…when the church gets co-opted by outside interests, or is seduced by destructive ideologies, or becomes more preoccupied with its own power and its own survival than with this call to love, or does any of the many things that the church has done, over the past twenty centuries, which have not been rooted and grounded in this call to love — well, such are the times when we most need to repent, to remember and to return to Jesus’ own articulation of what true faithfulness, true obedience, true discipleship was all about. Such are the time when we most need to remember and to return to the key concept that Jesus said was greater than any other sign of faithfulness and obedience. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. There is nothing greater, nothing more important, nothing more faithful than that.
Love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
And we must get this right – because in these beautiful, challenging, words rests the future of the church, the salvation of our souls, and the healing of the world.
Amen.
