Final Jeopardy
a sermon
based on
Matthew 22:34-40
Rev. Randy Quinn
I think someone had
too much time on their hands. That's what I think. Someone - some
unknown person centuries ago - carefully examined the books of Exodus
and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and determined that there were
exactly 613 different commands God gave the people of Israel. And what's
worse, there were people who verified the correct count!
Clearly they didn't
have enough to do!
But there is no doubt
that there were plenty of laws from which Jesus could have chosen. Which
is the greatest commandment?
In some ways, it's too
bad we are so familiar with the answer Jesus gives. I say that because
it would be a fruitful exercise for each of us to read through the law
and come up with our own answers.
I'm convinced Micah
did that. He summarized the law by saying God requires us to "act
justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly" with our God (Mic. 6:8).
David came up with his own list of 11 things in Psalm15. Some would
argue that, in fact, the Ten Commandments were the first attempt to
simplify and prioritize the numerous laws God had given, and that their
role in the scripture is to invite us to do the same - to find ways to
summarize them for ourselves.
But since Jesus has
done such a good job, we think there is a "right" answer and a "wrong"
answer to the question. We are tempted to "push the buzzer" and yell out
the answer rather than experience the benefits that come from the
process of thinking it through for our selves.
So let me try a
different question. Of all the things Jesus said, what do you
think is the most important? Of all the things Jesus said, what
do you think is the most important?
-
I am with you always (Mt. 28:20).
-
I will give you rest (Mt. 11:28).
-
I am the way, the truth, the life (Jn.
14:6).
-
God so loved the world (Jn. 3:16)
-
Go therefore and make disciples (Mt.
28:19).
-
Love one another (Jn. 13:34).
-
Let the children come (Mk. 10:14).
-
Today you will be with me in paradise (Lk.
23:43).
-
Seek first the Kingdom of God (Mt. 7:7)
Which of his sayings
do you think is the most important?
It isn't so easy, is
it? Jesus makes it sound so simple to cull through the 613 commands and
pull out just two, one from Deuteronomy and one from Leviticus. In our
text today he puts them together in such a way that makes sense of the
other 611.
Is there any way we
could do the same with the words of Jesus?
Maybe it's the same
answer that Jesus gave. I mean Jesus clearly quoted scripture many
times, and often in ways that made it sound new.
-
Man does not live by bread alone (Dt.
8:3; Mt. 4:4).
-
The poor will be with you always (Dt.
15:11; Mt. 26:11).
-
Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev.
19:18; Mt. 22:39).
Maybe this particular
passage in Matthew, where Jesus quotes two passages from the Old
Testament, is indeed the most important thing he had to say in his
earthly ministry - love God and love your neighbor.
For the past year I
have been meeting once a month with a group of pastors who are reading
books and learning together how to be better leaders of the churches we
serve. (I'll leave it to you to tell me if I've actually learned
anything from the process.)
More than once, we've
read, said, or heard that the key to effective ministry is to "keep the
main thing the main thing." It's a matter of keeping our focus. It's a
matter of having clear priorities.
The story is told of a
missionary family in China that was forced to leave the country when the
communists came to power. They were told to leave - but they could only
take 150 pounds on the boat with them.
It took them several
days to sort through their treasures, before narrowing it down to a few
boxes filled with those things they knew they would not be able to
replace at home - things like carvings and paintings as well as a small
hand-crafted table that had taken a prominent place in their living
room.
When they arrived at
the pier, the porter who was loading them onto the ship asked
innocently, "Did you weigh your children?" Suddenly, their priorities
shifted. It was all too clear what was most important to take with them
when they left the country.
This group of pastors
I've been meeting with have often cited the reality that it's easy to do
good things, but if the good things we're doing are not helping us go
where God is calling us to go, then they are not necessarily the
right things to do.
The right thing to do
is the main thing. So the question we find ourselves asking is, "what is
the main thing?"
-
Is it to have a full sanctuary on Sunday
morning?
-
Is it to be excellent preachers who
spend time studying and preparing to give a message each week?
-
Is it to send people on mission trips?
-
Is it to pay our apportionments in full?
-
Is it to have an outstanding youth
program?
-
Is it to share the gospel with the
people who live in our neighborhoods?
-
Is it to equip the laity to be effective
in their individual ministries?
-
Is it to provide food to the hungry?
-
Is it to gather in prayer for one
another
Can we name, in a
short phrase or sentence what our church understands its purpose to be?
What is the one thing that we are called to do and be as a
congregation?
Our Book of
Discipline says the main thing for United Methodists, the primary
purpose of the church, is "to make disciples of Jesus Christ" (¶ 120).
If that is the main thing, then the books I've been reading say every
decision should be measured against that stated purpose.
If it doesn't help us
accomplish the main thing, then it is a distraction. As important as it
might be, if it doesn't help us achieve our goal, it is not focusing our
efforts on the main thing.
-
Is it important for me, as a pastor to
visit the shut ins, for instance? How does that help the church make
disciples for Jesus Christ?
-
Is it important for you, as members of
this church, to care for this building? How does that help us make
disciples for Jesus Christ?
In his book, The
Evangelistic Love of God & Neighbor, Bishop Scott Jones suggests
the main thing for the church is evangelism. He offers a working
definition of evangelism that fits within the idea of making disciples
for Jesus Christ. To him, evangelism is "a set of loving, intentional
activities governed by the goal of initiating persons into Christian
discipleship."
He goes on to say that the key to evangelism is the love of God and
neighbor - the very same commandments upon which Jesus says the Law and
the Prophets hang.
From that perspective,
it is not a far stretch to say that loving God and loving neighbor is
the main thing. And clearly one leads to the other. The vertical
relationship we have with God cannot be complete until we have a
horizontal connection to our neighbor.
To come to church on
Sunday and say we love God and then to ignore our neighbor either on our
way out the door or as we encounter him or her during the week is to
say, in effect, that we don't really love God. In fact, in his epistle,
John reminds us that whoever does not love doesn't even know God
(1 Jn. 4:8)!
We cannot love God
without loving our neighbor and we cannot love our neighbor without
loving God. The two go hand-in-hand.
John Wesley understood
that when he talked about doing acts of mercy as well as acts of piety.
He warned the church against the temptation to do one to the neglect of
the other. They cannot exist separately. The way I often restate it is
to say that our love of God is reflected in our love of neighbor.
Perhaps the best
example of putting those two aspects of the Christian faith together is
Jesus himself, who clearly loved God and just as clearly loved the
people he met. He spent time alone with God and he spent time with his
disciples as well as the multitudes. Loving God led to and was reflected
in his love for people.
The same can be said
for others in history who have done the same thing, people who were
clear about their purpose as well as their love. These include people
like Mother Teresa as well as lesser known saints like Dottie Stewart
(whose story I will introduce to you in a couple of weeks). Their love
for God was reflected in the way they loved their neighbors, a love that
was so clear no one who knew them or heard about them doubted the
sincerity of their love.
And that, according to
Bishop Jones, is the key to evangelism.
But Bishop Jones also
suggests that such diverse things as teaching Sunday School and mowing
the church lawn can either be seen as evangelistic or self-serving,
depending entirely upon our reasons for doing them. It is the
"intentional" part of the activity that he says is as important as the
loving nature of the activity.
In other words, what
we do is not nearly as important as how we do them. It's what makes us
Methodist - the method we use in defining our faith, in
reflecting God's love, in living out our common commitment to love God
and our neighbor.
Not only do the law
and the prophets hang on these two commandments, so does the future of
our church.
Thanks be to God for
the clarity Jesus provides as we find ways to honor him in all that we
do.
Amen.
Selected
Bibliography
Howell, David B., editor. Lectionary Homiletics.
October 1999 (Vol. X, No. 11) and October 2002 (Vol. XIII, No. 11).
Jones, Scott J. The Evangelistic Love of God &
Neighbor (A Theology of Witness & Discipleship). Nashville:
Abingdon, 2003.
Quinn, Randy L. "Daring to Ask." Sermon preached October
24, 1993 at Allen Blanchard; based on Matthew 22:34-46.
Soards, Marion; Thomas Dozeman; Kendall McCabe.
Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (Year A: After Pentecost 2).
Nashville: Abingdon, 1994.
Wingeier, Douglas E., editor. Keeping Holy Time
(Studying the Revised Common Lectionary, Year A). Nashville:
Abingdon, 2001.
