Scripture:
Ruth 1:1-18 and Psalm 146 •
Deuteronomy 6:1-9 and Psalm 119:1-8 •
Hebrews 9:11-14 •
Mark 12:28-34
This week I will not be in Sunday School class. I have been asked to give the homily at St. James Episcopal Church in Louis, VA while Alex is at his diocesan convention.
I would like to share my message with you this week.
I am
honored and humbled to be asked to deliver a homily here with you, in what has
been our church away from home, and which we also consider our second home
church. When I prepare for Sunday school, or to deliver a homily at St. Mark’s,
my first inclination is to examine the words in the texts. In my work, words
are very important. It is essential to use clear, meaningful, and persuasive
words. But words mean nothing if they are not “lived into.”
A couple of weeks ago, I got to bask
in grandfatherly glory as I was able to hold our fourth grandchild, Margaret
Ann Riffee, surrounded by my Virginia family. Debi and I had raised two ornery
boys, who turned out pretty well, but I had no experience dealing with young
girls. Of course, Emma has me wrapped around her little finger. I watched Emma
interact with her little sister, and thought about sisters. I like to ask
questions. Part of my life’s work, I guess. As we were all gathered in Alex and
Yinghao’s family room, I thought about sisters, and I asked, “What were the
name of the sisters in “Fiddler on the Roof?[i]”
After a pause, Alex, in perfect
Hebrew, gave us the name of the first sister, Chava. Later, Yinghao gave us the
names of the two other teen sisters, Tseitel, or as Alex says in the voice of
his favorite Hebrew professor, “Zeitel.” Do you know the name of the other
sister? (Hovel.) You don’t want to take on Alex and Yinghao in Jeopardy, or
trivia. I manage to get in a couple of answers, but they usually get most of
them, if not all of them. Debi’s better than I am, too.
So, I asked Alex, “What does “Chava”
mean in Hebrew. Alex immediately replied, “it is a name meaning `love’.” Chava
means love. And that leads to today’s Old Testament reading, the great Shema, “Hear,
O Israel. The Lord your God is one God. 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.” Devout Jews recite this in their morning and
evening prayers. The Hebrew word for “love” used in this passage from
Deuteronomy is “ahava,” the root
of which is “hav,” which means “to give.” Giving effect to the Shema, is
to act to give one’s heart, soul and might to God.
During
my last visit with my family, it was touching to see Emma give affection to her
baby sister. Knowing this is a big step for a two year old to go from being the
center of her parents’ attention, to sharing that love and attention with a
totally dependent newborn, Debi, gave Emma her own life size baby doll. What a
prescient, loving gift. And what a wonderful and profound thing to see, Emma
caring for her baby doll. Ahava is an act of giving love.
There
is another Hebrew word for love. And this type of love is shown in the
alternative Old Testament reading for today in the lectionary. It involves the
story of an older Hebrew woman whose husband died, whose sons married
foreigners, and whose sons died. In ancient Israel, a woman could die without
property and sustenance if she had no husband or sons, who could own property
and provide for her. Even though her daughters in law were devoted to her, she
told them to go back to their homeland, saying, “May the LORD show you loving kindness,
as you have shown loving kindness [chesed] to your dead husbands and to
me.’” One left weeping and sad. The
other told her “Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge; your
people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die--
there will I be buried. May the LORD do thus and so to me, and more as well, if
even death parts me from you!" One left, and one stayed, even when things
seemed hopeless, and gleaned the leftovers in the fields of Israel to look
after her. She later married a man to help her mother in law. This was
more than just loving kindness. Do you know this story? Who is this about?
(Ruth). It is also about you and me.
Ruth
demonstrated chesed, a loyal love that goes beyond the requirement of
familial duty. A love which goes beyond a command, a duty. Beyond a covenant, contract, or agreement. It
is not dependent upon feelings or mood; it is something that we do to provide
for what another person needs. It is motivated by compassion and “ahava.”
Ruth is the great grandmother of King David, from whom Jews and Christians
believe comes the Messiah.
And
now let’s look at today’s gospel. When a scribe asks Jesus what the great
Commandment is, Jesus starts with the Shema, adds the word “mind,” “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.' and says there is another, quoting from Leviticus, “'You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
The translation of the Greek word for “love,” which Jesus uses is a word I now
you have heard before, “agape (ἀγάπη).” We see a further development of our understanding
of God’s love, and the love we are to have for God, and our neighbor. It has
been described as early as the prehistoric Greek poet, Homer, as “affection.”
Agape
was also used by the early Christians to refer to the self-sacrificing love of
God for humanity, which they were committed to reciprocating and practicing
towards God and among one another. It embraces a universal, unconditional love
that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance. C. S. Lewis uses agape
in The Four Loves to describe what he believes is the highest level
of love known to humanity: a selfless love that is passionately committed to
the well-being of others.
And
these are not just words. John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelled
among us. Jesus embodied, not just the commandment to give love, as in “ahava,”
but something that goes beyond a duty, or obedience to a command. It is
motivated by the affection of “ahava,” and is something we do to provide for
what another person needs, the “chesed,” in Ruth.
But
it is more than that. Jesus told us
the first must be last, that we must welcome the weak, the poor, the child, the
stranger, and lose ourselves to gain ourselves. For, he said, in losing one’s
life, one shall gain it. As Paul in his letter to the Philippians told
us, Jesus who, though he was in qthe
form of God, did not count equality with God ra
thing to be grasped,2 7 but
semptied
himself, by taking the form of a tservant,3 ubeing
born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he
humbled himself by vbecoming
obedient to the point of death, weven death on a cross.”
That is the kind of love Jesus is about, and we, as Christians are to be about.
And Jesus showed us, embodying the
love of God and love of neighbor as ourselves. He gave us the parable of the Good
Samaritan, an outcast half-breed to the Jews, who took care of the traveler who
was beaten and left to die by thieves when the priest, and good law observing
Jews would not. He touched and healed the untouchable. He invited the despised
tax collector to become a disciple, Matthew, who gave us one of the gospels. He
gave us the parable of the prodigal son, who squandered his inheritance, but
was welcomed home by his father who ran to him and ordered the fatted calf be
prepared to celebrate his homecoming. He said the widow, with her paltry sum,
gave more than the wealthy Pharisee who proudly announced his greatness in
giving. He reached out to the Samaritan woman at the well, and he stopped the
stoning of an accused adulteress saying “let who among you has not sinned, cast
the first stone.” He turned over the tables of the money changers in the
temple. He disabused the idea of a militaristic
Messiah who would challenge Rome and the powers of that time, and told his
disciples how he must suffer a humiliating death, and then rise again in three
days.
In
all of this we see that Jesus lived into the words of love. He showed us
who our neighbors are, and lived into it. Some call it grace. Some call it
mercy. But the bedrock of all of it is love with affection, compassion, and
being able to put aside that which blocks or interferes with showing God’s
loving grace to each other, even if that means sacrificing what we want, even ourselves.
This kind of love
enables us to forgive. Forgive ourselves, and others who have wronged us, as
Jesus forgave the ones who crucified him, and the thief on the cross.
This kind of love works for peace,
and reconciliation. Much needed in a world so divided today. A world in which
we are goaded into choosing sides.
In
Jesus, we are given a love of abundance – not scarcity – love and life, even
eternal life, for all – he showed us – for all, not just some of us, or those
on our side.
Just as the Word became flesh, and
dwelled among us, we are reminded in the Holy Eucharist, the meal Jesus asked
us to celebrate in remembrance of him, that the unconditional love that
transcends and persists, dwells in us, through the presence of Christ in the
elements, and in our lives. Through thick and thin, and through all life has to
offer. Jesus knows we will falter and fall. We will get angry, lose our cool,
say things we shouldn’t say or do things we know we shouldn’t do. We will get
tired and sick. People make mistakes. That’s
why we need to come to his table, and often, for he says as often as we partake
of his meal, do it remembrance of him. Jesus has shown us the face of God. A
God of loving kindness. Of unconditional love. We won’t get all the answers,
but we worship a God who is with us on our journey. We know the love we are called to. We know
the neighbors we are called to love. With all our hearts, souls, minds, and
might, let us live into it.
Amen.
