October 31, 2021 – Mark 12:28-34
Mark 12:28-34
Love God. Love Neighbour. Reform. Repeat.
Reformation Sunday – Lectionary 31B – October 31, 2021
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
When Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg all those years ago,
he was concerned about the well-being of everyday church members.
He did not want them misled about the Gospel.
And he did not want them taken advantage of.
You could say that he was coming to see how religion could become more important than
simply humanity and compassion.
He would eventually come to see that whole tracts of his own church tradition needed to be
re-formed.
The church – he and the other reformers came to understand – needed to be reformed,
and always needed be in the process of being reformed.
This is a fundamental principle of our church.
I often say that the church continually needs to re-form itself in order to
articulate the Gospel ever more clearly:
the Gospel – the good news – of God’s great, unconditional love for all people.
But Luther’s own story – and the Gospel story today – remind me that
reformation also has to do with re-forming the church so that it loves people better.
We must always be wary of making our religion more important than humanity, than compassion.
Church is not about loving religion.
Church is about loving God – and we love God best, Jesus affirms, by loving our neighbour.
Indeed, in Jesus’ view, you can only love God by loving your neighbour.
And you can do neither if you love religion and tradition more.
Take the today’s scribe.
This is so interesting!
The scribes hate Jesus!
Mark makes them out to be almost entirely antagonistic to Jesus throughout his Gospel.
They charge him with blasphemy.
They criticise the company he keeps.
They claim he has Beelzebul.
They question his authority.
After today’s encounter, they will work with Judas to capture him.
They will consult with others to hand Jesus over to Pilate.
And they will mock him on the cross.
In Mark’s view some of the scribes, at least, are responsible for Jesus’ death.
And yet, and yet, this individual scribe comes before Jesus – and agrees with him!
He is not letting his religious tradition get in the way of his agreeing with Jesus!
And Jesus is not letting the way he is treated by the other scribes get in the way of agreeing with this scribe.
These two are in complete agreement: the most important thing is loving God, and loving neighbour.
Nothing is more important than that.
Indeed, how well we love our neighbours shows how well we love God.
These two guys get it.
Maybe the scribe was coming to see that his fellow scribes’ religion was getting in the way of
loving Jesus, a fellow Jew – or at least, getting in the way of understanding him.
Jesus and the scribe agree on the importance of love – loving God and loving neighbour.
And it’s not like they had to conjure this idea out of thin air.
It was an important part of Jewish tradition! For hundreds of years!
Love God? Deuteronomy.
Love your neighbour as yourself? Leviticus.
Love God and neighbour more than religion and animal sacrifices? Um, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos.
Sooooo: Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Jesus, the scribe, Martin Luther:
they all saw pretty clearly how religion can get in the way of loving our neighbour,
maybe even facilitate harming our neighbour.
Which is why we always need to be re-evaluating and re-forming.
If we love God best by loving our neighbour, is the way we worship conducive to loving our neighbours?
Does worship lead to loving our neighbour?
Does the sermon lead to loving our neighbour?
Does the way we celebrate communion lead to loving our neighbour?
Does worship lead to justice? Or does it lead to self-love and self-congratulation?
Does worship lead to engagement with and participation in God’s mission to
love, bless, heal and set free this whole world and every person in it?
If it doesn’t – we’re doing it wrong.
The scribe says it simply and well – to love God and to love one’s neighbour as one’s self
is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
And Jesus says in response: you are very close to God’s reign of love.
Stunningly, no one has anything to add.
Because there is nothing else to add.
Love God. Love your neighbour. Reform as needed. Repeat.
Amen
Pastor Michael Kurtz
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
