Matthew 22:35-39
The Pharisees posed a question they hoped would show Jesus up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”
Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself’.”
“You can’t claim to love God if you hate your neighbor, says the first letter of John; love of God is proved in love of neighbor.” This is the opening line from someone else’s sermon.
There are several spiritual writers and teachers I follow and read on a semi-regular basis for my own spiritual guidance – and, at times, my sanity. This week I was catching up with Mary Luti, one of my favorites, and skimming through some of her older writing. She is the one who wrote the sentence I began with here: You can’t claim to love God if you hate your neighbor ...love of God is proved in love of neighbor.
She went on to say that, while this is undoubtedly a true statement, it is not an exhaustive one. We do indeed love God when loving our neighbor – but is that all there is to loving God? Luti then recounted a story about sitting in a church pew listening to one more social justice sermon about loving-God-through-loving-our-neighbor, when her pew-mate, who she described as, “this faithful old layman,” leaned in her direction and said, “You know, Mary, I think I know by now what God wants me to do. What I’d really like is to know is who is the God who wants me to do it?”
This is the sentence that has had me thinking all week – in part because of the book I am currently reading and in part because of a conversation with a friend. The book I’m reading is Grounded, by Diana Butler Bass. The subtitle of this book is Finding God in the World: A Spiritual Revolution. If you should ever be interested in a well-written, accessible book on spirituality, I recommend this one.
She begins by recounting – very briefly – some historical theology – where the Church at large has stood for centuries on the question of Who is God?
There are several spiritual writers and teachers I follow and read on a semi-regular basis for my own spiritual guidance – and, at times, my sanity. This week I was catching up with Mary Luti, one of my favorites, and skimming through some of her older writing. She is the one who wrote the sentence I began with here: You can’t claim to love God if you hate your neighbor ...love of God is proved in love of neighbor.
She went on to say that, while this is undoubtedly a true statement, it is not an exhaustive one. We do indeed love God when loving our neighbor – but is that all there is to loving God? Luti then recounted a story about sitting in a church pew listening to one more social justice sermon about loving-God-through-loving-our-neighbor, when her pew-mate, who she described as, “this faithful old layman,” leaned in her direction and said, “You know, Mary, I think I know by now what God wants me to do. What I’d really like is to know is who is the God who wants me to do it?”
This is the sentence that has had me thinking all week – in part because of the book I am currently reading and in part because of a conversation with a friend. The book I’m reading is Grounded, by Diana Butler Bass. The subtitle of this book is Finding God in the World: A Spiritual Revolution. If you should ever be interested in a well-written, accessible book on spirituality, I recommend this one.
She begins by recounting – very briefly – some historical theology – where the Church at large has stood for centuries on the question of Who is God?
"Not so long ago, believers confidently asserted that God inhabited heaven, a distant place of eternal reward for the faithful. We occupied a three-tiered universe, with heaven above, where God lived; the world below, where we lived; and the underworld, where we feared we might go after death. The church mediated the space between heaven and earth, acting as a kind of holy elevator, wherein God sent down divine directions and, if we obeyed the directives, we would go up—eventually—to live in heaven forever and avoid the terrors below. Stories and sermons taught us that God occupied the high places, looking over the world and caring for it from afar, occasionally interrupting the course of human affairs with some miraculous reminder of divine power.”
Many of us today still unconsciously use this language to describe our relationship with God – mostly because we’ve heard it all our lives and it sort of comes naturally – but I don’t believe most of us actually believe in that God who sits out there at a distance and watches us from afar – at least those of us who are not biblical-literalists.
Instead, we have come to absorb and internalize an incarnational theology. God is no longer a God at some far remove but, instead, is a God in relationship with us. The God we serve and love is not a God ‘out there,’ but a God who is “in place” right here among us, all around us, with us, even in us. Again, in Butler-Bass’ words -- "God with us, God in the stars and sunrise, God as the face of [our] neighbor, God in the act of justice, God as the wonder of love."
This is a God who is in love with us and with this earth. Humankind is created – not from some angelic stardust but from the very soil we walk on – dirt – this earth. This is a God-Creator so enamored of this physical creation that God just can’t stop creating. We know from modern astronomy that in reality we are a very small, seemingly insignificant dot in the middle of the immensity of all that is and yet – just to give an over the top example -- this single tiny planet is home to 250,000 different species of plants. And if we want really over the top, our earth is also home to 350,000 different species of beetle – yes, beetles! 350,000 different kinds of them!
Why? Because this is a God who can’t seem to bear to not be part and parcel of God’s creation. Ours is a Creator-God who simply must create. Not a God of wars and punishments, but a God of extravagant life. How can you not love this God?
The conversation I mentioned earlier was with a friend who needed some advice – or maybe just a listening ear -- as she voiced her very real concerns about a loved one. The conversation wandered through several subjects as conversations are wont to do, and at one point, she asked, “Why does God only step in and show himself once in a while?”
My response was, “Why do fish not seem to recognize water?” My point being that I believe we live within God just as fish live within water. It isn’t that God only “shows up” on sporadic occasions but that we only rarely stop and look around us and recognize that God is and always has been with us, in us, all around us – constantly -- when we are in a ‘noticing’ mood, for sure, but, also when we are being oblivious. God is right here, loving us, guiding us, teaching us – doing God’s best to get through to us – even when we are completely caught up in our own lives and not paying any attention at all to God-with-us.
This God is very easy to love. I serve this God because I love this God. How can we not love a God who loves us so prodigally? The world is a busy, sometimes chaotic place and it’s easy to get lost in it and forget to pay attention – but, I’m trying. I recommend you try, too. Pay more attention to God-in-the-trees and God-in-the laughter-of-children, God-in-the-scent-of-roses and, yes, God-in-your-neighbor.
Life is easier to navigate when I remember how much I am loved – at every moment. It becomes easier, not just to love God, but to love the God who is in everyone I meet along the way – even, I have to keep reminding myself – in the people I disagree with the most. That one’s not easy. It can be really hard, but with God’s help, I can learn to do better. I’ll keep trying. I’ll do it for love of God.
Instead, we have come to absorb and internalize an incarnational theology. God is no longer a God at some far remove but, instead, is a God in relationship with us. The God we serve and love is not a God ‘out there,’ but a God who is “in place” right here among us, all around us, with us, even in us. Again, in Butler-Bass’ words -- "God with us, God in the stars and sunrise, God as the face of [our] neighbor, God in the act of justice, God as the wonder of love."
This is a God who is in love with us and with this earth. Humankind is created – not from some angelic stardust but from the very soil we walk on – dirt – this earth. This is a God-Creator so enamored of this physical creation that God just can’t stop creating. We know from modern astronomy that in reality we are a very small, seemingly insignificant dot in the middle of the immensity of all that is and yet – just to give an over the top example -- this single tiny planet is home to 250,000 different species of plants. And if we want really over the top, our earth is also home to 350,000 different species of beetle – yes, beetles! 350,000 different kinds of them!
Why? Because this is a God who can’t seem to bear to not be part and parcel of God’s creation. Ours is a Creator-God who simply must create. Not a God of wars and punishments, but a God of extravagant life. How can you not love this God?
The conversation I mentioned earlier was with a friend who needed some advice – or maybe just a listening ear -- as she voiced her very real concerns about a loved one. The conversation wandered through several subjects as conversations are wont to do, and at one point, she asked, “Why does God only step in and show himself once in a while?”
My response was, “Why do fish not seem to recognize water?” My point being that I believe we live within God just as fish live within water. It isn’t that God only “shows up” on sporadic occasions but that we only rarely stop and look around us and recognize that God is and always has been with us, in us, all around us – constantly -- when we are in a ‘noticing’ mood, for sure, but, also when we are being oblivious. God is right here, loving us, guiding us, teaching us – doing God’s best to get through to us – even when we are completely caught up in our own lives and not paying any attention at all to God-with-us.
This God is very easy to love. I serve this God because I love this God. How can we not love a God who loves us so prodigally? The world is a busy, sometimes chaotic place and it’s easy to get lost in it and forget to pay attention – but, I’m trying. I recommend you try, too. Pay more attention to God-in-the-trees and God-in-the laughter-of-children, God-in-the-scent-of-roses and, yes, God-in-your-neighbor.
Life is easier to navigate when I remember how much I am loved – at every moment. It becomes easier, not just to love God, but to love the God who is in everyone I meet along the way – even, I have to keep reminding myself – in the people I disagree with the most. That one’s not easy. It can be really hard, but with God’s help, I can learn to do better. I’ll keep trying. I’ll do it for love of God.
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