Sermon: Passionate, Fearless Love

Matthew 22:34-46

Passionate, Fearless Love

James Sledge                                                                                       October 29, 2-17

A version of today’s gospel reading appears in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which all follow the same basic timeline. But only Matthew has the question about the greatest commandment as part of Jesus’ final confrontation with his opponents. In Matthew, this is the last effort to catch Jesus in some mistake, to outwit him in some way.

 Perhaps Matthew wants to highlight two issues for his Jewish congregation before  he gets to Jesus’ final teachings and then his arrest and crucifixion. Perhaps he wants to highlight Jesus as the faithful and reliable interpreter of the Law and the Prophets, the chosen successor to Moses, and who Jesus is as Messiah, the anointed one of God.

Using a quote from the Psalms to talk about Jesus as Messiah probably doesn’t grab us like it might have people in Jesus’ day. The way Jesus uses scripture to prove his point was typical of rabbis in his day, but it doesn’t sound all that convincing to me, or perhaps to you.

But Jesus’ words on the greatest commandment have resonated down through the centuries. People with little connection to church may well be familiar with, “Love God with heart, soul, and mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus of course quotes from what we call the Old Testament. After all, he’s been asked which commandment from there is number one. Jesus names his  choice, calling it “the greatest and first commandment,” but he’s unwilling to stop with just one, adding a second that is “like it.” Taken together, says Jesus, obeying these two commandments will keep you in line on pretty much all the rest.

In my experience, many people tend to move quickly past the greatest and first commandment, turning the focus on loving neighbor. That happens in the gospel of Luke, where the person questioning Jesus has an immediate follow-up. “And who is my neighbor?” To which Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

But we’re in Matthew, not Luke, and there is no follow-up to Jesus’ statement on the greatest commandment. There are simply the two commandments, and one of them is the greatest and first commandment. It is also the longer commandment, with more elaborate language. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” And so I wonder if we wouldn’t do well not to be in a rush to get to the one about loving neighbor. I wonder if we wouldn’t do well to linger here a bit and consider what it means to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.

Love is a funny word. We use it to mean so many different things. The word in our gospel translated “love” isn’t typically used for romantic love, so maybe Jesus is talking about loving God like you love your dad or aunt or uncle. But this love is with all your heart, soul, and mind. That sounds more like romantic love. It certainly sounds like passion. I would never tell one of my aunts or uncles, whom I love a great deal, “I love you will all my heart and soul and mind.” That would just be weird.

Of course there are things people get passionate about other than romance. In the eleven years we lived in Columbus, Ohio, I witnessed a fanatical passion for Ohio State football that sometimes bordered on lunacy. They behaved in ways that were surely not normal for them. It was a passion to match that of someone who’s fallen madly in love.

Perhaps you know someone who is passionate about a hobby, who spends every free moment and inordinate amounts of money and energy on it. I’ve known people whose golf habit or bicycling habit appeared to single-handedly keep a golf or bike shop in business.

I’ve seen people who were in love or passionate about something  totally dedicate themselves to that person or passion, spend incredible amounts of money, act in ways that others thought foolish, and even take great risks. I’ve seen people love someone or something with heart and soul and mind, but much less often have I seen people love God like that.

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Some of you are probably aware that this week marks the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, an event that would kick off the Protestant Reformation, although that was not Luther’s original intent. Luther was a priest and theologian who was assigned to teach theology at the University of Wittenberg. He was extremely devout and often agonized over his inability to be good enough, to live as faithful a life as he wanted to do. It is said that Luther used to drive his confessor crazy, confessing every minor misstep he could recall while worrying that he was forgetting something. And if he later remembered, he would rush back to his confessor no matter the hour.

But studying scripture, especially the letters of Paul, and reading St. Augustine, especially his writings on Paul’s letters, Luther came to a glorious discovery that freed him from his fears and worries. He discovered the freely given grace and love of God, a gift given no matter what he had done or failed to do. And this experience of God’s great love in Christ Jesus filled Luther with a passion that would animate the rest of his life.

Luther’s passion led him to challenge the church. He first tried to reform it, but when that failed, he would not turn from the path he felt God wanted him to walk. He defied the church and the pope, despite being threatened with death. And his fearlessness born of passionate faith would create the Protestant Church, transform the Western world, and even lead to reforms in the Roman Catholic Church he had left. Truly Luther loved God with all his heart and soul and mind.

Where have you encountered the love and grace of God that frees you from your fears and inspires passion? Where have you experienced the love of God in Christ that is so strong, so fierce, it would endure the cross for you? And if you have, how has it freed you for love, to give yourself to God fiercely, passionately, fearlessly?

Beloved, let us love as we have been loved in Christ.