Event Calendar
Proper 25a – “All You Need is Love.” Matthew 22:34-46
Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. The text for our sermon meditation is taken from of, the Chapter:
“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, "What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The son of David." He said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, "'The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet?”
If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?" And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”
So far the reading.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this still popular song:
“All You Need is Love”
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
… There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time - It's easy.
… All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
This is the continued cry of people the world over and in every time. Even Jesus, almost two thousand years ago, proclaimed this same need. All you need is love. Jesus says that love is the fulfilling of the Law of
God. This seems to be an unwritten law in the hearts of every person. We seek love and to be loved.
Our Lord declares to those who seek his destruction that Love for God and love for neighbor is the fulfillment of the Law. If one loves God then one will love one’s self and their neighbor. This is the question we consider this Lord’s Day. All you need is love, but how do we fulfill the law of love?
What does it mean to love God, self and neighbor? This is a difficult law to fulfill for us. If you take a long hard look at your life, you will have to confess you have failed, and often failed miserably to love God and your neighbor. You have no problem loving yourself, if you call selfishness love. You are often zealous for yourself but less than enthusiastic for anyone else even God will take the back seat when it comes to selfishness.
You will sometimes live with the same false piety shown by the Pharisees in this reading from Matthew’s Gospel account. We read last week how they sought to butter Jesus up by saying we know you teach the truth of God. Now a few verses later they again come to Jesus with their false piety and deceitful intent to test the Son of God. Which is the greatest commandment?
These men were quite sure of their own holiness before God. They loved themselves with an enduring self-serving love. Jesus parodied this self-serving love in the parable comparing the prayer of the publican and the prayer of the Pharisee. Do you remember the prayer of the Publican? “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.” Where was the publican praying? Off in the corner on his knees with his face to the ground. Do you remember the prayer of the Pharisee? “God I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners,, unjust, adulterers, or even like this publican. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I possess.”
Love is expressed well in this parable. Love for God and love for self. Both men showed love for God. However, one man worshiped himself as God. The publican showed love for God in seeking mercy through the humbleness of faith. His faith in the true God moved him to repentance. He examined his life according to the word of God and saw how far he had fallen from God’s grace. Listening to the list of accusations levied by the Pharisee, this publican could have been guilty of many charges.
On the other hand, the Pharisee set himself up as God. He looks judgmentally at his neighbor and sees no redeeming qualities. He is God’s counselor giving God instruction on how to treat his neighbor. The Pharisee seeks to depose God from His throne and sit where God sits. Justice mercy and faithfulness is not readily apparent in the Pharisee’s words and thinking.
Like the Pharisee you sometimes fail to recognize your sinful ascending to the throne of God. How many of you check your horoscope? How many of you play or have played the lottery? How many of you look around you and look only at your neighbor from the outside rather than seeking to know what is in your neighbor’s heart? How many of you decide you can skip a day of worship? How many of you think your time and talents are better used elsewhere other than among this family of God’s children?
You are called by God to serve Him in this congregation. He loved you with His eternal love in Jesus Christ and made you a member of His body here in this congregation. God asks you in love to return your love for Him by offering back to Him your life in Jesus Christ. Returning your love for God begins by being found in His house at the time appointed for worship.
During this time of worship you rejoice and praise God by telling Him what he does for you in the sacrifice of His son. During this time of worship you gather at the Feast of Love wherein you eat and drink the very body and blood of Jesus Christ crucified in love for sinners such as you and me. You tell God what He has done rather than tell God what He is to do? You ask God to turn His eyes toward you and to reveal His will to you rather than demanding He act and speak as if he were a slave.
This is the way it always was, is and will be. Jesus says that “All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.” From the beginning God showed His love for His creation and His creatures. From the beginning God commanded his creatures show love for him. He placed these commands in your heart that you may ponder them with your mind and live them with your lives.
Let us now ponder the love for your neighbor. In the book of Leviticus God says:
“You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.”
The key words in this passage are these “in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.” Righteousness is Godly righteousness. This means that you are to look at things from God’s point of view. This means that you are to act from God’s point of view. This means that you are to think of your neighbor from God’s point of view. What is God’s point of view? God’s point of view is mercy, grace and love.
Mercy grace and love is revealed to us in Jesus Christ who redeemed us from iniquity and restored us to love God and neighbor in righteousness. God looked upon us in mercy and gave us what was needed to lift us out of our iniquity. Restored in Jesus Christ, you are enabled to fulfill the second great commandment – “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Again Jesus taught this second great commandment with a parable. Which parable do you think that might be? If you say the Good Samaritan you are correct. The Samaritan man happened upon a wounded man lying naked and bleeding at the roadside. He stops and shows mercy to this man who had fallen among robbers and lost everything of value except his life. The Samaritan spared no benefit to this injured stranger. Wine to cleanse the wounds, oil to sooth injury, a donkey to provide transportation and money to give extended care.
You are to learn from this parable what it means to show love to your neighbor. God gives you everything you need to show love. You have the fullness of the Gospel to give comfort to wounded souls. You have material blessings to assist those who have physical need. You have time for God to send you those who have needs to be met.
As a congregation you are presently involved in such an opportunity to show love for your neighbor. How many of you passed by the box in the entrance to this sanctuary? How many of you have placed in or near that box a can of peas? Last year the Evansville Rescue Mission supplied 1200 boxes with the fixings for a Thanksgiving Meal. They also provided meals to hundreds of others who were in need. They expect there to be more families in need this year. From those who have much, much is expected. From those who have much more, much more is expected.
You have been given much by your Lord. You have been given to know the mysteries of the
“Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy from God. … He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
If you are healed by his wounds, how much more does your neighbor need to be healed by the wounds of Jesus Christ? If God loves you in Jesus Christ how much does God love your neighbor in Jesus Christ? All we need is love from God that we may love God and neighbor. God gives such love in Jesus Christ. May we live in this love toward God and neighbor and fulfill our calling in Jesus Christ.
Amen.