November 1, 2009 – All Saints’ Sunday

LISTEN UP!
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Mark 12:28-34

Shema, Yisrael! Adonai Elohenu Adonai echod. W’ahavta eth Adonai Eloheka b’kol l’vaveka uv’kol naphshka uv’kol m’odeka. W’hayyu haddebbarim ha’elleh asher anoki m’tsaw’ka hayyom al l’vaveka..

“Listen up! This is of first importance! There is but one God. Give yourself -- all that you are, all that you have, all that you think and do -- to God and to your neighbor. Make this commandment a part of your everyday life. It is only so that you will truly live.”

The story is told of the great Rabbi Hillel, who was a great teacher in Israel even beyond his death in about AD 10, that one day a pagan taunted him by asking Hillel to teach him the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel replied, “Do not do to your neighbor what you would not want done to you. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary. Go and learn it.”

In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus repeats the imperative: “Listen up!” Listen to what you have received -- but know that what is asked of you is more than mere receptivity. You are called to live what you have received. It is of more than historical interest. Now is the time to be God’s saints!

It is a timeless question for any person or group of people who value either faith or ethics, or both. Which commandment, which ethical imperative, is first of all? In which one or ones is contained the heart of faith?

Of course, many answers have been given. One ancient Rabbi said that Moses gave 613 commandments -- 365 negative and 248 positive. The tellers of the Mount Sinai story stressed the number 10. Micah reduced the list to 3 -- “Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” -- and Amos mentioned 2 -- “Seek good and not evil; hate evil and love good.”

But the question, being timeless, comes to us, as well. What is it that you and I value with our whole heart and mind and will and strength? What is it that you think most about, or worry over most, or work at hardest? What is really at the center of your life? What would those closest to you say -- your spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend, your children, your best friend? What would anyone say who looked deeply into your life?

We are called to be those whose lives are characterized by a love for God and for neighbor. To love God is to be drawn into the circle of God’s love, which embraces the whole creation and every creature. What I am talking about here is a powerful love which will go to any lengths -- to the mat, to the wall, to the cross, to hell and back -- in order to restore what is broken and reconcile what is separated.

This is the love we celebrate every time we gather around this table, are reminded of what has been given for our sakes, and experience anew the effect of the presence of the risen Christ in our midst and in our world. It is God’s love in Jesus Christ that forms and informs the truest loves of our lives. It is God’s love in Jesus Christ that exposes our lesser loves for what they are, and that loves us in spite of them. It is God’s love in Jesus Christ that loves us into loving others as we love ourselves, and into loving ourselves as God loves us.

Much of this is beyond describing, and my words seem inadequate in the face of lives of sainthood I have seen with my own eyes, saints great and small, saints flawed and imperfect, saints near and far. Sometimes it is important for us to listen, as Jesus counsels us, to what we have received, and to live in its light.

This is basically a one-point sermon, and so just one more rabbinic story, before we approach the Lord’s Table. An ancient rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and the day was beginning. It was an important question, since that is how you would know that the Sabbath was over. “Could it be,” asked one student, “when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?” “No,” answered the rabbi.

“Could it be,” inquired another, “when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it is a fig tree or an olive tree?” “No,” the rabbi replied. “Well, then, what is it?” the pupils demanded.

The wise old teacher responded with words of immense wisdom: “It is when you look on the face of any other person and see that he or she is your sister or brother. Because if you cannot do this, then no matter what time it is, it is still night.”