The Way of the Cross: Loving Neighbor
Lent 4B-NL 2
March 10, 2024
Our Savior’s, Faribault, MN
Mark 12.28-44
Please pray with me: Lord, open my lips, that my mouth shall declare your praise so that no dishonorable words would be uttered by my tongue. Open the eyes of everyone here, that we may see your wondrous beauty in all the world and not be blind to your ongoing acts of creation. Open our ears, that we may not be deaf to the cries of the needy but hear your call on our lives. Open our minds, that our imagination for mission may be stretched and not closed to new possibilities. Open our hearts, that they may not be cold to you or the ones you love but be fertile soil for the planting of your word. Open our hands, that we may not cling to those things that draw us away from you but receive the blessing you have for us and others through us. Open our awareness, that we may remain in the present moment because that’s the only one we have. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
“The first [commandment] is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12.29-31)
Loving your neighbor is hard.
I walked into the cafeteria after class one day and went over to the table where my good friend Dick and others were having coffee. But before I could say anything Dick said, “Scott, I don’t have time for you today.” I was crushed. Obviously I had done something to upset Dick, but I had no idea what it was. Even worse, I felt ashamed because Dick did this in front of several people. Eventually, Dick and I talked and I learned he was upset because I had bad mouthed his former girlfriend after they broke up. I thought I was taking his side, helping him feel better about the breakup. Dick told me the real reason they broke up. It was a very serious one that helped me understand why it happened. I realized I was being judgmental without all the facts and worse, didn’t bother to understand. I thought I was taking the moral high ground and being a friend. I ended up doing the opposite.
Loving your neighbor is hard with someone you like, and even harder when it’s someone you don’t like. Today we continue our Lenten series, “The Way of the Cross,” which we understand in two related senses. The first is the literal sense as we journey with Jesus to the upper room, Golgotha, the cross, and the empty tomb. The second sense is the spiritual journey we are making as we go deeper into learning how to follow Jesus. As we make this journey, we remember Jesus’ words to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow him. As we do this, we know that something in our lives must die so we might have life and have it abundantly.
In Mark’s version of this story, unlike Matthew’s, a religious leader is not testing Jesus, but really wants to know what the greatest commandment is. As a scribe, he is well-versed in the law, and is not surprised when Jesus begins with the Shema, the statement about God’s oneness that every Jewish person recites at the beginning of each day. Then Jesus equates the two commandments to love God and neighbor. After the scribe enthusiastically affirms Jesus’ response, he receives an “atta boy,” and the promise that he is not far from the kingdom of heaven. But then a few verses later, other religious leaders are not treated so kindly. Jesus has harsh words for them because their practices produce suffering of widows, a group they were entrusted with watching over and to treat much better. Loving a neighbor is hard, especially when you forget what is important in God’s kingdom.
I enjoy listening to a podcast called Hidden Brain, hosted by Shankar Vedantam. It explores the psychology behind what we do and why we do it. Vedantam has been doing a series called “US 2.0” which unpacks our divisions especially in our current and fraught political climate. Lately, I heard an episode called, “Win Hearts, Then Minds” with sociologist Rob Willer. Vedantam began the podcast with a quote from the Dalai Lama: “In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.” Then Willer talked about how arguing with someone, trying to change their mind, doesn’t work. That’s something we all know through experience. Willer goes on to say that we need to hold our beliefs in abeyance as we build a relationship with someone else and discover their values. In other words, we need to exercise not only intellectual humility but also moral humility. We still hold onto our values and beliefs, but loosely as we explore what others might be able to teach us.*
Loving our neighbor is hard, especially when it is someone we disagree with, have fought with, who we don’t respect and might even hate. Yet, that is our calling as followers of Jesus and the way of the cross. We are asked to set aside our fiercely held beliefs and values to listen to others. We are invited to see things from the perspective of the other and to open ourselves to the possibility that God might be teaching us something through them.
In my interaction with Rick, I wish I knew then what I know now. Even so, I don’t always get this right; I’m still learning. So it is helpful that we realize Mark’s Gospel reminds us that the last word is always love. Our text that we hear today is at the end of Jesus’ public ministry and from this time forward Jesus will be interacting with his followers and antagonists. So it is that at this ending, Jesus invites us to love God and love our neighbor. We remember that those who are opposed to Jesus aren’t so entrenched that they can’t be open to God’s leading. And remember that love is not an emotion we feel but rather a path we travel, however imperfectly. It’s love that starts this on our journey with Jesus and love that will bring us home.
In closing, I’d like to pray this prayer from St. Francis of Assisi:
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand, to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen
My sermons don't always preach as they are written. For video of the sermon with the entire service, click here.
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