Why do we stand looking up toward heaven?

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

“And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

John 17:11

The disciples were staring up into the sky as Jesus was probably becoming more and more distant. Either that, or perhaps they were staring at some spectacular show. Today, I think that a cloud coming down from heaven to take up a person would look like a tornado, if not a full-on wall of a cloud like a hurricane. Whatever it was, it was certainly spectacular. And yet, the disciples hear someone telling them not to just look up. The gospel account doesn’t say whether the men in white robes said anything else, and I am driven to believe just that. They didn’t need to say anything else. They already knew what needed to happen.

While Jesus was preaching to his disciples, he spoke about different ideas, pertaining especially towards people’s behavior towards one another. Jesus explained one of the most difficult concepts to define: how to love. However, Jesus did not just stand at the front talking and yelling and pointing fingers, gesturing, or jesting. Jesus acted. In fact, he called all of his students, all of those people who were giving him anything of an ear, to action.

As Jesus was being taken up into heaven, he continued to preach, reminding his students, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” And so, just as students today might be distracted by the barrage of lights before them—Chromebooks, ebooks, educational games—the disciples stood, staring into the sky. And, two men in white robes reminded them not to keep staring.

Today, it can be tempting to look back on the good ol’ days. We might even be reminiscing on the times we could just walk around and go to any restaurant without any concern. We might remember being able to travel to any destination around the world. We might remember just being able to get together with a group of friends for a chat throughout the night. I do this quite often, especially when I wonder what I can even do to pass some of the time that isn’t just occupied by my anxiety to continue producing content (“stop wasting your potential for unfettered creativity” my brain tells me).

As the disciples saw their teacher, their mentor, their friend departing yet again, what did they do right after? I would imagine after being told not to stare into heaven, they thought about all the other things they were called to do: bring people from all over the world together under the Good News of Love. After that, all the teachings must have come back to them. All of the practice, the examples, the lessons, the sermons, the poetry, the discussions, the debates, the overturning of all that they thought they knew must have come back to them. And then, we get the beginnings of the Church.

As we continue in different states of quarantine/staying at home, we have to remind ourselves to look at what tasks lie before us. We have communities to maintain. We might be involved in different businesses that need to figure out how to continue onwards. We have our own debts to think about. We even have our own health to take care of—our physical health, our mental health, our spiritual health.

And yet, it is so easy to think back to the times before this pandemic, the time before this ongoing Lent. It’s easy to remember the “large stones and large buildings,” or the “great buildings,” we had in the past. I love my church, with the newly constructed hardwood floors, which added a wonderful boost to the nave’s acoustics. I love the piano which projects without me having to press hard on the keys. I love the cozy community we have, especially with how it feels when we are all together, singing, praying, talking, being. I remember going out to eat at any restaurant of my choosing, with nearly every cuisine represented (except Russian, for some reason). I remember the ease of just ordering food rather than having to struggle through another recipe, waiting for our grocery order to happen to have the right ‘essential’ for the day.

But what do we get from staring back at those glittering times? When we just sit and stare at the calendar, looking at how many days have gone by, how many birthdays, funerals, anniversaries, memorials, graduations, fasts, or ceremonies we have missed, what do we gain? As I think about all of this, it just makes me upset at the current situation and wish that everything were over. I dwell on all the negative rather than try to work with what I have.

One of my all-time favorite games to play is bridge, especially duplicate bridge. The reason why I especially enjoy duplicate bridge is because the rules of the game eliminate the amount of chance. In duplicate bridge, rounds are played in different tables, and each table eventually receives the exact same cards dealt as the other tables around. Therefore, each time I play, I am working on making the best of the cards I am dealt. Sometimes, the round requires me to win, and other times to lose. However, the final score is calculated by how well I won or how badly I lost.

Nobody that I know has asked for this pandemic to come through. Nobody that I know has asked to make many everyday physical interactions to be potentially life-threatening. But, we are living through this situation, and we need to deal with the cards that we have been dealt. The good thing is that we are not being judged by how well or how badly we win or lose. We just need to get through this thing. In order to live out this Good News of Love, we need to remember what we have learned. Jesus calls us to love God, love our neighbors, and love ourselves.

In this pandemic, much of this love for neighbors and self are intertwined. By practicing social distancing and proper sanitation procedures, we protect both ourselves and others from the risks of this disease. Of course, this means that we are spending much more time at home, and perhaps we are staying at home with other people. Our love for neighbors needs to be sincere. We need to give people the distance they need (think of the introverts), and we need to explain our own needs as well. We cannot just destroy our physical, mental, or spiritual health just for someone else to thrive. We need to balance things out.

Another thing we need to watch is our behavior online. As a kindergartener, I learned about how to act around others: no pushing or shoving, no yelling, use manners, among other things. And now, we need that same sort of attention online. As more and more people seek community through social media, especially those newer to the internet, we need to show love. We need to be true to others and (importantly) to ourselves. Perhaps we hear about the problems that a friend or acquaintance is going through. There, we need to listen (or read, probably). Just as we give our friends and acquaintances space to speak their truths, we need to offer that space. One of the difficult things might be on Facebook, where, especially in groups, people who write out more comments will be brought up to the top of the page, whereas a more reserved person might be drowned out. One way to overcome this algorithm is by limiting one’s commenting, or encouraging others to continue writing their comments. On the other side of this, we have to let people know when they are speaking in ways that are against our own being. We have to call out racism, homophobia, transphobia, and so many other forms of discrimination, for, unfortunately, the structures of discrimination are still alive and well on the internet.

When all of this is over (God willing), or at least when this is contained, we have to remember what Jesus calls us to do. We are called “to be witnesses…to the ends of the earth”. To be witnesses to this Gospel is also to “be one”. Jesus calls us time and again to love one another, to show compassion and mercy, to bring peace to the world, to pray for each other, to worship and break bread together.

One of the harshest things I have learned from being in this pandemic is that our world’s economies (or at least the ones connected in any way to that of the United States) are dependent upon something other than the well-being of human lives. In order for some food businesses to stay afloat, they have dumped tons of healthy crops. In order for other businesses to remain, they have laid off workers after workers, and they continue to demand more kickbacks from their governments. We still have the poor and the hungry with us.

Another issue is that we still have the evils of racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and so many other prejudices playing out in our communities. People are slaughtered day-in and day-out in the names of these ideologies, and we still have elected officials supporting them or playing things off as one-offs or flukes. Even in the middle of a pandemic, there are countless people without access to healthcare.

When we come out of this situation, we will still be tempted to look up into the sky at the romanticized image of our world we have created for ourselves. We will even have times when we will be staring rather than working on the problems that are all around us. But, our consistent devotion to God will be our wake-up call. That will be the tap on our shoulder.

Jesus gave us so many different resources to draw upon when he was on earth. He gave us ways to talk to strangers, to talk to loved ones, to debate with those who have different opinions, to resolve conflict, and to spurn change. Nothing was just left where it was. Jesus reminded his disciples to put everything they learned into practice. In our Gospels, we find that Jesus has sent out two large groups of people to preach. We find that Jesus fed more than one large crowd of people. We find that Jesus forgave sin after sin. We find that Jesus went deeper and deeper into the ‘over there,’ the ‘we don’t associate with them,’ the ‘I just don’t care.’

And so, we need to remember our calling that rings louder and louder each time we hear it. Slavery was abolished, but there was still indentured servitude and a nationwide institution founded on racism. The Civil Rights Act was passed, but we still have people murdered every day just for the color of their skin. The Supreme Court ordered same-sex marriage to be recognized across the country, but there is still rampant homophobia. Today, more and more rights are being taken away from trans people. Today, undocumented immigrants still struggle to make it in a world that seems to just want to push them out. Today, the poor are shoved aside during this pandemic, denied shelter and food when those two things are mounding up in an unforeseen surplus. Today, people are dying while politicians are playing everything off as some sort of hoax or plan to control those already in power and exercising control over the vulnerable. These are the reminders! These are our “men in white robes”!

As we remember the Ascension, let’s remember our calling, just as Jesus reminded all of us in the midst of ascending into heaven. We have communities to build, people to care for, a world to love. Let’s stop looking up and thinking back, and let’s look and think forward.

Lent, Day 2: Following Truth

"It is not so with the wicked; they are like chaff which the wind blows away."  Psalm 1:4

I have to admit, I haven't really liked reading Psalm 1.  I guess that comes from the fact that it starts with a beatitude about following God.  The whole Bible could be said to be about this message, so to read it just feels like hearing a broken record.  However, just as what happens when we read the Bible over time, a different verse jumped out to me: they are like chaff which the wind blows away.  It spoke to me today because of what it implies.

Jesus taught us that the main message of the Gospel is love.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Love yourself.  That's the Gospel.  That is the truth.  Love.  When we walk in the ways of the Lord, we walk in love.  When we follow God, we follow love.  We show love to others when we live righteously.

So then, the flip side of that is whatever isn't righteous, whatever isn't love.  And, it becomes more apparent with this verse.  You cannot root yourself without love.  When you start to discriminate, you make things very difficult for yourself.  You can no longer stand.  When you spew hate, you just start allowing for yourself to be taken by others.  Soon, that hate will grow into worse things.  It becomes habit.  It becomes distance.  It becomes everything that separates you from your neighbor.  It separates you from God.  It becomes sin.

And so, when we are trying to find the best way to live life, the best way to make the world a better place, there is only one answer: love.  Love will keep us strong in the midst of our challenges.  Love will conquer all that is wrong.  Love will protect us while everything is crashing down on us.  Love will help you push forward when things seem impossible.  Love is Truth.

Day 154: Using the Light of God

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths."  Psalm 118:105 (119:105)

This is an important message that many of us prefer to ignore.

I will admit, the bible as a whole is pretty scary.  There are so many books, and there are so many versions (even in the original languages).  There are so many different authors, so many different theories and interpretations, and so many words.  The book is quite heavy to hold, not only in physical weight but also in terms of ideas.

It's a testament of God's word revealed to people over a long expanse of time.  It is also a reflection of which people thought which books were important enough to consider truly sacred versus apocryphal or heretical.  In it, we can find a constant thread of meaning, expounding upon God's love in its many manifestations.

This metaphor of light is important for us to consider, for it suggests much more than just illumination.  When I think about a light for a specific purpose, I think of the many lights in our lives that have directions: flashlights, headlights, camera flashes, lamps.  These all have a light source, but then they are directed and magnified by mirrors or other tools.  The important thing about this, though, is that each of these lights serve their purpose, and they need to be put to that purpose specifically.  When we use flashlights, we need to point them to wherever there is darkness.  Headlights point directly ahead.  Camera flashes are directed to wherever they need to go in order to make a picture more clear.

In the same way, we need to learn to use the bible.  It is a bright light for the darkness that covers our lives.  One caveat, though, is that we don't know where the darkness is in everybody else's lives.  We can only point the light of the bible effectively towards wherever we need it to point.  It will guide us as we walk closer to God.  We need our light to be pointed forward always.  We don't need it to be pointing left, right, or even behind us.  We need it to be pointing us straight to God.  When we put the bible, our light, for the purpose of revealing God's love in our lives, then we will find God on our paths.

Day 152: The Real Deal

"As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down from heaven - not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.  He who eats this bread will live forever."  John 6:57-58

As Jesus explains the concept of feeding on him, the imagery becomes more poignant.

Aside from the direct command to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood (which is quite shocking enough in itself), he also begins to draw the connection to the consuming of manna in the wilderness.  And, when he describes that, he says that all of their ancestors died regardless.  That's quite harsh.

The thing is, though, that the manna was given to the Israelites almost as a concession.  The Israelites were complaining to Moses about being in the desert, so God sends down manna for them to eat.  And, although they ate the manna, they continued to complain against God, and they even turned away from God.

But now, Jesus comes into the world on his own divine accord, offering us this heavenly bread of life.  Jesus comes to us in peace, offering us this life, offering us his love.  We have a choice.  Either we can take the offer or leave it.  When it's like that in plain words, it can seem ridiculous for us to turn it away, just as how the Israelites were ungrateful for food that had appeared miraculously in the middle of the desert.

Yet, we allow for many other things to get in the way and blind our view of Jesus.  Rather than seeing Jesus' love for us, we start to see our own lives, which are marred by things such as doubt, pride, anger, and hatred.  When we reexamine our lives, we start to think, in our pride, that we don't want to lower our guards.  We don't want to give up our grudges to follow Jesus.  Following Jesus means to leave our own lives behind, the lives that were defined by society and not so much by God.  We've become so attached to our society-dictated lives that we think that anything that is simply divine is not real.  We start to think that it's too good to be true.  So, we feel comfortable pushing Jesus' hands aside.

We need to listen to Jesus in our lives, and that will only happen whenever we give Jesus our time.  We need to pray in silence, where we hear neither the sounds of the outside world nor of our minds.  We need to listen to God in our prayers and in our bible reading.  We need to see Jesus before us.  When we do that, we will be able to taste and see that the Lord is good.  Of course, once we taste that perfection, we will never want to turn it away.  We will forever feast on the good, life-giving bread.

Day 151: Feeding on the Word

"Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."  John 6:27

This is a great command, but it does require us to think a bit.

Of course, we need food to live.  We get hungry and need to fulfill that need on a regular basis so that we can continue to be healthy.  However, we can't let that pursuit take over our lives to the point we can't do anything else.  When we devote our lives just to the pursuit of money, we begin to lose our soul.  We no longer have the time to contemplate the beauty of God, and we start to turn towards other riches in order to fill up our spiritual hunger.  We will turn to other speakers, other books, other gods, other idols, just to satiate our hunger for the moment.

So, Jesus is telling us to follow him at every moment so that we can continue to mature spiritually.  We need to grow stronger by nourishing our souls with the good bread that comes from Jesus.  And what is that bread, exactly?  Well, to start, it is feasting on every word that Jesus proclaims, since he is, after all, the word incarnate.  Now, that can seem to be quite a bit for us to do, since we would have an entire bible to keep up with, learning every single word.  When I was pursuing my English degree in particular, I had to spend lots of time with the pieces of literature I had to discuss and/or write about.  I had to make sure that I understood what the author/poet was communicating to me, and I had to be sure that I was aware of all the things that were going on, particularly with the language.  This took quite a toll on my ability to focus on other things, particularly my music, which was my other degree I was pursuing simultaneously.  I can't imagine how hard it must be to learn all of the bible well enough to say that one is full off the word.

But this is where the earthly and heavenly food come together.  Just as Jesus united both the heavenly and the earthly through his incarnation, he does the same in his preaching.  He has taught us all about the Kingdom of Heaven, and he has even told us what it's like.  The neat thing is that it's something that we can bring about on earth, today, right now.  When we dedicate our lives to following Jesus, we learn how to become more loving towards God and towards everybody that's around us.  Each time that we learn to grow in this love, every piece of scripture will serve as a reinforcement rather than a new command.  As we continue on our journey towards Jesus, we will be able to focus our whole lives towards him, not abandoning all of those around us.  We will be the ones to prepare the world for the Kingdom of Heaven.  By feeding on the word of Christ, we will be able to serve that same word to so many others, so that they can start joining us in the greater community of heaven on earth.

Day 150: Calming our Storms

"Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum.  And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.  Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing.  So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.  But He said to them, 'It is I; do not be afraid.'  Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going."  John 6:16-21

This is a story that works quite well as a metaphor for us today.

I can't imagine going out on a boat into the sea when it is dark, in an age with no electricity to produce flashlights or motors.  Yet, that's what these disciples did, and it's apparent that it was dangerous, since the detail of darkness is included.  Even more, the sea was an unexplored world, and it still is today, for the most part.  So, anything could have sprung up in front of them.  How scary!

At the same time, there is so much symbolism in this story.  The hearers of Jesus wanted to take him and proclaim him as king, kind of the way how the Jews did in the past, against God's will, by proclaiming Adonijah as king rather than Solomon, who had been appointed.  So Jesus went away from them because of their misunderstanding, and it even seems that the disciples went out to sea to look for him, continuing in their seemingly selfish ways.  But, as their ways start to become like the sea that begins to rage, Jesus comes and meets them, walking on the water as if it were still.  They were afraid, not recognizing his face or form, as if they'd never seen him before.

That's what Jesus does for us.  Even though we stray from following him, letting our lives get so messed up that waves are about to break our firm ground and drown us, Jesus will come to us and make himself known.  Jesus will remind us what our duties are as he calms the seas for us.

While the followers wanted to have somebody who would end up killing all of their oppressors, someone who would end up stirring up the waters and storms even more than they already were, Jesus came to change their views.  We stray from Jesus when we turn to ways of hate, following the very evil that scares us.  And as things get so terrible around us, Jesus will remind us that love is the way.  Jesus, in his unconditional love and abounding mercy and forgiveness, will calm the storm, turning us from hate and bringing us to firm land, so that we can continue our journey spreading peace and love.

Day 148: Doing Good

"Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.  He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God."  3 John 11

From our earliest days of childhood, we have learned what is good and bad.  And, for the sake of childhood, it was pretty straightforward: treat others nicely, for that is good; anything else is bad.  In the same way, we should look at things that are good versus evil.

Perhaps a great starting point is the golden rule, or the second greatest commandment: treat others the way you want to be treated.  We want to spread good into the world, because that will help build up a better world out there.  We won't have to face so much hate when we spread the love around.

As Christians, we have heard so many times from Jesus about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, the chief being to love.  When we love, we are showing God to everybody around us.  When we love, we live our faith.  When we love, we are accepting God into our hearts.  When we spout hate, though, we stray from God.  When we hate, we do evil, which is a sign that we have not seen God.

In fact, people will only know that we our Christians by our love, as the song goes.  We will only be able to claim to be followers in the light of God when we love.  When we love, we unite our wills with the will of God, for God is love.  When we do good, when we love, we begin to understand that we are of God.  It gets pretty difficult to be part of God when we choose to hate or put down other people.  It gets really difficult to understand everything that Jesus talked about whenever we hate, especially because Jesus corrected his disciples and followers so many times whenever they wanted to show hate.

The Devil has made many attempts to stray us away from our path of love.  The Devil has also shown us that his way is one of hatred, one that will trip people up from following the light.  Rather than imitating the Devil by causing others to stumble because of our willing ignorance or our prejudices, we need to continue to do good, to love.  We need to follow God in every situation, and we need to minister God to others by means of our love.  We can only introduce God to others when we show God's nature acting in us - by love. 

Day 146: Avoiding Idols

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols.  Amen."  1 John 5:21

I have always found this verse to be one of the oddest things in the bible.  It's the closing of a letter, but it seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the book.

John, as I said yesterday, writes all about the Antichrist and about God's love.  Idolatry doesn't really get all that much attention in the first letter of his.  The last two chapters talk all about Jesus and how to follow him, so I'm surprised that it doesn't end with a doxology (glory be...) or some sort of closing blessing.  Instead, the letter ends with a brief note.  It's as if John wanted to write a P.S. before the custom was popular (I'm not sure how letter writing conventions of the first and second centuries AD were).

But, when I think about it even more, the note at the end had to be important enough for him to include it.  I remember when I was in high school, playing in an orchestra rehearsal, the guest conductor was not happy with how somebody was playing Mozart.  In fact, he stopped and said, "You know, back then, paper was expensive.  Ink was expensive.  Writing music was tedious.  So, if there is a dot on each one of those notes, you'd better play each one."  Perhaps the same logic can be taken here, where paper was scarce, and literacy was low.  This note seems to be important.

The other thing about this note, though, is that John assumes that the readers know what exactly he's talking about.  And, if we as modern day readers think about it, we know exactly what he's talking about.  It seems that following Jesus does require some explanation, and the explanations that John has given us reiterate everything that Jesus has taught us: to love unconditionally.  But ridding our lives of idols, now that's an easy one for us to understand.  We don't need an explanation for that because we know what idols are.  We know that our faith is being stretched just as our attention span is.  We are drawn to money, to beauty, to celebrities, to many other things besides God.  Those idols tempt us each day.  The same thing has been happening all throughout history.  Read any two chapters in 1 or 2 Chronicles and you'll see that.  Look at the wisdom books in the bible and you'll see so much about not straying from idols.  Yet, we always need a reminder.

Perhaps, John is giving us an answer to a question that we'd have after hearing his statement.  It's a summary of the entire letter.  We have a way out of our temptations of all those other idols.  When we devote our lives to idols, we no longer have the time or the energy to love.  So, when we love as Jesus taught us, as John reminds us, then we will draw ourselves ever closer to God.

Day 145: Being Loving Children of God

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God."  1 John 4:7

The first letter of John shows two extremes: the love of God, and the deception of the Antichrist.

As I've been reading through this book, I feel like I'm reading the writing of a bipolar author, scaring people about the impending coming of the Antichrist and then comforting them with the discourse of God's unconditional love.  Perhaps that serves to make the parts about love more comforting than they already are.  At the same time, though, this is the sort of thing we encounter every single day, and John is equipping us with the necessary tools to make it through this troublesome life.

I must admit, I enjoy the fact that John doesn't dwell on the Antichrist problem.  If anything, he writes too much about love, but we need more of that anyhow.  We need to know more about God's unconditional love because it is what is saving us.  That love comes down to us in the form of grace of salvation from all the evils in the world.  On the other hand, there are many out there who claim to be Christians, using the bible to promote their doctrines of hate, and using God as an excuse to kill others by going on murderous rampages or ascending to power to kill countless people.  That is what we are facing each day: people using the bible for its physical weight rather than it's weight as wisdom.

As we encounter more and more of this hate, we can become comforted by knowing that all our Christian faith can be summarized in succinct verses, as opposed to ramblings of hate, exceptions to love, and discrimination.  Think about it: Jesus told us that there are only two commandments to follow - love God, and love each other; we read in John 3:16 that Jesus came into the world as an act of love; and right above, we have yet another verse - that those of God are ones who show love.  We know God because we can love.  That's just knowing, though.  We are of God because we love. 

Day 144: Taking the First Steps

"But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?  My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.  And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him."  1 John 3:17-19

This is where we need to start.

We know what love is, but we don't choose to show it.  Instead, we prefer to comfort ourselves by making up stories and trying to qualify our lack of love as a sign of our true love.  That's not what we are taught, though.  As Christians, we are called to show love to every single person.  We need to take down all of our barriers and start loving those around as God has taught us.

Love starts with action, not with words.  Jesus even said, "If you love me, then keep my commandments."  It all starts with living a life where we show love for others.  If all we do is sit around in front of a computer screen, typing everything about loving and not doing a single thing that we teach, we aren't loving others around us.  That's it, plain and simple.  We have to live what we have learned.

Living a Christian life involves lots of self reflection and self evaluation.  If we do not look at our lives through the lens of love, then we aren't looking at our lives in the purest way.  We have come up with systems of mathematics that require precision: taxing, interest, transactions, rent, and even work.  That's what love does for us.  It shows us everything very precisely.  We might not like how our lives look after we look at them through love, but that is the only way we will be able to change.  Our change, our journey, will only start when we get honest with ourselves (for how could we be honest with anybody else if we can't be honest with ourselves?).

When we find ourselves in a situation where someone in need is talking to us, we shouldn't look for a way out of it.  That's not showing love.  Instead, we should look at the opportunity as the greatest gift for us, for through that opportunity, we can express the love that God has shown us for that person.  We can give both a gift to that person, and, even better, give ourselves the gift of knowing that love, the Kingdom of Heaven, is spreading.  We need to be excited to love and to show our love.  We need for that to be just as exciting as our favorite praise song from church!

The Greatest Commandment

“The first 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

We are one.  We believe in one God.  The Lord is our God, and the Lord is one.  This is how the greatest commandment begins.  It's a statement about unity, and it's something that perpetuates throughout the rest of the statement.  Jesus preaches to us in every single word he says.  So, then, what is our issue?

Today, we have so many divisions in our churches, our congregations, and even our separate communities.  When we come together, we like to bring our prejudices and hatred into the sanctuary.  You know, the kinds where you look at that one lady from the corner of your eye because you know of what she has been doing.  It's that decision you make to avoid participating in the church just because of a petty argument one morning.  It is holding a grudge against that one person who disagreed with you before breakfast.  It's running away because there was that one musician you don't like.  But, we supposedly believe in the one God.

Jesus was always aware about the different issues among Jews and outsiders.  He commanded us many times to remember the more important issues, such as our devotion to God, as opposed to our personal opinions on matters of ceremonies or rituals.  In the same way, Jesus tells us about the greatest commandment in the best way possible.

In the middle of all the 'do nots', Jesus commands us to do one thing:

Love

Love the one God who unifies us, and love the ones who are already loving God.  Bring God to every single person around us in the best way possible: love.

After Jesus tells us this, the scholar who was talking to Jesus went on to explain that this love is far greater than any offerings or sacrifices.  The love for God and the love for our neighbors is one that is greater than just our 10% every week (or so), or our one hour and a half (depending on what time we wake up), or our (sometimes mindless) recitations of prayers.  And this is very important for us, for it takes our personal devotion to God into one that creates a community.

Even though Jesus retreated many times throughout the gospels to pray and meditate, he always commanded us to live in community with one another.  He tells us to go out and make disciples/students/friends of other nations.  He tells us to welcome those we may not feel so comfortable about.  He tells us to break down our walls to each other and find some common ground.  And, he gives us the common ground: the love for God.

When we truly love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, there is no room for anything else:

• When we give our whole heart to God, we begin to understand the complete love that God has for us.
• When we give our whole mind to God, we begin to understand what God is telling us through the living word.
• When we give our whole soul to God, we feel the Holy Spirit drive us in ways we could never have imagined.
• When we give our whole strength to God, we pick up the tools and stones, bricks, wood, and metal to build up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

We love ourselves in the best way possible when we give ourselves to God, for there is no greater solution to all of our problems we face on this earth.  After we learn to love ourselves through the nourishment that God provides, we can express our love and fellowship to each other, thereby strengthening us all into becoming a community.  For we are one in Christ.