23rd Sunday After Pentecost
The Rev. Rod Sprange

Mark 12:28-34

I have been asked by your Stewardship Committee to talk to you today about Christian Stewardship. Unfortunately the continuing restrictions established to protect us all from COVID-19 and its variants, has meant providing a very basic stewardship message this fall, rather than a formal program. This doesn’t mean that Stewardship of our time, our talents, our faith and finances is not important this year. On the contrary, it is more important than ever.

At St. Peter’s we have learnt that stewardship is not just about money, but about how we are called to dedicate all our gifts, first to God. We do this because all our gifts come from God who has blessed us and entrusted us with these gifts and resources. Love for our Creator God is our motivation. We remember that God chose to love us, and loves each and every one of us - not as we should be, but as we are. God desires a loving relationship with us. With you, with me. Today’s Gospel reading from Mark can help us to understand this two-way relationship with God and what it means for how we choose to use our many gifts. Christian Stewardship is about how we use all our God-given gifts - including our money, our time, our skills and abilities and, I believe, especially the gift of our faith.

Jesus, in Mark, has been confronted by Pharisees trying to trick him with questions designed to trap him. In each case he has answered their questions with a question of his own, exposing their not so hidden agenda. However, today’s exchange with a religious legal expert is different. He seems genuine. His question is simple and straightforward, indicating a desire to actually hear what Jesus is teaching.

Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy contain many many commandments and rules. So out of all this, the lawyer asks, which is the most important. Jesus answers by quoting from both Deuteronomy and Leviticus. If you want to read the old testament verses that Jesus references they are Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4-5, and Leviticus chapter 19 verse18.

Jesus, says the first and greatest commandment is this and quotes from Deuteronomy, “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”Then he says “the second is like it” and he quotes from Leviticus “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. Then he declares “there are no other commandments greater than these”. There are no other commandments more important than these two.

I’ll discuss the second one first and come back to the first. This commandment, to love neighbour as self comes in a section of Leviticus dealing with how to live harmoniously in community. As a little background - when the Jews first received the ten commandments from Moses, they were in the desert, a wandering tribe. Always on the move. When Leviticus was written they had moved on as settlers and were learning about what it means to live in one place, with farms and villages and all the disputes and feuds that develop. The commandment to love your neighbour as yourself means you are to treat your neighbour the way you would treat yourself, act in their best interest as if it was your own. It’s a very practical directive. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus illustrates what this looks like in practice while eliminating the boundaries on who is our neighbour.

In the first or greatest commandment Jesus uses the Deuteronomy commandment to Love the Lord your God with everything you are, not holding back anything - all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. The word love here is critical - we are called first into loving relationship with God. This kind of love includes an emotional quality, a real attachment to the object of our love. So in following this commandment we are called to do God’s will out of love for God, not as a duty. We do this in response to God first loving us, and seeking out a loving relationship with us.

This becomes very clear when we pay attention to the full story of the Bible interpreted through the lens of Jesus life, death and resurrection. Jesus was about relationships and sacrificial love. And that’s why the second greatest commandment is about relationships with others - we demonstrate our commitment to the first commandment, largely by living out the second.

In this second commandment, Mark uses a word for love which is active and relational. This is not a passive kind of love. We do not love our neighbour by just passively waiting for an interaction then responding in a loving way. It means reaching out to a neighbour in need. We have some wonderful members of St. Peter’s who regularly demonstrate this kind of love of neighbour. I won’t embarrass them by naming them, because they don’t act in this way for recognition or praise, they act out of a pure desire to help. These are the people who pay attention to who may be in need and reach out, offering to drive them to medical appointments, or bringing in some groceries, or delivering a care package. They actively seek ways to help those in need. We are blessed by their presence among us.

I think it is interesting that Jesus did not quote restrictive commandments, but two that open unlimited possibilities. These are not ‘Thou Shalt Not’, they are ‘You Shall’. They guide us to live life with abundance.

These two commandments should inform every interaction and every decision we make. In doing this or that, in behaving in this way towards x, am I really loving God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and all my strength; am I thinking of the other person’s best interests in my interaction? This is not easy. I need to be constantly reminded of these imperatives and I need to pray for help in living them out. I need to repent when I so often fall short. I suspect I am in good company. Regardless of our successes or failures, we should, at all times give thanks for God’s constant love for us and for the grace of forgiveness.

I understand that shortly you will be receiving a package from the Stewardship Committee. As you think about what the stewardship committee is saying and asking, I hope you will consider this: this is an exciting new era for St. Peter’s, through the crisis of the pandemic we have learnt to gather for worship in a different way. We have found we can move beyond the boundaries of location and welcome others to our community. We can remain connected to our brothers and sisters who have moved away. We have a bright, determined new Rector; a rector with a young family. Tapiwa is passionate about helping us to become active and known in our neighbourhood; he has some great ideas about how we can reach out to different generations through social media. He is ready to lead us where God is calling us. Let’s be ready to go and be committed to the work God has set for this parish. Christian communities are at their most vital when they face challenges. We are embarked on an exciting adventure together. With God, everything is possible.

As you make your decisions about your support of the ministries performed at and through St. Peter’s, whether it’s your time, your gifts, your faith but particularly at this time, your finances, ask yourself: am I giving the Lord my God the highest priority, am I loving the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind and with all my strength?

May God’s Holy Spirit inspire and strengthen us in living out the two greatest commandments. Amen